The Burrito Bracket

Burrito Bracket on the Radio!

2007-11-15T15:05:00.000-06:00

Oops, forgot one important thing. Last week, Burrito Bracket did an interview with Mike Stephen and Andy Hermann of Outside the Loop Radio. They have a podcast available -- scroll down to November 9th (Episode #59) on the page I just linked you guys too.

I've actually done a decent about of radio before for my day job -- not that you could likely tell by listening to me -- but for some reason, talking about burritos had me a lot more nervous than talking about baseball. A big thank you to Mike and Andy for setting up a great interview.

Burrito Bracket on One-Week Break

2007-11-15T15:00:00.001-06:00

Hi, all. We're taking this week off for a couple reasons:

1) Burrito Bracket has fallen way behind on some "real life" work.
2) Burrito Bracket has eaten way too many off-bracket burritos over the past several days. Of note: La Pasadaita's barbacoa, which I thought was so wonderful a couple of weeks ago, was a little bit off when I had it for dinner last night.

See you all next week.

El Taco Veloz [#2] defeats Picante Taqueria [#10]

2007-11-10T18:08:00.000-06:00

Unlike other recent underdogs, Picante Taquera [reivew] turned out a burrito that exceeded expectations, but it wasn't enough to put it in striking distance of El Taco Veloz [review], which was en route to shattering De Pasada's record with a Burrito Breakdown score of 43.5.

Three of our final four taquerias are now established: Veloz, La Pasadita, and De Pasada. The last spot will be fought over by Irazu and Tecalitlan, which was the premier matchup of the second round all along. Any of our five remaining taquerias serve up good enough food to win the entire bracket, and there will be no easy decisions from here on out. Stay tuned.

Picante Taqueria: Round 2 Review

2007-11-10T17:26:00.000-06:00

#10. Picante Taqueria
2016½ W. Division
Al Pastor Burrito
$4.95 (no extras)

Defeated #7 Chipotle in Round 1 [review]

All right, let's be perfectly honest here. There was pretty much no way that Picante Taqueria was going to defeat El Taco Veloz. Not after Veloz's spectacular showing earlier in the week, and not when Picante is such a bare-bones operation that they don't even have a seating area. Mathematically, this would have to be just about the best burrito I'd ever eaten for Picante to make up the points it's losing in the service and experience categories. So, Picante was a little bit of a lame duck heading into yesterday's visit. That doesn't mean that it's without its redeeming facets, however.

The Food: The way that I'd describe the food at Picante is "surprisingly good". Not great, but surprisingly good. All of their ingredients are of a fairly high quality (although the pork was sliced up thinner than in needed to be), and this burrito was proportionate and fresh-tasting. Their salsa is underrated, and their tortillas are above-average. Their pork al Pastor is a little toward the spicier side rather than the sweet side, but it's a pretty good blend, and as at Veloz the Pastor was accentuated by grilled onions.

One mild complaint: their burrito is a little sloppy, by which I mean that it isn't wrapped all that tightly and so the ingredients tend to slip out. This problem is a bit more acute because Picante is exclusively a take-out joint, and so if you decided to walk your burrito north a couple of blocks and eat it in Wicker Park, you'd inevitably wind up spilling some on yourself (those al Pastor stains are notoriously difficult to wash out!).

The Experience: There isn't any: Picante has no indoor seating area, and their outdoor seating area is closed for the season. The service experience, such as it is, is mixed. The turnaround time on my burrito was considerably quicker than on past visits. On the other hand, Picante gets a deduction because I asked for both hot and mild salsas and my take-out bag wound up containing only the hot.

El Taco Veloz: Round 2 Review

2007-11-07T17:44:00.001-06:00

#2. El Taco Veloz
1745 W. Chicago
Al Pastor Burrito
$4.00 (no extras)

Defeated #15a Taqueria Trespasada in Round 1 [review]

I remember the moment that I first conceived of Burrito Bracket. It was in those halcyon days of late July, 2007. I was walking down Milwaukee Avenue, so sweaty from the 90-degree heat that my glasses kept slipping off my nose. I was a kid back then, looking for lunch in all the wrong places.

When the days grow shorter and colder, it helps to hold on to memories like this one, as a squirrel hoards nuts for the winter. It's always Daylight Savings Time when it hits me: the passing of the seasons. What bureaucrat was it decided that we needed less daylight in the middle of winter? He surely can't have been stationed in Chicago. It was cold and dusky by the time I left my apartment for a late lunch today, the sort of day that makes you want to hibernate, to subsist on a diet of cable television and takeout Chinese until the sun comes out again. No, not to give up the fight; but perhaps to take a rain check on dreams of finding the perfect burrito.

The Food: And then you sink your teeth into a burrito like this one, and you remember what the whole struggle was for. This was probably the single best item of food that we've tried in the Bracket to date. Let me count the ways.

First, there was the wonderful flavor of the pork al Pastor, a rich, sweet flavor -- a perfect autumn flavor. Second, there is Veloz's salsa, a complex, peppery blend that somehow defies description, but is instantly recognizable to the tongue. Third, there are the little extras. Veloz, like Dona Naty's, cooks its onions on the skillet with its pork, giving them a caramelized flavor, and for another unique touch, there is a container of pickled jalapenos sitting on the table. Fourth, there is the way that everything stays in balance. This burrito contained a large number of ingredients, flavors, and textures -- meat, beans, salsa, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, cheese in that perfect state of meltedness, the pickled jalapenos -- and yet no one taste overwhelms the others, and the burrito is the perfect size for a hearty lunch, rather than some supersized monstrosity.

The perfect burrito? Not quite. The meat itself was only of average quality, and while generally tender, its texture varied a bit from slice to slice. But for the grand total of $4.00, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better meal in the city.

The Experience: Anybody that calls Veloz a hole-in-the-wall doesn't know their holes from their walls. No, it isn't white tablecloth stuff, nor does Veloz get much light; there are no windows on either side of the dining area. But there's a kitschy, eccentric coziness to the interior, which this time was accentuated by a homemade mural of Halloween ghosts down the right-hand wall. The colorful lighting and equally colorful music from the jukebox are designed to get you to sit down and stay for a while. And the service is notably efficient, if a little informal.

De Pasada [#4] defeats Dona Naty's Taco [#12]

2007-11-03T20:30:00.001-05:00

Thus far, our second round has been a little anticlimactic. La Pasadita was expected to defeat Arturo's Tacos, but the margin of victory was a little bit of a surprise. Likewise, we expected Dona Naty's Taco [review] to provide a formidable challenge to De Pasada [review], but it had an off-day whereas De Pasada was at the top of its game. In fact, De Pasada's composite score of 42 is the highest score recorded to date in the Burrito Bracket. Although that score strikes me as a little bit high -- purely in terms of the quality of the food, this torta wasn't quite as good as the one at Taqueria Trespada, for instance -- it goes to show you what can happen when you combine very good food with very good service.

This sets up a real grudge match between De Pasada and La Pasadita in the first of our Final Four matchups, two virtual next door neighbors with more shared history than you might assume at first glance (more on this in the coming days). The item for that match-up will be the Chicken Super Burrito, as we have not sampled the chicken at either establishment thus far (at least within the context of 'official' Burrito Bracket business). The super burrito -- as opposed to the simpler, regular burrito -- is one of De Pasada's strengths, and so this matchup should be closer to a toss-up than you might think.

Odds to Win Bracket

La Pasadita ............... 2-1
De Pasada ................. 3-1
El Taco Veloz ............. 3-1
Irazu ..................... 6-1
Tecalitlan ............... 12-1
Picante Taqueria ........ 100-1

Dona Naty's Taco: Round 2 Review

2007-11-03T19:28:00.000-05:00

#12. Dona Naty's Taco
1813 W. Chicago
Torta de Milanesa
$3.49 (no extras)

Defeated #5 Taqueria Super Burrito in Round 1 [review]
Defeated #12b Carniceria Leon in Eat-in Match [review]

On its best days, Dona Naty's Taco can remind me of De Pasada. Both restaurants take their time, and put some extra care and forethought into how their food is prepared. In Dona Naty's case, that meant the spicy ground chicken mixture that made an extraordinary meal out of an ordinary chicken burrito, and the grilled onions that provided a little extra flair to its tacos al Pastor. It's those little things that had made Dona Naty's the lowest remaining seed to survive in the bracket. Unfortunately, this was not one of Dona Naty's best days.

The Food: In a word? Meh. There were no signs of Dona Naty's subtle knack for innovation in this torta. In fact, it was one of the most ordinary dishes that we've tried so far. In contrast to De Pasada, which cut its steak into individual slices and breaded each one individually, Dona Naty's reverted to the standard route of providing one big "wafer" of meat. Although the breading was reasonably good, the meat was smashed so thin that you could barely even taste the animal product. Likewise, the toppings were a little lackluster. Whereas De Pasada's torta featured fresh guacamole, Naty's had ordinary avocado. And for some reason, the combination of the avocado plus the grated cheese, both of which were at refrigerator temperature, made the torta a little cold; the idea of the hot staying hot and the cool staying cool has been a dicey proposition ever since the McDLT was launched.

The Experience: Speaking of which, Dona Naty's service can run hot-and-cold. If you'll recall from Dona Naty's eat-in match two months ago, we encountered a waitress who was a little anglophobic. Maybe that's too strong a term, but considering that she didn't even try to take my order, instead having the counter guy do her dirty work for her, I don't know how else to characterize it. That pattern completely reversed itself in our Round 1 visit, when we had a pleasant, English-speaking waitress that made us feel right at home. This time around? Back to Mrs. No Habla Inglés, and her running point with the counter guy to have him take my order. To make clear: I'm not even asking for the courtesy of a waitress who tries to speak English. Rather, I'm asking for the courtesy of a waitress who lets me try and speak Spanish. If I'm completely embarrassing myself, then you can call the counter guy over to serve as an interpreter. Again, all of this was in stark contrast to De Pasada, which has perhaps the most welcoming service of any taqueria in Chicago.

De Pasada: Round 2 Review

2007-11-02T01:23:00.000-05:00

#4. De Pasada
1108 N. Ashland
Torta de Milanesa
$3.75 (no extras)

Defeated #13 Mr. Taco's Restaurant in Round 1 [review]

When my parents were in town a couple weeks ago and they wanted to check out one of the taquerias from Burrito Bracket, the place I took them to was De Pasada. That does not necessarily mean that De Pasada is my favorite -- if I knew which one was my favorite, I would never have started Burrito Bracket in the first place. But it does mean that I wanted them to come away with a good experience -- and De Pasada was the choice for its exceptional consistency.

The Food: Standard operating procedure when you order a milanesa torta -- and if you're new to the torta world, this is the kind of torta that you want to be ordering -- is to be presented with a large, amoeba-shaped piece of steak, brutally beaten down until it's thinner than Calista Flockhart, and coated with a light breading. Oftentimes, as in the case of this otherwise very good torta from Arturo's, the shape of the meat will not particuarly match the shape of the bread, leading to a sort of overbite effect.

At De Pasada, this is not a problem, because rather than giving you one big slab of meat, they instead give you a series of individual slices, all of which are breaded individually. This undoubtedly requires more preparation time than the common method, but careful preparation is what De Pasada is all about. And it really shows up in terms of the results: you can actually taste the steak and not just the breading, and you don't run into any tough or stringy portions like you might elsewhere.

De Pasada also has what might be the best salsa in Chicago, rating plenty high on the Scoville scale without blowing out its character. All the veggies and toppings are very fresh, particuarly the guacamole, which is a nice perk to have on a $3.75 torta. I wasn't in love with the bread, which was also very fresh but could have been somewhat toastier, but nevertheless this was an outstanding torta.

The Experience: De Pasada truly is a family affair -- I actually have a little bit of an inside scoop on this, which I'll present at a later time -- and that's reflected in most every aspect of the experience there. The service is warm, inviting, and for lack of a better term, motherly -- on a previous visit, I was commended when I returned by plate to the counter before I left, and told that my mom must have raised me well. Yes, you might have to put up with the fact that the 9-year-old son of the owner has decided to commandeer the TV and hook his XBOX up to it. But for this kind of quality, it's a small price to pay.

La Pasadita [#1] defeats Arturo's Tacos [#8]

2007-10-26T17:01:00.000-05:00

Da-da-da-duhduhduh-dum-dum
Da-da-da-duhduhduh-dum-dum
Da-da-da-duhduhduh-dum-dum ... Wipe Out!.

In one of the most definitive (and least surprising) verdicts in Burrito Bracket history, La Pasadita [review] has defeated Arturo's Tacos [review] to advance to the Final Four. It's final score of 41.5 also ties it with ... itself ... for the highest overall score in the competition to date.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a juggernaut on our hands. The winner of next week's De Pasada - Dona Naty's match-up will do its best to unseat La Pasadita in Round 3.

Arturo's Tacos: Round 2 Review

2007-10-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

#8. Arturo's Tacos
2001 N. Western
Barbacoa Tacos
3 @ $1.80 each + 45¢ sour cream each = $6.75

Defeated #9 Lazo's Tacos in Round 1 [review]

As a rule of thumb, there is an inverse relationship between the size of a restaurant's menu and the quality of its food. Case in point: consider The Cheesecake Factory, which has a menu the size of a phone book, versus Charlie Trotter's, which doesn't really even have a menu at all, but simply dictates to you what you're going to be eating that evening (possibly with substitutions for food allergies -- if they're in a good mood). Even within the realm of fast food, this principle largely holds true. Chains like In-and-Out Burger, Chipotle, and Potbelly Sandwiches focus on small, simple menus featuring well-sourced ingredients. As a result, there are more efficiencies in their food costs, keeping the menu more affordable, and the quality is considerably higher, enough so that even a self-proclaimed food snob like me will find himself eating there once in a while.

Arturo's Tacos has a very large, diner-style menu: the menu literally takes up the entire length of the wall of the establishment. Some things on its menu, things like the milanesa torta, are quite good. Other things on its menu, things like the barbacoa tacos that I ate today, perhaps should not be offered.

The Food: Well, these were certainly good-looking tacos. Arturo's is more cognizant of presentation than perhaps any other restaurant in the bracket save Tecalitlan, and that presentation extends both to its interior decoration and to the food itself. Aligned neatly on the plate, and accompanied by a lime wedge and the streaming sunlight of Armitage Avenue, my tacos were almost self-consciously photogenic --as opposed to La Pasadita's, which might generously be described as "fugly".

Unfortunately, there's no way around it. I have a soft spot for Arturo's Tacos -- I consider it to be a Chicago institution, and it has served up many a good meal to customers in a variety of states of sobriety. But these barbacoa tacos simply weren't any good. As you might infer, the primary problem as with the meat, which was overcooked, stringy, and had a rather unpleasant aftertaste; it seemed like it had been sitting in a vat for awhile. The tortillas were also a little too tough and the sour cream verged on being runny; just not a good experience all around. The salsa was redeemable, at least.

The Experience: On the other hand, good food or bad, at least Arturo's heart is in the right place. The interior of the restaurant is beautiful, with a slightly kitschy, almost grotesque aesthetic that is distinctive without being overdone. The service was extremely prompt -- it might not have been three minutes from the time I ordered my tacos to the time they were sitting in front of me. Although it looks like they've slightly upped the prices on their tacos recently, the operation is certainly endearing enough that it's earned a mulligan on a bad meal here and there. But this was one of those bad meals.

La Pasadita: Round 2 Review

2007-10-26T01:12:00.000-05:00

#1. La Pasadita
1132 N. Ashland
Barbacoa Tacos
3 @ $1.55 each + 50¢ sour cream each = $6.15

Defeated #16 Flash Taco in Round 1 [review]

There once was a time when I was a little bit intimidated by La Pasadita. It wasn’t too hard to get over that, once I realized that their somewhat detached service is a necessity given how many customers they turn over every hour, and that the utilitarian preparation of their tacos and burritos – “yes” to onions and cilantro, “no” to anything else – is not because they forgot to buy grated cheese at the store, but because things taste better that way when you know how to
cook your meat.

Then there was a time that I was convinced that La Pasadita was a one-trick pony. Yes, their carne asada was probably the best in the neighborhood, and possibly the best in Chicago. But what about the rest of their menu? Once I moved closer to La Pasadita, however, enabling – nay, necessitating -- more frequent visits, I came to understand that nearly the entire range of their menu is quality. Tortas, tacos, and burritos were successfully tested; chicken, steak, and pork were obligingly tasted. There were visits to its take-out counter at 1 PM, and visits to its sit-down restaurant at 1 AM; the quality was the same.

La Pasadita’s barbacoa, however, was sort of the black sheep of the family. I had ordered their barbacoa once before, and remembered being a little underimpressed. But that was once and only once, and barbacoa was just one out of a medley of tacos I was having, and I was so hungry on that visit that I barely had the time to process what I was eating. So barbacoa would be a fair challenge for Pasadita -- if La Pasadita was going to stumble, it quite possibly was going to be here.

The Food: But stumble it did not. In fact, the barbacoa might be the best thing on La Pasadita’s menu.

Before we consider that proposition, let me detour a bit to explain my previous history with barbacoa. It is very limited. In fact, save for my one prior experience at La Pasadita, it had been limited to occasional visits to Chipotle, where barbacoa is one of the four primary meats that Chipotle serves on its menu. I always liked Chipotle’s barbacoa reasonably well, but there was something missing; it was a little too processed, too refined. And after this visit to La Pasadita, I discovered what that “something” is: the fat.

Barbacoa is generally made from head meat, quite often cheek meat, which means that in its natural form it’s going to contain quite a bit of fat. At Chipotle, however, the fat is sort of sanitized out. Consider the following, which is the percentage fat content of each of Chipotle’s four meats.

Barbacoa 11.4%

Carnitas 10.7%

Steak 10.7%

Chicken 9.8%

You’ll notice that the ratios for the four products are all about the same. That strikes me as a little unnatural. Meats like barbacoa and carnitas ought not to contain just a little more fat than chicken; they ought to contain a lot more fat. I suspect this is so because Chipotle is trying to keep their calorie counts low for health-conscious consumers, but the thing is, the fat content from the meat is not really where the problem lies. Let’s say that you order a barbacoa fajita burrito at chipotle, accompanied by corn and red tomatillo salsas, cheese, and sour cream. According to chipotlefan.com, that burrito will cost you 1313 calories. How many of those calories are from the barbacoa itself? Only 285; about 80% of the calorie count comes from all those other toppings that Chipotle is piling on. So their approach to cooking is sort of penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Now let’s return to the world of La Pasadita. Their barbacoa is fatty. In fact, it’s wonderfully fatty – rich, tender and succulent. It reminds me of two of my favorite dishes on any menu in Chicago: the short ribs at sola, and the slab bacon at Bluebird. It hits that perfect note of being a little bit indulgent, while still being consumable in large portions. And the thing is, since La Pasadita doesn’t load up its tacos with all the other crap that Chipotle does, I would guess that its calorie count is still much, much lower. Their barbacoa is not something that you’d want to eat every day, exactly, but it’s giving you much better bang on your buck.

I did cheat a little bit by ordering sour cream on my tacos. Actually, this was somewhat unintentional; I asked my waitress for sour cream on one of my tacos as a sort of experiment, but something was lost in translation and it came on all three. Good thing it did, because the sour cream was a natural complement to the zesty meat, and something that I’d recommend highly with this dish. Pasadita also has three kinds of salsa available – the pico de gallo was a little bit off, overly salty and not especially fresh, but both the green and the mysterious black salsas were very good. Finish off with ample helpings of onion and cilantro, and you’ve got a gourmet-quality meal on your hands for barely more than six dollars.

The Experience: For this visit, I went to the “full service” location at 1132 N. Ashland. The largest of Pasadita’s three neighboring storefronts, La Nueva is also the most chaotic, since it has the most comprehensive menu and is also processing considerable take-out business. It helps to know the ropes a little bit. When you’re ready to eat, just sit down – no need to hang out at the counter. And when you’re ready to leave, just head to the counter – no need to hang out at your table, since the waitresses seem to have a magical ability to arrive at the cash register exactly when you do, and remember exactly what you ordered. It’s chaos – but it’s organized chaos. That’s not to say the service is overtly friendly, but it’s as friendly as it needs to be. My only minor complaints really where the mix-up over the sour cream, and the volume of the music, which was turned up loud enough that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to check my voicemail while waiting for my tacos.

Elite Eight Preview

2007-10-22T00:54:00.000-05:00

With apologies to Taqueria Trespasada, and to a lesser extent Carncierias Guanajuato and Taco & Burrito Express, all of which I would recommend to one degree or another, things are going to get much more interesting now that we've advanced into the second round, and weeded out some of the weaker taquerias in our bracket. Following is the world's briefest -- and hopefully only -- preview of my next eight lunch dates.

#1. La Pasadita versus #8 Arturo's Tacos
Barbacoa Tacos

This will be our first and perhaps only venture into barbacoa in the bracket; the secret ingredient was originally supposed to be al pastor, until I realized that La Pasadita did not carry pastor on its menu. It's that barbacoa that throws a little bit of a wild card into this matchup, since it's something that involves careful preparation and a house recipe that can differ significantly from taqueria to taqueria. The two things we can say almost for sure about La Pasadita are that (1) everything on its menu is good; (2) nothing on its menu is as good as its carne asada. How we resolve the tension between those two platitudes is going to go a long way toward determining the outcome here. That is not to say that what Arturo's does is unimportant -- it surprised us once before by turning out a very solid torta in Round 1. But this is still La Pasadaita's match-up to lose.

Vegas Odds: La Pasadita is a 5-1 favorite.

#4. De Pasada versus #12 Dona Naty's Taco
Torta de Milanesa

These restaurants remind me a lot of one another -- both are tremendously friendly family businesses that are overshadowed by flashier neighbors (La Pasadita in De Pasada's case, and Taco Veloz for Dona Naty's). I would not read very much into Dona Naty's #12 seed -- it has already won twice, first in its eat-in match where it delivered pastor tacos that were worthy of our Honor Roll, and then with a chicken burrito in Round 1 that wasn't that far behind. Still, De Pasada is nothing if not consistent, and tortas have not been a particular strength of Dona Naty's on past visits.

Vegas Odds: De Pasada is a 5-2 favorite.

#2. El Taco Veloz versus #10 Picante Taqueria
Al Pastor Burrito

This is probably the biggest mismatch of the second round, at least on paper. Both Veloz and Picante exceeded expectations in the first round -- but for Veloz, those expectations had been very high, whereas for Picante they had been quite low. Veloz also has something of a structural advantage in the non-food categories, and the weather could be a factor -- we'll be into November by the time this match-up occurs, and if God has thrown off the global warming switch and restored Chicago's weather to what it normally should be this time of year, it's not going to be much fun eating at Picante's outdoor patio.

Vegas Odds: El Taco Veloz is a 9-1 favorite.

#3 Tecalitlan versus #6 Irazu
Chicken Tacos

Irazu was unambiguously better in the first round, crushing Lobos al Fresco while Tecalitlan barely skated by Carnicerias Guanajuato. Indeed, Irazu is probably the favorite in spite of its lower seed. But I'm not sure that chicken is going to play to Irazu's strengths, since most of its dishes are either meat- or vegetarian-based. Tecalitlan, meanwhile, as one of the more gringo-friendly restaurants in the bracket, and ought to know how to keep us white boys happy by serving up some good chicken. This is definitely the signature matchup of the second round.

Vegas Odds: Irazu is a 4-3 favorite

Odds to Win Bracket

La Pasadita ............... 2-1
El Taco Veloz ............. 3-1
De Pasada ................. 5-1
Irazu ..................... 6-1
Tecalitlan ............... 10-1
Dona Naty's Taco ......... 20-1
Arturo's Tacos ........... 50-1
Picante Taqueria ........ 100-1

The main changes here are Veloz and Irazu moving upward and Tecalitlan moving downward, based on their respective performances in Round 1. I've also shortened Pasadita's odds slightly after several positive "off-bracket" experiences, but it is by no means a shoo-in. Who do you like? Who are you rooting for?

Irazu [#6] defeats Lobos Al Fresco Tacos [#11]

2007-10-19T05:28:00.000-05:00

Since this result was both relatively clear and relatively predictable, let's keep this as simple as possible: Irazu [review] has defeated Lobos Al Fresco Tacos [review], and advanced to the next round. It also recorded a convincing score of 40, which is enough to register it for our newly-created Honor Roll (see right-hand column, and note that some scores on the Honor Roll have been added retroactively).

Look for a preview of the "Elite Eight" matchups and a bit of dish from an inside source, all to come at some point this weekend.

Lobos Al Fresco Tacos: Round 1 Review

2007-10-19T04:16:00.000-05:00

#11. Lobos Al Fresco Tacos
1732 N. Milwaukee
Carne Asada Burrito
$6.25 (no extras)

This is sort of a bittersweet day for Burrito Bracket, because it marks the end of the first round, and therefore also the last "undiscovered" taqueria in Wicker Park. Destiny is now manifest, every corner of the map has now been filled in, and if I want a new taco joint, I'll have to move to San Francisco -- or at least to Pilsen. Today's entrant, Lobos Al Fresco Tacos, was a particuarly appropriate way to end things, because having opened quite recently, it was one of the few taquerias in the bracket that I'd never tried. And so the sense of discovery was preserved, at least for one more day.

The Food: Generally speaking, Lobos al Fresco causes a bit of cognitive dissonance. It has an upscale name and an upscale menu -- most of its items are full dinner plates priced at $10 to $15, rather than tacos and burritos -- but the interior looks like a renovated burger joint, which is in fact exactly what it is. And it's owned and operated by somebody named Yebel Shlimovitch, which I'm assuming is not a Mexican surname.

The food provokes a similar reaction. My first taste of Lobos was its unique and somewhat wonderful salsa that came with my chips and salsa; a rich orange in color, it had a 'creeper' spiciness that bore the distinct mark of habanero peppers. And when my burrito arrived, my first impression that it was excellent, perhaps even competitive with Irazu's entry from earlier in the week. Accessorized with a nicely-seasoned brown rice and both black and pinto beans, and dribbled with a little bit of that orange salsa, it certainly had its own special character.

Upon further review, however, I found the burrito to be a victory of style over substance. The primary problem was simply with the steak, which as Time Out Chicago's David Tamarkin had warned, was bland and underseasoned. Another problem was the texture: the steak was diced up too thinly, almost producing the character of ground beef, which cheapened what seemed otherwise like a pretty good cut of meat. And eventually, all the rice and beans produced a bit of a carb overload, making the burrito go down heavy. This didn't render the burrito inedible by any means -- I will give Lobos another try. But ultimately I agree with Mr. Tamarkin's conclusion: there's some unrealized potential here.

The Experience: As its name would imply, the real attraction of Lobos Al Fresco is in its small, triangularly-shaped outdoor dining area, which might not overlook the prettiest streetscape in the world, but has to be a nice option on a pleasant summer's day; a little bit too cool for that this time of year, unfortunately. My young server was prompt and friendly, checking in multiple times to see whether I needed refills on my salsa (yes) and cola beverage (no). But the interior of the restaurant is compact, and I overheard a little bit more chatter than I needed to about everything ranging from the previous customer to where they were going to buy their tomatoes.

Irazu: Round 1 Review

2007-10-15T17:32:00.000-05:00

#6. Irazu
1865 N. Milwaukee
Carne Asada Burrito
$5.00 (plus avocado, sour cream @ 50¢ each = $6.00 total)

There are certain days when the Burrito Bracket is a bit of a chore. The grind of mediocre experiences at grungy supermarkets and soulless chain restaurants was beginning to wear on me. But not so today. The first thing I thought when I woke up this morning was "I'm going to go get a big yummy burrito at Irazu".

Irazu, an unpretentious, ramshackle little eatery near the Western Blue Line stop, is one of the worst-kept secrets in Chicago. Its specialty is Costa Rican food rather than Mexican, which explains its relatively low seed (and why I nearly forgot to include it in the competition). However, it does maintain a small menu of "traditional" Mexican fare, including a few items that qualify covertly; its famous Pepito sandwich is for all intents and purposes a torta. And though I'd never tried Irazu's burritos, everything else on its menu has been uniformly excellent. So my expectations were quite high.

The Food: I can understand why my vegetarian friends like Irazu so much. This burrito is bursting at the seams with color -- the lush red of the tomatoes, the tropical green of the avocado, the tapestry of browns from the protein. You just know that the flavor is going to be good, and it does not disappoint. The tomatoes in particular were incredibly ripe and tasty, the avocado was fresh, and the beans were outstanding, with a little bit of sugary sweetness. 90% of the time, it's the meat that makes a burrito. This was that rare exception; it's the veggies and the produce that stand out. I want to know where Irazu does its shopping, because they sure as hell aren't getting those tomatoes at Jewel.

Not that the steak was anything to sneeze at. Irazu serves many varieties of dinner plates centered around steak, and the meat was lean and tender. It was also, to my taste, a little bit underseasoned. Costa Rican food, like most Latin American food, tends to be a significantly milder than Mexican fare, and this might be a relic of that. However, Irazu also takes something of a DIY philosophy: you can add the spice yourself. The salsa, particuarly the verde, is almost pure spice. Eaten with your chips and salsa, it's a little lacking in depth (it's also a little runny). It's a fine compliment, however, to the burrito. Irazu also provides the option of ordering your burrito with roasted hot peppers. I opted in, of course, and these were a nice perk, although there could have been a couple more of them. (Irazu also has several items that prominently feature plantains, which could create some other intriguing permutations. Then again, I'm the sort of person that falls for the sweet-and-savory trick every time, and thinks that pineapple is an excellent pizza topping).

Anyway, we're drifting away from the main point, which is that this burrito works together harmoniously -- it scores well on that mysterious "balance/composition" attribute that we were discussing last week. The only mild complaint is that it does suffer from a little bit of the Chipotle Effect, meaning that the ingredients aren't really mixed together. This frankly makes for more attractive presentation, but it also means that you're going to get some meat-heavy bites and some veggie-heavy bites.

The Experience: My server today, who was sort of a Costa Rican hipster, was awesome. He really seemed to be invested in the quality of the food, and he was helpful and efficient while remaining low-key and out of the way, which can be a hard balance to maintain at those awkward hours when you don't have many customers in your dining area (I was one of just two tables eating in at about 4 PM today). He was also evidently having a little bit of fun with the music, mixing in traditional Latino music with Tutti Frutti. The dining area itself is also fairly pleasant, featuring a large, somewhat hokey mural of a pastoral Costa Rican scene, although it's an old building and on past visits has had some problems with temperature regulation (being either too hot or too cold). Keep in mind when we grade out Irazu later this week that the ratings are particular to this visit and this visit only. Although the service has never been rude, it inevitably loses some ground once the restaurant gets busier, which it usually does by dinner time.

Tecalitlan [#3] defeats Carnicerias Guanajuato [#14]

2007-10-12T13:26:00.000-05:00

This feels kind of lame.

When I started the Burrito Bracket a couple of months ago, I declared the following about the judging criteria:

"[T]he scoring will be determined almost exclusively based on the taste and quality of the food; things like service, "atmosphere" and price will only be used as tiebreakers".

Since then, I've altered my focus a bit, writing extensively about the non-food portions of the burrito experience, and introducing the Burrito Breakdown, which attempts to put things into slightly more scientific context.

The bottom line is that the way I'm striving to evaluate this contest is something like this. A stranger walks up to me on the street. He tells me he wants a burrito. He tells me he's trying to decide between two places, and they're exactly the same distance away. He asks me for a recommendation.

If that stranger walked up to me today on the corner of Division and Wood, and told me that he was trying to decide between Tecalitlan [review] and Carnicerias Guanajuato [review], I'd hesitate for a bit, and tell him to go to Tecalitlan.

Now suppose I knew this person a little better. Suppose this person was a friend of my mom's, who hadn't eaten at a Mexican restaurant apart from Chi-Chi's in the past five years. I'd tell her to go to Tecalitlan without hesitation. Suppose instead that it was my burritophile friend who didn't give a shit about service. I'd tell him to go to Guanajuato. But by the "passerby test"? The reasonable man test? It would be Tecalitlan by a nose. The food might be a little better at Guanajuato, but just not quite enough to outweigh Tecalitlan's other advantages.

I do think, however, that the Burrito Breakdown needs to be brought slightly more into proportion with this subjective sort of judgment. Therefore, I am introducing a new category which slants things slightly more toward the food side. This category is called "Construction/Balance", and it deals with how well the burrito is put together. Maybe all the ingredients themselves are pretty good, but they're not put together in the right proportion? Maybe the way that the burrito is structured, it's inherently going to be pretty messy? Maybe one burrito is more than the sum of its parts and another one is less so? That sort of thing goes into Construction/Balance. And it's sort of an important category here, in that it was something of a problem at Tecalitlan; their burrito was overstuffed with meat, and harder to consume as a result.

Add all that together, and Guanajato gains some ground, but it still loses to Tecalitlan by half a chili pepper, confirming my intuition from the passerby test:

You'll see, by the way, that I've introduced half-chili scores to provide for a bit more discretion in my rating formula. I've also assigned letter grades -- if you're really curious about how these are derived, please see the comments section.

Anyway, Tecalitlan stays alive -- by the thinnest of margins. It's going to have it's work cut out for it if it wants to beat Irazu/Lobos in Round 2.

Carnicerias Guanajuato: Round 1 Review

2007-10-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

#14a. Taqueria Guanajuato @ Carnicerias Guanajuato
1438 N. Ashland
Chorizo Burrito
$3.64 (no extras)

Defeated #14b Carniceria Laura in Eat-in Match [review]

Not to worry. I'm not burned out on burritos. But you have to understand that I sometimes consume "off-bracket" burritos for lunch or dinner on days when there's no competition to resolve in the bracket. Most often these are from La Pasadita, because it's close and open late, or Taco and Burrito Express, because it's even closer and open just as late. The last week or so had featured an unusually high amount of off-bracket consumption, and so I needed to take a couple of days off before I got around to the review of Carnicerias Guanajuato.

In retrospect, I regret that I had the three-day break between reviews, because this has turned out to be the most difficult verdict that we've had yet in the Burrito Bracket. In fact, as of this writing, I'm not really sure how I'm going to resolve it. Eating the burritos on back-to-back would have left my memory a little fresher, and made this easier to decide.

The Food: This was good chorizo. Just the right amount of spice, with no one "signature" flavor but everything staying in very good balance. Similarly, Guanajuato's chorizo had good texture, coarser than the stuff we got at Tecalitlan, which resembled ground beef, but not lumpy like during Taqueria Traspasada's disappointing performance. The burrito also stayed in better balance than Tecalitlan's -- it was still stuffed full of meat, but not so much that you couldn't taste the other ingredients, or that it lost its structural integrity.

Once you get away from the meat, however, there were a few issues. A couple of the tomatoes were a little stale. Guanajuato includes avocadoes in their burritos, which is a nice touch, but they weren't particuarly fresh; I actually mistook them for egg at first (it's fairly common for eggs to be mixed in with chorizo). The tortilla did not have the nice toasty flavor that we got at Tecalitlan, and the salsa was just average. None of these things were enough to undermine the overall burrito experience, but they result in point deductions here and there.

The Experience: Guanajuato had some significant problems with the cleanliness of its seating area last time around, and fortunately those were not really replicated on this visit. There was still a stray bottle of salsa that could have been picked up, and one or two salsa stains on the counter, but it wasn't outside the boundaries of normal taqueria clutter. The service can be a little aloof to an English speaker, but it's also reasonably efficient: there were two orders that were placed at just about the same time as mine, and they all got out pretty quickly with an assist from one of the guys from the carniceria counter.

Still, it was not a match for the service at Tecalitlan, so what we're left to weigh is a small, but material edge in the food category for Guanajuato, against a larger edge in the experience category for Tecalitlan. This is sort of my worst bracket nightmare. If Guanajuato's kitchen had been as messy as it was last time, that would almost certainly have disqualified it. On the other hand, if those veggies in its burrito had been just a little better, that would probably have been enough to overcome any advantage in the service category and propel it into the second round. Instead, it winds up right at that cusp where I'm left to do a lot of thinking about just how to weigh the different factors that go into the burrito experience. I'm going to have to pause to think about this one for a while, and all options are on the table, including potentially an overtime round.

Tecalitlan: Round 1 Review

2007-10-08T18:07:00.000-05:00

#3. Tecalitlan
1814 W. Chicago
Chorizo Burrito
$4.95 (plus 40¢ sour cream = $5.35 total)

Think comfort. As in comfort food in a comfortable environment. I was a little bit reluctant to include Tecalitlan in the bracket at first, on the theory that it just seemed too darn nice. It's the only restaurant we've been to so far where you actually have to wait to be seated, for instance, and the only one where the waiters are dressed in full uniform, including ties. But then I came to my senses and realized that there's nothing wrong with a little extra style -- provided that you aren't paying through the nose for it. You can go all upscale at Tecalitlan if you like, paying for $16 seafood dishes and $6 margaritas ... but you can also order a chorizo burrito for less than $5 and feed yourself for about a week. It's sort of like the heart of a little taqueria trapped within the body of one of those fancy dives on Wells Street.

The Food: When I encounter a burrito as large as the ones that you'll get at Tecalitlan, I've gotten into the habit of cutting it in half. This is partly to increase its photographic value, and partly to make it a little bit less intimidating to consume. When I did this today, I immediately realized that I'd made a mistake: about half the finely-ground chorizo came tumbling out, like candy out of a piñata. Really, though, the mistake might have been ordering a chorizo burrito to begin with. Chorizo is a fine ingredient for tacos, and a fine complement to any number of Latin dishes that run the gambit from breakfast to dessert. As the primary filling in a burrito, however, it tends to create some problems with structural integrity.

So, forgiving the fact that this burrito was a big holy mess that required the use of a knife and fork to consume, it was a pretty tasty affair. Tecalitlan's chorizo has a distinct and attractive flavor, tending toward the sweet side rather than spicy, with tastes of both paprika and cinnamon. It was also sort of mixed together with the refried beans into one continuous whole, which tended to reinforce the sweetness. The quality of the meat itself was decent, but it was perhaps ground up a little too finely to optimize texture. The tortilla was a strength -- thin and just slightly crispy. But the house salsa, a sort of spiced up pico de gallo, while very fresh-tasting and quite a nice complement to the free tortilla chips, was a little bit too weak to do much to augment the stronger flavors of the chorizo.

All in all, it was an above-average burrito that would be easy to mistake for excellent an one under the influence of a few of Tecalitlan's potent margaritas. But I suspect that it's not the best item on their menu, nor does it rank with the 'elite' dishes that we've tried in the competition so far (Traspasada's torta, Dona Naty's al Pastor, and La Pasadita's carne asada are clearly in the elite group; El Taco Veloz's chorizo tacos were close).

The Experience: This is where Tecalitlan really distinguishes itself; you're getting a more professional service experience for no more than you'd pay elsewhere. Particular bonus points go to the complimentary chips, which were perhaps the freshest that we've tried so far. My waiter seemed slightly surprised that I'd left about one-third of my burrito unfinished -- I can't really understand that reaction, since this burrito was easily big enough to satiate two normal-sized adults -- but he offered to wrap the rest of it up for me to go, which is always a nice thing to do.

Tecalitlan's interior is beautiful, atmospheric without being overwrought, the highlight of which is a fresco-style painted ceiling. The seating area is probably more designed for couples and groups than it for lone hungry wolves on their lunch break, but the bar area and the takeout counter represent alternatives, and you'll wind up feeling a little bit spoiled either way.

Carnicerias Guanajuato [#14a] defeats Carniceria Laura [#14b]

2007-10-05T18:25:00.000-05:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is an infographic worth? We'll go ahead and run a breakdown, even though this one was really no contest. All Carncieras Guanajuato [review] had to do to defeat Carniceria Laura [review] was basically to be edible, and it managed to do that.

A couple of notes on the grades you see above:

Close decision between three and four chilis in the Flavor/Seasoning category for Guanajuato. The carnitas were certainly a bit oversalted, but I'm somewhat more inclined to excuse this after our experience today.
I'm awarding Guanajuato zero chilis in the Atmosphere/Decor category because it was not cleanly on this visit. The atmosphere itself isn't inherently all that terrible, with all the zany, colorful displays throughout the supermarket. At Laura, on the other hand, you're really sort of stuffed into the back behind a couple of aisles for cleaning products ... it is decidedly uncomfortable.
I sort of glossed over this in my review, but Guanajuato's tortillas were really quite special, with almost sort of a buckwheat flavor. They were a little different, but in a good way, and their texture was excellent.
The total score of 16 for Carniceria Laura is really quite low. If I went back and applied a rating to Flash Taco and Lazo's Tacos, our worst efforts in the bracket before today, they would probably have received a 19 and an 18 respectively.

Carncierias Guanajuato will have a much tougher foe next week, in the form of #3 seed Tecalitlan.

Carniceria Laura: Eat-in Match Review

2007-10-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

#14b. Carniceria Taqueria y Fruteria Laura
1051 N. Ashland
Carnitas Tacos
3 @ $1.25 each = $3.75 (no extras)

The idea of having a lunch counter at the same place you have a meat counter is pretty darned logical. In Anglo culture, we have our version in the deli. They have a bunch of fresh meats and cheeses. You can either take some home, or you can have them prepare a sandwich right there in front of you! Either way, you're consuming the same high-quality product.

Why is it, then, that the performance of the carncerias-slash-taquerias in the Burrito Bracket has been underwhelming? Carniceria Leon's al Pastor was overpriced and not much better than passable. Carnicerias Guanajuato did have some things to recommend it, but also some things to disrecommend it. So Carniceria Laura, which I "discovered" on a whim a couple of months ago, was sort of carrying the banner for the genre. And to put it bluntly, if this is the alternative, the carnicerias and taquerias probably ought to break up and throw away one another's phone numbers.

The Food: We're going to keep this fairly brief, on the theory that if you can't say anything nice ... I knew from the start that it was going to be a little bit of a challenge to eat these puppies*. They had a somewhat off-putting smell ... the meat wasn't rancid or anything, but it certainly wasn't at its peak of freshness. The seasoning wasn't adequate. I can't believe I'm saying this after Carnciera Guanajuato's sodium bomb, but they really could have used some more salt; if nothing else this might have helped the meat to preserve a little better. Moreover, the pork was dry, overcooked, and tough, and its texture was inconsistent and unattractive (see close-up below). Even the tortillas were a little off, being somewhat too tough in places.

Basically, since I was pretty darned hungry, the strategy was to douse these tacos in salsa and make it through as far as I could, which was about one-and-a-half tacos worth.

The Experience: Carnciera Laura is considerably smaller and less well-trafficked than Carnicerias Guanajuato, and the small taqueria in the back of the establishment was not even staffed when I got there. It took about five minutes for somebody to show up and take my order. So immediately I had the impression that the taqueria was sort of an afterthought for them; its function seemed to be as a place for the leftovers from the butcher counter. The quality of the tacos today did nothing to disconfirm that notion.

Possible that it just had a bad day? This is always a possibility when you eat out. But with La Pasadita, De Pasada, and Taqueria Traspasada all within a two-block walk, there's no reason to roll the dice.

* "Puppies" is used idiomatically in this context. I think.

Carnicerias Guanajuato: Eat-in Match Review

2007-10-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

#14a. Taqueria Guanajuato @ Carnicerias Guanajuato
1438 N. Ashland
Carnitas Tacos
3 @ $1.60 each = $4.80 (no extras)

My friend Jason talks fondly of his quest to find the best torta in Mexico City, one which ended in an odd, overcrowded, triangularly-shaped supermarket that contained a small taqueria stuffed into the back of the store. That's what I think of every time I step into Carncierias Guanajuato. It's like something out of an Anthony Bourdain special on the Travel Channel, full of brightly-colored sigange for products that you've never heard of, stuffed to the rafters with bottles of Jarritos and cans of beans; and featuring a meat counter, fresh produce area, and taqueria all tucked into a store that might have one-fourth the square footage of the Jewel-Osco down the block. You're not at Walmart anymore, Dorothy.

Somebody who had walked into Guanajuato on accident might find the supermarket part pleasant enough, but he would certainly be put off by the kitchen. Think empty bottles of salsa lying limply on the tables, and unbussed baskets piling up, and families of eight holding court in the center of the seating area. Naturally, all of this led to the conclusion that the food must be absolutely spectacular. Más sucio, más autentico!

The Food: Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink, talked about the Coke-Pepsi Paradox. If you have people sip from a urine-cup sized sample of Pepsi and then one of Coke, most people will prefer the Pepsi. But if you ask people whether they prefer Coke to Pepsi, most people say Coke, and Coke outsells Pepsi year after year. The paradox is not resolved by the fact that Coke has superior marketing to Pepsi, or anything like that. Rather, the catch has to do with the way those taste tests are administered -- you're only trying a couple sips of each drink. Pepsi is sweeter, which tends to be more appealing when it first hits your palate. But by the time you're finished with a whole can, that sweetness has become a little saccharine.

I was reminded of this today when eating my carnitas tacos. The first few bites were wonderful. The salsa is spicy, the meat is salty, the onions are sour, the cilantro is bitter, and the torillas have a slightly sweet, mealy character. All of the taste centers on your tongue are stimulated. For that matter so are the ones in your nose, since these tacos have a distinct, but relatively appealing odor that tends to linger on your fingers after the fact.

By the time I was finished with my third taco, however, one of these tastes had prevailed, which is the salt of the carnitas. Carnitas by their nature are salty, and Guanajuato's helpings are generous, so this was perhaps an inevitable problem. Nevertheless, it was a little bit much by the end, especially after I'd encountered a big chunk of fatty pork in my third taco. I'm not saying that Guanajuato's carnitas are to be avoided. On the contrary, the quality of the meat, which must be sourced directly from the deli counter, is quite high. And the first bite is worth a visit unto itself. But rather than getting three carnitas tacos, you're best off mixing-and-matching one of them with two of another variety.

The Experience: As I've intimated, Guanajuato's seating area was flat out dirty at this time of this visit, about 5 in the afternoon. This hasn't been such a problem when I've visited in the past, but the trash must pile up over the course of the day, and it's certainly being created faster than it's being cleaned up. We might need to create a new category for comfort/cleanliness in the Burrito Breakdown. The rest of the service experience wasn't really a plus either. The counter guys seemed distracted, and at different times ran out of change and ran out of salsa bottles, one of which I had to retrieve from an abandoned table. The polite way to put this is that Guanajuato isn't passing along much in the way of overhead costs -- you can get tacos as cheap as $1.00 or tortas as cheap as $1.95. And the food is still quite good on balance. But it's not a taqueria for beginners.

Edit: This post was originally labeled as a "Round 1 review", but in fact it's the last of our three eat-in matches. Guanajuato's opponent this week is another supermarket, Carniceria Laura. The winner of this week's match will face Tecalitlan next week in Round 1 proper.

Burrito Bracket Gets Its First Free Taco (Still Working on Burrito)

2007-10-02T16:16:00.000-05:00

Burrito Bracket has now earned exactly one dollar and sixty cents in advertising revenues, which should be just enough to buy me a taco at Dona Naty's. This next taco is on you, readers!

Picante Taqueria [#10] defeats Chipotle [#7]

2007-09-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

Although Chipotle [review] was not a real threat to win the bracket, its getting upended by Picante Taqueria [review] in Round 1 has to be considered a minor upset. Let's go to the breakdown:

This all boils down to Chipotle's one unpardonable sin, which was using a clunky, overthick, doughy and flavorless flour tortilla for their soft tacos. For a burrito, this might have been fine ... but the rule of thumb in the bracket is that only performance in the round in question counts. Chipotle just did not offer the better experience this time around, even with their structural advantages in the service categories. In fact, the 1-chili margin for Picante somewhat overstates the closeness of this decision.

Thus, Picante Taqueria advances into the second round, where it will have to be at the absolute top of its game to defeat El Taco Veloz.

Picante Taqueria: Round 1 Review

2007-09-26T17:40:00.000-05:00

#10. Picante Taqueria
2016 ½ W. Division
Chicken Tacos
3 @ $1.80 each = $5.40 (no extras)

I thought that Picante Taqueria would make a good pairing for Chipotle, because these are the two restaurants in the bracket that were created more or less unapologetically by white people and for white people. In Picante's case, the denomination seems to be South Side Irish, judging by the accents (Chi-KAA-go) and the fact that you can sometimes buy White Sox tickets with your burritos. Picante even riffs on the fact their clientele is a bit melanin-challenged, by offering something called the "White Boy Tacos" -- a Taco Bell style creation featuring a hardshell tortilla and ground beef. I had to defer on the Whiteys for the time being because today's item is chicken, but surely they'll provide a good nightcap on an evening to be named later.

The Food: Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Picante must know that white boys like their chicken, because they took a lot of care in preparing it. The flavor of the meat is excellent, seasoned with the right amount of salt and pepper and maintaining a strong grilled flavor. The meat also tasted like it must have been marinated in something, because there were some overtones of citrus. It was all white meat too, diced up into presentable little chunks.

The tortillas were also a strong point, especially after Chipotle's grievous error of serving flour tortillas. They had a fair amount of character, with a fresh corn taste and a little but of flakiness to them; the only issue was that they tended to adhere a little bit to the wax paper that the tacos were wrapped in. The green salsa was also above-average, and complimented the chicken particularly well. On the other hand, the garnishes were a little weak. They were fresh enough and everything, but I've gotten used to having my tacos with onions and cilantro, and you had to look hard to find either of those ingredients on these tacos; instead they were loaded up heavy on tomatoes and lettuce.

The Experience: "Is that to go or to go, sir?". Picante's address is 2016 ½ West Division, which tells you everything that you need to know. It's literally a hole in the wall, not even big enough to maintain its own address. As a consequence of this, there is no indoor seating area at all. Instead, there is a set of seven or eight tables outside if you want to go al fresco. In the summertime, this might be considered an asset -- you do get a nice view of Division Avenue -- and on a comfortable, breezy afternoon like today, it was all well and good enough. But God forbid that Picante advances in the bracket, and we have to do another review in November or something. How much to hold this against Picante is hard to say -- the Burrito Bracket is mostly about the food -- but surely it has to result in a deduction of a couple of points.

Picante also has something of a reputation for inefficient service, and I think that's probably a fair characterization. When I got there today, the clerk told me to come back in 10 minutes, because he had just arrived and had to set up the register. He was nice enough about it -- in fact the Picante people are always very sweet -- but this was in the middle of the day and from the standpoint of efficiency, it was certainly not a plus. In addition, the wait times from the kitchen tend to be longer than average, perhaps because the kitchen is as cramped as the rest of the establishment and so it's hard to prepare multiple orders at once. Picante manages to be at once off-putting and endearing.

Chipotle: Round 1 Review

2007-09-25T17:48:00.001-05:00

#7. Chipotle
1733 N. Damen
Chicken Tacos ("Soft Shell")
3 tacos, $5.60 (no extras)

I've probably eaten at Chipotle more often than any other restaurant in my life.

This isn't that remarkable a claim if you stop to think about it. I've had 10 or so different residences in my lifetime, which is enough to rule out any non-chain restaurants. My parents would not take me to McDonald's or Burger King nearly as often as I wanted when I was a kid. Taco Bell surely rates highly on the list -- the Bailey Street and Grand River location served me well in my youth -- but I've hardly eaten there for the past five or six years.

Still, this is an impressive number of meals to have had at Chipotle. I ate there probably an average of 5 times a month in the seven years I spent living in Lakeview and Lincoln Park. That works out to 420 experiences at Chipotle. It got so bad at one point during my Lakeview days that I actually started going to the second- and third-closest Chipotle locations on occasion so that the clerks didn't make some comment about how often I was eating there.

But the thing is that since I moved to Wicker Park I haven't eaten at Chipotle at all. Partly, that's because I'm no longer all that close to one. But mostly it's because there are just many better options for Mexican Food in this neck of the woods. In wide swaths of Lincoln Park and Lakeview, and pretty much the entirety of the Loop, Chipotle is a godsend. In Wicker Park/Bucktown, it's mostly superfluous, although I will say that this link in the chain is located fairly well: there's a region of about 20 square blocks (see map below) in which Chipotle is probably the closest reasonable fast Mexican alternative, Flash Taco explicitly not being a reasonable alternative. If you live in the green shaded area, you may eat at Chipotle without feeling guilty about it. Otherwise, get out and live a little.

The Food: Among the several hundred times that I've eaten at Chipotle, I've never had the "soft" tacos, always opting instead for the hard-shell variety. For this week's competition, however, I went with the soft varietal for purposes of keeping the competition on an apples-to-apples basis. (Picante Taquiera, Chipotle's opponent this week, does serve a hard-shell taco dish that they call the "White Boy Tacos", but they only serve them Taco Bell style with ground beef; no substitutions). I also refrained from getting guacamole ("Guacamole sir is dollar twenty five extra?") but did load up on sour cream, cheese, and both the corn and the red tomatillo salsas, figuring that when in Gringoville, do as the Gringos do, provided that I don't have to pay anything extra for the privilege.

I've confirmed now that keeping it hard is the right way to go at Chipotle, because the tortillas are almost certainly the weakest part of their offering. The central problem is that they're made out of flour rather than corn. Flour tortillas are a necessary evil when you're eating a burrito, since they tend to be a bit more hearty and elastic than their corn brethren, and therefore do a better job of securing the contents inside. For tacos, however, where structural integrity is not such a problem, corn should be de rigueur. Flour tortillas sacrifice a lot of flavor. They also present disadvantages from a textural standpoint, as they tend to be thicker than corn. With a burrito, you don't mind encountering a little bit of resistance as you sink your teeth into the thing. With tacos, you'd prefer something more supple, which means a corn tortilla (or preferably two). And Chipotle's tortillas seem to be particuarly thick and impermeable, failing to soak up any juices, which results in all the flavors sort of keeping to themselves rather than mingling with one another.

Another issue with the soft tacos is that they get the short end of Chipotle's one-size-fits-all pricing scheme. Nobody who has ordered a burrito or fajita from Chipotle can rightly claim that they're ripping people off; the problem is that the tacos are the same price, and contain perhaps 60% as much material. The problem is particuarly acute with the soft tacos; for whatever reason Chipotle treats three soft tacos as equivalent to four hardshell, but the ratio of ingredients:tacos is about the same in either case.

So why have I eaten at Chipotle 420 times? Well, because I know better than to order the soft tacos. But of course Chipotle does a lot of things right. First and foremost is the quality of their meat -- ironic for a restaurant that was once affiliated with McDonald's. Chipotle is quite green in its product sourcing, and that makes a difference in the taste. On occasions, the meat can become dry if left in the vat too long, but Chipotle usually does enough volume that you're getting a fresh batch grilled up for you. And the chicken, which is a weakness at so many mom-and-pop taquerias, is a real strength at Chipotle with its grilled flavor and consistent texture.

The cornucopia of salsas and garnishes is another major plus. Chipotle's salsa doesn't have quite as much sex appeal as what you'll find at De Pasada, but it almost always tastes fresh, and it's nice to be able to mix-and-match the salsas to suit your mood. The only problem really is the irresistible temptation to overload your taco with too many add-ons, as inevitably the ratio of meat to condiments will vary from server to server. Today I did not get enough meat and felt like all I was tasting was lettuce and salsa.

The Experience: Well, it's Chipotle. And that's generally a good thing. The single factor that is most underrated in Chipotle's success is how unbelievably efficient it is in turning out its food. The burrito assembly line moves very quickly. I haven't timed it, but I'd guess that if there isn't a queue, you can be eating your food within about 90 seconds of having walked inside. It's not McDonald's fast -- it's like vending machine fast. This makes a huge difference for someone like me. I tend to procrastinate on lunch until I'm basically starving myself, so once I finally decide to eat, I'm really fucking hungry, and even an extra 60 seconds of time savings is a pretty big deal. Of course, Chipotle has to make some sacrifices to achieve this efficiency -- not having corn tortillas for their tacos, for example. But generally speaking, the trade-off is worth it; there are a million other restaurants you can eat at if you don't like their product offerings.

The service is usually as hospitable as it is efficient, although today was a slight exception. I've gotten to the point where I'm not very self-conscious about taking pictures of my food; it's just not uncommon these days for some scrappy looking kid to be walking around with a digital camera, and the worst case scenario is that you might get branded as a tourist. Nobody has ever said anything when I was taking pictures of their tacos ... until today, when the owner saw me from behind the counter and said "those are some nice looking tacos, bro!". Okay, so he didn't say "bro", but he did say "those are some nice looking tacos!". I don't think the comment was intended to be rude; in fact, I'm pretty well convinced that this dude thinks that his tacos are the bestest-looking tacos in the whole wide world, and was proud that I was taking pictures of them. Still, my attitude is that once I've paid for the food, it's my right to do pretty much whatever I want with it without having to hear any play-by-play.

El Taco Veloz [#2] defeats Taqueria Traspasada [#15]

2007-09-20T15:51:00.001-05:00

At the end of the day, it was fairly obvious how this one was going to go down. Clearly, El Taco Veloz [review] was going to have an edge in terms of atmosphere and experience, but I thought Taqueria Traspasada [review] had a little bit of wiggle room to make up for that with superior food. In fact, however, the chorizo was not a particular specialty at Traspasada, and Veloz was superior in both departments.

In honor of the outstanding experience that Traspasada provided in its eat-in match, however, I am going to introduce a new feature: the Burrito Breakdown. This rates each taqueria from 0 to 5 chili peppers in six categories related to the quality of the food, and from 0 to 3 chili peppers in five categories related to the non-food experience (service, atmosphere, presentation, pricing, etc.) This means that there are a maximum of 30 points available for the food and 15 for everything else, which seems to be about the right ratio.

I am not always going to use the Breakdown. Nor, for that matter, do I necessarily promise to abide by the Breakdown's ruling -- if the final score is within one or two chili peppers, then I'm going to go with what my heart tells me. But, it should help to provide some insight into close decisions.

Overall, a decisive 8-chili margin for Veloz, confirming my initial impression.

Taqueria Traspasada: Round 1 Review

2007-09-20T15:13:00.000-05:00

#15. Taqueria Traspasada No. 2
811 N. Ashland
Chorizo Tacos
3 @ $1.68 each = $5.04 (no extras)

Defeated #15a Taco & Burrito Express in Eat-in Match [verdict]

Our sense of taste is subjective enough that it has an awful lot to do with expectations. If you go to some $30 a plate restaurant, and the food is anything less than spectacularly good, you are probably going to walk away disappointed. If on the other hand you go to some hole-in-the-wall, and the food is merely pretty decent, you're going to be pleased, bragging to your friends about the diamond-in-the-rough that you found. The fact is that the food from the expensive restaurant is still probably better in an absolute sense -- if you were sitting in a conference room and each dish was delivered to you in a paper bag, you would probably prefer the fancy stuff. But it sure as hell doesn't taste like it at the time.

I went into last week's eat-in match knowing nothing about Taqueria Traspasada; I hadn't even been spelling its name right. And it surprised me by turning out a milanesa torta that was one of the best individual items that we've tried in the bracket so far. So this week, naturally, expectations were raised, particularly since one of the reviews over at Yelp hinted that the chorizo tacos were one of the best things on the menu.

The Food: Traspada's chorizo was more typical than the bacon-like meat that we tried at El Taco Veloz. The meat was not ground up as finely -- in places it was a bit lumpy -- and retained more of its natural reddish color. The flavoring was sound, although not particularly spicy, with the dominant flavor probably being garlic. So ... you've probably inferred by now that I was a little bit disappointed. And indeed, these were pretty good tacos, but I was a little bit disappointed. Traspasada does a lot of things well -- their salsa is great, their tortillas are good, their veggies and garnishes (onion and cilantro in this case) are always incredibly fresh. Lots of food for what you're paying. But the quality and texture of the meat were a little bit of a letdown after eating at Veloz on Tuesday, and that's the major point of differentiation here.

The Experience: As before, highly efficient and reasonably friendly, but the seating area hadn't gotten any more comfortable since the last visit. I also noticed that the Mexican dude sitting next to me was brought out a basket of chips while he was waiting for his food whereas I was not, but I'm about 80 percent sure that he must have ordered them; the counter guys aren't particuarly anti-gringo, actually reciting back in English orders that were placed in Spanish.

El Taco Veloz: Round 1 Review

2007-09-18T16:56:00.000-05:00

#2. El Taco Veloz
1745 W. Chicago
Chorizo Tacos
3 @ $1.25 each = $3.75 (no extras)

El Taco Veloz did not become the #2 seed in the Burrito Bracket without a formidable reputation. I'd had only one experience with it in the past -- a drunken, late-night sojourn last winter in which I took advantage of its take-out counter to good results. But from reading the reviews, it seemed like it could capture the best of both worlds: the quality food of La Pasadita and the kitschy experience of Arturo's Tacos. On an unusually slow work day on an unusually warm September afternoon, it was the perfect day to check it out and indulge in some chorizo tacos and a bottle of beer.

The Food: Chorizo is one of my favorite Mexican goodies, but I had a little bit of reluctance about including it in the competition. One problem is that it is generally (although by no means always) made from the fattier, not-so-desirable parts of the pig, thriving more on its aggressive mixture of spices than the inherent quality of the meat. Another problem is that I suspect that at least some of the taquerias in our competition are buying their chorizo pre-ground and pre-spiced, which would tell us little about their ability to cook up a good meal. So my fear was that it would be hard to differentiate a good from a bad chorizo. Did Taco Veloz prove me wrong?

At first, it looked like it might not prove anything. I could not find a chorizo option under tacos on its colorful, but disorganized menu. Fortunately, my waitress didn't bat an eyelash when I simply ignored the menu and ordered three chorizo tacos up.

The distinguishing feature of Veloz's chorizo is that it is ground up quite finely and left on the skillet for some time, producing a burnt umber color rather than the red-orange that you might see at some other taquerias, and a flavor and texture that are reminiscent of good bacon. Although a long way from heart-healthy, the meat appeared to be of a fairly high quality, and was less greasy than you might think. The chorizo was not spiced exceptionally aggressively, and arguably could have used a bit more paprika, but the result was a mature flavor profile with undertones of roasted chestnuts.

The tacos were dressed with the standard accouterments of onion and cilantro; I also took advantage of one of the extra limes that my waitress had brought out with my Corona. (Veloz also offers a garnish of pickled carrots, cauliflower, and peppers, but I passed on that.) The tortillas were quite good with a distinctly strong corn flavor. Both the red and the green salsas were good as well; I liked the red better with my chips and salsa, with its roasted and almost smoky flavor, but the spicier green proved to create better dynamism with the chorizo.

This review has been a little ... clinical, but the bottom line is that these were quite satisfying tacos. On the dirty word scale, they were not worth the prized double expletive "holy fucking shit, these are good" nor probably a single expletive with a modifier ("holy shit"), but were certainly worthy of a solitary "shit" or "damn".

The Experience: We talked last week about the difference between "masculine" and "feminine" taco shops, the former tending to get you in and out quickly while the latter encourages you to take your time. To some extent, El Taco Veloz straddles the line between the two. The food itself is prepared very efficiently (veloz means "fast", after all) and the tacos were absolutely piping hot when they were brought out to me. At the same time, my very hospitable waitress seemed to be intent on getting me to relax, encouraging me to take my time with the menu; rather than bringing me my check when I was finished, she told me that she'd meet me at the counter whenever I was ready to get up and go.

There is quite a bit to keep your eyes busy while you're waiting for your tacos. The interior of the restaurant is dark, even in the middle of the day, but with lots of decoration and a weird, slightly tripped out lighting scheme. The restaurant was about half-full and almost uniformly Mexican, although within that boundary the crowd was fairly ecclectic (Mexican hipsters, Mexican gangstas, blue-collar workers on their lunch break, etc.) The music was good -- peppier and dancier than the standard norteño music. Finally, I'd be remiss not to mention the prices -- just $1.25 per taco, or fully 37% cheaper than "hole in the wall" Carnceria Leon. It's a fun experience, and could prove to be a difference-maker if Taqueria Traspasada puts up a challenge later in the week.

Taqueria Traspasada [#15b] defeats Taco & Burrito Express [#15a]

2007-09-12T19:07:00.000-05:00

Taqueria Traspasada [review] was a clear winner in its eat-in match over Taco & Burrito Express [review].

I feel a little bit bad for Taco & Burrito Express because we picked an item (tortas) that aren't really its strength and also because it faced an opponent in Traspasada that probably shouldn't have been a #15 seed to begin with. Traspasada, you see, I had been consistently misspelling as Traspa-z-ada (with a 'z'), and as a result I had not seen its generally promising reviews. It should probably have been more like a #7 seed. On the other hand, this is a fairly weak part of the bracket -- whoever wins the Chipotle/Picante #7/#10 match-up is pretty close to being a lame duck -- so I don't mind adding some competition. The match-up between Traspasada and El Taco Veloz next week should be very competitive.

Updated Vegas odds are as follows:

La Pasadita ............... 3-1
Tecalitlan ................ 9-2
De Pasada ................. 5-1
El Taco Veloz ............. 8-1
Irazu .................... 10-1
Taqueria Traspasada ...... 16-1
Dona Naty's Taco ......... 18-1
Arturo's Tacos ........... 35-1
Carnicerias Guanajuato ... 40-1
Lobos al Fresco Tacos .... 50-1
Chipotle ................. 50-1
Picante Taqueria ......... 70-1
Carniceria Laura ........ 100-1

Taqueria Traspasada: Eat-in Match Review

2007-09-12T17:29:00.000-05:00

#15b. Taqueria Traspasada No. 2
811 N Ashland
Torta de Milanesa
$4.75 (no extras)

There are basically two kinds of taquerias: those that are run by men, and those that are run by women. Dona Naty's and De Pasada are good examples of the feminine variety. These restaurants generally take slightly longer to prepare your food, and take more care in doing so. The seating areas are more accommodating, you will probably be served chips and salsa, and the decoration in the restaurant will be bright and welcoming. The attitude is that you've come to slow down and eat a good meal. On the other hand, there are those more "masculine" taco shops like La Pasadita and Flash Taco. Here, the watchword is efficiency: they know that your time is valuable and so is theirs. You want to get in, get out, and get on with your life, and get some good tacos in the process. The seating areas are designed to maximize turnover rather than comfort, and the menu is likely to be abbreviated to those dishes that the restaurant can prepare best.

Taqueria Traspasada (which we've been misspelling as Traspazada in some previous references) is decidedly on the masculine side. The entire restaurant is a long, narrow hallway, with a kitchen crammed into the back, and advertisements hawking specials pasted onto the windows. There are rows of benches to sit on, but no tables. The service is friendly enough, but it isn't a place to linger. And tacos are the common currency: at one point, the counter dudes hired a homeless guy to wash their windows, and paid his bonus with an extra steak taco.

For further ruminations on this subject, you'll have to wait until I publish my master's thesis, Gender Roles in La Cocina: A Post-Feminist Anthropology of Small Taquerias on Chicago's Ashland Avenue, which will take place just as soon as I receive my MacArthur grant. In the meantime, the important thing to keep in mind is that either type of taqueria can serve up some pretty good food, as La Pasadita and De Pasada respectively can attest.

The Food: So much of a torta depends upon the bread, and Taqueria Traspasada had the best bread that I've tried so far. Formed into spear-shaped pieces that are crisp, toasty, and slightly flaky on the outside, but still soft enough on the inside to soak up all the torta juices, this bread was just about perfect, and reminiscent of a good croissant. And if you combine good bread with a good house salsa, there's pretty much no way that a torta is going to fail, even if the filling is milanesa de perro. Traspasada's salsa was good too, nice and peppery and bringing out the seasoning in the meat.

And that's really about it. This torta had great bread and great salsa; it wasn't going to fail. As a bonus, it included avocado in addition to sour cream, and the tomatoes were a vibrantly fresh red. The steak itself wasn't fantastic, but it was adequately seasoned.

The Experience: As I've mentioned, Traspasada really isn't a place that's designed for eating in. The interior itself is pleasant enough, with lots of light streaming in through the windows, but if it was more crowded than it was in the late afternoon today, it would be almost too cramped to eat there, and you'd certainly have trouble maintaining a conversation with more than one friend. The counter to this, on the other hand, is that the kitchen prepared my food very quickly, and it didn't take longer than 10 minutes or so to get in and out with my meal.

There is perhaps some room to critique Traspasada's price, which was between 50 and 80c more expensive than the other tortas we've tried. Nor was this torta especially filling, although for someone like me with a relatively small appetite, that is as much a plus as a minus. (It was also a reflection of the light, crispy bread, which didn't weigh the torta down). Really though, I have no trouble at all coming up with a little extra cash for fresh ingredients, especially if avocado comes as part of the standard set-up. Taqueria Traspasada is another diamond in the rough, a clear winner in this week's bracket, and a very dangerous #15 seed.

Taco and Burrito Express: Eat-in Match Review

2007-09-11T16:22:00.000-05:00

#15a. Taco & Burrito Express #3
1547 N. Ashland
Torta de Milanesa
$4.29 (no extras)

Taco & Burrito Express doesn't get much love. There are rarely more than a handful of customers inside. It doesn't even have a listing on Metromix, and it has just one review on Yelp -- mine. My theory is that this has to do with its extremely generic name. Wicker Park is notorious for its dismissal of anything corporate, and "Taco & Burrito Express Inc. #3" sounds like one of those trixie- and-bro- approved taco huts that belongs in Lincoln Park. In fact, there is a "Taco & Burrito Expres" [sic] in Lincoln Park, although given its misspelling of the word "express", it is not clear whether it is part of the same chain or a separate entity trying to avoid a trademark infringement lawsuit.

Nevertheless, I have some affection for this humble looking taco shop on Ashland Avenue. It stays open late, and makes for much better drunk food than Flash Taco. Okay, so it isn't La Pasadita, but the chaotic atmosphere of La Pasadita is sometimes the last thing to need when your stomach has already begun to growl and your head has already begun to throb. For getting in, getting out, and getting full, TBE #3 is a reliable option.

The Food: The Burrito Bracket, of course, isn't really designed to reward safe-but-not-sorry Mexican food. Rather, it's designed to identify uncannily good Mexican food, particuarly from those obscure little taquerias that you might never have discovered on your trips through the neighborhood. As such, although I endorse Taco and Burrito Express #3, I didn't necessarily expect it to outperform its low seed in this format. So how did it fare under critical (and sober) review?

Well, pretty much how I was expecting. This torta graded out at a B-minus or C-plus in almost every respect. The bread was fresh, but could have been crisper, and had become slightly soggy by the end. The breaded steak was adequate and consistently textured, but somewhat underseasoned (TBE's carne asada torta, on the other hand, has tended toward the salty side when I've tried it in the past). The condiments were fresh and well-proportioned, and the beans were tasty, but the salsa lacked a certain zest. Now, there are certain items at TBE that are quite good, particularly anything involving their chorizo, which seems to be a house specialty. But there wasn't much to lift this torta above replacement-level status.

The Experience: If you've gone to Taco & Burrito Express late at night, you've probably encountered an older, motherly-looking woman, whom I overheard being referred to today as La Vieja ("the older one"). La Vieja pretty much kicks ass, making sure that the kitchen is working hard, and that her customers go away feeling welcome and full. La Vieja was not there this afternoon -- instead it looked like her daughter was -- but you could still detect some of her influence; TBE is clean and well-lit and pleasantly if a little quaintly decorated. There is no table service (meaning no free chips-and-salsa), but it's a comfortable place to sit down. The food can take slightly longer than average to prepare, but overall the service is very friendly and a definite plus for this establishment. Whether those bonus points are enough to carry it past the mysterious Taqueria Traspazada, its opponent in this week's eat-in match, we will have to see.

Dona Naty's Taco [#12] defeats Taqueria Super Burrito [#5]

2007-09-08T17:50:00.000-05:00

In what ultimately was a fairly decisive verdict, 12th-seeded Dona Naty's Taco [review] has defeated #5 seed Taqueria Super Burrito [review] to advance to the second round of the competition. Taqueria Super Burrito turned out a very average product, meaning that the round was pretty much Dona Naty's for the taking if it could match the standard that it established in its eat-in match with its tacos al Pastor. And with its wonderfully seasoned chicken, it had little problem doing that. Although Dona Naty's came in with the lower seed, I'm not even certain that this result can be termed an upset.

The bad news for Dona Naty's is that it faces a very difficult match-up next time around. My friend had a mixed opinion of the steak torta that he ordered today, which is the item du jour in its Round 2 match-up against the formidable De Pasada. Dona Naty's has surprised us before, but it's not going to advance to the Final Four without an outstanding effort.

Next week we move over from the Ashland Regional to the Chicago Regional, starting with an eat-in match between Taco & Burrito Express and Taqueria Traspazada for possession of the #15 seed.

Dona Naty's Taco: Round 1 Review

2007-09-08T16:22:00.000-05:00

#12. Dona Naty's Taco
1813 W. Chicago
Chicken Burrito Suizo
$4.50 (no extras)

Defeated #12b Carniceria Leon in Eat-in Match [verdict]

I've been in a state of mind lately that I call the blasés: a sort of self-reinforcing combination of business and laziness that makes me easily distractable and short on productive time. As a result, it has taken until today to make my return visit to Dona Naty's Taco. Waiting until Saturday however has one distinct advantage, which is that I was able to enlist the services of guest eater and photographer Robert Gauldin, who is responsible for the money shots that you see in today's article.

The Food: The idea of Burrito Bracket is to match the items I eat at each restaurant as closely as possible within any given week. Since I ordered a super burrito at the aptly-named Taqueria Super Burrito earlier this week, which came complete with guac and sour cream, I naturally wanted to do the same at Dona Naty's. But in spite of having a fairly broad menu, Dona Naty's does not really have a "super burrito", nor any way to order guacamole and sour cream on the side. Thus, I went with a burrito suizo instead, suizo meaning "swiss" because of the cheese (and green salsa) that sits atop the burrito.

The burrito suizo is not the prettiest thing in the world -- the layer of semi-congealed cheese sitting atop the burrito shouts out "you're going to need a knife and fork, buster". Fortunately, it's what's inside that counts. It's clear that Dona Naty's takes enormous care in the way that it prepares its meats. The chicken was ground up quite finely -- almost moving in the direction of a puree -- and as a result it allowed the exceptional seasoning of the meat to shine through, with its host of spicy and savory flavors. In addition, all of the ingredients (the chicken, plus finely-sliced onions, tomato and lettuce, and a light complement of beans) were blended together into one continuous whole, rather than producing the "layered" effect that you might experience with some other burritos, where one bite is all lettuce and the next is all meat.

There are two real compliments that I can pay to this burrito. Firstly, it was the first dish I've come across that didn't really benefit from salsa -- the subtle combination of flavors were better left to their own devices. And secondly, it proved that a chicken burrito need not be boring. That's not to say that this was a completely flawless experience -- the tortilla was a little doughy, and I came across one chicken bone. But meat that is seasoned and flavored this well does not come about on accident.

The Experience: The service was much friendlier than I'd experienced on my previous visit -- our young waitress made us feel very welcome, even if there was some confusion at the end where we asked for the check and wound up with the toothpick dispenser. The one catch about Dona Naty's is that it can take a fairly long time between the time that you place your order and receive your food. The guys in the kitchen always seem to be working pretty hard, so I trust that this is because Dona Naty's just isn't taking a lot of shortcuts in the preparation of its food. Plus, our waitress gave us a refill on our chips, so it was all good.

Taqueria Super Burrito: Round 1 Review

2007-09-04T16:33:00.001-05:00

#5. Taqueria Super Burrito
1502 N. Western
Super Chicken Burrito
$5.00 (includes avocado and sour cream)

There were seven or eight of our 19 entrants in the Burrito Bracket that I'd never eaten at prior to the start of the competition, but Taqueria Super Burrito is the only one that I have no recollection of even seeing from the outside. There's a pretty good reason for that, which is that it's located on a rather desolate stretch of Western Avenue. Go a bit north, and you'll intersect Milwaukee Ave and all the good stuff that surrounds it, like Arturo's Tacos and the Map Room. Go a bit south, and you'll run into the Empty Bottle and the huge Puerto Rican flag thingy. But in between, there are a lot of auto body shops and abandoned lots and broken fire hydrants, and that is where Taqueria Super Burrito is located.

You'd naturally expect the western fringe of Wicker Park, which borders on largely Hispanic Humboldt Park, to be fairly burrito-rich, but that isn't really the case. For one thing, Humboldt Park is in substantial part Puerto Rican rather than Mexican. For another, Western Ave. is not only the frontier of Wicker Park, but also the de facto boundary of the sort of contiguous white yuppie blob that continues more or less unabated to the lake shore. There might well be some great taquerias as you get deeper into Humboldt Park, but they aren't the sort of places that get reviewed on Yelp or Metromix. So, Taqueria Super Burrito is the closest accessible option for quite a number of blocks.

The Food: This is our first foray into chicken thus far in the bracket, which is at least somewhat intentional. Chicken is generally a low-risk, low-reward option for a burrito filling; it's going to be nice and edible, but it doesn't give the taqueria the chance to strut its stuff as much as something like carne asada or al Pastor. And that seems to be a pretty good description of Taqueria Super Burrito too: low risk, but perhaps not much more than medium reward. This was a very solid, serviceable burrito. All of the ingredients were quite fresh (though the avocado wasn't wonderfully so) and kept in pretty good balance to one another. The chicken was decent, and seemed to contain at least a fair proportion of white meat. The burrito wasn't bland -- it was a good burrito, really -- but probably not anything to go out of your way for.

There were, however, two areas in which Taqueria Super Burrito gets some bonus points. The first is the very spicy red salsa and the fresh chips that come with your dine-in order; although not quite as good as De Pasada's salsa verde, this was maybe the best red salsa that we've encountered so far. The second is that this food is cheap. The super burrito, aptly billed on the menu as "a meal unto itself", comes complete with sour cream, avocado, tomato and lettuce for $5, something which could easily run you $7 or more if you ordered everything a la carte.

The Experience: TSB's edifice is small and a little run-down, but they do their best to spruce it up with a large number of tropical-looking plants lots of free reading material in both English and Spanish; I chose People to catch up on all the latest Brangelina gossip. The service was quick, and neither especially friendly nor especially unfriendly. Like Carniceria Leon, they have bottled Mexican coke, although I suffered through a moment of embarrassment when I couldn't quite figure out how to open my bottle on the bottle opener attached to the cooler, and my glasses wound up falling off in the process. Overall, a solid experience in line with my expectations, but as some readers have observed, Dona Naty's Taco, which looks like it could be the Appalachain State of the Burrito Bracket, retains a pretty good shot at pulling an upset.

Pasada and Pasadita: All in the Familia?

2007-09-03T22:13:00.000-05:00

Reader Brian G. writes:

"I could be wrong, but I've heard that De Pasada and La Pasadita are owned by the same people. Not that this should change anything in the burrito bracket per se, but if you can confirm it, it might give you a useful baseline from which to evaluate the two."

It's an interesting theory, and one that would seem to have some merits on its surface. Pasada and Pasadita are right next to one another, and they share a reputation for sourcing comparatively high-quality meat.

More intriguing, perhaps, is the similarity in their names: pasadita is the diminutive of pasada. What does de pasada mean, by the way? It's not an easy phrase for a gringo like me to translate, but the most likely candidates seem to be "of the past" or "in passing" (as in "he mentioned to me in passing that he was looking for a new job"). It also seems to have a somewhat idiomatic, perhaps even existential meeting: "es agua pasada", for example, is the Spanish equivalent of "water under the bridge". In this context, I read de pasada as basically meaning "the little things of the past" or "from the tradition", with pasadita meaning pretty much the same thing ("the little tradition").

But in fact, there is even more of a potential smoking gun. Both La Pasadita's website (which contains some fascinating diatribes against yuppified Mexican food) and De Pasada's website say that they are owned by a family named Espinoza. Have we proven the case beyond any shadow of a doubt?

I don't think so. For one thing, the restaurants opened in the wrong order. If there were a restaurant called De Pasada, it would be fairly logical for the owners to name the spin-off La Pasadita ("the little Pasada"), particularly if it were more of a downscale, take-out joint. However, La Pasadita opened up in 1976, while De Pasada opened in 1981. There are all sorts of Mexican restaurants that are named after derivatives of "tradition" (this one, for instance), and it's possible that the similar names are just a coincidence.

Similarly, it's possible that the common surnames are just a coincidence. There is generally a great deal of commonality in Mexican last names; 8.5% of Mexicans are named Martínez, for example, while 8.1% are named Rodríguez. Espinoza isn't "Smith" or "Martínez" or "Andersen", but it isn't "Funkhouser" either: there are 191 entries for "Espinoza" in the Chicago white pages, and another 99 for "Espinosa".

Moreover, if the restaurants are owned by the same family, why is there no mention of such on their respective webpages? La Pasadita's website lists the locations of all three La Pasaditas as well as four other "business affiliates", but none of them are De Pasada. De Pasada's website says that the family Espinoza came to Chicago in 1981, at which point La Pasadita was already open. In addition, the respective Espinoza families appear to have hailed from different regions of Mexico. The De Pasada Espinozas come from Nuevo Laredo, a border town near (you guessed it) Laredo, Texas, while the Pasadita Espinozas are from San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.

It's tempting to speculate that there is still some relation. Perhaps the Espinozas are part of the same extended family, for instance. I guess you can conceive of the San Luis Potosi Espinozas calling their cousins in Nuevo Laredo and saying "Hey hombre, business is good here, bro! Why don't you come and open another restaurant right next door to me?". But really this doesn't make any sense. In fact, when De Pasada opened in 1981, the La Pasadita Espinozas were busy with their own plans: that was exactly when they expanded into their second location at 1140 N. Ashland. Can you imagine any worse business plan than trying to open two locations right down the block from one another at the same time (or trying to compete with a restaurant that your cousin was opening)? Not even Starbucks would try that.

It wouldn't completely shock me if there were some relationship between the two restaurants. But the Occam's Razor position is that there isn't.

Where'd the Bracket Go?

2007-09-03T19:23:00.000-05:00

The bracket graphic has been given a makeover and reincarnated as a Google Spreadsheet, complete with hyperlinks. It's also been moved from the sidebar to the bottom of the page, where it has substantially more room to breathe. Everything looks very good in Firefox and relatively good in Internet Explorer -- but if the bracket is not rendering right in your browser, please just send me a note.

As before, you can also check the current status of the bracket by clicking on the navbar link at the top of the page.

Dona Naty's Taco [#12a] defeats Carniceria Leon [#12b]

2007-08-31T00:01:00.000-05:00

We're still waiting on our first really close decision. I got a little sarcastic in my write-up on Dona Naty's Taco [review], but these were some very, very good tacos, right up there with the carne asada burrito at La Pasadita in terms of the best individual dish that we've had so far. Carniceria Leon [review] by contrast was just average.

This was an "eat-in" match, so all that happens now is that Dona Naty's gains sole occupation of the #12 seed and advances into the first round proper, where it will match up against Taqueria Super Burrito next week.

Current Vegas odds to win the entire bracket are as follows. I'm happy to take any action that you want to give me!

La Pasadita ............... 3-1
De Pasada ................. 4-1
Tecalitlan ................ 5-1
El Taco Veloz ............. 6-1
Irazu .................... 10-1
Taqueria Super Burrito ... 20-1
Dona Naty's Taco ......... 25-1
Arturo's Tacos ........... 30-1
Lobos al Fresco Tacos .... 40-1
Chipotle ................. 40-1
Carniceria Guanajuato .... 40-1
Picante Taqueria ......... 60-1
Carniceria Laura ........ 100-1
Taco & Burrito Express .. 100-1
Taqueria Traspazada ..... 100-1

Edit: Tecalitlan odds adjusted downward as bettors take note of its tough potential second round matchup against Irazu/Lobos.

Carniceria Leon: Eat-in Match Review

2007-08-30T17:22:00.000-05:00

#12b. Carniceria y Taqueria Leon
1402 N. Ashland
Tacos al Pastor
3 @ $2.00 each = $6.00 (no extras)

This review is getting out a little later than expected. On Tuesday I had to wait for the Comcast guy to come and fuck my cable up even worse than it was already fucked up, and on Wednesday I had to prepare for a fantasy football draft. Cable television and football are not as important as burritos, but sometimes you have to take time out for the little things.

To be honest, however, I had a few apprehensions about visiting Carniceria Leon. It isn't the most inviting place from the outside, with bars on the windows and signage obscuring the view inside. Carniceria Leon is principally a small supermarket, and there is perhaps some puritanical streak in most Americans that makes them reluctant to consume food on the premises of somewhere where they can also buy the raw ingredients. The deli is one exception to this rule, and a couple of generations ago we had the soda fountain at Woolworth's, but in general this phenomenon is much more common in other cultures.

The Food: None of my apprehensions related to the food. On the contrary, I was expecting some delicious pork, and I thought that the choice of al Pastor probably favored Carniceria Leon from the outset. The first thing you notice when you walk to the back of the market where the lunch counter is located is in fact the al Pastor spit.

This is truly fast food; my taco was prepared almost literally within seconds of my order, accompanied by the usual onions and cilantro. Unfortunately, the results were a little disappointing. The pork was relatively dry, and -- I don't know how to explain this -- very porky tasting, to the point of being slightly gamey. Although the accompanying salsa, a sort of verde-rojo hybrid, was good, the meat was not spiced very aggressively (especially by al Pastor standards), leaving the pork itself to do most of the work. From reading some other accounts, it seems that the quality at Carniceria Leon can differ significantly based on the time of day, and I think I might have caught it at an awkward time (about 4:30 in the afternoon) where the meat wasn't at its freshest.

Two other details. The tacos are also $2 each, which seems to be slightly on the expensive side, but they give you an awfully generous portion of meat; two tacos here are equivalent to three at most other places. Also, Carniceria Leon has bottled, Mexican coke. In the cola bracket, Mexican coke > RC > American coke > Pepsi.

The Experience: If the food was not as good as I was expecting, the experience was perfectly pleasant. The eating area was fairly small, but there were quite a few customers for this time of day, including a couple of families, and you could see the owner walking around the store checking in on everything. The counter guy knew plenty enough English for me to get my order across, and I had no sense of feeling unwelcome.

Carniceria Leon is right down the block from me, and I'll probably give it another chance in a month or two and report on those findings here. For the time being, however, it's about to get eliminated from the bracket.

Dona Naty's Taco: Eat-in Match Review

2007-08-27T18:09:00.000-05:00

#12a. Dona Naty's Taco
1813 W. Chicago
Tacos al Pastor
3 @ $1.49 each = $4.47 (no extras)

Located on a well traveled but unremarkable stretch of Chicago Avenue on which the primary landmarks are burrito joints, Dona Naty’s Taco is in danger of blending into the landscape, the sort of place you’d stumble by on your way back home from Tuman’s Alcohol Abuse Center. El Taco Veloz, our #2 seed, is just down the block from Dona Naty’s, and Tecalitlan, our #3 seed, is just across the street. There is also a pizza restaurant named Naty’s a couple of storefronts down, which presumably has the same ownership.

I have to say it: I understand that Naty is a fairly common shortening of Natalia, and I’m not saying that every little taqueria needs to engage a corporate branding consultant, which would probably come up with some Spanglesh-pharmaceutical portmanteau like Talfresca!. But as far as gringo-friendly marketing goes, Naty’s isn’t much better than Taqueria la Cucaracha or (if you want to expand the horizons a bit) Booger’s Chicken Hut. As we learned last week, however, appearances (and names) can be deceiving in burritoville, and Dona Naty’s al Pastor left a lasting impression.

Food: Yep, that's right. Tacos al Pastor are my brand new toy, and I'm sticking with them for another week. Dona Naty's al Pastor set-up is standard: pork, onions, cilantro, a lime wedge, and double tortillas, which makes for some fairly attractive tacos:

Three things distinguished this al Pastor, and all of them are basically positives:

First, the cut of the meat. Mr. Taco's Restaurant had some real problems in this department, as their slices were all over the board in terms of size and texture. De Pasada was an improvement, with nice, uniform chunks of meat, but they were basically Chipotle-style cubes rather than slices. Dona Naty's finally got it right, with thin, consistent slices of pork. This is particularly important in the case of al Pastor, because it increases the surface area and allows more of the spice mixture to bind to the pork. So while Dona Naty's spice recipe was nothing incredibly special, and while its salsas were less potent than those at De Pasada, their al Pastor got a lot of bang for its buck.
Second, the character of the meat. Namely, there was a fair bit of lean fat on Dona Naty's pork. This is actually a good thing as far as I am concerned: it produces more variety in texture, and if nothing else, leaves no doubt that the meat is literally fresh off the bone, rather than having been over-processed. In fact, when coupled with a spice blend that had some hints of sweetness, it left a little bit of the impression of eating baby back ribs. However there were one or two chunks of meat that were just fat, and therefore inedible, and it made the tacos go down fairly "heavy".
Finally, the onions: they were grilled! This is another huge plus for me; one major reason that I prefer Comiskey Park to Wrigley Field is because of the grilled onions on their polishes. The caramelization also provides another source of natural sweetness, again contributing to the "barbeque" flavor of the dish.

So, these were some very good tacos to my palate, although not something that you'd want to have on a diet. One other thing – Dona Naty’s has RC Cola instead of Coke products, which is sort of the equivalent of getting an e-mail from a long-lost friend. I promptly purchased a 12-pack on my way home.

The Experience: This was a little off-putting. After the waitress saw me sit down and brought me my chips and salsa, she sort of retreated to the back of the restaurant and pointed me out to the counter guy, who came and took my order. It was like she'd discretely pressed the gringo alert button to notify the authorities of a shrimp chimichanga order in progress. I'm sure that her English wasn't much, and my Spanish isn't much, but all I had to do was communicate that I wanted three tacos and a can of cola: how hard could this have been? I also can't say much for the decor -- the tables and chairs appeared to have been purchased from a McDonald's outlet store. It wasn't charming, exactly.

Still, its couple of shortcomings aside -- nobody is going to a taqueria for the modernista furniture -- Dona Naty's makes a mean taco, and would have given De Pasada a run for its money last week. We visit its actual opponent tomorrow, the even more bare-bones Carniciera Leon.

Burrito Burr-ocracy

2007-08-26T16:43:00.000-05:00

This upcoming week features the first of three "eat-in" matches, in this case between Dona Naty's Taco and Carniceria Leon for possession of the #12 seed. The reason for the "eat-in" matches (a takeoff on the "play-in" matches used in the NCAA basketball tournament) is explained in some detail on the WTF/FAQ page (you guys really seem to love these new navigation elements, by the way, based on the traffic patterns that I'm seeing). Basically, we need a way to get down from 19 taquerias to 16.

The format of the eat-in matches will otherwise resemble that which you've grown accustomed to: I'll eat the same item at each restaurant and declare a winner. The winner of the eat-in match will then advance into the first round proper, where it will face off against Taqueria Super Burrito next week.

De Pasada [#4] defeats Mr. Taco's Restaurant [#13]

2007-08-23T18:39:00.000-05:00

No upsets so far. Mr. Taco's Restaurant [review] turned in a fairly solid performance, and is certainly not on my shit list like Flash Taco and Lazo's. But it was really no match for De Pasada [review]. This is all starting to point toward a very interesting Ashland Regional final between De Pasada and La Pasadita.

De Pasada: Round 1 Review

2007-08-23T17:42:00.000-05:00

#4. De Pasada
1108 N. Ashland
Tacos al Pastor
3 @ $1.65 each = $4.95 (no extras)

You had me at tomatillo.

The quality of the salsa is not an absolutely foolproof measure of a taqueria's ultimate quality, but it's a pretty damned powerful leading indicator. In just one bite, you can tell whether the salsa is made from fresh ingredients or has been sitting in a vat for several hours, and whether the chef has a good tongue or is just running through the motions. De Pasada's salsa, which I first experienced about a month ago, is absolutely wonderful -- the roja, yes, but especially the verde. It is an aggressive blend with plenty of character and texture, and you can see from the residue of seeds and tomatillos that De Pasada does not skimp on flavor. It's very much worth the walk down Ashland to try De Pasada, the quieter, younger sister of La Pasadita that sits almost literally in its shadow; even its sign is partially concealed by an overgrowth of trees.

The Food: De Pasada does have tacos al Pastor after all! A quick search of an online menu indicated that the closest substitute was probably barbacoa, but al Pastor is right on the chalkboard, as presumably it has always been.

De Pasada's Pastor follows the same basic formula of Mr. Taco's, the pork accompanied by onion, cilantro, and a double tortilla (it did not feature a lime, as Mr. Taco's did). Each taco is wrapped in its own sheet of wax paper, which is not very photogenic (nor very green) but helps to keep the tacos nice and warm.

Since my central criticism of my last set of tacos was with the quality of its meat, the first thing I did was to gnaw on a chunk of the pork. The difference was recognizable immediately; this pork was nice and tender with subtle hints of smoke, and it was cut into attractive, even-sized pieces. You'd be happy to eat it on its own.

Really, though, that's not how you should be eating al Pastor. Rather, you should be folding the taco into a U-shape and taking a big, aggressive bite, because that way you'll get the spice of the pork to compliment the onions, cilantro, and salsa. My friend has a saying that the hallmark of a good meal is that every bite tastes a little different, and that was sort of the case here; some bites were more mild and others were more potent, depending on the onion-to-cilantro-to-salsa ratio. The spicing on the pork itself was good, though perhaps not quite as nuanced as Mr. Taco's, but taken as a coherent entity, these tacos were real winners.

The Experience: De Pasada has a cheerily-colored interior with perhaps six tables, which are spaced out comfortably rather than bunched together. The service was fast and friendly, and the waitress spoke very good English. The waitress had her 9-year-old son with her (she spoke English to him too), and it's evident that this place is family-run and takes a lot of pride in what it does; they're really deserving of your business.

It's Raining Carnicerias

2007-08-23T16:42:00.001-05:00

Shit. I was afraid that would happen.

A helpful poster in the Mr. Taco's thread advised me that I ought to check out the al Pastor at Carniceria Leon, located at 1402 N. Ashland. I had no idea that this place existed, even though it's within a 90-second walk from my apartment. I'm sure that I'd passed it before, but perhaps I'd assumed that it was some kind of spin-off of Carniceria Guanajuato, the formidable Mexican supermarket just up the block.

So I went out in the rain and ... well, Carnicera Leon is there. It isn't much to look at, but it's there, and it serves carnitas and al Pastor but not chicken, which makes it kind of bad-ass. So we have little choice but to include it in our bracket, where it will move into an "eat-in" match with Dona Naty's Taco for possession of the #12 seed.

Mr. Taco's Restaurant: Round 1 Review

2007-08-21T23:45:00.000-05:00

#13. Mr. Taco's Restaurant
810 N. Marshfield
Tacos al Pastor
3 @ $1.60 each = $4.80 (no extras)

(Note: De Pasada is closed on Tuesdays, so we'll break convention and review the underdog first.)

Variations on "Mr. Taco" have to be among the most common names of Mexican restaurants in the United States, the equivalent of a Chinese restaurant calling itself "Peking Express" or an Indian restaurant "Ghandi". There used to be a "Mr. Taco" where I grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, a small chain which was sort of a ghettoized version of Taco Bell; its only customers were stoners and a few misguided vegans in search of bean burritos, and it closed several years ago. The Chicago version of "Mr. Taco" is noteworthy for the unique use of the possessive case in its name. It isn't "Mr. Tacos' Restaurant", which would seem to imply a restaurant owned by a dude who sold tacos, but rather "Mr. Taco's Restaurant", which would seem to imply a restaurant owned by a giant taco. Well, that's how I read it at least.

You probably wouldn't stumble across Mr. Taco's if you weren't meaning to; I first came upon it rather on accident when my friend was looking for a Currency Exchange to renew his parking stickers. Although just steps away from the busy Chicago/Ashland intersection, it's tucked out of view on residential Marshfield Ave., and its dreary storefront doesn't do much to pique one's curiosity. Nevertheless, it has some reasonably good food to offer.

The Food: Because of the careful preparation they require, tacos al Pastor are not particuarly easy to find on Chicago menus. (Mr. Taco's round 1 opponent, the relatively authentic De Pasada, does not in fact offer them, and so we will have to make the rather liberal substitution of tacos de barbacoa.) As such, this was one of my first experiences with al Pastor, but I think I'm a convert: it has more potential to wow the palate than other "mystery meat" variants like barbacoa and chorizo.

Mr. Taco's version of al Pastor is rich with flavor and visually attractive (not quite done justice to in the picture you see above). Accompanied by fresh onion, cilantro, a wedge of lime, and two deliciously soft tortillas, the sliced pork is a vibrant hue of orange, making for a dramatic accompaniment to the red tablecloth (and a dramatic contrast to pretty much everything else in the restaurant). The flavor itself might also be described as vibrant, especially when accompanied by the relatively potent squeeze-bottle salsa. There are several different flavors going on here, but the best analogy is probably to a good enchilada sauce, with hints of roasted spices and chilis.

The problem -- and it's a major one -- is that the spice is making up for meat of dubious quality. The pork had little taste and no moisture, and the slices lacked a consistent texture, but erred on the side of being too thick. I'm not even sure that Mr. Taco's has a spit, which could explain the problems. In fact, I was somewhat reminded of the apocryphal story of the spice trade being important in ancient times because spices could be used to cover up the taste of spoiled meat. I am not in any way suggesting that Mr. Taco's falls short of health code standards (far from it judging by the freshness of the onions and cilantro), but what they have is a good recipe being applied to poor product.

The Experience: Mr. Taco's has a decently sized but somewhat chaotic-looking open kitchen behind its front counter space, and there were four women busily working within it, peeling onions as they took turns taking orders and busing tables. This portion of the neighborhood is relatively rough-and-tumble, but the restaurant was busier than you might guess from the outside, with a series of Hispanic locals that tended to linger at their tables. We also had a couple of homeless people that came in asking for change, but they were quickly shooed away when it became clear they weren't planning to order anything. Al Pastor translates as "shepherd-style", and all of this tended to entrench the notion of home-prepared "peasant food".

With a few improvements in the quality of its meat, Mr. Taco's would qualify as something of a darkhorse, but based on this experience it remains the underdog to De Pasada, which we'll review on Thursday.

The Burrito Spectrum

2007-08-20T18:39:00.000-05:00

The idea of taking some kind of protein and sticking it within some kind of carbohydrate wrapping is not new. On the contrary, it has to be one of the oldest and most universal innovations in culinary history. Virtually all culinary traditions employ some version of it, from the burrito to the panini, from the double cheeseburger to the Bánh mì, from the the doner kabob to moo shoo pork. It is not a productive use of one's time to worry about which of these "sandwiches" are authentic and which were imported from somewhere else, since the whole richness of culinary history lies in its tendency to borrow and fuse ideas from as many sources as possible. The "sandwich" (you'll see in a moment why I'm using those quotation marks) serves some basic functions: it's quick and easy to prepare, portable, and relatively nutritious. For a cuisine not to have some form of the "sandwich" is like a language not having a word for "mother".

I was thinking about this recently while snacking on a "Beachin' Buffalo Chicken" burrito from Burrito Beach (a necessary evil; I was stuck in the Union Station food court waiting for my train to depart to Wisconsin). This burrito consists of "spicy buffalo chicken, fat-free black beans, white rice, crisp romaine lettuce, diced tomatoes, and blue cheese dressing". In other words, it doesn't contain any of the ingredients that you'd find in a carne asada burrito ordered at La Pasadita, save of course for the tortilla itself.

So is it the tortilla that makes a burrito? Not really, because we have the problematic category of the "wrap", which can take any filling that can be diced into bite-sized chunks. For that matter, we also have the taco. At restaurants like La Pasadita, the default fillings in a taco and a burrito are exactly the same, and of course both make prominent use of the tortilla. It might be tempting to forge a distinction between the taco and burrito based on their size, whether they remain open or closed, and whether the tortilla is cooked or grilled along with the ingredients, but all of these are problematic, as there are many exceptions to the rules. At many times and places the terms have been used interchangeably, particularly early in the development of the burrito.

Indeed, it is folly to try and determine where the burrito ends and the wrap begins. Instead we have to acknowledge some kind of spectrum, like the one that I have outlined below.
The spectrum has some degree of directionality to it. For example, as you move rightward from taco to "traditional" (La Pasadita-style) burrito to Cal-Mex/San Francisco/Mission-style burrito the size of the tortilla increases, and the list of ingredients generally becomes larger and more diverse. But what is fascinating is that all of these concepts have been invented and re-invented many times over, and that the influence always works in at least two directions. Is the wrap an evolved sandwich or an devolved burrito? (Most people would say "devolved sandwich or evolved burrito", but you know where my biases lie). What do we do with something like the torta, which contains "burrito-like" ingredients but not a tortilla, and predates the modern burrito in its origin?

A Massachusetts judge ruled last November that a burrito is not a sandwich; the case arose because Panera Bread Company owned exclusive rights to sell "sandwiches" in a certain shopping mall, and claimed that Qdoba Mexican Grill had intruded into its territory. The linchpin of the judge's ruling was that a burrito consists of one tortilla and a sandwich two pieces of bread. I'm sure you can think of all the same problems with this definition that I can, although I have some sympathy for Qdoba's position, as they were the defendants in the case and the common usage definition of sandwich probably involves Wonder Bread and tuna fish. Nevertheless, we're left to pick and choose our conclusion:

A burrito might or might not be a sandwich, but a sandwich is definitely not a burrito.
As Rick Bayless has put it, the burrito is the original fusion cuisine.
This whole post has been the equivalent of talking with food in one's mouth.

Fancy, Shmancy

2007-08-15T16:17:00.000-05:00

We're getting pretty into the design side of things here at Burrito Bracket, and I hope you like the new look. Thanks to Robert G. for designing the brilliant new logo that appears at the top of the page. This is the place for any comments, complaints, suggestions, or HTML hacking tips.

Arturo's Tacos [#8] defeats Lazo's Tacos [#9]

2007-08-14T16:48:00.000-05:00

If you follow college hoops at all, you'll know that matchups between the 8 and 9 seeds are supposed to be scrappy fights to the finish, but this one was over from the first bite. Arturo's Tacos [review] advances to the second round to face La Pasadita, while Lazo's Tacos [review] is consigned to the dustbin of burrito obscurity.

Lazo's Tacos: Round 1 Review

2007-08-14T15:09:00.000-05:00

#9. Lazo's Tacos
2009 N. Western
Torta de Milanesa
$3.95 (no extras)

Having been to Arturo's Tacos but never to Lazo's, I had assumed that they were two peas from the same pod. Perhaps not identical twins, exactly, but at least two brothers with a solid sibling rivalry. Indeed, there are some surface similarities. Each has a liquor license, and stays open 24 hours to cater to hungry, hungry hipsters. They have broadly similar -- and similarly broad -- menus. And Lazo's and Arturo's are literally right next door to one another. But that's really where the similarities end: Lazo's and Arturo's are little more than estranged step-cousins that happen to occupy the same block.

The Food: Brought out almost suspiciously fast by my waitress, this was a bland torta that managed to be less than the sum of its parts. The bread was incrementally fresher than that from Arturo's, and the steak patty was a little thicker, but the overall result was undermined in a number of ways. Most noticeably, the tomatoes were not very fresh, a problem made more acute by Lazo's decision to use whole tomato slices, rather than dice them into chunks. The guacamole and table-side salsa appeared to have been store-bought, while the meat itself was overdone, giving it a tough, stringy quality. By all tastes and appearances, it was a torta prepared without much care or concern.

The Experience: Abjectly depressing. Lazo's has a very large seating area, perhaps 75 tables strong, including several TVs, a bar, and a performance area for bands. I'm sure it can get hopping on Saturday nights. But today the space was all but abandoned (just me and a couple of businessmen having a long, two-Tecate lunch), and there was none of the warmth that can be found at Arturo's. The interior was dimly lit and sparsely decorated, with ceiling tiles and ugly faux-stone walls, and the tables were scrunched together into an undifferentiated mass. The overall effect was like that of a 80s-style rec room built for children that had long since gone to college:

Based on the Yelp reviews, Lazo's is also supposed to have some issues with indifferent service. That was not a particular problem today -- my order was taken quickly, and the food came very quickly, although it took a long time to procure my check, as it did at Arturo's. Nevertheless, there was the sense that they were going through the motions until the nighttime crowd rolled in.

By the end of my lunch, I had developed a distinct dislike for this restaurant. In fact, I can't think of a single reason to go to Lazo's when Arturo's is right next door. We'll log the verdict and update the brackets shortly.

Arturo's Tacos: Round 1 Review

2007-08-13T17:54:00.000-05:00

#8. Arturo's Tacos
2001 N. Western
Torta de Milanesa
$3.95 (no extras)

Situated just across from the Blue Line at the busy Milwaukee- Armitage-Western intersection and the de facto boundary of Bucktown and Logan Square, Arturo's is a neighborhood institution that means different things to different folks. Not quite properly described as a diner, it is a take-out joint for some and a family destination for others, a place to linger into the wee hours of the morning with a Negro Modelo or to get in and out quickly with a good meal. If this all sounds a wee bit romantic -- well, it's hard not to be when you're enjoying a good late afternoon torta on a beautiful late summer's day.

The Food: Ah, the torta. Sometimes regarded as the red-headed stepchild of a Mexican menu by those who can't fathom Mexican cooking without a tortilla -- there are no tortas at Taco Bell or Chipotle -- it often surpasses the burrito as the signature dish of an authentic taqueria. If you've never tried a torta, just take one look at the picture below to see what you've been missing. Almost literally bursting at the seams with its breaded steak, Arturo's torta makes quite a strong first visual impression.

This torta was distinguished by its proportionality and texture. The bread was appropriately thin and had just the right about of crispness to it. The steak had been crushed to the point where it was wafer-thin -- at one point, I heard the distinct sound of a piece of beef being beaten into submission in the cocina. And the sandwich was dressed up with just about the right amount of sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, and tomato.

Still, there are room for a few nitpicks. The torta was a bit undersalted, and I say this as someone with a fairly salt-averse palate. It could have used a slightly more generous layer of beans. And although it neared textural perfection, the bread was not quite boulangerie fresh.

Overall a fulfilling (and very filling) A-minus/B-plus effort.

The Experience: The clientèle was more diverse than the Burger King Kids Club, and almost perfectly reflected its surrounding neighborhood: roughly forty percent English-speaking and sixty percent Spanish-speaking, and a mixture of hipsters and yuppies and families. Service was extremely prompt upon sitting down but less so after the food had arrived, which is perhaps typical of this sort of establishment. Arturo's has a relaxed and easy-going vibe, accentuated by the large amount of sunlight streaming in from the windows on two sides of the building, and a high ceiling painted to look like the sky, complete with images of clouds and seagulls (or were they doves?). All in all, the sort of place that makes you want to indulge and have an afternoon beer; I regret not having one today.

La Pasadita [#1] defeats Flash Taco [#16]

2007-08-07T19:34:00.000-05:00

I wasn't really expecting this one to be close, but I was surprised at how not close it was. The nearest Flash Taco [review] came to pulling an upset was in my stomach [ba-dump-bump-CHING!].

La Pasadita [review] advances to the second round.

Flash Taco: Round 1 Review

2007-08-07T18:01:00.000-05:00

#16. Flash Taco
1570 N Damen
Steak Burrito Grande
$5.25 (no extras)

I used to love me some Flash Taco. I'd go so far as to say that it provided some extra incentive to go out to Wicker Park, knowing that my night would culminate in a drunken plate of Enchiladas Flash. Then one day about two years ago, I had a late morning meeting around the corner on Milwaukee Avenue. And I ate Flash Taco ... completely sober.

The Food: Well, it's not like they're cheating anyone:

That's a BlackBerry 8700c you see in the background, which is a pretty wide, clunky-looking phone. You could probably fit about twenty of them in a grande burrito. This is more food than any normal human could eat in one sitting; it's pretty gratuitous, really.

The faint praise ends there. This was a sloppily-prepared, rather tasteless concoction, especially when compared to La Pasadita's entry from yesterday. The steak (they're modest enough not to call it "carne asada") was tough and rather salty-tasting; a couple of pieces weren't even edible. The refried beans and veggies just seemed to weigh the plate down. And both the green and the red salsas were lackluster. I do rather like Flash Taco's tortillas, which are left on the grill for a little bit and sink in some of that flavor, but a tortilla does not a burrito make. I finished about 60% of the thing before giving up.

The Experience: I was just about the only customer in the restaurant at 5 PM today, and the first thing I noticed was the loud, contemporary, sort of Spanglesh techno music playing, which was like something straight out of a Mexico City gay discotheque. It's funny, because my stock memory of Flash Taco involves traditional Mexican country; perhaps they turn that music on late at night when the gringos come in, but play gringo music when they think nobody is watching.

I don't mean to poke too much fun. The service has always been both efficient and reasonably polite, which is no small feat when they're serving lines of drunken barhoppers that can snake around the corner onto Damen Ave. They have a cool mural above the counter (partially visible in the picture above) and are probably the only taqueria in the city limits to boast a flat-screen television. The people-watching is always outstanding; even when the restaurant is empty, you have a perfect view of the Six Corners intersection.

I've had some arguments with friends about whether Flash Taco used to be better, or we simply remembered it that way in the afterglow of an evening out. Either way, I really can't recommend it until your BAC reaches a certain level. The Enchiladas Flash become satisfying after two or three drinks; for the more traditional fare on the menu, we're talking at least a six-pack.

Tecalitlan

2007-08-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

I couldn't get to sleep last night. Perhaps it was stress over the big meeting that I have at the end of this week, or Obama's declining poll numbers, or problems with my apartment's air conditioning. But just as likely, I think it was guilt over failing to include Tecalitlan in the Burrito Bracket.

My original rationale for not including Tecalitlan was that it was "too much of a sit-down restaurant". But that's a pretty flimsy argument. No fewer than four restaurants in the bracket are "sit-down" places that feature table service.

Too expensive? That argument doesn't fly, either. Although Tecalitlan does have some specialty items like enchiladas and fajitas that cost a little bit more, it also has burritos available for $5 -- exactly what I paid at La Pasadita yesterday -- as well as tortas for $3.50, and tacos for $1.75. Nor are these throwaway items: they offer no fewer than 11 different varieties of burriots, ranging from juevo to cauliflower.

I really don't have a leg to stand on. Tecalitlan is a lot closer in spirit to Lazo's or Arturo's than it is to say, Caoba, which is clearly a different genus of Mexican restaurant. It's frequently mentioned in conjunction with phrases like "great cheap Mexican food", and it's not fair to punish it simply because it also happens to have some delicious enchiladas on its menu, or serve up a mean margarita.

So one last series of changes to our bracket before this competition really gets rolling:

Tecalitlan moves into the #3 seed.
Chipotle, which was seeded way too high at #3, gets bumped down to #7.
Picante Taqueria moves from #7 to #10, leaving the Arturo's-Lazo's confrontation intact, and setting up a Chipotle-Picante gringo grudge match.
The #10-#12 seeds all move down one notch.
The original #13 seed, Taqueria Traspazada, moves into a "play-in" game with Taco & Burrito Express for the 15th seed.

Got all that? You don't have to -- just look at the bracket.

Another Late Entrant

2007-08-06T16:43:00.000-05:00

While on a recognizance mission today I discovered Carniceria y Taqueria Laura on 1051 N. Ashland. Although primarily a supermarket, I went inside and confirmed that it does in fact contain a small taqueria with a few tables. I can't possibly exclude it; one of the aims of the burrito bracket is to pit well-known destinations against mom-and-pop establishments. Besides, it has "taqueria" in its name!

Therefore, we need to improvise a bit, and the natural thing to do is to pit it off in a play-in game against Supermercado Guanajuato up the block, which is also a traditional supermarket with a built-in taco shop. These taquerias have been designated #14a and #14b respectively; the winner will assume the 14 seed proper and face off against corporate monolith Chipotle. This whole area of the bracket has become "non-traditional" involving two supermarkets, the only major chain in the competition, and a Costa Rican restaurant; should all be very interesting. The bracket and map have been updated accordingly.

La Pasadita: Round 1 Review

2007-08-06T14:25:00.000-05:00

#1. La Pasadita
1140 N Ashland
Carne Asada Burrito
$5.00 (no extras)

La Pasadita has quite a reputation among chow-hounds and burritophiles, but it might do a little bit of a number on the uninitiated. In fact, on my first visit a couple of years ago, it did a number on me too. This visit had come after a very long morning: my laptop had completely broken down, and I had located a repair shop on Ashland Avenue. After taking the Division bus eight blocks too far westbound (I had juxtaposed Ashland and Western in my mind -- perhaps the result of a hangover), I finally located the repair shop, only to be told that the laptop's motherboard was damaged and that I might as well buy a new machine. Seeking some comfort food, I found my way into La Pasadita and ordered a carne asada burrito. It was reasonably good, but my Chipolte-damaged palate was looking for something different: a Mission-style burrito full of cheese, beans, guacamole, and every other accoutrement that you can think of. Instead, La Pasadita's burritos are of a different breed, something which probably had its roots in the street vendors of northern Mexico rather than the kitchens of San Francisco.

The Food: That's right: La Pasadita's burritos do not contain beans. They do not contain cheese. They do not contain sour cream, and certainly not guacamole. They do not contain tomatoes. In fact, you cannot even order most of these things on the side; tomatoes and sour cream, available for 50c each, are the lone exceptions. The standard ingredients in the burrito are onion, cilantro, and your choice of meat; that is all. (Note: this applies only to the 1140 N. Ashland location, which is where I ate today. The 1132 N. Ashland location next door includes a significantly wider menu as well as table service).

So this is a burrito for which the meat very much has to speak for itself. And fortunately, it does. La Pasadita's steak is cut into thin slices and grilled on a skillet to order. The charcoal flavor really shines through, and while the meat probably wouldn't be served at David Burke's Primehouse, its quality is well above par for taqueria standards. The meat does contain a little bit of lean fat (just the perfect amount to my tastes, actually). On the other hand, because of the preparation method involved, the burrito is distinctly not greasy, and it goes down easily before and after.

The onions and cilantro are fresh-tasting, and that's about all they really need to be to complement the meat. Similarly, the green salsa is reasonably potent, but not overpowering even in relatively heavy doses; the grilled steak retains the dominant position in the flavor bouquet. Because of its simplicity, the burrito is decidely more impressive in the first three bites than the last three, but the portion size is just right, so that's not a major concern.

The Experience: There are actually three La Pasaditas located essentially right next door to one another: the two that I've mentioned, plus a third location on 1141 N. Ashland which serves as more of a takeout joint. I would recommend the 1140 N. Ashland location if you're after a quick bite, but to reiterate its menu is very minimal: just five different kinds of fillings (which I believe are carne asada, lengua, pork al pastor, veggie, and chile relleno; chicken is NOT among them) and two different "vessels" (tacos and burritos). You'll have to head south a few steps if you want to try another permutation.

Whichever location I've been to, La Pasadita has always done a brisk business at just about any time of day or night, and this afternoon was no exception. There were perhaps 25 or 30 customers that cycled through the restaurant in the 20 minutes or so that I was there. I was one of just two gringos among them; although that ratio has been higher on past visits, this speaks to the fact that this is a real, functioning taqueria, and not just some landing spot for drunken hipsters (hey, it takes one to know one).

The counter girl was a little sassy in a way that's a tiny bit reminiscent of The Wiener's Circle, but not rude by any means. There is a very ample seating area, and one of the line cooks will bring your food out to you. Turnaround time is not instantaneous, but remember -- they don't keep their steak sitting around in a vat, and you don't want them to. Overall, my (lofty) expectations were met, and it's going to be a tough act for Flash Taco to follow.

RIP Taco Cafe? (Hello, Irazu?)

2007-08-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

I moved to Wicker Park on the 1st of July. Ever since then, the corridor of North Avenue that hosts Taco Cafe has been a boulevard of burrito broken dreams. Taco Cafe, you see, has been closed.

Teased by promises of "philly tacos" and veggie chili at 5 in the morning, I assumed that was a temporary state of affairs. My pet theory was that the owner lived in Pilsen and celebrated a little too much on the Fourth of July. Having been in the neighborhood for the occasion to witness fireworks displays intense enough to scare Michael Ware, I could understand if he needed a couple of days off.

But alas, it's a month later, and Taco Cafe remains closed, the only sign of its existence a hastily-written sign that reads: "We Will Be Closed ~ Thank's Taco Cafe" [sic].

There were other clues, too, that something wasn't quite right with Taco Cafe. The storefront isn't blighted exactly, but the windows are dirty and the interior is dusty. Moreover, there are a conspicuous lack of recent reviews on the foodie sites that I frequent. The most recent Yelp review is from July, 2006. No Metromix reviews since May 2006. There is a CitySearch review dated 11/23/2006, but that's still more than eight months out of date, and for all I know the reviewer could been writing up an experience that she'd had months earlier. This was all very strange; this is a relatively gringo-ized and well-regarded Mexican restaurant located at a major intersection, and one that stays open until 5 AM. You'd expect to see more than, oh -- zero reviews since last Thanksgiving.

Finally, I came across this: The Re-Open Taco Cafe Petition, which noted that "The Taco Cafe located @ 1608 W North Ave has been closed for several weeks". (There were some hints in the petition that its closure was due to health code violations). Based on some detective work I did on AltaVista, I determined that this petition had first been posted no later than July, 2006, which is right about when the reviews slowed to a halt. Therefore, I think we can conclude that Taco Cafe has been closed for at least a year, and probably closer to 13 or 14 months.

It looks like we need a replacement for Taco Cafe's #6 seed in our bracket. My friend Jessi, who may be writing some guest entries on veggie burritos later on, insisted on Irazu, which is well within our boundaries on Milwaukee Avenue. I resisted at first. I have nothing against Irazu; on the contrary, I regard it as one of the better "cheap eats" restaurants in the entire city (hell, one of the better restaurants PERIOD). But it primarily bills itself as Costa Rican rather than Mexican.

Jessi pointed out that Irazu does have burritos on its menu. It also has tacos, and sandwiches like the Pepito that aren't called tortas, but serve as the functional equivalent. So there is a sufficient variety of "Mexican" fare to qualify it for our competition. Moreover, Jessi pointed out, if my sole criterion was places that were authentically "Mexican", I'd have to wipe out at least two-thirds of my bracket before the first burrito was consumed.

And so, Irazu is in, but with the following qualification: I will only consider its "Mexican" items (burritos, tacos, and sandwiches/tortas) for the purposes of this competition, but not its variety of Costa Rican fare. As such, a #6 seed seems about right for Irazu. It would surely be seeded within the top three overall, and perhaps as high as #1, if it had its whole menu at its disposal, but we're forcing it to operate with one hand tied behind its back. Still, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the best cheap "Mexican" restaurant in Wicker Park turns out not to be a Mexican restaurant at all.

Oh, and if Taco Cafe rises from the dead before the first round concludes, we will find some way to include it, probably by means of a play-in game.

Ground Rules

2007-08-04T18:21:00.000-05:00

The ground rules are relatively simple. I have set up a playoff bracket of 16 taquerias, all of which are within walking/biking distance of my apartment. Each week, I will consume some tasty Mexican food staple from each taqueria, and determine which one is better. Pretty simple, huh?

This is not a literal side-to-side taste test. As much as I love burritos, I'm not about to eat two of them in one sitting. But I will eat the same item from each restaurant. Week 1's item, for example, is carne asada burritos. So I'll get a carne asada burrito from La Pasadita (the #1 seed) on Tuesday, and a carne asada burrito (the #16 seed) from Flash Taco on Wednesday -- something like that.

Items will be consumed on the premises; burritos can lose a lot of their gusto even from a simple 5-minute walk back to the apartment. However, the scoring will be determined almost exclusively based on the taste and quality of the food; things like service, "atmosphere" and price will only be used as tiebreakers. You don't go to a taqueria for white-tablecloth dining.

I'm going to do my best to judge the items based on exactly how they were prepared that day. Taquerias are notoriously inconsistent, which is exactly the point of doing a multi-round competition; whichever restaurant wins is going to have to have turned out a good product for several sittings in a row. In addition, I'm going to make sure that I mix up the kinds of items, and the kind of meat, that I sample from each taqueria. If I have a carne asada burrito from La Pasadita in Round 1, and it wins its bracket and proceeds to Round 2, then the next time around I'll have some item other than a burrito, and some kind of meat other than steak. The only exception is in the final, where I will sample a "signature dish" from each taqueria, perhaps something that I've tried before and perhaps something that I haven't.

The taquerias are seeded based roughly on their yelp ratings, although the seeding committee has been known to rig the brackets to create better match-ups, such as the epic Week 2 clash between next-door neighbors Lazo's Tacos and Arturo's Tacos, which is the taqueria equivalent of Duke-UNC or Yankees-Red Sox.

[1] La Pasadita 1141 N Ashland
[2] El Taco Veloz 1745 W Chicago
[3] Chipotle 1733 N Damen
[4] De Pasada 1108 N Ashland
[5] Taqueria Super Burrito 1502 N Western
[6] Taco Cafe 1608 W North
[7] Picante Taqueria 2016 W Divsion
[8] Arturo's Tacos 2001 N Western
[9] Lazo's Tacos 2009 N Western
[10] Lobos Al Fresco Tacos 1732 N Milwaukee
[11] Dona Naty's Taco 1813 W Chicago
[12] Mr Taco's Restaurant 810 N Mashfield
[13] Taquereia Traspazada 811 N Ashland
[14] Supermercado Guanajuato 1438 N Ashland
[15] Taco & Burrito Express #3 1547 N Ashland
[16] Flash Taco 1570 N Damen

You can see the bracket (and my crappy graphic design skills) at any time by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

You might be asking: what exactly makes a taqueria a taqueria, and where exactly is Wicker Park? The Platonic image of a taqueria probably involves counter service rather than waiter service. You stand in line, place your order, pay the cashier, and have a delicious burrito in your hands five minutes later. However, many of these restaurants straddle the line between counter and waiter service, and some like La Pasadita actually offer both. So I haven't been completely strict about this about this criteria. On the other hand, a restaurant like Tecalitlan (which is excellent, by the way) is probably too much of a "sit down" place to qualify as a taqueria. Broadly speaking, any place that you'd take your mom to isn't eligible for this competition.

There is no official definition of what constitutes Wicker Park (technically speaking, Wicker Park is one of several neighbrohoods in Chicago's West Town community area).
However roughly speaking the boundaries that I'm working within are those that I can plausibly walk to. That constitutes Western Avenue to the west, Chicago Avenue to the south, Armitage Ave. to the North, and the Expressway to the East. This includes portions of what might be called Bucktown, Noble Square, Ukrainian Village, and Humboldt Park, as well as Wicker Park. I haven't left any restaurants out, at least not intentionally. In fact, pretty much every taqueria within these boundaries should be included. Actually, I'm concerned that at least one of them (Taco Cafe) is no longer open, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it; there is a contingency plan in place.

That should more than cover all our bases. Tune in next week for the clash between Flash Taco and the heavily-favored La Pasadita.

A Man with a Mission

2007-08-04T17:28:00.001-05:00

Here are some facts.

I like burritos and other cheap Mexican food.
I work from home, am too lazy to cook, and therefore eat out for lunch several times a week.
I recently moved to a neighborhood -- Chicago's Wicker Park -- that features an abundance of good, cheap Mexican food.
Did I mention that I like burritos?
Mmm, burritos.

Put these things together, and you'll see that my mission is obvious: a 15-week quest to find the best taqueria in Wicker Park.

FAQ (Revised 8/28)

2007-07-01T05:17:00.000-05:00

WTF is the Burrito Bracket?

The Burrito Bracket is a competition to determine the best food and overall experience from among 19 cheap Mexican restaurants in Chicago's Wicker Park and surrounding neighborhoods. Each week, I will be visiting two restaurants and having the same item of food (carne asada burritos, for example) at each one. The restaurant that provides the superior experience advances to the next round of the bracket.

Why isn't Taqueria So-and-So Included in the Competition? I had a really great burrito there.

Probably because it isn't close enough for me to walk to. I do not claim that these are the best taquerias in the city of Chicago; rather, I'm trying to visit every taqueria within a reasonable walking distance, and see which of that subset is best.

Why are there 19 restaurants instead of some logical number like 16? What is up with these "eat-in" matches?

There originally were supposed to be 16 taquerias, which is a symmetrical number from the standpoint of a 4-round, elimination style competition. However based on feedback from friends and readers, as well as my travels around my neighborhood, I discovered that I'd excluded several restaurants on account of ignorance that would otherwise be qualified for the competition. Since the idea was to be as comprehensive as possible, these were added at a later date. This required some of the lower-seeded restaurants to engage in "eat-in" matches (essentially a zeroth/preliminary round) to reduce the size of the bracket from 19 to 16 restaurants.

Do you eat the burritos at the same time, like in a "taste test"?

No, but I try to go to them on consecutive days of the week, and I take notes on my experiences. It isn't a perfect method, but I believe it's the best available alternative for a number of reasons.

How is the particular item of food selected each week?

The most basic requirement is that the item is common to both restaurants that we are sampling. A lot of the more gringo-ized restaurants don't have something like pork al Pastor on the menu, for example, whereas at the other extreme, a couple of the carnicerias don't offer chicken (the only completely common ground seems to be steak/carne asada). A secondary requirement is that we try and vary the items at a given taqueria between different rounds of the competition in order test quality across its entire menu. So if for example I have a carne asada burrito at La Pasadita in Round 1, I will have some kind of meat other than steak (chicken or pork) and some kind of 'vessel' other than a burrito (tacos or a torta) if La Pasadita advances to Round 2.

As long as I stay within these parameters, then pretty much anything goes, but there are fewer degrees of freedom than you might think.

Why aren't any veggie burritos represented?

I like my meat, so mostly I'm just trying to keep my tummy happy (I probably eat lighter on average for dinner than for lunch, for what that's worth). I would also argue that you can learn the most about a taqueria based on the quality of its meat-based products, since there are more things that can go wrong in preparing them.

I may eventually have some guest bloggers working on a separate mini-bracket on veggie burritos.

Why are you doing this?

For fun. I eat a lot of Mexican food as it is, so all I'm really doing is organizing my lunch plans twice a week. It also gives me an excuse to goof around in a number of areas (food criticism, photography, web design) that I've always been curious about but haven't had a good reason to engage in.

Are there plans for another bracket-style competition once Burrito Bracket has concluded?

Not really, although I've considered the possibility of doing a 'Super Burrito Bracket' involving all of Chicago. It will mostly depend on how much enthusiasm I can maintain for Burrito Bracket by the time it concludes in December or January, and to a lesser extent, how many people are tuning in. Less likely, I'd branch out into other foods like sushi, pizza, burgers, or Midwestern microbrews. However, all of these things would make you fat, broke, or drunk if you ate them for lunch twice a week.

Burrito Bracket looks crappy in my browser.

Contact me at the e-mail address listed on the sidebar, but before you do that, get Firefox.