This may be the year Nuevo Latino cooking finally takes off in Chicago. When the restaurant Mas opened in Wicker Park on the first day of the Great Blizzard of ’99, it was immediately filled with customers. A month earlier Rich Melman opened the more upscale Nacional 27 in River North where Hat Dance had been. Havana–an earlier effort in the idiom–shut down, but the beat goes on at the Mambo Grill, its sister spot.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Another progenitor of the style, Nicaraguan-born Michael Cordua, created a successful Houston-based group of restaurants called Churrascos and Americas. He opened a Churrascos at Clybourn and Cortland last year, but despite fine reviews it closed–perhaps due to its jinxed location, which has killed off one restaurant after another.
His starters in this high-decibel, two-room corner spot include a beautifully flavored two-inch-high Colombian griddle cake topped with vigorously seasoned, crisply fried shrimp and a salsa of red onion, horseradish, and tomato ($7). There’s a complex new seviche every day (market price) and tacos of rare tuna with papaya, mustard, and rosemary ($6). Carnivores will relish the chili-rubbed short ribs encircled with lime creme fraiche ($6).
The Mambo Grill (412 N. Clark, 312-467-9797), opened by Roger Greenfield in 1994 and sold to a former associate last year, is one of our town’s earlier efforts at border-crossing cuisine, mixing traditional Cuban, Mexican, and Cajun items with a few fillips. The stylings of chef Jose Ostigon are less exotic and the prices are lower here than at the two new spots. There’s a classic run of tacos, burritos, and enchiladas ($7.95-$9.95) and a flavorless black bean soup ($2.95). But you’ll also find cornmeal-crusted catfish on a sweet-corn salsa, sparked by a tartar sauce spruced up with lemon, lime, and cilantro ($5.95). Sliced portobellos are layered with roasted corn salsa, melted chihuahua cheese, and de arbol chilies that make this one spicy mushroom ($4.95). Best starter of all is the crisp crab cake, offered up with that same tartar sauce and a roasted sweet-pepper mayo ($7.95).
