Two new chains at the Domain: Gloria's and Maggiano's

Remember when Chuy's was just that little Tex-Mex place on Barton Springs Road with hubcaps on the ceiling and Elvis on velvet? (You looked sharp in your Members Only jacket, by the way.) It was the place you took out-of-towners to show off Austin's goofy Zeitgeist.

That one good idea spawned a little empire. And now when people come in from Dallas or Houston or even Franklin, Tenn., you have to scramble to find another gastronomic mascot, because they all have a Chuy's of their own. Do we hold it against Chuy's for dating other cities? Maybe a little. But remember that all chains started as hometown restaurants somewhere.

Gloria's started in Dallas-Fort Worth, featuring an even split of Tex-Mex standards and dishes from El Salvador. Maggiano's Little Italy started in Chicago, featuring an even split of Italian standards and music from Frank Sinatra. Both opened up new places this year at the Domain, Northwest Austin's own pre-fab hometown.

Gloria's

Gloria's would fit right in at one of those all-inclusive resorts in Playa del Carmen, or on a cruise ship where the front wall folds open onto a sunny patio and the main room features tall ceilings seeded like clouds with outsized light sculptures. The tables are covered in patterned cloth, the chairs are padded leather and the back walls glow blue and green, alive with color-changing lights.

The restaurant is built for volume, easily absorbing a conference of Dell employees coming from the Westin hotel across the street on a Friday night. Other tables held families coming straight from the stores, with bags piled to one side, their owners wearing the glazed stares of the overstimulated. Sweet mojitos and margaritas are $4 during long happy hours, and the chips are free, brought in steel bowls with salsa and black bean dip. Most of the food is solid and practiced, with some regional character but not enough to offend the mainstream resort traveler.

As it is in a resort setting, our waiters kept up the smiles and easy familiarity as they reeled off their favorite dishes, with spot-on recommendations for grilled pork and Salvadoran-style steak. At lunch, a waiter answered my plea for heat with a chunky sauce of fiery roasted peppers to punch up a Tex-Mex chimichanga ($9.99), a fried burrito rolled with tender beef fajita meat and draped in orange queso.

Also in the style of resorts - the ones where the fish doesn't taste like it came from the ocean in front of you - came a rubbery ceviche trio ($11.99) with syrupy shrimp cocktail and chopped seafood drowning in citrus.

But Gloria's showed some skill on the grill with the Churrasco Tipico plate ($15.99) from the Salvadoran menu, with a Frisbee of marinated, juicy grilled sirloin served with oily chimichurri sauce and a sidecar of tangy fried plantains and grilled sausage with a dense, dry bite. Asado de Puerco Salvatex ($13.99) is a thin pork steak the size of a flattened football , grilled fork tender and not too dry, with light heat from ancho chiles. The plate's only drawback was a feeble chicken enchilada with sour cream sauce, a tentative hook on which to hang the 'tex' in 'Salvatex.'

Pupusas are one of Gloria's Latin American handshake dishes, a $2 get-to-know-me plate with a thick, stuffed corn tortilla and cabbage dusted with spice. We picked up big flavors from neither the pork nor cheese-stuffed versions. We just rolled them with the cabbage, added red tomato salsa and thought about better tacos. But if the pupusa's a dry handshake, tres leches cake is a dewy-eyed, caramel-drizzled wave goodbye.

Speaking of hand gestures, we had a good laugh reading on the Website about Gloria's dress code, 'strictly enforced after 6 p.m.' No T-shirts, no hats, no sneakers. No excessive skin exposure. In Austin. Hilarious. I was surrounded by violators on a weeknight, and when I asked, the hostess told me the code applies mostly to Saturday's after-hours salsa dancing.

We could all stand to dress better at restaurants (looking at you, flip-flop guy), but that scolding code in all-capital letters seems like a clueless affront to Austin's come-as-you-are sensibility, a weak link no chain can sustain for long.

Gloria's

3309 Esperanza Crossing, Suite 100, in the Domain. 833-6400, www.gloriasrestaurants.com.

Rating: 6.2 out of 10

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. On Saturdays from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., the bar stays open for salsa dancing.