Los Alambres-Bad News

Los Alambres on California has been sold. My girlfriend and I arrived at the strip mall today and immediately knew something was up. There is a big painting of a soccer player on the window (as well as soccer murals on the walls inside). Gone are the nice, young cook/waitress combo (although I do remember 3rd person on occasion). They are replaced by somewhat gruff, indifferent employees. And the food? Totally different. Different meaning exactly the same as a thousand other Mexican places in Chicago. Different meaning gone are the alambres, gone are the special steak and chicken dinners. Everything that made Los Alambres the perfect medium between cheap taqueria and higher end Mexican.

And the food is horrible. Cheap, but horrible. $2 gorditas, $1 sopes, but bad, bad, bad. The steak was almost inedible. The gordita itself? Like nothing I've had before. Sort of hard, but not a hard-shell. More like stale? Who knows? Who cares? No chips (and Los Alambres had amazing, fresh chips with great green salsa).

The worst part is that this place is now doing great business. Los Alambres never seemed to catch on. I never saw more than a few people eating at one time. Today whatever-the-new-place is called had every table filled. I guess it's not just an American trait to go for the cheapest food available regardless of quality.

So now I need a new in-between place. Tortas USA somewhat fills that void. I'd like to go one step higher, though. Los Alambres was perfect because prices were still extremely low but they took as much care in their food preparation as most $20 entree Mexican places and they offered a much wider (maybe more urban/cosmopolitan Mexican?) menu.

Well, that is quite unfortunate, but thanks for letting us know.

It might go without saying, but La Oaxaquena isn't too, too far from the old Alambres spot and certainly fits the description.

The thing I'll miss is delivery. El Ranchito is a passable Mexican place with delivery, if that's an issue for you.

Las Alambras wasn't as good as the place that preceded it, in my opinion, but it had a wider selection and was different enough that I didn't mind the loss of the previous owners (really nice people, their kids hanging out doing homework, I learned how the addition of a sliced banana to a simple but decent tomato-noodle soup is really sublime).

We have come to depend on Las Alambras when we're too tired to cook, too tired to drive over to Los Mogotes to pick up. They deliver, which is rare in a Mexican restaurant.

And now they're gone.

Los Alambres/El Imperio de Memin?

On Saturday afternoon, Antonius and I were a block west of this restaurant and found that we had about 20 minutes unexpectedly free. In need of a snack, we dashed over for a quick taco. Now, we never ate at Los Alambres or its predecessor, Taquitos de Morelos, so we can't compare the older establishments to the current one (which may be called El Imperio de Memin, though the Los Alambres sign is also still up). But our two hastily consumed tacos de pastor were delicious, I thought, and I would return to try more items. (The kitchen was not visible from the ordering counter, so we can't say whether the pastor meat was from a spit or not.)

We probably presented a strange sight: as dressed up as we ever get (it was for a mass), ordering without hesitation, wolfing down our tacos and then running back to the church. And being in such a rush I didn't get a chance to take in all the handwritten posted notices at the counter. But one, announcing a house for sale in Iguala, Guerrero, struck me as a promising sign. RST has written extensively on the gastronomic significance of Iguala; here's one of his old posts on Chowhound:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 25542.html

In other words, our little snack (admittedly not a statistically significant sampling) was quite far removed from CMC's experience of 'horrible' and 'bad bad bad' food from the new management. I'd be interested to hear from CMC and others in that neighborhood whether you have had more recent meals there and if so, how they were.

I drive past Los Alambres on a near-daily basis. I've never dined there but it was always on my list of "Gee, some night I'm gonna have to stop off and try some food from there."

I noticed the painting of the soccer player on the front door around the same time as CMC's post about the ownership change. I must ask - does the picture look less offensive close-up than it does from the street? My view is always from my car puttering along California in stop-n-go traffic so I can't say mine has been the best examination but it has always struck me as, ummm, out of time to be kind. I am reminded of the Golliwog caricature. So I ask to those that have actually been 'up close and personal' and been afforded a better view . . . do I just need glasses?

Believe it or not, we didn't pause to examine the "artwork" as we flew in the door, being laser-focused, so to speak, on getting some food in our tummies.

I will definitely give it another try. I think I've patronized it through all its changes in ownership, sometimes more frequently.

Although it's not really a place to dine in.

I haven't been back from my experience I posted on. I imagine it's very possible that the day I went was one of the first with new ownership and they were still working out the kinks. I suppose its possible, too, that they have an even newer owner (or at least cook).

I stopped in today for the second time. The first time I had a picada verde and something with potatoes. Today nothing with potatoes was available, so I asked for a quesadilla, just cheese and onions and cilantro as all the other possibilities were meat and I didn't feel like it.

The man at the counter who took my order warned me it would take a few minutes, as the quesadillas are hand patted masa, by his siter in the kitchen. While there I looked over the menu and chatted with him. On Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, they have red, white, and green pozoles available. Also menudo. On weekends (not sure about Thursdays) they have cochinita, made by his mother-in-law who lives nearby.

I will definitely try to go back on a weekend.

Oh, also the business might be because they offer a monthly lunch deal, Mondays through Fridays, $25 for the whole month.