Anyone putting off a visit to Xoco because of the daunting lines that have become an unintentionally ironic hallmark of Rick Bayless’s “quick-serve” Mexican street-food joint should know that the Chef Who Can Do No Wrong provides plenty to think about during the wait. For optimists there’s engrossing, if agonizing, reading material—the chalkboard menu hung high on the wall lists a half dozen caldos and nine or ten tortas (from the wood-fired oven or the griddle), all made with bounty from the local boutique farms Bayless has championed throughout his ascent as well as his own considerable tillage. And action fans can thrill to the battery of line cooks frenetically constructing meals a few arm’s lengths away, amid the spellbinding aroma of fresh-ground cocoa beans.
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The answer is no. There is nothing like Xoco’s jamon torta, griddled flat and layered with La Quercia prosciutto, seasonally variable organic Wisconsin cheddar, black beans, avocado, and chipotle mustard. Add a fried egg for a dollar and it’s a big, salty, expensive mess, a delicious cultural analogue to the signature burger at Kuma’s Corner.
Even after the lines die down, no one will ever just pop into Xoco for soup and a sandwich without a different sort of struggle: the caldos, served only after 3 PM, are all more than meals in themselves, deep and substantial soups brimming with the same sort of meats available on the tortas but also vegetables, chile, avocado, and lime and maybe noodles or dumplings to boot. The brick-red short rib chile soup is filled with potatoes and chayote, and the tender chunks of braised beef just hold their integrity in the ballsy, well-balanced broth. The pork belly fideos, nutty vermicelli with thick squares of fatty pork, are too rich to slurp down in one sitting.
But I can see fights breaking out among hungry friends confronted with the stingy portion sizes. Salsas arrive as mere dribbles in glass dishes so small and shallow they defy the incursion of tortilla chips. Same goes with the minuscule scoops of guac and ceviche, and the tiny tacos, at four for $12.50, are the very definition of poor value.
Mercadito 108 W. Kinzie, 312-329-9555,mercaditochicago.com
