Las Carnitas Uruapan
Mexican restaurant · South Lawndale ·
Michoacán-style carnitas, tacos dorados, mezcal cocktails
Michoacán-style carnitas, tacos dorados, mezcal cocktails
"This Little Village restaurant is the third location of one of our favorite Mexican spots. They have slow-cooked pork, tacos dorados, and other Carnitas Uruapan classics—but it’s their first spot to have mezcal cocktails and beer. We haven’t been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists." - John Ringor
"After years of searching for a flagship location in the heart of La Villita, the father-and-son team of Inocencio and Marcos Carbajal have launched the next chapter in their restaurant’s 50-year history in a former concert venue for Mexican grupera acts, transforming a three-story 1920s-era art deco building (the former La Concordia) into an artful, spacious dining room that ownership hopes will remind visitors of home. The new space opened Monday, January 27, and—unlike the other two locations—adds cocktails and beer, with a beverage program by cantinero Luis “Luigi” Estrada (who has created bar menus at notable Mexican restaurants Tzuco and Kie Gol Lane). Estrada and Marcos Carbajal worked on draft cocktails that emphasize regional Mexican spirits like mezcal and charanda from Michoacán, using ingredients “that even an abuelita or tia can relate to,” says Estrada; the beverages also include micheladas and a lineup of Mexican beers, including a collaboration with Mexican American–owned Casa Humilde Cerveceria, which recently relocated to suburban Forest Park. For Marcos Carbajal, the second‑generation restaurateur whose father built the stalwart emporium for crispy golden carnitas, crunchy chicharrones, and craveable tacos dorados in Pilsen, expanding into Little Village feels like a full‑circle moment: “[Little Village] feels very much like a place where I’m at home, it’s almost like stepping back in time, it feels very familiar, with street vendors, you hear Spanish everywhere, it’s just kind of a throwback vibe for us,” says Carbajal. Designer Aida Napoles of AGN Design (who, according to Carbajal, grew up around the corner from the restaurant) created a culturally resonant interior: the backs of the booths use the same textile as a rebozo, chairs and banquettes are accentuated with ostrich leather frequently used for cowboy boots, walls are lined with custom-cut slabs of terracotta, and the dining room floor is hand-painted with a stencil pattern reminiscent of designs found on the patios of old homes in Mexico. A 40-foot exterior sign now proclaims La Villita, the dining room seats 150 with a corner patio for 50 and a private-events room, and there is parking across the street on two lots purchased by Carbajal; the upper levels are being renovated into apartments to bring in additional revenue. The building had been vacant for 15 years (with eight inches of standing water in the basement) when Carbajal purchased the property in 2021, and work has been done to restore the decaying façade and reuse materials that offer an homage to Mexican culture. The food menu at the new location remains the same as the family’s established offerings; the business was founded by Inocencio “El Guero” Carbajal in 1975 after he immigrated in 1969, drawing on a recipe he learned from his grandfather and an uncle who ran a carnicería in Uruapan in the 1940s and ’50s to deliver “a real taste of Michoacán.” Carbajal has focused expansion on neighborhoods where the Mexican community has migrated (a 2019 location opened in Gage Park), and he notes: “When people actually visit from Mexico, they’re impressed how it’s, you know, it’s a real taste of Michoacán. It’s because we have a direct line, a great direct lineage that goes back to Michoacán.” Open hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday–Thursday; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends." - Serena Maria Daniels
"As the name says, this Edgewater cafe specializes in cookies — seven varieties, including maple bacon, gluten-free double chocolate, and oatmeal cherry." - Naomi Waxman
"When chef Brad Newman opened his new location on Broadway, he created two spaces in one: first a cafe serving tacos, pizza, and cookies, and then a more formal sit-down restaurant and bar offering more substantial entrees like cioppino, flank steak, and cassoulet. And also tacos. Both operations use the same ingredients sourced from local farmers markets, a recognition of where Newman got his start." - Aimee Levitt
"Set to open its third and largest restaurant on a long-vacant corner in Little Village, Carnitas Uruapan is undertaking a “gargantuan” renovation of the three-floor outpost at 3801 W. 26th Street that second-generation owner Marcos Carbajal estimates will take about 10 months to a year. Founded by his father, Inocencio, in 1975 in Pilsen and known for drawing long lines of dedicated fans seeking succulent pork by the pound, the operation already runs a second location in Gage Park. The new space will have roughly 6,000 square feet on each floor plus an extra-wide sidewalk for outdoor seating, and — for the first time at Carnitas Uruapan — a liquor license to serve agave spirits, rum, beer, a very limited menu of tequilas and mezcals, Mexican beers and micheladas. Carbajal plans to introduce charanda, a sugarcane-based spirit from his family’s hometown of Uruapan that is rarely seen in Chicago restaurants, but he emphasizes keeping the place family friendly (there will be no bar) so people can still bring their kids on a Sunday morning. The rehabilitation of the 1920s-era building, formerly La Concordia and once a party-friendly music venue in the 1980s–2000s, is being aided by $250,000 from the city’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, and the project is scheduled to open in 2022; “We’ve been serving up the Best Authentic Carnitas in Chicago since 1975!”" - Naomi Waxman
