Xoco

On Friday night we had tickets to a musical in downtown Chicago therefore we couldn't go to a traditional sit down restaurant because there wouldn't have been enough time.  We chose to go to Xoco, a more casual quick service Mexican restaurant run by Rick Bayless.  The address is 449 N Clark Street, but you actually enter around the corner off of Illinois street.  It is right next to Rick Bayless's 2 other restaurants - Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. This is actually the second time we have been to this restaurant - the first time we went was over a year ago right before seeing another musical (do you sense a theme?).

Pepito Torta

Xoco offers quicker Mexican food - mostly tortas (sandwiches) and caldos (soups).  We ordered 2 tortas, drinks and dessert.
    The first torta was called "Pepito"; it had braised shortribs, caramelized onion, artisan Jack cheese, black beans and pickled jalapeno.  It was very tasty - the short ribs were tender and not chewy and all of the other ingredients paired nicely together. The meat to bread ratio was just right.

Fresh Orange Pineapple 

The second torta was called "Cochinita Pibil"; it had suckling pig, black beans, pickled onion, and habanero (which is specifically off to the side otherwise it would have been too spicy).  We didn't enjoy this one as much, maybe because it didn't have any cheese.  Actually it would have been better with a little more of the pig.

Cochinita Pibil Torta

We had our tortas served with fresh Orange Pineapple juice which was very refreshing and reminded us of the Tropics.

For dessert we had 3 freshly made hot churros with sugar and cinnamon.  These were accompanied by Almendrado hot chocolate - basically hot chocolate with almond milk.  Mexican hot chocolate isn't very sweet so we used the sugar that was coming off the churros to sweeten it a little. We also dipped our churros in the hot chocolate to get all the flavors at once.  It reminded Natalie of a her Spanish language textbook from elementary school which had the fanciful name "Churros Y Chocolate".
We enjoyed our first experience at Xoco a little better than this second experience. This second time we definitely liked the short ribs torta better than the suckling pig one - where the first time we liked both our tortas equally.  We don't remember which ones we ate back then.

 Churros and Hot Chocolate

The food at Xoco is a littler pricier than other more casual type restaurants but you are probably paying for it being affiliated with Rick Bayless. We plan to go to Frontera Grill in a few months and have already made reservations - we hear it that you have to book weeks/months in advance so we're being really safe.


Final thoughts on Xoco:
Food - tasty but overall for tortas sandwiches we prefer Cemitas Puebla
Service - You order your food at a counter and then are seated and your food is delivered to you.  Since we also ordered churros (dessert), it was nice that they waited until we were done with our tortas before serving the churros so they could be fresh and still warm.  The only thing that is delivered to your table is the food you order.  If you want water, you need to get it yourself at the counter.
Atmosphere - the seating is either at bar like counters or communal tables.  We got a communal table with other people at it.  So this is not the place for a private conversation, but Xoco has a fun casual vibe.