Love is lovelier, the second time around.

I always liked La Virundela. I always liked the owners. I always wanted the restaurant to be successful. But I always knew it wouldn’t. Because it was always missing the most important ingredient. As good as the place was, they neglected to tell anybody.

The restaurant had humble beginnings about five years ago in a little spot on Calle Codo. The place was cold, noisy, bright, bordering on bleak. And despite the restaurant doing some very good things to red meat, Don Day’s Wife declared that she was not going back.

“I want the food to dazzle me, not the lights”, was the quote that I reported back in my 2010 review of the restaurant.

I remember suggesting to the owners that a dimmer might be a fairly economical way to make dinner a little more appealing. But it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Or blind eyes.

A few months later, I was surprised to discover La Virundela had moved to an extremely attractive new location, a 19th Century house that absolutely oozed charm. The problem was they forgot to tell me. Or Don Day’s Wife. Or anyone else. Despite being an avid reader of virtually every form of media, I wouldn’t have known La Virundela still existed if I hadn’t stumbled on it by chance one night.

It was a Wednesday. About 7:00 pm. I was walking by the restaurant on my way to a poker game that I was about half an hour too early for. I thought I’ll go in, have a beer, maybe an appie, and perhaps suggest to the owners that they might want to blow their horn a little.

In a place that might hold fifty, I was alone. I suggested they could use some of the free social media to stir up a little business. But they never did. It was as if they’d seen one too many Kevin Costner movies and thought all they had to do was build it and people would come.

So imagine, a couple of weeks ago, how surprised I was to see a La Virundela ad in our local weekly, Atencion. And another on the online site San Miguel Events. The restaurant was hosting a special evening. There was going to be live music. The owners of La Virundela had finally got it. They’d finally realized that you don’t just have to have a good restaurant, you have to tell people you have a good restaurant.

But I should have known better. The original Argentinean owners were gone. In their place is a young Mexican woman and she’s the one telling people about La Virundela. Getting people to come to La Virundela. And, with fingers crossed, hoping they’ll come back over and over again.

Don Day’s Wife and I went back last week.

The new owner’s name is Laila Murra. She hails from Torreon in the northern state of Coahuila. She has looks that celebrate her Palestinian heritage. Including a mane of chestnut hair. And a figure far to slim to own a restaurant. Perhaps because this is her first restaurant.

“It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. Ever since I spent my summers working in my aunt and uncle’s restaurant”, Laila told me.

“I know that doesn’t count much as far as experience”, she continued. “But as long as I always remember that my main job is to make people happy, I can hire people to do the things I can’t do.”

One of the first things Laila Murra did was hire Chuchu Vasquez as the restaurant’s chef.

If I was going to hire a chef in San Miguel de Allende, I’d look for one of two restaurants on their resume. For more good chefs in this town have got their start at The Restaurant or Mi Vida than anywhere else. Chuchu has both of them on his. As well as stints at restaurants in Argentina and Italy.

My friend Cheryl called La Virundela “absolutely beautiful” last week when we were discussing the restaurant. And it really is one of the best looking places where you’ll ever dine. The smell of orange blossoms and the sound of a babbling fountain greet you when you enter the courtyard.

The dining room avoids the usual Mexican cliches. With its blonde wood furniture topped by pink scarves, glittering chandeliers and white walls graced with tasteful art, it is what you would expect more in a very upscale hotel.

The menu at La Virundela has changed little since the first time we dined there (including a wonderful cowhide exterior). And that first time we dined there, we started with empanadas. Because that seems to be the way you should launch every meal in an Argentinean restaurant. That first time, the empanadas were good. This time they were better.

This crust was lighter, perhaps the lightest crust I’ve ever had on an Argentinean style empanada. And in my book, light is right.

The empanadas come with a choice of five different stuffings. Ours was stuffed generously with spinach and queso fresco and brought memories more of Greece than Argentina with its similarity to spanokapita.

“The flavor is simply amazing”, said Don Day’s Wife.

Plaudits too went to the balsamic that became more than decoration on the wooden plate. Chef Chuchu, who with his topknot looks like a Latin version of a sumo wrestler, reduces it himself, adding orange zest from the fruit that hung above our head.

We had chosen the when in Argentina route with our wines, starting with a Trumpeter Chardonnay from Rutini Wines. Don Day’s Wife likes her Chardonnay unoaked and I was a bit worried when I heard that the wine had spent seven months in the barrel. The tropical fruit aromas that are common from oak aging were evident on the nose but, on the tongue, the taste was more of apple, keeping Don Day’s Wife and Don Day happy.

Next was one of those not sure of what you’re going to get from the description on the menu courses. Salada mixta.

“I really like a salad with a lot of things going on”, said Don Day’s Wife.

And she got a salad she really liked. There were three different greens, cucumbers, baby tomatoes, goat cheese, almonds, dried cranberries, red onions and maybe even some other treasure buried near the bottom that I didn’t recognize.

The biggest foreign influence on Argentine cuisine has obviously been Italy. And you’d be hard pressed to find an Argentine steakhouse that doesn’t also offer pasta. Ravioli and gnocchi are both big favorites and it was half orders of gnocchi in a Bolognese sauce that came next.

There are almost as many recipes for gnocchi as there are Italians in Buenos Aires and the exact ingredients that go into the dish don’t really matter as long the end result isn’t heavy or pasty.

I pronounced the gnocchi as “little clouds of joy” and Don Day’s Wife gave high praise to the sauce saying it “rivalled Firenze‘s Bolognese”.

It was time for steak and time for steak is time for red wine. We stayed with Rutini, stayed with Trumpeter, and went with the most Argentinean of any grapes, Malbec. Like the Chardonnay it spends seven months in oak and has cherries on the nose with the addition of blackberries, plums and a little pepper on the tongue. Plaudits to La Virundela for stocking a 375 ml bottle.

I liked the confidence of chef Chuchu when he said, “I’m going to cook the ribeye medium rare if that’s alright.”

That’s what he said and that was what was delivered. Nicely charred, it was served on a little charcoal grill that enhanced the romance of sharing a dish and added a little showbiz and a little practicality as it kept the steak warm.

La Virundela has a big, brick and beam grill behind the dining room and a bread oven beside it that turns out pizza on Wednesday nights (that’s photographer Richard Smerdon reflecting in the mirror).

I’m never quite sure how much flavor you get from wood smoke but there’s definitely a hint of pyromania in every man and that certainly adds to the thrill of the mesquite-fired grill.

I was impressed by the artistic presentation of each plate throughout the meal at La Virundela and dessert was no exception. What we washed it down with was an exception. Something I’d never had before. And at 130 pesos a glass, probably only something I’d order after already sharing a bottle and a half of wine.

Without seeing the label, I might have thought I was drinking port. In fact, it was Licor de Tannat. The wine had obviously spent a considerable amount of time in oak and has aromas of cherry and chocolate. I’ve enjoyed dry Tannat table wines from the Basque region of France and from Uruguay. It was a treat to experience it as a dessert wine that brings out all of the rich qualities of the grape.

So has La Virundela finally arrived? Are they now going to start filling those chairs with the handsome blonde wood grain? I’m not sure. Though they’re almost prime Centro, only half a block from the Angela Perralta Theater, La Virundela gets little walk-by tourist traffic. And there are two other Argentinean restaurants with much more street presence less than two blocks away.

That advertising that La Virundela did was almost a month ago. And without continuing to flap their wings, without continuing the squawk, that rise from the ashes could quickly flutter out and bring them tumbling back to earth again.

There’s a tattoo on Chef Chuchu’s forearm. It’s in Italian but I think it translates as the best is yet to come. I hope so for La Virundela.

La Virundela is located at Hernandez Macias #48 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telephone 415 152 4400. The restaurant is open Noon to 9:00 pm, Sunday; 1:30 to 10:00 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday; 1:30 to 11:00 pm, Thursday to Saturday.