by Neil Sowerby
LUCHA Libre, in Spanish, means free wrestling a sport that once defined Peter Street on a Saturday night. Hard to believe how both sides of that thoroughfare of shame are now being reborn. In the left hand corner we have Revolucion de Cuba, Brewdog and, coming on steam, the much-awaited, Trof-run Albert Hall (hard to grapple that Brannigans once squatted there); in the right hand corner, the Great Northerns tag team trio All Star Lanes, Almost Famous and... Lucha Libre.
It comes with a good reputation from its Liverpool inception plus a job lot of wrestling posters, hot sauce bottle displays and enough neon crosses to put Guadalajaras Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations to shame. But is it authentic, you ask? Or just another place to chilli out? If Revolucion across the road means rum, then LL is Tequila Central and, if that sounds like a railway station, the Great Northern architecturally still feels like part of one. Albeit, in this arch, festooned with dried chillis and sporting devils head and skull on its fiery condiment bottles.
Steam started coming out of my ears at the first straw sip of my Bloody Maria, where the pick-me-up consists of adding Calle 23 Blanco (ie unaged) tequila, manzanilla sherry, lime and sangria to the de rigueur Worcester sauce. £7.50 for a thrilling, cauterising cocktail. After that, though the spicing across the menu was surprisingly tame for an offering based on the street food of the state of Jalisco. But not untasty.
I enjoyed the sprightly guacamole appetiser and a soft corn tortilla with chorizo, potatoes and cheese (a wrestlers equivalent of a jamon toastie), then some lovely seafood tacos. A coley ceviche was less successful and didnt feel very Jaliscan A greasy margarita prawn and sad salad leaves dish didnt convince either.
I prefer the stodgier dishes an unctuous Cali steak and onion burrito I ate on an earlier reconnaissance and the smoky sweet trio of Pil Bil tacos that came this time marinated in orange juice and achiote. Very red and no wonder the same plant that provides the achiote seeds also produces the pulp for annatto dyes.
By now I was sampling another bizarre drinks offering, that I liked less than my beloved Maria. Pomelada consists of El Jimador Reposado tequila, pomegranate syrup, lemon juice and Modela Negra beer, served with a vanilla salt rim. The parts are all better than the sum. Tequila, of course, is a speciality of one region of Jalisco. Its a product of blue agave bushes, 300 million of which are harvested each year to sate our thirst for the spirit.
All beginning to sound too authentic. Lucha Libre is worth a visit because it is affordable (all bar mains hover around the six or seven quid mark), the staff offer a warm welcome under the stewardship of Dubliner Dave Roche and, after 8pm, Im told all kinds of strange wall art lights up the joint, including the glowing crosses in the upstairs balcony bar. Hasta la Vista, as they say in Jalisco (in between spitting out pieces of teeth on to their leotards).
Lucha Libre, Great Northern Warehouse, Great Northern Square, City centre. M3 4EN. 0161 850 0629.