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

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

#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

#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]

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

#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

#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]

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

#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

#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]

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

#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

#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?

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?

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]

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.