Look for the sign of the Horseshoe and find El Meson at 2038 South Lamar. We did yesterday after the morning World Cup match. El Meson has been open here for less than a month. Call 442-4441 for the latest information about hours.

With the tostadas came two fresh and delightful made-in-house salsas, one red and one green and both complex, along with a beautiful escabeche that contained cauliflower florets and carrots, among other ingredients, picante and lightly pickled. All this is not free, but the modest charge is well worth it. The person who ordered the guacamole, which was chunky and beautiful, couldn’t rave enough about its virtues.

Our main courses, accompanied by rice and a choice of pinto or black an order of chilorio. The mole was delicious, without a trace of sweetness. The chilorio (in guajillo sauce, as I recollect; there’s no takeout menu yet) was a sort of stew, made of fall-apart braised pork chunks beautifully trimmed. It was so delicious that it would be difficult not to order it again instead of tasting some of the many other tempting items on the menu, including carnitas and tacos al pastor. The delicate corn tortillas are also made on the premises.

There’s an extensive selection of tequilas, which we haven’t yet sampled. El Meson has an open kitchen and a bar with a big-screen television (the sound was off). It is so spotlessly clean that it almost sparkles.

I don’t know whether there’s a separate dinner menu. What we saw yesterday can keep us busy trying new dishes for quite some time to come. El Meson is a very welcome addition to the land south of the river.