Coco, and Miami Flavors news

Last summer, when I was going to Miami Flavors a lot (until one day it was suddenly gone, just like the warm summer days), I noticed a new, nicer looking than most Puerto Rican restaurant a little further west on Division called Coco.

Today I dragged the family in there for lunch and some upscale Puerto Rican food, whatever that would turn out to mean. What it meant, at first, was a place where everything from tablecloths to attire suggested a hip scene for dinner and drinks... which nobody would be arriving to partake of for several hours.

Perhaps because they were facing an empty restaurant for several hours, certainly because they were curious about the gringo family who'd turned up there for lunch, I soon found myself being chatted up by one of the partners in the restaurant, Jose, who was proud to tell me about the concept behind it all. He is a realtor, but also had a place called Cafe Allende for a while, and he and a partner had the idea of an upscale Puerto Rican place and went to PR to find a concept. Instead they found, here in Chicago, a chef who was Puerto Rican, but trained in all the classic continental/hotel/banquet stuff and eager to combine those skills with PR flavors. They renovated the usual exposed brick interior, hired a Puerto Rican artist who does plaster over chicken wire-type reliefs to cover one entire wall, and got through a year (!) of growing pains and learning before finally getting their liquor license quite recently. They feel they're still hurt a bit by being over the invisible border at Western (maybe not so invisible; I kind of think the big Puerto Rican flag over the street may deter some folks from going further west), but the neighborhood is coming up, and recently their neighbor across the street, an old standby called La Bruquena, shut down for some renovation and new signage which he thinks was the result of wanting to keep up with the Joneses (that is, Coco).

So, does it work? Mostly, yes, I thought they did a nice job of combining PR flavors and yuppie restaurant expectations. The appetizer combination, which we mostly ordered for the kids, was probably the most successful thing-- we loved a sort of tostone hash brown thing they made by frying the strips of green plantain in a clump, much lighter and easier to enjoy than the usual tostone hockey puck. Also a nice touch was a dipping sauce made of pineapple in whipping cream, which went surprisingly well with some tasty small beef empanadas and with what I think were crabmeat croquettas.

Entrees were 50-50. I was not terribly excited with pork filets in a pineapple sauce, which was both a bit overcooked and gloppy-sweet. And the rice dish (started with an M?) with bits of ham in it was a bit bland. But my wife's Puerto Rican steak was very flavorful, a thin flank steak with a seared, salty exterior, and the mofongo that came with it was moist and wonderfully comfort-foody, I helped myself to a couple of bites when she was done.

The challenge for Coco in becoming, say, the Cafe 28 of Puerto Rican food is that Puerto Rican food is not flamboyantly flavorful; several things I tried, I had to adjust my expectations down for after thinking they'd be spicier or just more robust like Mexican or Cajun. But overall it was a good, satisfying meal, in an attractive space, and with the liquor license and improving street restaurant scene I think Coco should be successful for the long haul. It's well worth a visit.

Oh, and Jose says he heard that Miami Flavors has a new location but he's not sure where, either....

Coco
2723 West Division St.
(773) 384-4811

Hi,

If this is the restaurant I think it is, I've walked through it and yet to dine there. I met the owner one evening while eating dinner at Pollo Chon, which is two blocks east according to the addresses. This menu is supposed to be half classic Puerto Rican food, most of which the owner advised is largely unknown here. The other half is contemporary Puerto Rican food that is lower in fat than the traditional. Was there any discussion of this?

I think that's a pretty loose "half and half," it has both authentic dishes and what you might call bistro food with PR inflections, but there aren't distinct sides of the menu like that as such. Things seemed to be aiming to be less greasy, it was not a heavy meal.

Mike G wrote:got through a year (!) of growing pains and learning before finally getting their liquor license quite recently.

My wife and I ate at Coco during the pre-liquor license, growing pain phase and while we weren't wowed by anything we had, it seemed like it had a lot of potential. My recollection is that the appetizers were more on target than our entrees -- one from the traditional and one from the modern side of the menu.

For some reason, this place came back to mind. Mike or anybody else -- been there recently?

Zee

Has Coco moved? I see a listing for it in TimeOut Chicago that gives its location as Schubert between Western and Artesian, but all other sources still list it as on Division.