First it was Jorge Soler. Back when he played right field for the Cubs, he really liked the churrasco plate at Cuba 312. Soler told Javier Baez and Willson Contreras and Pedro Strop, and before long all sorts of Latin American players and coaches started hanging out at Billy and Jamie Alvarez’s Roscoe Village restaurant. Then they discovered the couple’s first restaurant, Taste of Cuba, in Lincolnwood, which served a more traditional, homier menu. That was until the couple shut it down and reopened in Irving Park in February, in a narrow space formerly home to a succession of taquerias and hot dog stands (including a satellite of the once-ascendant La Pasadita empire).
Time and the freezer are often the enemies of Chicago’s native gluten-free sandwich too. But Alvarez treats Mima’s jibarito similarly: freshly fried crisp planks of plantain, drizzled in garlic mojo, bedding the usual set of ornaments (mayo, tomato, lettuce, cheese) with a choice of steak, chicken, lechon, or shrimp, and bringing it back home with a Cuban version with ham, pork, swiss, mustard, and pickles.
2925 W. Irving Park Rd. 773-654-3075facebook.com/mimastasteofcuba
