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The Arcadia News features restaurant reviews each month.
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Rita's Taqueria & Bar
5402 E. Lincoln Drive (Camelback Inn)
480.948.4725

I have a bias toward the city’s older resorts. When I was growing up, my family didn’t have a swimming pool, and since the X-box was still 20 years into the future, we made our way through the summer months riding our bicycles to the hotels, sneaking into the pools and, if we were lucky, spending the whole afternoon goofing off and lounging like 10 year old Rockefellers. My neighborhood, Thornwood Acres, was so close to the Safari Hotel I could make it from my door to their deep end on my ten speed wearing flip flops in seven minutes flat.

Mountain Shadows was another easy mark, but the toughest joints, the Camelback Inn and the Biltmore, were no cakewalk. They knew the routine all too well and the staff were quick to identify freeloading gypsy sorts like my friend Bill and myself. I will confess, I’ve never stopped pool hopping, but the resorts are more welcoming now that I bring a little money with me and contribute to their bars, restaurants and tennis coaches.

When I heard the Camelback Inn had opened a taco bar called Rita’s, I was intrigued by the possibility of scoring some wicked laps in the middle of my workday but opted to do my job as a professional foodie and spare Rita’s management from my dripping bathing suit and goggles.

On the starters menu, the Sopes de Mexicali ($8) were a unique appetizer of masa cakes with guacamole, shredded lettuce, salsa fresca and chicken topped with queso fresco. This was a good combo and even better once I had sprayed it with a dash of lime juice that I hijacked from the side of my associate’s margarita.

One of the Taqueria’s specialties is the Carne Asada a la Tampiquena ($16) which I thought was the best of the items we tried. It was a simple lime marinated flank steak, char grilled and served with rice, ranchero beans and a cheese quesadilla. I’m a big fan of flank when it is prepared right. This was definitely one of the better flank steaks I have come across; very tender and tasty.

Much of Rita’s menu is quick, informal tacos filled with favorites like carne asada and pickled jalapeño chile or roasted chicken, guacamole and queso fresco ($5). All of these are great pick-me-ups with a cold cerveza while on a summer retreat to the Inn.

The Camelback Inn is one of my favorite resorts to visit. The hallways and lobby walls are home to old photographs of 85253 from way back in the day. Old postcards of women in bathing caps and tuxedoed formal events are great parts of the resort’s history and are up for show. The Inn also has a fantastic bar that I’ve always enjoyed sinking into around ten-ish for a good bourbon. It’s a landmark which was a landmark before 1967, when I was born, and it will probably still be a landmark when I’m an old crank in my 80s being pulled from the shallow end of their pool with “The Hook.”

Eleven in the morning until 12:00 midnight, seven days a week, is when you’ll find fresh tacos at Rita’s.