On a trip into Chicago earlier this year, my wife and I decided to have some Mexican food for dinner. We searched for some Mexican places near our hotel in downtown Chicago and I found a place not too far away called Mercadito. It had been raining earlier in the day, but it had cleared off by the time we started out for the restaurant about four blocks away.
You could probably say that Patricio Sandoval grew up with a ladle in his hand. That's because he literally grew up in the kitchen of Madeiras, an upscale restaurant in Acapulco owned by his father. In the 1960's into the 1980's, Madeiras was the place to see and be seen for celebrities in Acapulco. When Acapulco began to fall on hard times at the start of the 21st century, Madeiras closed up. However, it had a short rebirth in 2008 owned by Patricio Sandoval's brother, Richard Sandoval - who is a famous restaurateur with nearly four dozen restaurants in 11 states and five countries - and internationally renown opera singer Placido Domingo. Madeiras closed for good after a couple three years back in business.
Patricio Sandoval had gone to private high school in California, and after graduating in 1992 he ended up puttering around for a few years. Finally at the age of 23, he ended up going to New York City to work along side his brother Richard at his prestigious Maya restaurant that combined modern Mexican cuisine with traditional recipes. He started out on the ground floor of the restaurant business bussing tables and working in his brother's kitchen, but within a couple of years he had worked his way up to a sous chef position at Maya.
Pictured right - Patricio Sandoval. Photo courtesy NBC Latino.
In 1999, Patricio Sandoval moved back out to California to help open the Maya location in San Francisco. In 2000, he was offered a sous chef position by Chef/Partner David Gingrass at Hawthorne Lane which - at the time - was annually named one of the top 100 restaurants in the United States. It was during his time at Hawthorne Lane that he decided to take his passion for cooking to the next level.
Patricio Sandoval moved back to New York and enrolled in the prestigious French Culinary Institute - now known as the International Culinary Center. While in culinary school, Patricio got a job working for Chef Peter Hoffman at the famous Savoy restaurant in New York City. Hoffman was one of the first chefs to use locally grown and sustainable foods in his restaurant. Patricio Sandoval continued to work at Savoy after he graduated from culinary school, but it wasn't long before Richard Sandoval came calling to tap his brother as the Consulting Chef at Pampano, an upscale/fine dining contemporary Mexican cuisine restaurant in New York City.
It was during his time at Pampano that Patricio Sandoval began to seriously think about opening his own restaurant. He remembered going to the open air markets in Mexico with his mother to buy food for the Sandoval family. The small booths where the local farmers sold their produce that Sandoval's mother made into simple, yet delicious meals were a fond memory of Patricio's youth. When he finally did start his first restaurant in New York City in 2006, he called it Mercadito which roughly translates into "small market".
Patricio eventually opened a couple of Mercadito locations in New York and one in Miami. He was soon joined by his brothers, Alfredo and Felipe, in the Mercadito Hospitality Group. Alfredo and Felipe also knew their way around the kitchen as they, too, were working with older brother Richard in some of his restaurants.
In 2010, the Sandoval brothers opened the Mercadito location in the River North neighborhood of Chicago with Alfredo the managing partner. By 2014, they had closed their New York and Miami locations and focused on the Chicago Mercadito and two other restaurants (that are now closed). In addition to Mercadito, the Sandoval's have two smaller Mercadito locations - Mercadito Taqueria - in downtown Chicago.
It was about a 10 minute walk to Mercadito located on W. Kinzie Ave. between LaSalle and Clark streets. (see map) The front of the building featured a small brown facade with smaller windows. There was a small al fresco dining area up front. No one was seated there as it was still cool after the rain ended earlier in the afternoon.
The inside of Mercadito was long and narrow. The space was very loud thanks to the wooden ceilings, wooden walls and wooden floors. They really could have used acoustic tiles to help dampen the sound levels. But, then again, loud restaurants are supposed to be trendy.
Exquisite artwork and contemporary decor were found throughout the restaurant. The lighting in the restaurant was diffused from bright lights from long sconce lights placed halfway up the wall. I found myself looking around at the artwork while we waited for a table.
We were told it would be up to an hour wait for a table, so we decided to go over to the bar to hang out. We were able to find a couple spots that had just opened up and ordered up a couple margaritas.
They had a special margarita that featured tequila, Grand Marnier, lime juice and agave syrup. I made the mistake a few years ago of introducing my wife to Herradura tequila - especially the Herradura Silver variety. She asked the bartender if he could put Herradura silver in her margarita. I thought that sounded good and I signed up for that, too. The bartender told me the upcharge for the better tequila was $4.00 a glass. That wasn't too bad, I thought. But here's the kicker - the margaritas were $13.50 to start out with a house tequila. So, you're looking at a couple of $17.50 margaritas. But they were damned good. Both of us had two while we waited for the table. Yes, that was a $70 bar tab even before we sat down.
We noticed a number of people going up and down the stairs toward the front of the restaurant. It turned out there was a lounge upstairs - La Mez - that featured mezcal agave drinks. We didn't venture upstairs to check the place out.
It wasn't quite 45 minutes when we were finally shown to a table along the north wall of the restaurant. It was fairly cramped near the corner - in the corner next to us a group of six people were seated at a table that looked like it could only accommodate four diners. My wife took the banquette seat along the wall while I scrunched in to the chair hoping not to disturb the diners next to us. It was pretty tight for all involved, but we made do.
Our server for the evening was Jesus, a likable young guy with a thick Hispanic accent. More than once I had to have him repeat what he said to me, not because of his accent, but because it was so blasted loud in the place. Looking through the menu, we ordered up some traditional guacamole (we saw it being made back behind the bar) and a couple of their housemade salsas. One of the salsas was a grilled tomatillo salsa that had a smoky flavor to it. It was wonderful. The other one was a red salsa that had a bit of a bit on the back end. (They also had a habanero and a chile de arbol, both a little too spicy for even my taste.) The guacamole and the salsas were a perfect compliment to the wonderfully fresh tortilla chips that were served with it. Oh, and we had to break down and have a third $17.50 margarita each to go along with the chips, salsa and guacamole. They also had a shrimp ceviche for an appetizer, and we thought about getting that, but we ended up focusing on what to order for dinner.
My wife was looking at either getting the seafood-stuffed chile relleno entree or the shrimp enchiladas, but Jesus talked her into the red snapper dinner. The red snapper was grilled and served on a bed of Mexican-style cole slaw and topped with lemon wedges and a chipotle vinaigrette. Black beans and rice came on the side. The red snapper was light and flaky with a great charred and somewhat spicy taste to it. The chipotle vinaigrette had a wonderful smoky and vinegar taste that went extremely well with her fish. She was more than happy with her choice.
I was in the mood for tacos and that's what Mercadito is famous for. They had something on the menu called "taquizas" - basically it's a term for a taco party where different meats or seafood are brought to the table with salsas, shredded veggies and sometimes cheese. Jesus was explaining to me that it's more for large groups who want to try a little bit of everything.
Well, that's sort of what I wanted to do - try a little bit of everything as far as the taco filling was concerned. They had a dozen different choices for meat or seafood ranging from espada (swordfish), estila (mahi mahi), shrimp and lobster to beef brisket, steak and chicken tacos. They also had vegetarian options with hongos (mushrooms) and rajas (poblano chile) tacos. But they didn't allow for a person to order more than one type of filling.
I ended up ordering the barbacoa pork tacos. The barbacoa came in a large bowl with a side of shredded cabbage and other vegetables on the side. Fresh made taco shells were provided. I was able to order a couple salsa to go with the tacos. This time I got a mild verde sauce and a different red sauce that was more mild than I expected. And, yes, I had to get another $17.50 margarita. It was like sipping heroin.
The barbacoa was fine. It had a bit of a spicy taste and was very tender. It was a little fatty in places, though, and I sort of wished I had been able to try something else after the second small taco. I mean, it was good - but I like to order different types of meats at taquerias. Mercadito was definitely an upscale taqueria and not one where you could get various individual types of tacos. Oh well...
With a bar tab that ventured well north of $100 bucks, the rest of meal at Mercadito was also pretty expensive. With a tip for our efficient waiter, our final bill came to around $200 dollars. It was more expensive than we planned to spend and while the food was good, we didn't think it to be that good of a value. I really wished I could have tried two or three different types of meat for the tacos, but they only let you pick one. The barbacoa pork was fine, but I really wanted to try something else to get a feel of what the other fillings tasted like. My wife was more than happy with her grilled and somewhat spicy red snapper, and even though the margaritas were outrageously priced, they were very good. If you go to Mercadito expect to shell out a lot of bucks, expect to be seated close to the other tables, and expect to have to raise your voice to carry on a conversation in a loud environment.
Comments