The Essentials: El Llano/Brasa Roja

Number five in my series of Essential restaurants and, just as importantly, places discovered and popularized by the LTH community in past posting lives...

Vital Information asked the question today whether a $30 steak at Gene & Georgetti is a better thing, objectively and as a value, than a $10 steak at El Llano.

This to me grossly understates the question. Which would you rather have: a $30 steak with a $20 salad and a side order of contempt in a place that feels like an old men's club crossed with an old men's room, or a $10 steak in a festively stereotypical South American atmosphere of burros and weavings where the food comes to you on a Flintstonian wooden plank and you're never sure if they entirely understood what you ordered?

I thought so. I mean, if you get off on the G&G thing, that Sopranosish aldermen-and-made men vibe, good for you, but I know which I would rather have, especially since odds are I'll have the kids with me and the one thing that's likely to earn you even more contempt from the G&G staff than being Lindsey Buckingham or asking the bartender if he knows how to make a drink he invented is to come in with two wild and voluble young boys.

I guess I think of it sort of like the way I buy wine. Occasionally I buy an expensivish bottle, mid two figures anyway. But at that price, it damn well better be good. There's no fun, no surprise to be had, any more than you'd say to your neighbor, "You know what, for $60,000 that little Porsche is a heck of a car." But when the $11 bottle the guy at the store recommends turns out to be really good, then, hey, I feel good.

You go into El Llano, you agree to pay $11 for a steak which is asking for trouble most of the time, in fact I pretty much don't have steak at that price anywhere but a South American place like El Llano, and you get a flavorful piece of meat, some serious starches, a wooden plank, some chimmichurri, and a little taste of life as a gaucho on the pampas. You get taken out of your life for a few minutes, which is a pretty rare thing on that stretch of Lincoln Avenue which seems to pretty much be bars named Finley O'Mullitoole's or something these days.

The experience is not always perfect, I've had language issues (see below) but as with wine, you're not at a price point where anything less than perfect will disappoint. You're at a price point where it's okay that the two year old picks up his plate, dumps it on his head and laughs as if to say, "I still don't have a conception of right and wrong and I'm going to milk it as long as it lasts." Try that at Gene & Georgetti's, even if you are Lindsay Buckingham.



Best of all, you have your choice of steak or chicken. In fact, you have your choice of steak or chicken restaurants. Brasa Roja, on west Montrose, is an offshoot of El Llano specializing in rotisserie chicken, marinated in a salty South Am. marinade and served (if you time your visit well, that is-- it's all a lot less impressive if it's been sitting around for a couple of hours) hot off the spit. Atmosphere and sides are mostly the same, though there seems to have been more digging by LTHers into the Brasa Roja menu, which has turned up things as various as a South American sausage (excellent when freshly grilled, not so great if reheated) and an agua fresca made with lulo, a citrus fruit unknown in American grocery stores.



If anything, it's even more family friendly, not to mention the staff is willing to pose for pictures:



Unpretentious, ethnic and different yet utterly approachable and mighty tasty, completely kid and gringo friendly, El Llano and Brasa Roja put a smile on my face every time and leave me feeling like I ate like a king. Or even a ward committeeman.

Here's an earlier post by me on El Llano, from April 2003, discussing one minor quibble which, clearly, has declined in importance to me:

I know the Columbian steakhouse El Llano is a Vital Info fave, but for some reason despite living semi-close by I had not been to their new location since they moved across and up Lincoln to just south of Irving Park. (Just south of the bad tapas place, and across from the bank which was Molotov Cocktailed when it was a Serbian social club. Not since ex-cop William Drury was gunned down in his Cadillac two days before the Kefauver Crime Commission came to town has Roscoe Village/St. Ben's seen such excitement.)

I was a fool to wait, everything about the place screams "find." The inside is almost Hollywood perfect, Gaucho-meets-Old West-meets-immigrant tourist trap (and I mean that in a good way), the chimichurri is brightly flavorful slathered onto whatever there is to slather it onto it, the wooden plank on which your steak, yucca, plantain and so on are served gives eating here a nice Flintstonian touch, and the cheap steak is everything a cheap steak should be, which is, charred and salty and meaty, I particularly like meat in my meat. I have but one complaint. Imagine you went into a French bistro, and had the following conversation:

YOU: I'll have the coq au vin.

WAITER: The... huh?

YOU: Coke oh van.

WAITER: Sorry... don't really speak French...

YOU: Coo kho vehn. Coal coal bin. Cuckoo Ben-- oh look, here. Coq au vin.

WAITER: Ah! I see.

And ten minutes later he brings you the boeuf bourguignon.

I ordered the New York strip. It's number two on the menu. "New York strip" meant nothing to her, so I pointed to number two. And ten minutes later I got the ribeye steak and chicken combo.

Mind you, it wasn't bad. The ribeye wasn't a New York strip, but it was pretty good and the chicken was really good. But I just don't understand how something can be number two on the menu, one of the words is steak as in the phrase Colombian Steak House which is painted on the FRONT of the place, yes it's a foreign language to her but it's probably one of the two or three most ordered items in the restaurant for crying out loud, and I'm met with a stare of comprehension such as if I had asked for the Pork Neck Larb or ordered in Cockney rhyming slang or Klingon.

But, this certain randomness in the ordering process aside... El Llano is well worth a visit.

El Llano
3941 N Lincoln
773-868-1708

Brasa Roja
3125 W. Montrose
773-866-225

a couple notes and 2 questions, first the question -has anyone had the rabbit and how was it?

how is the antioqua meal?

next the notes -

i don't know if folks have commented on the lamb, but I was pleasantly surprised by our order, a little dry perhaps, but a lot more flavor and good flavor than I was expecting

The chicharrones are great, and like all south american versions very different than their mexican counterparts. big meaty, fatty succulent pieces, great with the house hot sauce.

The sauce in Mike's photo is the house hot sauce, very similar to the green table salsa at any mexican spots around town, there is a large bowl of chimichurri (the parsley/olive oil/garlic mix) and little plastic containers to scoop your own by the window at the front of the room where the food is handed out. If they don't bring you any, go get some.

I've never had translation/communication problems, even despite the fact that I am always assumed to speak spanish, which i don't.

I haven't mentioned the chicken, because so many others have commented on the very goodness of it, my son's impression after our first visit: "Dad, we need to eat here more often"

Have not had the rabbit. At Brasa Roja have had, I think it's called short ribs on the menu, though it's mostly steak with ribs at the end, that's pretty much a must (note that I really liked the chicken at the steak one and the steak at the chicken one).

The duds I've had at Brasa Roja were a used-tire-like hunk of brisket (clearly they're just not in the business of 10-hour cooks like brisket) and one time, fish in I think they called it "creole sauce" or something, which was just not very exciting.

Does anybody remember the details about the sausages? I think that may have been discussed on the (now basically dormant) list serve-- don't they have some odd corn meal filler or something? Why has RST abandoned us to puzzling these things out for ourselves?

I've had the rabbit at Brasa Roja, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite being perhaps a bit dry. I would certainly order it again. I am kind of curious about what they use to cook things in the back, as I've never seen rabbits spinning on the window rotisserie.

I've had the rabbit too, at both El Llano and Brasa Rosa. I like it, but as Aaron notes, it can be a bit dry. The best thing to do at these places, I believe is order the picada or mass orgy of meat for two or more. At El Llano, it is on the menu, but at Brasa Rosa you have to order in advance. You will get steak and chicken breast and short ribs and rabbit and lamb and who knows what else, but it will be too much food and too much fun.

As Zim notes, the house sauce is not chimichurri. It is called salsa de aji and is made with charred jalepenos. The chimichurri gets served with the plain steaks/chicken breasts, but ordinarily they serve the aji.

Also, the places are BYOB, and excellent food for wines to boot!

Mike, since I resemble your remarks about Gene & Georgetti, let me address a few points, briefly. Dinner isn't a competition, and one can, I think, enjoy Gene & Georgetti and El Llano. I don't particularly "get off" on a Soprano's vibe at places like G&G or, say Sabatino's. In fact, as an Italian-American, I actually dislike places that cynically cultivate that image, like say Buca di Beppo. On the other hand, I don't see an old-fashioned, essentially Italian American personality at places such as these (or Tufano's or Genarro's or Cannella's et al.) as a big negative. Neither am I disturbed by the dusty Teutonic vibe at Resi's or Laschett's, or even the quaint "burros and weavings" stereotype you mention. The Lindsay Buckingham vignette was, I thought, a pretty clear example of the basic egalitarianism (a twisted, rude, myopic egalitarianism, sure) of a fusty place like G&G. He was treated with contempt because he tried to skip the cue. But the basic m.o., grumpy, is not the same as contemptuous.

On the other hand, I am not as fond of the food at El Llano as you are. Maybe familiarity breeds indifference -- familiarity with the food, since I grew up around Colombians and Venezuelans, familiarity with the language, and familiarity with the place, since I live a few blocks away. I think El Llano is average. The people are very nice, however, and I, like you, patronize. I agree, however that Brasa Roja is special, largely because of the charcoal. By the way, the Flying Chicken, just south of El Llano, uses charcoal (at least they say they do -- I haven't been in a while).

PS, Mike and Jeff were not injured in this exchange. This was a rhetorical entertainment event only. No wagering please.

I might get verbally garrotted for this, but is El Llano a better meatrific experience than Tango Sur? Or is it just a matter of chowish atmospheric preference?

In my case, it's never actually having gone to Tango Sur...

Hi,

Brasa Roja is a place I have tried to like, but the pleasures keep alluding me.

The quality and preparation of the chicken, which is what I usually have, is inconsistent. The first time I had the chicken, it was too salty. Another time is was ok. I have been 3-4 times when no chicken was available at 7:30-8:00 PM on a Friday night; so we left. The last time, there were finished chickens sitting in the window waiting for a home. The spit was flying with another batch of chickens, requiring a 30 minute wait for fresh chicken. We waited.

While waiting on dinner, we ordered chicharon/pork cracklings with a cornbread pancake. The chicharons were very hard, too hard and had an old taste to them. We were hungry, ate them anyway while complaining they were not too good.

When the chicken arrived, we were quite delighted. ErikM began digging in, but I nearly came to a dead halt with my first bit of the thigh. I didn't say anything immediately to avoid prejudicing Erik's opinion. I knew right away my first piece was also likely my last piece. Why? The darn chicken had a pork fat flavor I just did not enjoy. When Erik realized I wasn't very enthusiastically digging in, I explained what I had tasted like pork fat. Erik didn't detect this until another piece, when he also came to a dead halt. I believe we never did finish the chicken nor took any to our respective homes.

Erik surmised our chicharons were a by-product for pork fat they use to baste the chickens. Neither had a fresh rendered pork flavor to them, if anything it was edging toward rancid.

I am no longer interested in teasing a good chicken out of Brasa Roja. The charcoal, though obviously present, does not influence the bird's taste. It may just as well be cooked over gas flames for all the flavor the charcoal does not impart.

When it comes to chicken, ErikM and I favor Papa's Pollo Chon in Humboldt Park. It is called Pollo Chon because it is chicken cooked in the style of (pork) lechon. They do not add pork fat but marinade and baste the chickens in the style of pork. The chicken is consistent in flavor, delicious and the sides of yuca and tostones very much compliment the meal.

Papa's Cache Sabroso Restaurant
2517 W. Division St.
Chicago, IL 60622
Tel: 773/862-8313
Closed Sunday
Monday-Thursday: 10:30 AM to 9 PM
Friday and Saturday: 10:30 AM to 10 PM

Completely different experiences. El Llano is much much cheaper. You get a lesser grade of beef, and no table clothes. And there are no pretensions to having anything special in the way of grassfed beef. Plus, one's argentine and one's columbian.

i haven't been to brasa roja, but i did go to papa's based on cathy's reports. but i didn't have the chicken. i had the jibarito w/beef. and it was as good as she said. i waited for about 10-15mins while they made this dee-licious sandwich fresh (i could hear them pounding out the plantains just after my order was placed). then i carried it to work (the emptybottle down the street on western). thank goodness there wasn't anyone in the office that night cuz this treat was stinky - but in a good way. very garlicky, tender meat, greasy plantain "bread". Tonight I plan to stop by and try their chicken jibarito. Heart stoppin' goodness, for sure!

ciao
leesh

Well, sure, chicken to chicken and steak to steak, I prefer Papa's to Brasa Roja, and also Tango Sur to El Llano, but they are doing slightly different things, under different flags.

Good to see that the list of Papa's lovers is expanding.

but they are doing slightly different things, under different flags.

Jeff,

I don't try to equate recipes. If Brasa Roja's chicken tasted consistently top-quality each time, then I would respect the result even if it is not to my liking. I just don't like a new taste-discovery every time I order the same thing. There is a problem in the kitchen at Brasa Roja.

I recently had a conversation with a well known chef. Actually, I didn't know him but everyone else I have related this story to had their eyes pop up when I mentioned him. Sometimes I am just not in the know!

Anyway, we were discussing small restaurants run by talented cooks, not necessarily professionaly trained. He said these talented cooks often become slaves to their kitchens, because the food's results solely rests on their shoulders. If they are absent, the quality of the food suffers. Even if they are present, they can have a palate which shifts from day to day.

I recently had a conversation with a well known chef. Actually, I didn't know him but everyone else I have related this story to had their eyes pop up when I mentioned him. Sometimes I am just not in the know!

Well, when you put it that way, you have to 'fess up. Who was it?

Furthermore,
which restaurants does she or he claim as having super-talented chefs with a lesser-known reputation?

Cathy2 wrote:When the chicken arrived, we were quite delighted. ErikM began digging in, but I nearly came to a dead halt with my first bit of the thigh. I didn't say anything immediately to avoid prejudicing Erik's opinion. I knew right away my first piece was also likely my last piece. Why? The darn chicken had a pork fat flavor I just did not enjoy. When Erik realized I wasn't very enthusiastically digging in, I explained what I had tasted like pork fat. Erik didn't detect this until another piece, when he also came to a dead halt. I believe we never did finish the chicken nor took any to our respective homes.

Last night after work, Ms. EC expressed a taste for rotisserie chicken. I suggested that we give Brasa Roja a try. Then, my experience turned into a carbon-copy of Cathy2's. The thigh and leg were giving off a distinct pork fat flavor that became less and less appetizing as the chicken cooled on our plates. This didn't bother the Ms. much, as she stuck to the drier white meat. But my favorites (leg, wing, & thigh) were full of this flavor, and devoid of any chicken-ness. I'm not sure if these birds are rubbed down with pork fat before cooking or basted during, but the flavor is unmistakable.

We rounded out the evening by replacing the pork fat flavor with some dulche de leche (w/chocolate chips) at the Penguin.

Best,
EC

eatchicago wrote:Last night after work, Ms. EC expressed a taste for rotisserie chicken. [...] I'm not sure if these birds are rubbed down with pork fat before cooking or basted during, but the flavor is unmistakable.

As C2 mentioned, here, Papa is, at least for the time being, a bit off of his game. So, a couple of nights ago, I found myself returning to Brasa Roja for another round. It was a grim occasion, to say the least. If there was anything to be salvaged from the night, it was the knowledge that C2 and I were, most assuredly, not dreaming on that previous visit, last summer. The two friends that accomapanied me on this evening, never having been before, picked up on the porcine laquer without any assistance from me. It was equally displeasing to them, and, once again, a heap of food was left unfinished.

Oh well. I hope that Papa will get it together, real soon. Here is a picture of my all-time favourite meal at Papa's. The chicken is accompanied by a side of tostones, and the boiled yuca with carmelized onions. I would love to return it to my weekly schedule.



Brasa Roja
3125 W Montrose Chicago
773.866.2252

Papa's Cache Sabroso
2517 West Division St
773.862.8313
Closed Sunday

Regards,
Erik M.

Today's New York Times has an article on roast chicken. In Quest of the Perfect Roast Chicken. It includes the following

Los Angelenos worship Zankou's Armenian chicken and its pungent garlic sauce; Brasa Roja's chickens with salsa verde are loved in Chicagoland; and in Dallas, Cowboy Chicken is famous for Tex-Mex enchiladas stuffed with leftover meat from its hickory wood-roasted chickens.

I think someone's been reading LTH! And very wise of them indeed. But their photo doesn't begin to compare to Mike G's.

Thanks for the pointer Ann. (Although I think its tomorrow's/Wednesday's NYTimes)

Rob

Ann Fisher wrote:Today's New York Times has an article on roast chicken. In Quest of the Perfect Roast Chicken. It includes the following

Los Angelenos worship Zankou's Armenian chicken and its pungent garlic sauce; Brasa Roja's chickens with salsa verde are loved in Chicagoland; and in Dallas, Cowboy Chicken is famous for Tex-Mex enchiladas stuffed with leftover meat from its hickory wood-roasted chickens.

I think someone's been reading LTH! And very wise of them indeed. But their photo doesn't begin to compare to Mike G's.

Let's see, what have I gleaned from all of this? Well, I have found Zankou's rotisserie product to be highly variable*, and I have found Brasa Roja's rotisserie product to be terrible. I guess I should give the wood-roasted chicken at Cowboy Chicken, in Dallas, a wide berth.

Erik M.

* Zankou's chicken tarna is where the action is at.

Seeing this topic again makes me wonder - Mike G, is there a way to de-list an "Essential?" Like Brasa Roja, say, which upon closer inspection turned out to have some issues?

When I was in Phoenix last month, I came across a listing of El Llano there. The copy - presumably supplied by the restaurant, began "Formerly enjoyed in Chicago ..."

dicksond wrote:Seeing this topic again makes me wonder - Mike G, is there a way to de-list an "Essential?" Like Brasa Roja, say, which upon closer inspection turned out to have some issues?

You mean 'cause Erik does not like it

I was there a few times in recent months, and *I* like the place.

Rob

You mean 'cause Erik does not like it Shocked Evil or Very Mad Wink

I was there a few times in recent months, and *I* like the place.

Not at all. I think there is a decent consensus that the chicken is highly variable (depending on how fresh it is) and tastes heavily of fat, not chicken fat. So, while it is a respectable chicken at a decent price, I do not think it quite measures up as an essential.

Though if I had to measure Erik's taste against yours

Unless porky tasting chicken is the new gold standard!

Does anybody know if El Llano in St. Ben's (3941 N. Lincoln) is related to El Llano in Rogers Park (7018 N. Clark)? From the exterior, there is a certain similarity to the locations...

Apropos of the latest what places are kid-friendly? discussion, I found myself not only thinking in those terms last night but craving a hunk of meat and a not-too-long-drive. That all pretty much spelled an old fave: El Llano on Lincoln.

El Llano is kid-friendly first of all because, unlike Tango Sur, you can walk right in and sit down. Second, because the decor is a riot of cheerfully clichéd South American geegaws, along with the occasional picture of a famous Colombian:



Although I must admit that certain details have a Castanedan, peyotesque quality that occasionally freaked the kids out:



Another thing that makes it kid-friendly is that for not much money you can just order a ton of stuff and see what they'll eat. Always a hit are fried plantains and the arepas, corn and cheese "pancakes" (one of those words, like "french fries," that will sell anything to 4-year-olds):



The sausage, on the other hand, only went over with me. Then came the Flintstonian wood plank o' food:



Steak ("I live for steak," gushed Myles, in words that would strike terror in a parent's wallet at a more upscale restaurant), chicken, another plantain, a potato ("What's that?" asked Liam), and yucca (which Dad was careful to pronounce Yooka, not Yuck-a, and then immediately describe as French fries). Dad had the chimmichurri all to himself, since it was green, the color of Food Which One Must Not Eat At All Costs.

And since they were good boys and ate what Dad paid for, kinda mostly, we got dessert ("Only one?"), vanilla flan:



El Llano isn't staggeringly good food, and one real disappointment was that the chimmichurri was kind of bland, clearly garlic-deprived. But a lot of food, including perfectly enjoyable cheap steak, plus lulo agua frescas, for three of us in the mid-$20s range, and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere-- there's nothing not to like about it. Except maybe... "Dad, why is there a REAL SKULL here?"

Mike G wrote:El Llano isn't staggeringly good food, and one real disappointment was that the chimmichurri was kind of bland, clearly garlic-deprived. But a lot of food, including perfectly enjoyable cheap steak, plus lulo agua frescas, for three of us in the mid-$20s range, and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere-- there's nothing not to like about it. Except maybe... "Dad, why is there a REAL SKULL here?"

That's 'cause you have to get the other salsa, the salsa de aji or spicy sauce

I miss not living closer to El Llano. This report really makes me wanna go.

Is that the green salsa (which was set on the table when we arrived?) Or yet another?

And what do you use the various ones for? I mean, I know what I use the green salsa for (smear on the chicken and the potato and yucca), but what's the official Colombian use of it?

I've eaten once at the El Llano location on Clark St. just north of Lunt once, in October or November 2005. I had the chicken. It was nicely flavored, from the charcol. I saw note on the menu of Rabbit, but didn't see any being cooked in the front window (where the chicken's are). I plan to return, in the near future . . . and give the beef a try. I was unimpressed with the potato pancake-type thing that accompanied my meal.