Mercadito [ Pictures]

I worked an hour or so late this evening and since it was so nice outdoors that instead of heading directly for the El for a ride home I decided to wander the neighborhood close to the office. Earlier in the day an unexpected visit to my Dentist took my in front of the location of the new Mexican-themed restaurant Mercadito at which time I noticed the plywood enclosing the restaurant’s front had been removed and I peeked inside to see the restaurant ready to open. I stopped for a couple of minutes to gaze inside the open doors and one of the employees informed me the restaurant is now open for dinner but not yet for lunch.

From what I’ve read when researching Mercadito on the internet there are three locations in New York City, this new one in Chicago and one to open later in the year in Miami. The Sandoval brothers are the credited as the cooking influences of the business and alcoholic beverage consultant Tippling Bros. directs the liquor sales.

So, walking in the cool early-evening air I decided to head to Mercadito for a first look and to have a couple of cocktails. There were maybe 10 customers in the place at 6:30 but a flurry of activity with more employees than customers, mostly gathered at one of the bar. The facility is one deep and narrow room seating maybe 20 people between the window wall at the entrance and another 50 at tables in the dining area. I later learned the restaurant opened last Friday, for “Family and Friends,” and for anyone else who walked through the door and though little advertising as yet to be launched the restaurant launched its “soft opening” Monday of this week.



My choice of drink was a Herradura Blanco tequila priced at $11 a shot. All clean/blanco tequilas are priced the same, the “regular” tequila is priced at $13 and the “reposado” at $15, if I’m recalling the prices correctly. A little steep for an oddly-situated and newly-opened place in River North. My first choice was actually Don Julio, but the bottle could not be located. A good and smooth tequila, the Herradura Blanco . . . and I’ve grown fond of the blanco’s. Such a shot of tequila is often accompanied by a shot of sangrita or a grapefruit (or lime) flavored carbonated soft drink – nothing was offered gratis with mine and it was necessary to pay an additional $5 for a small bottle of Jarritos Toronja and a $11 drink suddenly became a $16 one. The bartender did, when I asked about the sangrita, offer me a sample to taste.



Not wanting to drink without a little something to eat I asked to see a menu (half of which details various cocktails, other liquors, etc.) and selected the item described as: “corn masa quesadillas one of each with mexican cheese mahi mahi-tomatillo, shrimp-plantain, wild mushroom-epazote crema.” A server/bus boy came from behind me 15-minutes after I’d ordered and said, “Your quesadillas,” handed the plate to me and walked away. I studied the two quesadillas staring back at me from the plate and said to myself, “These aren’t quesadillas, they’re empanadas.”

I asked the bartender to hand me the menu once again thinking I’d misread it. He did as I asked and at the same time asked if everything was okay. I looked at the “quesadillas” as described on the menu and turned to the bartender and said, “It says here there are three quesadillas, but there are only two on my plate.” His reply was, “Sometimes there are three, sometimes just two – it depends on how big the kitchen makes them.” “Well, since I have only two quesadillas which two did I get, of the three listed on the menu?” “I don’t know,” he responded – “the server tells you what you’re getting when he brings it to you.” And that wasn’t the case – so I had to cut through what I think were empanadas (and not quesadillas) and pick them apart to see what I was eating. Seemingly deep (or pan) fried, hard shelled (so that a knife was needed to cut through to the middle) and at a cost of $9.50 - $4.75 each for the empanadas – the botana wasn’t worth it to me. My best guess is that what I received was one empanada of fish and one of mushroom-epazote crema.

Another dozen or so customers wandered into the bar and part-owner – the liquor partner - Paul Tanguay was behind the bar, in front of the bar, greeting friends, etc. The bar-area was a beehive of activity, mostly because all but one of the 4 or 5 bartenders or bar-backs or whomever they were studying drink recipes because they were unfamiliar with much of what was being sold. Someone else in Management was standing behind me with a bus boy, showing him how to do his job. The impression I got was that management hired, at least for the front-of-the-house mostly inexperienced persons, persons who’d not before worked in a restaurant or bar.

The strongest sense I felt sitting in the bar watching the activity around me – now having another Herradura Blanco tequila before me – was that Mercadito is more about selling high-priced drinks than it is about concentrating on the food and that it’ll be more of a lounge than serves food than a restaurant that serves liquor.

The restaurant may open for lunch, in a month or two down the road – and I’d be willing to stop back and give it a try then – but given the price-point it’s chosen to function at and impressions I’ve formed about where the food quality might be long-term I don’t envision myself as a regular cocktail hour or dinner patron. I do with the restaurant every success.

Mercadito
108 W. Kinzie Street
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 329-9555
Website: http://www.mercaditorestaurants.com

A New York-based "Mexican" restaurant with expensive drinks and crappy food? I'm absolutely shocked.

Feel free to berate me for being provincial, shooting my mouth off without actually having tried the place, etc.

Do appreciate the report though, Bill.

$5.00 Jarritos?

I'll just enjoy reading the reviews, thankyouverymuch. It's one thing to upcharge by a few hundred percent for booze, but, um, Jarritos? I can hear the ppl now walking out... "Oooh, and that Mexican soda-pop? WOW! Next time, I think I'll try the lime one. I think it was called LEEmon, or somethning. Ohh did you taste that moleee sauce? Soo good. I think they put chocolate in it, but it doesn't really taste like a hershey bar. Oooh let's stop and get a hershey bar, I haven't had any good chocolate in soo long...speaking of fine chocolates, I hear that Kit Kat now has a white chocol..."

Mercadito will prolly make a mint. Best wishes to them. Hopefully, tho, the grub will get better as they get up to speed.

Read some blurb about how this guy is bringing real Mexican street food to Chicago. Yikes. Mercadito's carbon has to be really special for the Geordies to buy it.

JeffB wrote:Read some blurb about how this guy is bringing real Mexican street food to Chicago. Yikes. Mercadito's carbon has to be really special for the Geordies to buy it.

As I walked through the menu a bit with the bartender taking care of me last night - a "specialist" I think they brought in for the opening (and he's from Chicago, works elsewhere and has a small business of his own - "consulting" - on the side) I saw mention of tacos al pastor - supposedly a specialty of the restaurant locations in NYC - and when I asked what kind of pastor was being served and if the meat was being cut from one of those gyros-like spits that cooks it he didn't know anything about the meat but did tell me it wasn't being prepared that way - "because the kitchen is very small." Maybe his representation of the cooking method not being used was incorrect but if he's right those are tacos I don't think I want to try, and they wouldn't be very typical of how food is prepared in Mexico and certainly not Mexican "street food."

The menu is heavy on meals prepared with fish and shellfish ($18 or $20 for an order of seafood enchiladas, or seafood stuffed poblano peppers) and the Sandoval family is reported to be of the same vein of the family which operated a very popular upscale restaurant in Acapulco for many years: Maderias. I've read mention, also, that Patricio Sandoval - the principal "Chef" amongst the brothers - once lived/worked/cooked in Chicago but the name doesn't sound familiar to me.

In addition to the large supply of tequilas at the bar, and some bottled beers . . . two beers are offered on draught: Negra Modelo, and Dos Equis Lager. $4 apiece for the pilsner glass-full. As we spoke of the beer selections my bartender offered me a small sampling of the Negra Modelo - a favorite Mexican beer of mine - and it was smooth, more smooth tasting than the bottled variety. You won't run across many of the Mexican beers offered as draught in much or most of the country (Mexico) from what I've witnessed and though I've come across a version of Corona offered that way - this was the first time I'd encountered Negra Modelo on draught . . . anywhere. There's an indication that the restaurant/bar also serves Mexican Coca Cola - at $5 a bottle.

Maybe some of the taco/tamale/elote street vendors around town could cash-in and earn a windfall by setting-up stands on the corner closest to Mercadito - selling Mexican "street food" at a fraction of the cost of eating in the restaurant - and the bar's patrons could save some cash to help pay for their drinks.

Your lucky day, Bill.

http://www.barbizmag.com/modelo-especia ... new-states

Interestingly, I suppose, I just enjoyed a big, cold schooner of Negra Modelo in Michigan at Silver Beach Pizza, an exceedingly pleasant place with marginal pizza that would be good if they didn't use crap cheese. I wasn't ready for a giant hoppy Michigan brew yet (hard to believe but it happens) and NM was a good alternative to wash down pizza. Anyway, Michigan isn't on the list of places getting NM on draft in this article, though Chicago is. I think I've seen it around, but I can't remember where.

In my recent trip to Mexico I "rediscovered" Bohemia which I now prefer among Mexican beers.

Thanks for the information about the roll-out of the Modelo draft products. I've never been a fan of the Modelo Especial, though. My beer preferences when I'm traveling in Mexico vary by geographical location - and I enjoy Pacifico, Sol and Victoria at the beach or particularly hot desert locations - and Negra Modelo, Dos Equis Ambar (and Lager) and Victoria in Mexico City, Guanajuato and other inland locations. My feelings about Bohemia are inconsistent: for a period of time I'll drink it and then stay away for several years. When I lived in Tucson (an outpost of Mexico) Bohemia was the only beer I drank. It's the rare day I'll accept a Corona - but in remote beach hamlet locations with very limited food/beverage/tourism infrastructure/services I gravitate to the caguama-sized Carta Blanca.

Mercadito will prolly make a mint.

Strongly doubt that. Too many other good Mexican places in the same general area of town - and the idea of a NYC-based Mexican resto opening a branch in Chicago is just silly. Good heavens - one couldn't even purchase fresh masa in NYC until very recently!

They certainly do have. . . enthusiastic publicists, though; the announcements of the opening in GrubstreetCHI and UrbanDaddyCHI were of that off-putting hyperventilate-y variety. Highly doubtful I'll be dropping in soon, unless it's to see Rick Bayless merrily riding by on his bike, pointing and giggling.

I've eaten at the original, whose claim to fame (at least at the time) was ceviche. The ceviches were indeed all expertly prepared with excellent ingredients. However, what I found off-putting was that every single one of them was sweet. And the house-made crackers they serve instead of tostadas were also sweet. After a while, it was like having a dessert made with fish.

The prices were quite affordable considering the quality of the ingredients. If it's possible to get them to dial down the sugar, I'll be a regular.

Oh, and the whole "What do New Yorkers know about Mexican food?" schtick always reminds me of Todd Barry.

Until recently, Mexican food and its "masa" didn't matter. Obviously. Wake me up when Williamsburg gets a tortilleria or taqueria worth backhandedly complimenting. Here's a name: Lago Grande.

Bill wrote:I asked the bartender to hand me the menu once again thinking I’d misread it. He did as I asked and at the same time asked if everything was okay. I looked at the “quesadillas” as described on the menu and turned to the bartender and said, “It says here there are three quesadillas, but there are only two on my plate.” His reply was, “Sometimes there are three, sometimes just two – it depends on how big the kitchen makes them.” “Well, since I have only two quesadillas which two did I get, of the three listed on the menu?” “I don’t know,” he responded – “the server tells you what you’re getting when he brings it to you.” [/url]

This sounds like a Fawlty Towers episode.

PS, I loved the Todd Barry clip, but was he making fun of NYers or Californians when he said NY has 10,000 great chefs and a couple have figured out how to "replicate the quesadilla"? Cause' that pretty much captures the fallacy at work.

JeffB wrote:PS, I loved the Todd Barry clip, but was he making fun of NYers or Californians

Chicagoans.

Also, "cochinita pibil" is not as good of a punchline.

"Oooh, and that Mexican soda-pop? WOW! Next time, I think I'll try the lime one. I think it was called LEEmon, or somethning. Ohh did you taste that moleee sauce? Soo good. I think they put chocolate in it, but it doesn't really taste like a hershey bar. Oooh let's stop and get a hershey bar, I haven't had any good chocolate in soo long...speaking of fine chocolates, I hear that Kit Kat now has a white chocol..."

Is it possible to have a discussion of the merits of the restaurant without resorting to mocking people who are not as well versed in food as you?

schenked wrote:Is it possible to have a discussion of the merits of the restaurant without resorting to mocking people who are not as well versed in food as you?

Yup.
I guess I could have stopped at, "$5.00 Jarritos?" That pretty much sums it up, but it surely is not as humorous. If I offended you, sorry*. I'll buy you a Kit Kat or something. Also, I wouldn't call it "resorting" as much as I'd call it "choosing."

For the record. I've never been there. The food might be stellar, and again, my best wishes to them.

*schenked, really, that was a sincere apology if I offended you. Of course, it was followed by a smart ass comment. I grew up in Chicago, and on the east coast as well. Sarcasm runs in my blood. I can control it, but when in a forum discussing a Chicago restaurant that is charging a finsky for a Jarritos, the gloves are off. In fact, I'd assume that the owners are snickering behind closed doors at that price tag. If they are not, then, well, I guess I don't know what would be worse: them laughing, or them being serious.

$5.00 Jarritos?

Some context, in the form of a "best tacos in NY list": http://www.mercaditorestaurants.com/pre ... _metro.pdf

I've been to the first place on the list, La Esquina . Hey, I'd love to have a great ramen stand in the Loop, but we don't have a bunch of Japanese bank workers looking for a cheap lunch in Chi like NYers have in Midtown. Not eveything can happen in one place. Now, anyplace with a lot of money and cosmopolitan people can have high-end variety, but for cheap food variety, there are economies of scale that come only with mobs of regular working class folks wanting the same grub, whether it's masa or fresh soup noodles.

Take a step back and savor the fact that NY, Chi, and LA have a stunning array of authentic cheap eats from around the world. Compare that to other "cosmopolitan" cities that have either a food monoculture or fixate on one or two foods from the former colonies.

Hey, look, I'm not going to act as NYC's cultural ambassador here. First, they don't need me for that, and second, I basically agree with you.

But a couple of points. You know you can easily find a "Best Tacos in Chicago" list that would begin and end with similarly yummolicious places. All that tells you is that you need to look for a more chowish source. And mostly, given how vast and spread out New York is, I'm not comfortable completely dismissing an entire cuisine that I've personally tried probably less than 1% of. Williamsburg was a low blow, but let's say I even concede Manhattan (which I'm not necessarily prepared to do). What about Jackson Heights? Astoria? I honestly have no idea, but I find it very hard to believe there's nothing good.

Sorry for the sidetrack. Back to Chicago. Chicago is a meat town and tacos featuring various meats and things that neighbor meats are well represented here. But I've yet to find a great fish taco, at least ever since [tragic event too painful to recall]. And what about ceviche? Any recommendations for something other than Nayarit-style and featuring something more exciting than tilapia?

Best Mexican food I've had in NYC has been in the South Bronx (which has a rapidly growing Mexican population) and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. One would do well to check out those 'hoods before dismissing Mexican food in NYC. Nonetheless, the criticism of NYC Mexican food does have some basis. I'd wager that the average stones-throw Mexican joint you'd find in any borough is subpar compared to the taquerias you can find all over Chicagoland.

Ya know?
The more I think about it, the more I think I might actually be offended if a lil plastic bottle of Jarritos was plopped in front of me with a bill for 5.00. I wouldn't get offended merely because of the price, but more for the fact that someone is laughing at me behind closed doors. I know for a fact that my wife would probably ask the server to correct the bill instinctively. I have a feeling that if I went to a place, and saw Jarritos on the menu for $5.00, I would walk away laughing. Sure, I could simply NOT order it, but if they are trying to get 5.00 for a plastic bottle of Jarritos, then that is a red flag to me. Just my opinion. Never been there, hope they do well, hope the food is great.

FWIW, Stephanie Izard recently tweeted as follows re Mercadito . . .

StephanieIzard on Twitter wrote:Just went to opening of mercadito on kinzie, awesome food and chef patricio is a sweetheart!

Oddly, Mercadito has a friend in a former Top Chef . . .

aschie30 wrote:FWIW, Stephanie Izard recently tweeted as follows re Mercadito . . .

StephanieIzard on Twitter wrote:Just went to opening of mercadito on kinzie, awesome food and chef patricio is a sweetheart!

Oddly, Mercadito has a friend in a former Top Chef . . .

I'm sure Tweeterer did not provide enough character space for her to disclose the nature of her attendance at this event, and how it might have created just a wee bit of bias in her subsequent twitting.

I'm just messing around. I love NY and even NYers. It's just shooting fish in a barrel to harpoon the silly but long-lasting "everything that is or ever was worth having we have in spades" hypothesis using Mexican food. Mexican in all of its regional variants is unquestionably one of the world's great and unique cuisines, distinguished by not-easily "replicated" masa and other ingredients tough to score outside of huge, long-established Mexican communities. Mexican is basically the backdrop food in LA and Chicago (the 2 cities NYers regularly elevate to relevance by dismissing specifically), but it simply did not exist in NY or the east coast until basically last week. Just a fact, like there's no Portuguese here. NY still probably lags well behind places such as Atlanta and Raleigh when it comes to serious Mexican eats, though. Can a mom & pop just arrived from Jalisco make good pastor in the Bronx? Of course they can. Do I want to waste precious NYC meals finding it? I do not.

PS, to me, the fact that every Mexican place in NY has fish tacos is not a good sign and it ties to the fact that every place also loads tacos with iceberg -- and it's not because they are trying to eat like they did at home. Fish tacos are surfer fare, or maybe even now Mexico City vacationers go to Acapulco fare, not something Mom & Pop were eating for lunch in Guadalajara before they moved to the Bronx. It's kind of like pad thai. Fish tacos and pad thai taste good, so don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't say that a lack of fish tacos is a huge knock on Chicago's Mexican street food scene.

spelling somewhat corrected

Kennyz wrote:

aschie30 wrote:FWIW, Stephanie Izard recently tweeted as follows re Mercadito . . .

StephanieIzard on Twitter wrote:Just went to opening of mercadito on kinzie, awesome food and chef patricio is a sweetheart!

Oddly, Mercadito has a friend in a former Top Chef . . .

I'm sure Tweeterer did not provide enough character space for her to disclose the nature of her attendance at this event, and how it might have created just a wee bit of bias in her subsequent twitting.

But no one put a gun to her head (I presume) to say what she said or how she said it. It either says that Izard is too easily won over, knows the chef and is supporting a friend or perhaps there's some merit to this restaurant. Time will tell.

aschie30 wrote:But no one put a gun to her head (I presume) to say what she said or how she said it. It either says that Izard is too easily won over, knows the chef and is supporting a friend or perhaps there's some merit to this restaurant. Time will tell.

or that she had a genuinely great time being served free booze and a no-cost special meal for her and her friends. Not sure how relevant that is to anyone else, but good for her.

I'm betting when she asked for quesadillas, she didn't get empanadas, and when she asked what was in them, she didn't get the brushoff

JeffB wrote:PS, to me, the fact that every Mexican place in NY has fish tacos is not a good sign and it ties to the fact that every place also loads tacos with iceberg -- and it's not because they are trying to eat like they did at home. Fish tacos are surfer fare, or maybe even now Mexico City vacationers go to Acapulco fare, not something Mom & Pop were eating for lunch in Guadalajara before they moved to the Bronx. It's kind of like pad thai. Fish tacos and pad thai taste good, so don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't say that a lack of fish tacos is a huge knock on Chicago's Mexican street food scene.

Taco's made in homes or offered at street-side stands) in Mexico use, for the most part, fillings and ingredients that are locally, easily and inexpensively obtained - that's my observation over the years. Fish tacos fall into that category . . . principally in the Coastal areas of Mexico. Fish tacos you see offered at restaurants in the other parts of Mexico are, I'm suggesting, primarily offered as a lure to snare the business of foreign tourists . . . the same folks who will order a margarita. I mostly stay clear of places in Chicago which offer fish tacos, unless it's a Mexican restaurant which offers only seafood - and even then I'm wary of being trampled by tourists.

FWIW...I remember seeing something on Bourdain and Zimmerman going to the Red Hook Ball Fields in Brooklyn. Food looked solid, and I'd say those two know a decent amount about good food.

Sounds like a place to be skipped. Hey "bill", did the bartender you dealt with have spiky dark hair?

This week, Mercadito causes two of Chicago’s leading food writers to ask pretty much the same question:

Tamarkin in TimeOut: “Can New York possibly have anything to teach Chicago about Mexican food?”

Sula in the Chicago Reader: “Could chef Patricio Sandoval possibly have anything to teach Chicagoans about Mexican food?”

As Chicagoans, we’re pretty sure we have some of the best Mexican food in the United States, and anyone coming in from New York City (“New York City!?” as the cowpokes remark incredulously in the old Pace salsa ads), is going to have an uphill battle ahead. Why is the assumption that Mercadito or Sandoval are here to teach us anything? Could it possibly have anything to do with our indelible second city complex?

I think it speaks more to East Coasters' misguided, uninformed opinions of "flyover country."