“Patacones” aka tostones with garlic oil
Pureed black beans
Homemade hot sauce is really hot
Seasonal veggies of the day
Hor-cafe… iced coffee blended with horchata
Oatmeal shakes
The best vegetarian burrito of all time… And when I mentioned this in a review on yelp, the owner took the time to personally write me a letter of thanks. Twenty years as the only Costa Rican restaurant in Chicago.
Thank you Irazu!

In 1910, the freight train route along Bloomingdale Ave. was raised to ease congestion in compliance with a 1893 order by City Council to elevate all train tracks in Chicago. A little more than eighty years later the last locomotive lumbered over the Northwest neighborhoods at eight miles an hour. In 1992, Chicago artist Dzine, along with other artists and students, painted a Puerto Rican flag behind three clenched fists bearing the message “Knowledge is Power” on the railway’s Western Ave. facing wall in Wild Style graffiti. The community recognized the opportunity to create a linear park / multi-use path and Canadian Pacific Railway offered the tracks to the city of Chicago for one dollar… The Bloomingdale Trail.

Etta’s dad, Glenn, talked to me about how to buy property. The best way to go about it, he said, is to buy cheap in a “bad” neighborhood. The gamble is that with time, the neighborhood will get cleaned up, and the value of the property will rise. “The abandoned elevated train tracks that run west from Ashland Avenue along Bloomingdale… acts as a sort of unofficial boundary between the longstanding, predominantly Puerto Rican Humboldt Park neighborhood to the south, and the newly sprung, condo-riddled West Bucktown to the north. To some residents, the crumbling, thickly overgrown viaduct represents an eyesore and traffic obstacle. To some homeless folks, it’s a perfect place to set up camp. To some renegade urban explorers, it’s a fascinating if less than legal playground. And to some local artists and community groups, it’s a blank canvas.” Kathryn Rosenfeld, “Mural Majority,” Chicago Journal

The Jersey Shore, Season 2 is beginning to get really good… or maybe I am delirious from starting the new episode at 4am.

Snooki’s face seemed to change, a whole different look, after she hooked up with Vinny. “It’s like a watermelon in a pinhole.”

The Situation left his hookup in the smoosh room while he heated up a plate of food…

“How you feeling, you good? You straight? All right that’s good. So um, I got a taxi for you baby. As soon as you get dressed and stuff. It’s all set up. I set up everything for you. You straight. You good. Aww. You straight? All right baby. Get dressed, and I’ll walk you out.”