Happy Changes in Logan Square - Gorditas de Requeson etc..

The stretch of Diversey between California and Kedzie was, for a while anyway, spare on good places to eat. However in the last 2-3 months there have been some welcome changes. I've already mentioned in another post the opening of the Guatelinda Bakery on Diversey at Whipple. The grocery store at Sacramento is reopened under new management, with fresh mexican ricotta (requeson), carnitas, chorizo, and puerco adobado prepared in house. The formerly crappy pizzeria a little further east has been replaced with a colorful and pleasant Potosina taqueria called "San Luis Taqueria". They have the infamous enchiladas potosinas, deepfried masa turnovers with red chile worked into the dough, fried whole snappers, and a wide range of alambres - skillets with meat pepper & cheese.

And now, the counter-style restaurant the ever rotating ownership just east of Kedzie on the north side of Diversey, which was for a while Rocque's Snack Shop and then a mediocre taqueria, has emerged from the latest management change - the new incarnation is a vast improvement over the old.

My first indication that things were getting better was a couple of weeks ago when hand-lettered signs for huaraches, zopes [sic], quesadillas and gorditas showed up in the window. Today, Kerensa and I popped in for an impromptu lunch, and if today's meal is typical, the new Taqueria el Mago is very good news for the neighborhood. Every antojito is made by hand; several that we ate today were patted into shape to order. We had a huarache with carne asada, the masa was crisp and tenacious with a thick layer of black beans folded between the layers. Two sopes, each hand shaped and then deepfried, overfilled with pork al pastor or beef. Again, the masa was just right, crisp where it should be crisp and pliant where it should be pliant. The gordita with stewed chicken was slightly less successful, but still very good.

The masterpiece however was the gordita de requeson, a thick patty of masa about 6 inches in diameter shaped around a filling of white crumply cheese, jalapenos, and epazote, fried first in a well-seasoned skillet, then crisped on the flat top. I noticed them only after eating myself into a semi-comatose state, but when I expressed an interest, Paola, (whose hands we heard slapping masa throughout our meal) pulled one off the flat top and sliced off an edge, two pieces for me and kerensa and the rest as a snack for the waitress. Incredible comfort food, mild and hot, steaming masa, soft white cheese, perfect with salt. I wished I'd skipped the last half of the huarache.

I'm very excited about this restaurant - it's literally 300 yards from my front door. I'll be back to check on the quesadilla, the chilaquiles in the morning, the caldos de pollo and de res. The staff (who are from Michoacan) speaks nearly no english, the space is utterly without charm, there are only two tables, but this is the best eating news to hit my block in a while.

Seth,

This news, while great for you, can only be bittersweet for me, as that place (still named Taqueria Mago??) would have been but a stone's throw (maybe 425 yards) from my 4 year residence on Sacramento & Diversey. Alas, the only things a stone's throw from my current residence in Vegas are, appropriately enough, stones. And a Rite Aid. And a hospital, whose cafeteria I (luckily) haven't had to investigate yet. Within a stone's drive, though, is some pretty damn good street-level Mexican, though more California taco-shop style than real hard core, inner-province fare which predominates in Chicago. Of note on that particular black hole of cuisine, ie, Diversey between California and Kedzie, is an Ecuadoran restaurant whose name escapes me and a dish that they make whose name also escapes me, but involves steak bits (lomo de res), hot sauce, hot peppers, and scrambled eggs, and is apparently a specialty in certain parts of Ecuador. Quite delicious. When pressed for choice between that place and the Marathon station, the Ecuadoran restaurant wins. Except, say, if I needed Gatorade or condoms or motor oil. (Some nights, all three...). Can you tell it's 112 degrees here?

Reb

HR - nice to have a dispatch from the desert. The taquria in question is still named Taqueria Mago. The name of the Ecuadorean restaurant, if memory serves, is "Ecuadorean Restaurant". I went once and had a steak; K had some mediocre stewed chicken. It's a mystery to me how that place remains open; i never see anyone inside. Maybe it's the scrambled eggs.

Re: the marathon; an unwelcome change from the good old cheap clark that used to be there. Premium gas just busted through the $3.00 / gallon mark. I've never seen it so high. I miss the clark!