Mexican Restaurants in Lake Forest

Autentico-ness: does a metric to measure such an ephemeral quality exist? As we considered the Mexican restaurants of Chicago, we asked ourselves some questions. Do they make their own tortillas? Has it been run by the same family for years? Besides pollo and carne, can you also get lengua or birria? Do they refuse to put tomatoes on their tacos? When you walk in, do you feel like you’ve found a wormhole that leads directly to the Zócalo in Mexico City during a free Carlos Santana concert? Here’s our list, from pretty autentico-est to most autentico-est: 9. Rick Bayless: Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Xoco We can’t talk about Mexican food in Chicago without talking about Rick Bayless. Just from the way he speaks about his “beloved Oaxaca,” it’s evident that he treats the cuisine as he did his fellow contestants on Top Chef Masters: with the utmost respect and reverence. Homegrown: 10 | Family connections: 5 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 9 8. Lindo Michoacan (Albany Park | 3148 W. Lawrence Ave.) Although you don’t have to go through the supermarket anymore to get to the restaurant, it’s still attached, and its proximity to all the ingredients means that everything is made from scratch. One of our Guide writers swears by the lengua ranchera, calling its mingling of tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions “not far from the flavor of a thick, meaty pot roast.” Homegrown: 8 | Family connections: 5 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 7 7. The Tamale Guy (variable) The Tamale Guy is a well-known denizen of Chicago’s nightlife, popping up in kitchen-less bars right when you need something to soak up the suds. Rumor has it that he and Mrs. Tamale Guy craft these tamales by hand in their home kitchen, so they’re just as good when sober. Attempts have been made to keep tabs on him, but it’s best when his appearance seems serendipitous. Homegrown: 8 | Family connections: 8 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 6 (admittedly, it’s always a party when the Tamale Guy shows up) 6. Paco’s Tacos (Brighton Park | 4311 S. Archer Ave.) Why is it that a taquería with no website or Facebook page just seems more legit? Refrain from asking for what we call the Taco Bell special (lettuce and tomato)—they only put cilantro and onions on these tacos. You might be tempted to skip the barbacoa or al pastor tacos for the crunchy, freshly made chicharrón sitting just next to the grill up front, but—insider tip—you can have those on your tacos as well. There’s also a tacos-only outlet at Supermercado La Internacional (4556 S. Ashland Ave.). Just make your way to the back of the market to get to the taco stand. Homegrown: 8 | Family connections: 7 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 7 5. La Oaxaqueña (Avondale | 3382 N. Milwaukee Ave.) Known for its dark, smoky mole, this spot specializes in Oaxacan recipes that deviate slightly from your run-of-the-mill Mexican place. Tacos come loaded with meat, including the salted and cured cecina, which has been called “an absolute knockout.” The cooks also make their own chorizo in house, as well as the trio of salsas, which work well on their own or splashed on plates all at once. Homegrown: 10 | Family connections: 6 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 8 4. El Rey (Brighton Park | 4157 S. California Ave.) El Rey was a finalist in our Chicago’s Most Chicago Restaurant bracket for its unfailing loyalty to its customers, cops, contractors, students, and one very enthusiastic alderman. Aside from tacos stuffed with cesos and lengua, one of the house specialties is the gringas, or “marinated pork, onions, and cheese wrapped in pristine white flour tortillas.” Rey Macias, who manages the restaurant for his parents, is a neighborhood kid. He went to high school just across the street. Homegrown: 8 | Family connections: 10 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 9 3. Nuevo Leon (Pilsen | 1515 W. 18th St.) Even if you weren’t looking for this spot, you couldn’t miss it. The top two floors of the exterior are painted in an abstract brick pattern, while the first floor’s bright yellow is a beacon to all who pass. Inside, faux archways and open-air windows are painted on the walls, so you can pretend the blast of the heat or AC is actually a tropical breeze. Open since 1962, this might be one of the old-schooliest joints on the list, especially since they only take cash. Homegrown: 9 | Family connections: 7 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 10 2. Mom’s Old Recipe Mexican Restaurant (Jefferson Park | 5760 N. Milwaukee Ave.) Sisters Malena Basave and Ana Arriaga use their mother Elena’s recipes, which have been passed down for generations in the tiny town of Tilzapotla, Morelos. Specialties include as the tacos acorazados—open-faced griddled corn tortillas topped with rice and steak milanesa. Also, the space is bright and welcoming, and the marigold walls pop with colorful paintings of plantain trees and other scenes from the homeland. Homegrown: 9 | Family connections: 9 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 9 1. Cemitas Puebla (Humboldt Park | 3619 W. North Ave.) Chef-owner Tony Anteliz knows that some ingredients must come from the source. Though his family grows many of the herbs and spices in his mother’s garden, they fly to Mexico every month to buy certain ingredients, such as chipotle peppers and oaxaca cheese. The cemita is his hometown’s version of the torta, and you’ll often find Tony’s father supervising things in the kitchen to make sure they’re just so. Homegrown: 10 | Family connections: 10 | Fiesta-esque-ness: 8 Here’s Tony talking about the cemitas: Shop Groupon for deals on Mexican restaurants in your city. Frontera Grill photo by Andrew Nawrocki, Groupon; Lindo Michoacan photo by Patrick Winegar, Groupon; El Rey photo by Nathalie Lagerfeld, Groupon; Cemitas Puebla video by Ben Nissen, Groupon.

How do you find Chicago's most Chicago restaurant? You begin by taking the world's best decision-making device: the bracket. Then you combine it with Chicago's best device to represent its messy, opinionated landscape: the ward map. Some have called this pursuit "patently absurd." We humbly disagree. By taking our logic above (bracket + ward map) and extrapolating it into a larger, totally airtight algorithm, our computers have found a winner for the title of Chicago's most Chicago restaurant. See the finalists and read more about the search here. Below is one of the finalists. The cast of characters at El Rey (4157 S. California Ave.) is a good indication of what an important hub it is in the neighborhood. Below, we meet a few of its principal actors. REY MACIAS: Macias runs the place. His parents own it, but he says they “don’t always want to hear about it.” TEACHERS: Macias went to school at Kelly High School, directly across the street from El Rey in Brighton Park. When he first started working at the restaurant five years ago, his old English teacher came in. “‘Ms. Johnson, remember me?” he joked. “Why’d you fail me? Listen to my accent, I could've been president.” Now, many of the teachers from Kelly come in, and he tries to look out for them. He says he carried a sign with them during the strike in 2013, and they fill the back patio during fundraisers and special events. ALDERMAN CARDENAS: George Cardenas named El Rey his favorite eatery in the 12th Ward. When the alderman stops in for lunch, he jokingly asks, “Where are the margaritas?” “Sorry, sir,” Macias will reply, “but the alderman won’t let us serve them so close to the school.” COPS: El Rey doesn’t really match up with the slick diners where I imagine cops eat. But there they are, at least a dozen plainclothes detectives swapping stories that sound straight out of The Wire and a handful of uniformed officers in the corner looking at them shyly. Occasionally one of the cops will attempt an order in Spanish, impressing his compatriots around the table. “We love our officers,” Macias says. They don’t just get free coffee. Macias says the restaurant used to close at 10 p.m., but he would sometimes see a disappointed patrolman outside at 10:10 p.m.. So he started staying open until 11 p.m. And then midnight. Now El Rey closes at 5 a.m. Macias says a friend once asked him if you had to be a cop to get great service here. “No,” he told him, “you just have to have a .45 in your pocket!” He’s proud that they hang out here, though—his grandmother always told him you could identify a good restaurant by the police cruisers outside. CONTRACTORS: “I started doing construction when I was 10,” Macias says. He built an addition to the restaurant himself and did much of the work on the interior. Before cutting wood for new booths, he went with one of his contracting buddies to secretly measure the tables at Portillo’s. They got caught and had to fib to the skeptical waiter: “We made a bet about how wide your tables were.” One old construction boss, who Macias calls Inspector Gadget, only ever wanted the chicken burrito. Macias finally told a waitress to tell him they were out of tortillas (which El Rey makes in house). Inspector Gadget tried something new, venturing off into a surprisingly thick menu that includes everything from tacos with cesos (brain) and lengua (tongue) to gringas. Gringas? “Oh, you don’t know what a gringa is?” asks Macias, his eyes wide. “In Aguascalientes [in Mexico], there’s a big festival; offices shut down for a week,” he says. “And at the end of the night, all the guys say they’re going to get some gringas.” Macias was confused too until he saw what they were actually talking about: marinated pork, onions, and cheese wrapped in pristine white flour tortillas (which give the dish its name). The cooks at El Rey also make a soup I’d never seen before, with a name that literally just means “meat in juice.” It was at least as rich as a good pho, and I can imagine even someone with a taste for simple burritos loving it. The menu also includes tacos botaneros and tacos chilangos, both of which have lengthy backstories that are worth asking Macias about if you have half an hour to kill. STUDENTS: Macias identifies with the kids in Brighton Park. After all, he used to go to school there, walking home through the neighborhood so he could pocket the bus fare his parents gave him. He gives students cheap lunches and runs a work-study program. The students are part of the reason the walls are plastered with stars of ‘60s Mexican cinema, too—he seems worried they’ll grow up with posters of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. He points out Antonio Aguilar (“he was kind of the horse guy”), Jorge Negrete (“so tough and handsome”), and Pedro Armendáriz (“he made movies with John Wayne”). When he starts talking about María Féliz, a middle-aged woman leaves her table at the restaurant to affirm that Feliz did not indeed “take any crap from guys.” Nor did Frida Kahlo, who, Macias hypothesizes, may have actually liked ladies more than men. The wall seems carefully curated, both to educate a younger generation and to delight Macias. But the wall itself is actually in constant flux. “I have thousands of these photos in my office; I change them all once in a while,” he says. EVERYONE ELSE: Macias doesn’t have an unkind word for anyone (with the exception of a certain Chicago celebrity chef, who Macias says steals recipes from small Mexican towns), and El Rey is an almost overwhelmingly hospitable place. I tried to leave there empty-handed. Instead I was eating leftovers from the bag Macias packed me for days afterward. It can be hard to separate kindness and savvy in businessmen, but Macias seems to genuinely care about his neighbors. He feeds the occasional drunk or homeless person or kid with a tough family—or really just anyone—if he’s feeling generous. “God is watching,” Macias says. “If you do good, he’ll do good to you.” Photos by Nathalie Lagerfeld, Groupon

James Beard Award winner. Top Chef master. Foodie buddies with the Obamas. Rick Bayless has the prestige and the culinary street cred expected of the modern celebrity chef. But more than that, he’s a friendly, bubbly encyclopedia of the delicious nuances of authentic regional Mexican cooking. We caught up with this American culinary ambassador to learn his tips for cooking for vegetarians and thoughts on the modern celebrity of chef-hood. GROUPON: You’re in Oaxaca shooting the upcoming ninth season of your TV show, and the trailer up on your site is very intriguing. Of all the topics you mention (the bustling markets, the organic coffee, the live-fire grilling, the vibrant festivals, etc.), which are you most excited about? RICK BAYLESS: I am most excited about sharing my beloved Oaxaca with everyone. I have wanted to shoot here for nine years! I come here every year for Christmas and have been coming here for over 30 years. I really consider it my second home. I am finally able to get it all on tape! G: In your recent book (Frontera: Margaritas, Guacamoles, and Snacks), you write about classic margaritas and some oft-overlooked ingredients and processes. What are your top five tips to help people make better margaritas? RB: 1. Fresh lime juice does matter. It is really important! 2. Shaking for long enough—I know it sounds crazy, but really—timing that shake with the ice in the shaker can have a wonderful effect on the outcome of your cocktail. 3. Invest in some good tequila. You really can taste the difference. 4. Practice using different herbs. Lemon verbena makes a wonderful summer cocktail when added to your margarita. 5. Experiment with different liquors—cointreau, orange liqueur, and even making a wonderfully smoky mescal margarita. Try it—the differences are lovely. G: You've proven your mettle in cooking challenges. What would you do if you were forced to make guacamole—without avocados? RB: Probably something with a mango or maybe even a  squash. Mmm, let's hope I don't ever have to come up with that. G: Once upon a time, Mexican food wasn't held in as high regard as other cultures' foods—French, Italian, etc. Do you see this phenomenon playing out with any other world cuisines right now? Which culinary tradition is currently poised to undergo a gourmet renaissance? RB: I am not sure about a specific cuisine, but I do know this: ethnic food, period, is becoming the norm. It is now being cooked by amazing chefs in America with American ingredients—it's gutsy, cutting edge, and just really exciting. G: Do you ever feel confined to cooking Mexican food at every party, or do you sometimes invite 20 people over for spaghetti and meatballs? RB: Oh no—I cook everything. I love Thai food. I am working my way through Middle Eastern cooking at the moment. And yes, I would make a pasta dish with greens from the garden. G: When you have scores of guests, there's always factions of vegetarians, vegans, and allergy sufferers. Do you have foolproof party-planning recipes that cover all of the bases and leave no stone unturned, or do you have special peppers that reduce swelling? RB: I really start with a sauce that can be all things to all people and build up. I don't like anyone at the table feeling like they are getting different food, so I like everyone to have the same idea on their plate. Whether it is an amazing mix of mushrooms in the same sauce, and the course is really supposed to be carne asada, I want everyone to feel comfortable. G: Some celebrity chefs have vicious opinions about vegetarianism. What's your take? Do you believe vegetarians are missing out? RB: I think vegetable dishes are amazing. I tend to eat a lot of vegetable dishes after the holidays. I am cooking through a Middle Eastern cookbook, and it is all about grains, vegetables, and spices. I love it. G: The modern celebrity of chef-hood: good or bad? RB: I think it is all good. We are celebrating food, and I do think when people are paying attention to not only who is making your food but what exactly you are eating and where it is coming from—you can't beat that. Check out Bayless's cooking for yourself at Frontera Grill and Topolobampo (445 N. Clark St.) and XOCO (449 N. Clark St.) Photo: Courtesy of Paul Elledge/Frontera Grill