For Jaime Sotelo and his Chile Toreado restaurant, the second time was the charm.
The owner of the McKinley Park neighborhood restaurant at 2022 W. 35th St., Chicago, failed in his first try last year to win a Chicago Recovery Plan community development grant to rehab the front of his popular Mexican restaurant.
But on Sotelo's second attempt, he scaled back a bit on the scope of his project and recently won the grant to add a canopy over his sidewalk dining patio and improved air conditioning inside.
Unrelenting Summer Sun
Jamie Sotelo squints against the sun in front of his Chile Toreado restaurant.The city grant will cover about $50,900 of the $68,000 project cost.
Sotelo said he is excited about winning and anxious to complete the project in time for the outdoor dining season. Since Chile Toreado is located on the north side of West 35th Street, it absorbs the heat of unrelenting summer sun, and the patio and interior of the restaurant sometimes get very hot. The canopy and beefed up air conditioning unit will make dining more pleasant on hot days, Sotelo said.
Ups and Downs
“We are now in the planning stages with the architect and general contractor,” he said. "Of course we want to complete this as fast as possible.”
Chili Toreado has had its ups and downs, Sotelo said, since first opening on Jan. 31, 2020: just a few weeks before the State of Illinois shut down restaurants and other businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Sotelo and his whole family have “worked very hard,” he said, to create and sustain a restaurant that is a go-to place for authentic Mexican dining in McKinley Park.
Just Four Things
Family has always been an important part of Sotelo’s life: He recalls living a happy but tough life in Guerrero, Mexico, with his four brothers and parents.
Jamie Sotelo cooks a dish at his McKinley Park neighborhood restaurant Chile Toreado.“We mostly ate just four things, morning, noon and night — rice, beans, tortillas and chiles toreado,“ Sotelo said. This directly inspired the name of his restaurant.
The toreado peppers are extra hot because as they are being warmed in a skillet, rolled back and forth, breaking up the veins inside and making the pepper extra spicy, Sotelo said. You can use jalapeño or serrano peppers for chile toreado, he said.
Enjoy the Patio
Sotelo has lived with his family in McKinley Park for more than 20 years. “I have seen many changes, in a good way,” he said. There are great new businesses and more diversity now in the neighborhood, he added, something that's also a feature of the restaurant's dynamic menu.
Later this year, patrons can enjoy the results of the grant win on the patio and inside, Sotelo said.
Photos and Video by Kevin O'Neil
Log In to comment on this item.
Subscribe
Report
My comments