Carmen Restaurante by Walgreen's in Lincoln Square

here is my proposition:
i get in a time machine and go back to 35 minutes ago, whereupon i had just taken money out at the walgreens, assumed that Spoon was out of my options due to time constraints, and gone into this place, and, once back in time, i would redecide that there's never a reason not to go to Spoon, especially if its on account of ordering two pastor tacos and beans and rice that might as well have come from a stouffer's box my pet weasel got sick in as it weeped from every pore with botulism.
this may be the last of me.
something wicked this way comes...

ParkerS, we hardly knew ye.

Requiescat in pace.

It's a shame they would choose that name. I fondly remember The Carmen (slightly north at Carmen/Western) as a solid German restaurant many, many years ago. Good German food and a backroom where the local cops played poker on the weekends.

ParkerS wrote:here is my proposition:
i get in a time machine and go back to 35 minutes ago,

Parker,

This had me laughing out loud, especially in light of the fact that I had a bit of mild stomach distress myself last night. Not from pet weasel botulism like food, but simply from an over rich eating day.

Lunch was a corned beef and pastrami mix at Benji's in Milwaukee with my grandmother and dinner half of an on-the-bone, crisp, rich duck with mole at Park Grill in Millennium Park.

The mole didn't quite work, but the duck was good and the restaurant, even though it was their busiest night on record, was enjoyable, loud, but enjoyable.

This was my first time at Park Grill, but my wife, who has been previously, loves the carbonara, which is served with a poached egg. One at our table had the carbonara last evening, and thought it excellent. They were just out of reach or I would comment on the carbonara as well.


Enjoy,
Gary

Last summer I whiled away an afternoon sampling tacos on a longish stretch of Lawrence Avenue. (Yes, even before one of our young-urban-professional comrades discovered and revealed the existence of that street.)

Blazing forth from that morass of mediocrity shone the awfulness of Restaurante El Carmen.

A pity, its counterman/owner provided the friendliest service I've ever experienced in a Chicago taqueria.