Cantina 1910 - Mexican, Andersonville

Cantina 1910 is now open on Clark at Winnemac. After watching many months of construction, I'm very excited that they are now open. Our family stopped by for brunch this past weekend and were very impressed. The space is beautiful. The dining room appears to be split into two rooms; the back room was open for brunch. I believe there is also outdoor seating on the rooftop. There is also a walk-up window on Winnemac.

The cafe menu is fairly limited, at least right now, but there were plenty of things that caught our eyes. We split a sincronizada (a ham and cheese quesadilla), a breakfast burrito. and a savory chili pastry. Loved every bit and very much looking forward to a return visit, especially for dinner.

Cantina 1910
5025 N Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60640
http://www.cantina-1910.com/
773 506-1910

Current hours
CAFE | Wed-Sun | 7am — 3pm
DINNER | Wed-Sun | 5pm — 10pm (11pm Friday and Saturday)
CANTINA | Wed-Sun | 10pm (11pm Friday and Saturday)— 2am (3am on Saturday)
Open seven days a week beginning October 1

FYI, Uptown's northern border is Foster Avenue. North of Foster on Clark is Andersonville, south of Foster on Clark is Uptown. So La Colombe Coffee, Hopleaf, Ora, Hot G Dogs, The Bongo Room, and Cantina 1910 (among others) are all located in Uptown.

FrankP wrote:FYI, Uptown's northern border is Foster Avenue. North of Foster on Clark is Andersonville, south of Foster on Clark is Uptown. So La Colombe Coffee, Hopleaf, Ora, Hot G Dogs, The Bongo Room, and Cantina 1910 (among others) are all located in Uptown.

Those places are definitely in Andersonville, which stretches between 4900 - 5800 N. Clark and has been defined as such in the National Register of Historic Places. http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/il/cook/districts.html

You could make the same argument that Big Jones, Anteprima, and the like are actually in Edgewater. Andersonville is mostly located within Edgewater but definitely expands south to overlap with Uptown.

EDIT: To clarify, it's not wrong to say they are in Uptown, but Andersonville is a more precise way to define the location.

LTH,

Not much action on this thread, but Cantina 1900 is worth, at least based on lunch today, a visit. Terrific hot chocolate, crispy chips with salsa and tasty quesadilla breakfast sandwich with quality ham/cheese/tomato/onion/greens, Sincronizada.

Comfy seating, open, airy, bright, good service, reasonable pricing, easy parking. Please note one enters on the Winnemac Ave side until dinner hour.

Cantina 1910, count me a fan!

Regards,
Gary

Diana Dávila exits Cantina 1910 due to 'irreconcilable differences' with restaurant ownership

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/ar ... -ownership

I went there last weekend. Some things were very good I thought but some were complete misses. However, it has a lot of potential in my opinion so I am definitely going to try it again.

That's a huge bummer. I'd been looking to hit it up after all of the rave reviews (and in part to counter the Yelp silliness suffered by the restaurant). Losing an executive chef, chef de cuisine, and executive sous chef at once shows that something big happened and I have no doubt that the food will suffer for awhile or maybe never recover.

This is surprising and disappointing. I've eaten there a handful of times and have generally been very impressed. The dishes all worked, though there were a few execution problems here and there (i.e. severely under-cooked rice, only allowing a high chair at a high-top table where it clearly didn't fit). I hope they make the place work.

The one thing though - I had a ceviche there and thought it was really bad. As if the person who made it didn't know what a ceviche actually is supposed to be - even if it's not 100% authentic.

Comparing Mike Sula's review to the current menu, and particularly what I had Friday night, I'm guessing the menu at Cantina 1910 is pretty much as it was under its opening chef. I have no idea what happened between ownership and the chef (and rest of the kitchen staff) and I have no idea how it all affected the restaurant. And that's because Friday night was my first visit -- I abruptly called off a prior dinner plan shortly after the chef break-up. I know they finally hired a new chef just over a month ago, but apparently that chef has not yet put his mark on the menu.

But my meal was certainly good enough to justify a return, even if there were some flaws. I only had a little of the guacamole, served with raw slivers of beet and some other root vegetable. But it was delicious. It was served with all of maybe 5 or 6 small rounds of tortilla chips which seemed a bit meager, but it was delicious.

No complaints with the esquites though. Hominy, brown butter, epazote and morita. Forget elotes, this is what corn dreams to be. I would probably return just to order this again.

Slightly less successful were the fish tacos. Generally, they were fine tasting, but the fish (mahi mahi) could just have well been firm tofu. I really couldn't taste much of the fish.

Finally, I thought the slight crisped bone marrow flour tortilla with oxtail and pickled mushrooms was good, but a bit too rich. Perhaps some more pickled mushrooms and some greens or herbs would have cut the richness some without ruining the dish.

As for non-food observations, I thought the restaurant was gorgeous - beautifully decorated. And service was friendly and top notch. Some decent beers too, but I didn't explore the wine list so I can't comment more. But I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot and the food was just good enough that I'm pretty certain I'll return.

Mr. X and I stopped into Cantina 1910 for a small bite and air conditioning this past Sunday. We arrived around 2:45 PM and were informed the kitchen was closing in 15 minutes. Fine by us -- we can order quickly. We split the chilaquiles verde and a side of potatoes. We both thought the potatoes were some of the best we've had. Perfectly cooked and seasoned. The chilaquiles were decent. More like egg and salsa verde nachos but still tasty. I hope things have settled down for them. We'll be back.

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/8/22/1258 ... ville-yelp

CLOSED

I only visited once (post original chef ) and thought it was terrible, everything (cemita, esquites, some other forgettable stuff) was lacking in flavor and under seasoned.

I went once with the original chef and everything was a bit bland and underseasoned, so it doesn't seem to matter who was in the kitchen. I also really dislike when restaurant owners complain about wages and regulations. I think the bigger issue might have been that extremely nice and large space they were in.

agree X2

Yep....and also the part I read where he had seen wages rising for 2 years and, obviously, didn't take this into account? Revenue is the key to success and choosing a destination location with underwhelming reviews (OK, Yelp) doesn't inspire the masses to line up outside your door. When Rick Bayless talks about wages making him close, I'll accept the concept.

I went to this place the week it opened and tried their coffee/pastry takeout window. I apparently missed the (unposted) hours the window was open, so as I lingered, I kept getting nasty looks from the wait staff inside. After three minutes in the rain, someone came up, opened the window, and told me they could get me a cup of coffee if I walked over to the front and asked someone at the server station. I didn't take them up on this not-so-generous offer.

Another time was for a bland appetizer and a $14 glass of tempranillo that was not special.

This place got a lot of hype from Sula and others who tried to leverage it's upscale-ness as an excuse to tear down the neighborhood around it. I don't care if dopes on Yelp made shallow remarks about this place and Mexican food in general - Cantina 1910 was a mess from the start. The Tribune article made that pretty clear. Hope a well-funded concept finds its way into what is a pretty good space.

To throw my vote in, I went when Diana Davila was chef and thought the food was fantastic. I think this place just got in the crossfire of neighborhood politics and became the casualty.

I found the food variable and not that great. Not surprised it closed. But please; don't place the blame on everyone but yourselves, owners.

While they were "expressing their gratitude" to the chef and others, gotta wonder if they told them a couple wks in advance, or pulled the lame move of letting them find out on the day of, ala Dave's Italian Kitchen? Which by the way, there's a special place in hell for people that do that.

Jazzfood wrote:While they were "expressing their gratitude" to the chef and others, gotta wonder if they told them a couple wks in advance, or pulled the lame move of letting them find out on the day of, ala Dave's Italian Kitchen? Which by the way, there's a special place in hell for people that do that.

Turnover in the restaurant business is so high that affected employees shouldn't have to much trouble lining up something else soon after being let go. Considering how many scorned restaurant employees end up either quitting on the spot or phoning it in creating a less than satisfactory customer experience and/or stealing anything they can carry when given notice of a pending closure, owners are better off giving a day's notice at best and cutting everyone a check for an additional two weeks' pay or so on their way out the door.

Drover wrote: giving a day's notice at best and cutting everyone a check for an additional two weeks' pay or so on their way out the door.

That last part is the key to making that an acceptable way to treat the employees. A lot of the time, however, the owners don't give any notice to the employees and don't give them any severance, either. Those people are scumbags.

stevez wrote:

Drover wrote: giving a day's notice at best and cutting everyone a check for an additional two weeks' pay or so on their way out the door.

That last part is the key to making that an acceptable way to treat the employees. A lot of the time, however, the owners don't give any notice to the employees and don't give them any severance, either. Those people are scumbags.

I suspect as often as not they're just people who ran out of money, exhausted all other options trying to stay afloat, and haven't paid themselves in a while much less have the cash reserves on hand to pay employee severance. It sucks when it happens, but again people with hospitality experience are among the best situated to quickly hit the ground running.

Pay people for the work they do/did for you or rot in hell. It may be a gray area for some but as a business owner for the past 2+ decades (and an investor in several bars/restaurants), it's black and white for me. I have no tolerance for anything less. The fact that these workers may (or may not) be suited to move on quickly does not justify treating them in an unethical, unprofessional manner.

=R=

Drover wrote: Considering how many scorned restaurant employees end up either quitting on the spot or phoning it in creating a less than satisfactory customer experience and/or stealing anything they can carry when given notice of a pending closure

That's a bold statement. Source?

ronnie_suburban wrote:Pay people for the work they do/did for you or rot in hell. It may be a gray area for some but as a business owner for the past 2+ decades (and an investor in several bars/restaurants), it's black and white for me. I have no tolerance for anything less. The fact that these workers may (or may not) be suited to move on quickly does not justify treating them in an unethical, unprofessional manner.

=R=

I'm not sure where this came from? I didn't see anyone talking about not paying employees for work already performed.

Rocky419 wrote:

Drover wrote: Considering how many scorned restaurant employees end up either quitting on the spot or phoning it in creating a less than satisfactory customer experience and/or stealing anything they can carry when given notice of a pending closure

That's a bold statement. Source?

BTDT, plus knowledge and experience from many friends and family in all positions in the industry from line cooks to managers to owners.

If you need a written source to believe it, I'm sure their are a few out there for you to find. But it's not exactly an inside secret that one of the industry's major challenges is finding employees who will keep their hands out of your pockets, which is hard to do in a business with lots of cash handling and difficult inventory control. It's one of the reasons why turnover is so high.

FWIW, walking employees out the door the minute they give notice is becoming a more common practice throughout the workforce; it's not just a hospitality thing.

Drover wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Pay people for the work they do/did for you or rot in hell. It may be a gray area for some but as a business owner for the past 2+ decades (and an investor in several bars/restaurants), it's black and white for me. I have no tolerance for anything less. The fact that these workers may (or may not) be suited to move on quickly does not justify treating them in an unethical, unprofessional manner.

=R=

I'm not sure where this came from? I didn't see anyone talking about not paying employees for work already performed.

Rocky419 wrote:

Drover wrote: Considering how many scorned restaurant employees end up either quitting on the spot or phoning it in creating a less than satisfactory customer experience and/or stealing anything they can carry when given notice of a pending closure

That's a bold statement. Source?

BTDT, plus knowledge and experience from many friends and family in all positions in the industry from line cooks to managers to owners.

If you need a written source to believe it, I'm sure their are a few out there for you to find. But it's not exactly an inside secret that one of the industry's major challenges is finding employees who will keep their hands out of your pockets, which is hard to do in a business with lots of cash handling and difficult inventory control. It's one of the reasons why turnover is so high.

FWIW, walking employees out the door the minute they give notice is becoming a more common practice throughout the workforce; it's not just a hospitality thing.

Oh ok, so you're stereotyping. Thanks for clarifying.
Well I've worked in restaurants for 25 years & have not run into these unsavory "transient" characters with their "hands in pockets" you speak of.... we aren't all transient thiefs. I've been at a few highly regarded restaurants that have closed & nobody was "stealing anything they could carry." If anything, the ones fitting your description are those higher up, owners & management who take advantage of cheap labor & relaxed standards. Oops now I'm stereotyping, but that's nothing you would notice or care about.
Check your"inside information".... it's wrong.