Café Senegal

Just noticed another new appearance on Howard St that I can't find on the forum: Cafe Senegal, across the street from the Shell Station. In these trying times, Howard Street is certainly taking an interesting turn.

Café Senegal
2125 W. Howard St.
Chicago
(773) 465-5643

Mhays wrote:Just noticed another new appearance on Howard St that I can't find on the forum: Cafe Senegal

How new is Café Senegal? Here's a photo I took one night back in May 2006 to remind myself to visit (it didn't work). Same address.

Rene, the signage is considerably smaller than what you've pictured, yesterday I noticed a listing of an odd collection of food like gyros and sandwiches and "African specialties." I think the storefront was empty for a while. It's possible that it's the same place in a new incarnation.

It's starting to look like time for a Howard-Street-A-Thon when the weather improves. Sadly, the entire Thon will take place outside my municipality (unless the new carribean place behind my house actually has a kitchen.)

Update: there's definitely new signage, even newer that what I last noted, that's decidedly different, handpainted - and some kind of coverings on the windows. No idea what it means, but will try to remember to investigate at some point.

Here's a bit more info from the Chicago Mag 'Dish' mailing list:

Out of (West) Africa
“The most popular dish in Senegal is called ceebu jen. It’s a fish stew and we usually use grouper or red snapper. We stuff it with parsley, onion, garlic, and hot pepper that we ground together. We simmer a tomato paste with some vegetable oil and add water, then we put the fish in it with eggplant, carrot, cassava, white cabbage, and okra. Then we just boil it, and serve it in a bowl with broken jasmine rice.” –Diaw Sow, co-owner of West Rogers Park’s new nine-table spot, Café Senegal (2131 W. Howard St.; 773-465-5643), which also serves homemade ginger juice.

Also, it's two doors down from the place pictured in Rene G's post of 1/2. That place is right on the corner of Howard and Hoyne. BTW, business in that building is booming - Deta's just expanded into a storefront next to the original store, the new sub/pizza/gyros place on the corner of Howard and Ridge appears to be doing well, and strangely, one of those fruit bouquet places just opened in the southernmost (and formerly dumpiest) storefront on Ridge. They appear to have a couple of small tables, too. Will investigate as soon as is practical.....like April.

I was also flummoxed by the fruit bouquet place...I wonder who they think their clientele will be - but I wish them well. Now if we could just get our side of Howard to step up!

I would love to try Cafe Senegal, but have been unable to convince my constant dining companion - aka the husband - to go. He is afraid that the food would be fish, fish, goat, and fish with fish sauce, a not unfounded fear based on the places I've dragged him to in the past. I am anxiously waiting for someone else to go and report back!

Enjoyed a dinner at Cafe Senegal last night. Saw no goat (malheursement!), but there was some fish, lots of chicken and lamb and some beef (as in fataya, beef pasties, below, which I thought were pretty darn tasty, even correcting for my state of extreme hunger).



Tech Geek Seth Zurer spotted "Nem," a menu item neither of us had ever heard of...so we ordered it.



Nem turned out to be satisfyingly light app: crispy rice paper, filled with rice noodles, egg and scallions (I think; could have been parsley), with a soy-ginger dipping sauce. We liked it.

The sibling owners of Cafe Senegal -- Diaw and Boubacar Sow -- are friendly folks. They ran the grocery store next store before opening the restaurant (I think the grocery is still in the family).



Diaw seems to do most of the cooking while Boubacar focuses on serving, though he mentioned that he sometimes cooks, too.

Like Conakry down the street, the offerings here seem to be dependent upon availability of ingredients and the chef's preference du jour.

David Hammond wrote:Tech Geek Seth Zurer spotted "Nem," a menu item neither of us had ever heard of...so we ordered it.



Nem turned out to be satisfyingly light app: crispy rice paper, filled with rice noodles, egg and scallions (I think; could have been parsley), with a soy-ginger dipping sauce. We liked it.

I have had "nems" in France at Vietnamese restaurants/cafes. Perhaps this is a francophone cross-pollination thing.

Matt wrote:I have had "nems" in France at Vietnamese restaurants/cafes. Perhaps this is a francophone cross-pollination thing.

Whatever the lineage, Nems look delicious, I am a sucker for crisp fried rice wrapper, and see a visit to Cafe Senegal in my very near future. Nice to see Seth's menu spotting eye is as sharp as ever.

Enjoy,
Gary

Cafe Senegal appears to be for sale.

On Craigslist:

restaurant for sale - $21000 (rogers park)
Reply to: sale-dagbb-1133647599@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-04-21, 5:30PM CDT

NICELY DECORATED AFRICAN RESTAURANT FOR SALE, LOW RENT, HIGH TRAFFIC, ACCROSS GAZ STATION, HOWARD & RIDGE.

TEL : 773-807-1573

Too bad. I really like this place. The nem and the lamb and peanut butter stew are odd cravings I get from time to time. The owner is also extremely nice. I see it was recently mentioned in Time Out which I had hoped might be good for business.

restaurant for sale - $21000 (rogers park)
Reply to: sale-dagbb-1133647599@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-04-21, 5:30PM CDT

NICELY DECORATED AFRICAN RESTAURANT FOR SALE, LOW RENT, HIGH TRAFFIC, ACROSS GAZ STATION, HOWARD & RIDGE.

TEL : 773-807-1573

Someone should pass this along to Patty! (not to mention that the estwhile Cucina di Donatella is also across the street, just on the othe side of Ridge...)

Came to take a look at this string to find out what was up, because my friends and I stopped by for dinner yesterday (not having heard about this) to find it closed. (I don't know if it was permanently, pre-sale, or just for the day?) Luckily, we just went down the street to Le Conakry, but I was sad.