Midwest Mexican dinner houses shed taco image

Nation's Restaurant News, March 22, 1993 by Carolyn Walkup

CHICAGO -- In a region that has long associated Mexican food with tacos, burritos and refried beans, a new breed of anglo-Mexican restaurant is discovering a market for upscale and innovative dishes.

While Club Cha Cha is adding sizzle to the dining scene in Milwaukee, Don Juan's, Frontera Grill and Hat Dance are continuing to keep the heat up in Chicago.

Nationally acclaimed Frontera Grill, owned by Rick and Deeann Bayless, has set the standard for this style of restaurant, which the other three operators admire.

"Rick Bayless' restaurant is an inspiration for us," said Todd Moro, co-owner of 10-month-old Club Cha Cha. "His style is unequaled in terms of anything I have seen across the country."

Moro's menu even attributes some printed specials to Bayless. It also bears the influence of various restaurants in California, Southwest and Mexico itself. His goal is to broaden the concept beyond Mexican to a more general one of Latin American -- with the help of a noteworthy folk art collection and the addition of a second room upstairs that will feature live Latin music.

Club Cha Cha serves such dishes as marinated cactus salad with jicama, onion, garlic, lime and cilantro; pescado Veracruzano, sauteed snapper fillet with Manzania olives, capers, garlic, onion and tomato; grilled baby goat with green chilies and onions; and a dessert empanada filled with sweet pumpkin and cream cheese.

Hat Dance is the only Mexican restaurant so far in the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises stable of concepts. David Schy, executive chef, had to be especially persuasive five years ago to convince Richard Melman and other Lettuce partners that his Mexican menu would be different from the norm.

"It's Mexican food taken to a higher level," Schy explained. He developed his Mexican cooking style while living in Los Angeles, where he had some early involvement with Rebecca's in Venice.

Some Hat Dance house specialties are its heart-healthy Mexican pizza topped with low-fat mozzarella, green pepper, tomato, cilantro and sweet pea guacamole; shrimp cocktail with tomato-shrimp broth, lime and tuna asada, seared tuna steak with chile-papaya relish.

Most Hat Dance customers like their food spicier now than they did five years ago, Schy said, attributing their changing tastes to their exposure to local Cajun and Thai restaurants -- both of which are commonplace in Chicago.

He also credits other Mexican restaurants, both chains and independents, with acquainting Americans with the basics of Mexican food and preparing them to explore the cuisine further.

Don Juan's chef, Patrick Concannon, and his mother, Maria, opened a traditional Mexican restaurant nine years ago that still forms the basis of Don Juan's. However, its menu focus changed recently following Concannon's sojourns at some of the great restaurant kitchens of France, Hawaii and Chicago -- including Charlie Trotter's.

Concannon's more eclectic creations are featured as nightly specials. Examples are an appetizer burrito of fresh rock shrimp and goat cheese with chipotle shallot sauce; rack of lamb with sauteed spinach, spicy potato gratin and ancho chile juice; and grilled pork chop with pureed garlic potatoes and guajillo chile adobo sauce.

All of these operators pride themselves on scratch cooking with the freshest ingredients. Concannon personally goes to the market each morning. Among the fresh touches at Club Cha Cha are hand-cut salsas, handmade tortilles and homemade ice cream.

Fresh fish is prominent on all three menus, partly because it is not that common in the typical local tacqueria. Hat Dance and Club Cha Cha always have ceviche, a combination of raw fish marinated in citrus juices and chilies.

Hat Dance usually has tuna sashimi, a carryover from the sushi and raw bar it had when it opened to add an international twist. Raw bar sales dropped after various reports of health dangers of eating raw seafood, so the former raw bar now serves as a juice bar, modeled after Mexican fruit stalls.

Non-Mexican influences also crop up at the other two eateries. Concannon may draw on his French experience with medallions of vension, seared foie gras, pureed sweet potato and a port wine reduction or his potato soup with wild mushrooms and white truffle oil.

"I began bringing in outside influences and taking elements from everywhere in the world," Concannon explained. To further emphasize his international directions, he plans to devote a separate restaurant to his "world cuisine" as soon as he acquires the storefront next door.

Currently, the specials accoung for between 10 and 30 percent of sales, especially on weekends, when Don Juan's becomes a dining destination rather than a neighborhood restaurant. The modestly furnished 85-seat restaurant often serves up to 400 people on weekend nights.

Club Cha Cha is beginning to feature weekly specials from various Mexican regions. A recent one from the Yucatan Peninsula included sopa de lima -- lime lime soup scattered with diced avocado, tortilla strips and chicken; marinated blue marlin grilled over apple, maple and oak woods; and a dessert pastry accented with toasted almonds, Grand Marnier, cinnamon and vanilla.