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Cafe Central
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    Post #1 - November 9th, 2007, 12:55 pm
    Post #1 - November 9th, 2007, 12:55 pm Post #1 - November 9th, 2007, 12:55 pm
    This place is a treasure. Stopped in for lunch and was greeted by a warm familiar lunch counter with homey hospitality and regulars who have probably lunched there for decades. Feeling a bit under the weather, I ordered soup with pigeon peas and farmer's sausage. Broth was sharp- with a creole base of tomato and pepper- especially spiked with their delicious fresh jalapeno and oil based hot sauce and a squeeze of lime. It may have been fortified with a chicken bouillon cube, which did not detract from its homestyle quality, somehow. The sausage was medium fine ground, tangy, and flecked with whole peppercorns. On the Spanish side of the menu it was described as "salchicha" which frequently refers to hotdogs in certain parts of the Spanish speaking world, though this was a much more complex breed. Monfongo rounded out the lunch and had a porky richness which warmed the belly on a cold day and made for an overall spirit lifting repast on a day with a wintery nibble to the wind.
  • Post #2 - November 9th, 2007, 1:04 pm
    Post #2 - November 9th, 2007, 1:04 pm Post #2 - November 9th, 2007, 1:04 pm
    I don't think I'd describe Cafe Central as homey or a lunch counter-type place, but it is a treasure in Highland Park.

    Cafe Central
    455 Central Ave., Highland Park
  • Post #3 - November 9th, 2007, 1:05 pm
    Post #3 - November 9th, 2007, 1:05 pm Post #3 - November 9th, 2007, 1:05 pm
    Oh sorry, I am referring to the Cafe Central on Chicago Ave. in the city.
    Cafe Central
    1437 W Chicago Ave
    Chicago
    (312) 243-6776
  • Post #4 - November 9th, 2007, 1:10 pm
    Post #4 - November 9th, 2007, 1:10 pm Post #4 - November 9th, 2007, 1:10 pm
    See also prior Cafe Central thread here and a great photo of the lunch counter here.
  • Post #5 - November 9th, 2007, 1:27 pm
    Post #5 - November 9th, 2007, 1:27 pm Post #5 - November 9th, 2007, 1:27 pm
    There are quite a few Puerto Rican treasures in Humboldt Park and surrounding areas. They never seem to gain much general traction here or among the press-conscious "foodies," despite the terrific, accessible flavors and convenient locations. I used to push for more recognition of places like Central and Papa's, but have been lax for a while. As "gentrification" creeps from the East (Borderline looks like it belongs at Lincoln and Armitage, not on Division a stone's throw from Clemente), these places will fade away. Try them now. Mofongo.
  • Post #6 - November 9th, 2007, 2:33 pm
    Post #6 - November 9th, 2007, 2:33 pm Post #6 - November 9th, 2007, 2:33 pm
    Long ago, on Chuckdog, I posted about Cafe Central:

    I did the search beforehand and the only mention I could find of Cafe Central, 1437 W. Chicago, was a passing reference to its existence by Jeff B, who hadn't actually eaten there. I kind of think it may have been slammed in that Reader "Puerto Rican Plus" thing, but I can't find it at the moment. Anyway, let's go to the quick verdict:

    This should be a famous Chicago place. People should know "Cafe Central." Chowhounds should groan when someone mentions Cafe Central for the millionth time, and say "No, the place that's way better than Cafe Central is..."

    The food, based on what I had today, is not the main reason. I'm not saying it wasn't pretty good, but I ordered something kind of unusual and I ought to eat more conventional things before I can judge its position more fairly. But Cafe Central has all the other elements that should make it the Puerto Rican Manny's, the Puerto Rican Lou Mitchell's, the Puerto Rican River Kwai full of latenight hipsters staving off the munchies:

    - Established 1950 (the shirts of the staff say so)

    - Authentically grimy diner atmosphere complete with 60s-era signage and typography (I don't mean Peter Max 60s, I mean faux Old West/Circus, like Barnum & Bagel)

    - Packed at lunchtime with real Chicagoans including cops

    - Located in transitioning-to-yuppie hip neighborhood near downtown (it's right across from Flo and the extremely LA-chic storefront of some nightclub which is so hip it doesn't even seem to have a name) [Sonotheque]

    And yet the hipsters seem not to have found it in great numbers yet. Go figure.

    Anyway, so after Marta's several weeks back my friend Wyatt said, we gotta go to Cafe Central and have mofongo. What is mofongo, I ask. It's like Puerto Rican polenta, he says, sort of green plantain and corn and stuff mashed into a ball. Very peasanty. Well, as long as it doesn't require being chewed by someone else first, like some South American tribal delicacy I saw on a documentary once, I said.

    So I ordered dos chuletas and mofongo. And get two thin pork chops which, though salted and fried into a curl of shoe leather consistency, are surprisingly juicy, and prove much less of a challenge to finish off than I expect at first. And next to them... a ball of what looks like pizza dough, with bits of corn in it. I try not to make unfortunate visual comparisons which would put me off eating, and take a bite. It's starch 'n' garlic, basically. Very much tastes like something peasants would live on. You could grow up loving it, I think. I didn't, so it's probably not something I'd go out of my way to have again. Wyatt says in Puerto Rico you get a little cup of broth which helps make it go down easier, like gravy on mashed potatoes. But it's savory, it's filling. I'm not going to leave this place unsatisfied.

    I will go back and try other things soon.


    Of course, 4-1/2 years later I haven't been back.
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  • Post #7 - November 9th, 2007, 2:40 pm
    Post #7 - November 9th, 2007, 2:40 pm Post #7 - November 9th, 2007, 2:40 pm
    Just for the record, and because I agree with JeffB that Puerto Rican deserves more attention than it gets, here are the other two portions of my quest for Puerto Rican, c. 2003:

    Marta's

    Marta's-- Someone, probably RST, was going on about how there was a whole world of Puerto Rican food out there totally unknown to food writers (not strictly true, since Laura Levy Shatkin wrote that "Beyond Puerto Rican" section in the Reader some months back). So since I love Cuban, and even the worst Cuban restaurant I ever ate in was pretty good, I figured I'd make it one of my quests to try a bunch of PR places in the next few months. I mentioned this to a friend and he said there was a Puerto Rican restaurant just up the street from Flying Saucer he'd always meant to try, on California near Division--and so we did. Unfortunately I don't know the names for a lot of the things we tried, which is one thing keeping me from writing a full report on it.

    Marta's has two buffet cases, one with deep-fried stuff and one with stuff swimming in pans. It was after 2 pm by the time we got there for lunch, so we had to adjust for the fried stuff being past its peak. I wasn't crazy about a lot of it but there was an improbable thing consisting of beef wrapped in plantains and topped with cheese that wasn't bad, and while one empanada-like thing was just bland beef tucked inside, another which had red and green peppers in a tomatoish gravy was really tasty, I'd have gone back for another if we didn't have a pile of food from the other section waiting. Roasted pork was fall apart on your fork good, with just the right hint of that chicharron/stockyard flavor that I find overpowering and offputting in many carnitas places. A chicken dish was, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from Cuban arroz con pollo, but likewise very tasty. A bit of a dive, Marta's is, but our visit paid off.


    Since Marta's is now gone, I can state that "a bit of a dive" was code for "a big-ass rat wandered across the floor of the dining room while we were eating."

    La Cocina Criolla

    La Cocina Criolla (or as the menu calls it, La Cocina del Galarza, which is the owner's name) sets off a lot of RST-style yuppie-ethnic-restaurant detectors. It's the closest Puerto Rican restaurant to the advance of yuppieville (just west of Western on Fullerton), the owners used to have a Mexican restaurant in Lincoln Park, there are big writeups by the Reader and even WBBM in the window, and the TV was showing English-language programming (People's Court during most of my visit). You would be forgiven for suspecting that this is The Designated Puerto Rican Restaurant, the Ann Sather, the Salvador's, the Moti Mahal of PR food.

    You would be wrong. I ordered goat because it had been mentioned in one of the reviews on the window. The review also talked about a particular interest in the Spanish influences on PR food. The goat-- baby goat chunks in a tomato-wine sauce, with potato and bits of green olive-- was fall off the bone tender and succulent, the Spanish rice fluffy and delectable, the combination totally satisfying, one of the most happy and hearty meals I've had in a good little while. There is a long menu with many authentic-looking dishes on it; if they are all prepared with comparable care then this is a find. If only they wouldn't watch TV in English.

    La Cocina Criolla
    2418 W. Fullerton Ave.
    (773) 235-7377
    Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
    New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
    Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.
  • Post #8 - November 9th, 2007, 4:38 pm
    Post #8 - November 9th, 2007, 4:38 pm Post #8 - November 9th, 2007, 4:38 pm
    The increased strain in my beltline at CC is always offsite inversely by the lack of strain on my George Costanza(n) sized wallet.

    Pal of mine always just orders from the piping hot front counter buffet. I swear in 10 years I can STILL never get past the Farmers Sausage with Egg, Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo sandwich with a side of the yellow rice with the perfectly matched green hot sauce sitting on the counter and finally, the delicious plantains.

    I am not sure I have ever walked out of this joint not ready to go home and immediately and peacefully nap........and I dont think i have hit over 11 bucks yet on the bill. I havent seen much of a price increase at all in many years.

    Watching the line form across the street at Flo on a weekend late morning/early afternoon while I carelessly stretch out in the plastic diner booth in preparation for an honest, visual and flavor-filled feast is (may I say it?) therapy.
  • Post #9 - November 9th, 2007, 5:42 pm
    Post #9 - November 9th, 2007, 5:42 pm Post #9 - November 9th, 2007, 5:42 pm
    I usually get the goat, occasionally the pork with yellow rice, and, once, the pig ears--cuchifritos on the menu--which at the time were offered only on weekends. I haven't looked for them since, so I don't know if that's still the case. The pig ears were okay, but I like their goat much better.

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