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“A big dance party” is how René Menjivar translates “la pachanga,” which also happens to be the name of his restaurant located at 918 12th Ave. S.W. The idea for the name came from an album by Cuban musician Celia Cruz.
Located in an unprepossessing building only about a block away from Safeway and across the road from a schoolyard, it’s easy to miss the orange-and-yellow sign attached to the building. At first glance, the restaurant looks like a takeout café. It belies the large amount of space inside, with its seating capacity of about 150.
There is a large dance floor and disco ball for those who want to try a little Latin dancing. Dance, in fact, is one of La Pachanga’s specialties. Menjivar (along with another instructor) is there from Wednesday through Saturday evenings to teach dancers to move to the rhythms of salsa, merengue, cumbia, bachata and reggatone. Tuesdays are reserved for tango instruction.
“I came out dancing,” says Menjivar, who is originally from El Salvador. “Merengue is my favourite. It’s very passionate, very sensual. It can be very intimate. But when you dance salsa, you have a lot of fun. The excitement in salsa comes with how you do the turns,” he adds.
Within about 15 minutes, he has me moving around the floor doing the merengue. It actually feels like I know what I’m doing, though he tells me to “keep my body soft,” noticing the self-conscious stiffness in my limbs. If a person can get past that, though, the basic steps are quite simple. Menjivar uses a learn-as-you-dance approach to teaching. No lengthy explanations and demonstrations in advance, you just start moving.
A four-piece salsa and bongo house band plays live music at La Pachanga Thursday through Saturday nights, with Menjivar on the guitar. He is no stranger to Latin bands, describing himself as a “pioneer in Latin music in Calgary.” When he moved to Calgary in 1983, he, his brothers and friends started up a band called the Huellas. After that one folded, they started another called The Latin Kings.
Menjivar admits it’s difficult to attract large crowds to the restaurant at its 12th Ave. location. “It’s a destination place,” he says, but people have to find the destination in advance, not just stumble upon it.
Of course, Latin food is the restaurant’s gustatory specialty. The head chef is from El Salvador, and La Pachanga has an entirely Latin menu. Some of the restaurant’s most popular items include paellas (a saffron-flavoured Spanish rice dish), tamales (a corn-dough dish with filling), carne asada a la tampaquiña (grilled marinated sirloin with red rice), and pavellon (a popular Venezuelan dish with shredded meat, black beans and rice). Even the ribs have a Latin twist; they’re served with chipotle flavouring. Of course, the drink menu is extensive and includes all the traditional cocktails one thinks of when contemplating the beaches of Central and South America: mojitos, sangrias, margaritas, daiquiris and the Cuba libre, a type of rum-and-coke drink made with authentic Cuban rum. The décor is bright and airy, with yellow-and-red walls. La Pachanga’s patio is rather long and narrow, but has a capacity of 50.
“Our goal is to bring a little bit of Latin culture to Calgary and to every person that wants to find out the ways in which Latin people enjoy themselves dancing and partying,” says Menjivar. “We want to share some Latin flavour with the city.”
