Photos by David Moore From top: Pipian de puerco (pork shoulder with pumpkin seed purée)

Adiós, Old World standby. La Hacienda now sports a vibrant menu and ambiance fit for a New World king.

Before it closed in 2008, La Hacienda, the AAA Four Diamond restaurant at the Fairmont Scottsdale resort, was a favorite haunt for out-of-town guests – especially Mexican-food-phobic ones.
It was “old colonial-style Mexico,” filled with dramatic lighting and starched, white tablecloths. Dark dining enclaves overflowed with the heady aroma of wood smoke, punctuated by the perfume of roasted suckling pig (carved tableside).
 
In a word? Seductive.
 
But times change, recessions happen and the old-school La Hacienda was shuttered.
As of January, La Hacienda is back – with a new look and a new menu. Sporting a casual sense of modernity, La Hacienda still retains some of its Old World charm, and the menu is more explosive than ever with bold, vibrant Mexican flavors.
 

flan de coco

Trendy placemats have replaced white tablecloths. Chic patio tables with fire pits frame the front entrance, while an eye-popping, backlit wall lined with tequila bottles dominates the entry bar. The menu boasts more than 110 tequila styles, with shot prices ranging from $8 to $150. Margaritas range from $10 to $28.
 
Mexican-born, New York-based celebrity Chef Richard Sandoval lent his expertise to the menu, but the man behind the stove day to day, Chef de Cuisine Forest Hamrick, is a veteran of the old La Hacienda. Hamrick contributed to the menu redesign and fought to keep an old favorite – the filet a la parrilla (grilled, $33) – on the menu.
 
Hamrick has an arsenal of chiles at his disposal – guajillo, ancho, pasilla de Oaxaca, poblano, serrano, morita, chile de árbol and habanero, among others – and he uses them like a maestro uses the crescendo. Yet nothing on the menu could be labeled incendiary. Instead, dishes come alive on the palate, awakening even the most margarita-dulled taste buds.

Skirt steak with tequila shots

Because the menu features regional specialties of southern Mexico, you won’t find flour tortillas on the menu – corn rules the casa. You will find gussied-up tacos, enchiladas and flautas – it is a resort, and clearly someone thinks familiar Mexican dishes are as paramount as having strawberries in January.

That said, the enchiladas divorciadas ($21) are absolutely fantastic. Two soft corn tortillas, dipped in a spicy tomato sauce, are rolled around juicy, pulled chicken tinga (a stew of tomatoes, herbs, chipotle and garlic). Disappointingly though, the enchiladas are flanked by pedestrian Mexican rice and puréed black beans. For that price, I’m looking for a little cha-cha-cha.
 
Fortunately, I found it in the outrageously tender pipian de puerco ($26). The fall-apart pork shoulder, braised with condensed milk, oranges and peppercorns, sits atop pipian, a chunky pumpkin seed purée, and an equally chunky, creamed sweet corn sauce. And I found it in the mole poblano ($24.50), a pan-roasted chicken breast draped in a complex raisin-, pumpkin seed- and chocolate-tinged sauce, paired with fried plantains and cilantro-flecked rice.