FOX TV Burrito Challenge

HI,

A few weeks ago, Fox had another food evaluation focussing on burritos where they rankings were:

Papi's Tacos
754 S. Western
312-829-3001

El Gran Burrito
5632 W. North Ave.
773-622-2800

Mexico Steak House
2983 S. Archer Ave
773-254-5151

How they choose their contenders is a mystery to me. However, the winner Papi's Tacos on Western has me intrigued. When they had the competition a few weeks ago, this was identified as a 6-week-old operation. The owner is Italian with a Mexican girlfriend who makes his food from scratch in-house including his burrito wrappers. House made burrito wrappers had me looking over the newspaper to the television.

I have not yet been to this establishment though I thought I'd offer a heads up for the terminally curious. I look forward to future reports.

Regards,

I'm confused. Is a "burrito wrapper" the tortilla or the paper and foil? If the former, there's nothing all that interesting about making the wrapper scratch, in-house. But if it's the latter, and Papi is milling his own paper and rolling his own aluminum foil, then I'm all about Papi's.

JiLS wrote:If the former, there's nothing all that interesting about making the wrapper scratch, in-house.

Really? I guess I was unaware.

Making paper at home is certainly doable. The foil is a bit more challenging especially when you factor in your neighbor's anger as you pound the aluminum thinner and thinner. Hour by hour. Day by day.

Regards,

A former co-worker who had a most interesting pedigree (father an Italian immigrant to Puerto Rico, mother a first generation immigrant to the state of Sonora, I believe) used to bring homemade flour tortillas with makings for burritos to potlucks at work. The tortillas were excellent.

She also made a kick-ass baked ziti with PR seasonings. Always among the first things to go.

I'm curious as to why one would think that there's no benefit in a homemade flour tortilla when there is such a difference in other flour based breads, like pita, naan, roti, etc.

Cathy2 wrote:

JiLS wrote:If the former, there's nothing all that interesting about making the wrapper scratch, in-house.

Really? I guess I was unaware.

Making paper at home is certainly doable. The foil is a bit more challenging especially when you factor in your neighbor's anger as you pound the aluminum thinner and thinner. Hour by hour. Day by day.

Regards,

annieb wrote:A former co-worker who had a most interesting pedigree (father an Italian immigrant to Puerto Rico, mother a first generation immigrant to the state of Sonora, I believe) used to bring homemade flour tortillas with makings for burritos to potlucks at work. The tortillas were excellent.

She also made a kick-ass baked ziti with PR seasonings. Always among the first things to go.

I'm curious as to why one would think that there's no benefit in a homemade flour tortilla when there is such a difference in other flour based breads, like pita, naan, roti, etc.

annieb -- I think you may have missed my joke. Admittedly, it was a pretty small joke, and easy to overlook. Anyway, I wasn't saying that housemade flour tortilla's are worthless or disparaging the efforts of those who make them. I was trying to say that somebody who made his own aluminum foil would be extremely interesting. And if you've never unwrapped housemade artisenal foil -- whether aluminum, or silver or lead, whether on a burrito, or gum, or a cupcake -- then you've simply never lived.

(I'll use more emoticons in the future. )

In fifth grade, I was selected by the school muckety-mucks to take part in a program called Spaceship Earth. Along with other kids from schools around the district, I was removed from class every Wednesday for an entire semester and bused to a nature center, where hemp-shirted guys named Kip or Ian would rap to us good-naturedly about how our planet was doomed due to the actions of filthy, polluting humans. According to Kip/Ian, among the many ways we could help slow the inevitable apocalypse was to learn to make our own paper. Pureeing old newspaper and water in a blender and drying it on a screen would produce a substance exactly like egg cartons or soft drink holders at fast food restaurants. By now, I should think that ubiquitous Starbucks coffee caddies have absorbed every remaining shred of waste newspaper, and we are now well on our way to a landfill-free utopia.

I just took a big swallow of a drink before reading JiLS's post and Cathy2's reply.

I won't ever make that mistake again.

Suzy

Cathy2 wrote:A few weeks ago, Fox had another food evaluation focussing on burritos where they rankings were...

Papi's Tacos
754 S. Western
312-829-3001


How they choose their contenders is a mystery to me. However, the winner Papi's Tacos on Western has me intrigued. When they had the competition a few weeks ago, this was identified as a 6-week-old operation. The owner is Italian with a Mexican girlfriend who makes his food from scratch in-house including his burrito wrappers. House made burrito wrappers had me looking over the newspaper to the television.

I have not yet been to this establishment though I thought I'd offer a heads up for the terminally curious. I look forward to future reports.

Cathy,

It's kind of funny that Papi's was one of the places they chose; this restaurant opened last spring and stands in a very handsome building on the western side of Western at the point where Polk runs into that avenue and shifts a little bit to the south.



Papi's is about two blocks from where we live and so when it opened we were pretty excited and visited a number of times. The Italian owner to whom you refer is one of the Damenzo's family, who own the pizzeria at the northeast corner of Claremont and Taylor here in Tri-Taylor.

All in all, I would say that Papi's is serviceable-to-good but hardly a destination sort of a place; not for a minute can I believe that they produce one of the best, much less the best burrito around town, though I would guess you can find lots that are less good. Rare is the occasion I order a burrito anywhere but did once at Papi's a couple or three months back and it was pretty good, though I was not pleased with the presence of some gristle in there. The gristle problem reared its grizzly head again on some other occasion when I had some tacos de carne asada. I don't know if they make their own chorizo but I tried that once and, while I won't say it was bad, the specific spicing mixture they use is not one that especially appeals to me.

I don't want to sound too negative here, because Papi's certainly isn't bad in my experience (Amata has been there more than I, so she should voice her opinion). Two things I really like about the place are 1) the fresh, handmade tortillas and 2) the grilled cebollitas that they sometimes (maybe always now) have on hand. They offer the usual range of taco fillings and platters but have a few less universal items such as cecina.

About a month ago or so, they added some more 'signage' to indicate that they now offer seafood (one sign says 'mariscos', another depicts in neon a lobster). I haven't been there in a while and should go again sometime soon, but with all the great Mexican places a short drive away in the Pilsen/Heart of Chicago/Little Village strip, it will likely be on the spur of the moment for a quick lunch or snack. On the other hand, it is a place still in its first half-year of operations and perhaps they'll be getting better with time and experience. With those handmade tortillas, they have a good starting point.

Antonius

It’s happened fairly often this summer that Antonius will be playing hockey right at dinnertime on Fridays, and Lucantonius and I take this excuse to walk over for a supper at Papi’s, followed by an ice cream cone for him across the street at Polk and Western Ice Cream (next door to, what else, Polk and Western Hot Dogs). (The other ice cream option on that block, Café Frida, closes at 6 on Fridays.) We eat our tacos (gorditas, sopes, huaraches, whatever…) there at a table, which seems to be unusual: nearly everyone else who comes in while we’re there gets their order to go, and nothing more exotic than tacos or burritos. For a while Papi’s was offering pozole and menudo on the weekends, but they’ve dropped those items now due to lack of demand. Apparently the newly available mariscos are selling better, but I haven’t tried any of the seafood there. They also offer huevos rancheros and other breakfast dishes all day long; the only one I've sampled is the chilaquiles which I ordered with chorizo (see Antonius's comments above). The chilaquiles were okay but I prefer the ones at, for example, Nuevo Leon, with smaller pieces of tortillas, not entire tortilla chips.

The best thing about Papi’s is the handmade tortillas. That definitely counts for a lot. But I agree with Antonius, the carne asada too often contains some gristle. I think the barbacoa is a better bet, especially in a gordita. Their licuados are nice – I especially enjoyed a pineapple/coconut combination I had there.

In short, I’m really happy to have Papi’s Tacos in the neighborhood, and I hope it does well. But – as Antonius says above – it’s not a destination sort of place. If you are driving and want to go somewhere on S. Western Ave. for tacos, I think Taqueria Tayahua is a better choice.

Papi’s has a parking lot immediately to the north; they also deliver.

Papi’s Tacos
754 South Western Avenue
Chicago, IL 60612
312 829-3001
Sun-Th 7am to midnight
F-Sat 7 am to 1 am

Café Frida
739 S. Western Ave.
312 455-9422

Nuevo Leon
1515 West 18th Street
Chicago, IL
312-421-1517

Amata wrote:It’s happened fairly often this summer that Antonius will be playing hockey right at dinnertime on Fridays, and Lucantonius and I take this excuse to walk over for a supper at Papi’s...

At the most recent beefathon a few months back, I heard the following exclamation while sitting at Ferrara Bakery:

Lucantonius wrote:I Love Papi's!!

I figured he wasn't going to post about it.

Best,
Michael

EC, you may also have heard him say (at Laschet's last Wednesday) "LTH. LTH. Oh, man..." while rolling his eyes at our conversation.

Burned out on posting before he can even type...

I happened to catch the TV News segment being discussed here, and IIRC, they honed in on places in the Chicagoland area which made some claim to have the best burritos.

E.M.

Erik M. wrote:I happened to catch the TV News segment being discussed here, and IIRC, they honed in on places in the Chicagoland area which made some claim to have the best burritos.

Yeah, almost all their comparatives seem to be establishments who claim they are the best, whether it is ribs, hot dogs or burritos.

Do you happen to remember more about the segment specifically how the Papi's burrito stood apart from the rest? I thought they cooked their flank steak fresh. Of course, the outstanding detail was the handmade burrito wrapper.

Cathy2 wrote:Do you happen to remember more about the segment specifically how the Papi's burrito stood apart from the rest? I thought they cooked their flank steak fresh. Of course, the outstanding detail was the handmade burrito wrapper.

I'm disappointed with myself that I made no special note of the flour tortilla part of my burrito at Papi's (it didn't catch my attention at all but that was close to when they first opened -- probably my fault but maybe on that occasion it wasn't especially special). Good flour tortillas aren't all that common, it seems to me, and I do want to try something again chez Papi with a wheat tortilla.

The corn tortillas I've had there were definitely good.

Antonius

This thread reminds me of the old joke about the guy who comes home early and tells his wife he was fired at the restaurant where he worked because he always wondered what it would be like to put his member into a burrito wrapper. "So what happened to the burrito wrapper?" "Oh, she got fired, too." (Substitute "pickle slicer" and "deli" to get the original Catskills version.)
>>Brent

I ate only once at Papi’s but completely agree with the assessments above by Antonius and Amata. I stopped by the other day for a burrito de cecina and found it to be quite ordinary, both the whole and the parts.

Burrito de Cecina from Papi’s

Nothing remarkable about it, and that’s the point. I ordered it with “everything” just like FOX TV.

Antonius wrote:I'm disappointed with myself that I made no special note of the flour tortilla part of my burrito at Papi's (it didn't catch my attention at all but that was close to when they first opened -- probably my fault but maybe on that occasion it wasn't especially special). Good flour tortillas aren't all that common, it seems to me, and I do want to try something again chez Papi with a wheat tortilla.

If the flour tortillas were indeed freshly made their special qualities seemed lost in the burrito. I’ve enjoyed the freshly made tortillas de harina at Polo, Nuevo Leon, and even at Uncle Julio’s but these didn’t measure up. I really wonder if their tortillas de harina are made in house (I forgot to ask afterwards, having to bolt out the door to catch a bus). Again, it wasn’t at all a terrible burrito, just nothing worth going out of your way for. Papi’s is friendly, clean, and the food wasn’t bad. If I lived nearby I’m sure I’d stop in from time to time.

I feel a little bad about criticizing a perfectly decent neighborhood restaurant like Papi’s. Really the criticism should be directed at FOX TV for their odd approach to restaurant reviewing.

Erik M wrote:I happened to catch the TV News segment being discussed here, and IIRC, they honed in on places in the Chicagoland area which made some claim to have the best burritos.

The Best Burritos in Town on Pulaski

What I want to know is how they overlooked this place. I mean, you don’t even have to taste their burritos to know they’re The Best in Town. I haven’t tried them. No need to.

The Best Burritos in Town
3554 N Pulaski Rd
Chicago
773-282-9259

Papi's is near our new offices in the Medical District, so we've been sampling their lunch offerings recently.

For some reason, no one in the office has yet tried the burritos, but of the other offerings we've been pleased with the tortas (particularly the chicken with avocado slices), and the soft tacos. I rather like the green salsa they offer with these - its a thin concoction, heavy on the cilantro & chilis. Posole is back on the menu as well as a new offering of tamales (haven't tried these yet).

The parking lot is a definate plus for us - saves hiking over in this cold weather!

Papis moved to 2324 W Taylor.

All I eat anymore when I got to Mexican restaurants is tacos al pastor, and I've tried them several places but none compare to Papis. That's what I would recommend going there for.

Stagger wrote:Papis moved to 2324 W Taylor.

All I eat anymore when I got to Mexican restaurants is tacos al pastor, and I've tried them several places but none compare to Papis. That's what I would recommend going there for.

Cone? Papi's is local, so I'm very intrigued.

I've never seen the cone. I'm not sure whether they have it or not. I'm also fairly new to the whole al pastor thing, but have tried several other places that came highly recommended and Papis is my personal favorite.

Edit: Actually that was my new roommate using my account...though I happen to agree.