(Baja) California Dreaming in Chicago
The only thing missing at Diego is the beach
When I think of Baja California, I think of pristine seafood recently pulled from the Pacific, served-up in ceviches, cocteles and crispy fish tacos, enjoyed at a beachside stand under a brilliant blue sky.
At Diego, Chef Stephen Sandoval’s gastronomic love letter to the coastal towns of Ensenada, Rosarito and Puerto Nuevo, you can experience all of the above, short of the ocean breeze.
This is a particularly impressive feat when you consider Diego’s location in land-locked Chicago, some 1700-odd miles away.
It all begins with the space. Aida Napoles and her team at AGN Design did a bang-up job of converting this former West Town gas and service station, which subsequently hosted a slew of mediocre barstaurants (most recently G&O Tavern), into an environment pulsing with energy.
Painted in vivid white and yellow and emblazoned with graffiti-style illustrations, the building shouts at passersby: “this is where the party’s happening!”
You’ll want to join the party on the patio, strung with colorful papel picado (decorative cut paper) and adorned with lush plants. Though I must admit the interior—with its sherbet-hued walls and vibrant floor suggestive of Yucatán’s pasta tile patterns—won’t be a bad place to post-up during Chicago’s interminable winter. (Baja) California dreaming, indeed.
Diego’s cocktails transport you to the beach. As my tongue rolled over the jammy fruit rim of the salty sherry and agave-based fresco, I felt like a kid licking popsicle drips off her chin after a dip in the sea. I can’t wait to try the wanga tanga (frozen piña colada) and raw oyster-crowned michelada on my next visit.
I plan to visit again very soon. The kitchen’s winning combination of freshly-sourced ingredients, flawless execution and bold innovation perfectly captures the essence of northern Baja’s lively street food scene.
The first dish out, the taco gobernador, originally hails from Sinaloa State across the Sea of Cortez from Baja, but it’s no surprise the people of the peninsula embraced this outrageous cheesy shrimp creation as their own—it’s downright delicious.
I’ve already waxed poetic about my favorite cheese preparation, the costra, wherein a pile of shredded cheese is placed directly on the griddle and cooked until a crust forms. At Diego, the costra is so crispy it shatters when you bite into it, revealing a puddle of oozing cheese studded with marinated shrimp, sauteed onions and poblanos. Topped with luscious crema, pickled onions, thinly-sliced avocado and cilantro, this is everything I want in a taco.
I interrupt your regularly-scheduled programming for an important public service announcement:
Whoever says dairy and seafood do not go together—I’m talking to all the Italian chefs out there—is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Ok, back to your regularly-scheduled programming…
I thought I had already experienced the best part of the meal when the tacos dorados, aka golden tacos, aka crispy potato tacos, appeared.
I love potato tacos in every form, from oil-slicked tacos de canasta (basket tacos) filled with homestyle mashed potatoes to the tacos dorados showered in shredded lettuce and crumbled cheese at popular Mexico City cantina La Faena.
At Diego, the culinary team elevates this seemingly simple pairing of starch on starch to new heights, resulting in a show-stopping dish that dazzles with its presentation and flavor.
Their version has the characteristic bronzed tortilla shell but also boasts chunked potatoes seared to an irresistible caramel finish. Embellished with a zippy tomatillo-based salsa cruda strewn with cubes of perfectly-ripe avocado and overlaid with zigzags of crema, this is arguably the best thing I’ve eaten all year.
The mixta tostada was another winner. I can’t remember the last time I tasted such meaty and tender octopus and sweet shrimp this far from the ocean. The tomato-based dressing was delicate and bright and the chopped vegetables seemed like they had just been plucked from the garden.
What really knocked my sandals off was the inclusion of a thin layer of sashimi-grade tuna atop spicy mayo at the tostada’s base. The intermingling of raw and cooked seafood, creamy mayo and tangy cocktail sauce on a crunchy tortilla was stunning.
As we were swooning, our server stopped by to mention there was a special tostada on the menu. She had a sheepish look as she revealed it was topped with macaroni salad. As someone who loves carbs on carbs (see above), I didn’t even bat an eyelash. I was in.
The macaroni was perfectly al dente; it would make a Neapolitan nonna proud. Doused in fiery chipotle-spiked mayo, layered with morsels of cooked shrimp and showered in Tajín, the pasta salad was fiercely-Mexican, flamboyant and fun.
The cherry on top of this outstanding meal was the pescado taco. We laughed when it arrived at our table: burnt orange in complexion with a comically large splotch of crema, it resembled someone who squeezed an entire bottle of sunblock over their body in desperation after spending too much time in the sun.
The batter splintered on contact, launching a big chunk out of my mouth and onto the table. Inside: a succulent piece of piping hot cod. The corn tortilla instantly disintegrated and the purple cabbage plopped out the side, but this taco was so satisfying it didn’t matter.
Dazed at the end of an unbelievably satisfying meal, I delighted in the low-key patio vibes: couples, friends and young families in summer chic attire, all enjoying a leisurely afternoon.
Diego may refer to itself as a dive bar, but the exemplary food and drink says otherwise. The food at Diego is not cheap and that is a good thing.
A single taco costs seven dollars; a tostada costs seventeen dollars, which based on the quality of the ingredients and the execution is how food of this caliber should be priced.
Short of booking a ticket to Baja California, Diego is the closest you’ll get to experiencing the quality, creativity and playfulness that define the vibrant cuisine of Mexico’s Golden Coast. Run, don’t walk.
All photos by Jared Wheeler.
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You absolutely made my mouth water with your photos and descriptions. I think I’ll have to hop a plane to Chicago!
Stunning photos!