Robb Walsh on Chicago Mexican

This article is a New Mexican woman's account of her trip to Manhattan, but in the midst she reports on a Robb Walsh piece about Chicago's Mexican fare that was in her airline's magazine.

Robb Walsh is one of my favorite food writers. Houston is lucky to have him, although most dont even know who he is. The article specifically mentions Hacienda Tecalitlan. I have never been and my search of this site didnt come up with anything. Any experiences?

Marquee wrote:Robb Walsh is one of my favorite food writers. Houston is lucky to have him, although most dont even know who he is. The article specifically mentions Hacienda Tecalitlan. I have never been and my search of this site didnt come up with anything. Any experiences?

Marquee:

Amata and I ate there some years back and the impression we had was that it was good but very much at a level comparable to Nuevo Leon in Pilsen, but then much more expensive than the Pilsen institution. Consequently, we've never felt moved to go back. The space is impressive and nice, in a strange way, and the food was fine, but it just didn't strike us then as anything sufficiently out of the ordinary to justify the higher prices. That was some years back, though, and perhaps things have changed. On the other hand, perhaps Walsh's experience was a little out of the ordinary, since the owner seems to have been paying some attention to his visit. Either way, it seems it might well be time to give HT another visit.

I found the article's take on the Mexican presence in Chicago partly off the mark. True, that presence in Chicago has grown considerably in the last decade but the Mexican community here has been large and variegate for a very long time. One gets the impression that the author thinks the Mexican scene here is new and needs that as a way to mitigate the (from the author's standpoint) puzzling quality and vitality of Chicago's Mexican culinary offerings. Of course, I wouldn't for a moment dispute the idea that much of the dynamism is due to the input of recent immigrants from Mexico, but Chicago's Mexican-American community, which started to take shape already in the 1920's, clearly plays a rôle as well.

Antonius

Hacienda Tecalitlan, in at least one of its locations, is the large yellow-orange two-story hall at 820 N. Ashland. Has anyone ever tried it? I must admit I've always been put off by presumption that good Mexican food came from small places and not from a giant banquet hall type facility that, at one point, even advertisied in the restaurant section of Chicago Magazine. But who knows?

Mike G wrote:Has anyone ever tried it?

Yes, I have, but I am withholding comment for fear that flames will pour forth from every orifice in my head.

E.M.

Erik M. wrote:

Mike G wrote:Has anyone ever tried it?

Yes, I have, but I am withholding comment for fear that flames will pour forth from every orifice in my head.

E.M.

E.M.:

No need always to be so diplomatic!



A

That article was in either the American or United in-flight magazine several years ago. I'm thinking five or more. It's very old; consequently the HT comments are way out of date. To be fair, HT was once a go-to place for me when I had to figure out a last minute option for large groups. It had a great mariachi band, and surprisingly solid seafood options, such as knockout octopus in ranchero sauce with fried potatoes and a "Veracruz" presentation of whitefish.

About two or three years ago the place made a transition to nightclub first, restaurant second. The kitchen left. The food was completely unrecognizable. In an ironic twist, the manager told us that the new chef was not Mexican (or even Latin American). With all of the Mexican sushi chefs, naan bakers and pasta cookers in town, it struck me as infinitely odd that a faux mexican hacienda could even find a non-Mexican cook. It is awful, unless things changed again.

Thanks, Jeff, for the interesting background information. Our single visit there was back in 1999 or 1998. As Antonius said above, the food that we had was fine but nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that made us need to return.

It does seem strange that Walsh chose to play up that one place so prominently in his article.

Amata

Of course, we're getting Walsh's comments secondhand. I hadn't realized how old this was when I posted the link.

Antonius wrote:

Marquee wrote:Robb Walsh is one of my favorite food writers. Houston is lucky to have him, although most dont even know who he is. The article specifically mentions Hacienda Tecalitlan. I have never been and my search of this site didnt come up with anything. Any experiences?

The space is impressive and nice, in a strange way

"Strange" is a good start on describing this castellated space.

300-400 seats on two levels, and when I was there last Tuesday, 8 people came for dinner. But it does have a disco ball.

Most charming feature: sign in bathroom stall that prohibits more than one person from being in there are one time.

In the unlikely event anyone ever does a remake of "Dusk Til Dawn," this is the location for it.

Hammond