Storefront City Chicago

Archive for the tag “milwaukee ave”

Antique Taco

WHAT: Antique Taco
WHERE: 1360 N. Milwaukee Ave.

OUR RATING: Do It!

(antiquetaco.com)

(antiquetaco.com)

In its tiny Wicker Park location, Antique Taco, from husband-and-wife team Rick and Ashley Ortiz, nestles at the corner of Milwaukee and Wood, inviting customers into its cozy, vintage space, complete with rustic long tables for communal eating and deep oak tones. It’s a cute space and somewhat ‘homey,’ and while always buzzing, still provides a relatively chill atmosphere for any type of group. A very long fast-moving line marks this place out as a popular spot with the locals, who seem to brave the sometimes inflated prices for a little bite of Old Mexico.

(antiquetaco.com)

(antiquetaco.com)

Adam: Antique Taco is simple food done well. With a purposefully limited menu of only five tacos (however, with other goods on offer as well, from your typical guacamole to more unique options such as cheese curds), you don’t have to endlessly skim through reams of paper to locate your desired dish. I thought it best to try two of their meatier options: the grilled rib-eye and chicken tinga tacos. Both were excellent, but in quite unique ways. Each order comes with two tacos and ample toppings.

(antiquetaco.com)

Rib-eye Tacos

Beef tacos are somewhat of a staple for me – if you can prepare this correctly, then you’re on the right track. Antique Taco’s rib-eye tacos, with caramelized poblano peppers, onions, cheese whiz (yes, this works!) and fresh cilantro are smoky and delicious, tasting like they just came off a roaring barbeque. The fresh cilantro was the strongest flavor in this one, but I also detected heavy spicing that doesn’t seem to discernibly come from anywhere, so I must assume that the meat was specially prepared.

(antiquetaco.com)

Chicken Tinga Tacos

But, my favourite tacos of the night were surely the chicken tinga tacos, complete with savory shredded chicken, hot sauce, queso, carrot and celery pickle, el rancho crema fresca and fresh cilantro. Spicy, almost to the point of being hot, while also exceptionally creamy, the flavor profile was somewhat hard to pin down, but at once perfectly singed and soothed the palate in such a way as to be wonderfully complex and mouthwatering. If you have to get just one taco, get the chicken tinga!

(antiquetaco.com)

Market Mushroom Tacos

Alicia: One look at Antique Taco’s menu and I knew I was going to try the Market Mushroom tacos. The two warm corn tortillas encased meaty sauteed mushrooms, crunchy salty pumpkin seeds, fresh and spicy arugula, bitingly flavorful purple onion and radish, and a smoked onion cream that cut through all of these flavors with a beautifully creamy finesse. The perfect pairing was obviously the purple onion with the savory onion cream, making me want to keep coming back bite after delicious bite.

(antiquetaco.com)

Maple Farm Duck Enchiladas

Unfortunately, the Maple Farm Duck Enchiladas were much less successful. After ordering at the register, I was notified that the enchiladas were fried, but since I had already gotten my hopes up, I thought I’d still try them. What came to the table was definitely not an order of enchiladas, but of flautas, and I felt angry and embarrassed for Antique Taco in their failed nomenclature. As I dug into the fried tortillas I definitely enjoyed the savory duck meat, but with all the accoutrements on top (cream, lettuce, etc), I failed to pick out what they tried to sell as peanut butter mole and blackberry crema fresca. Ultimately, this was a very sorry dish, and something I would never order again, as their tacos are the clear winner here.

Overall, Antique Taco is fun, and I really enjoyed the sticks accompanying each dish which identified what I was eating, as well as the fun jar of complimentary gum for a post-meal refreshment. Yes to their tacos, no to their fried enchiladas.

(antiquetaco.com)

(antiquetaco.com)

Final Thoughts: A great place to grab a few tacos, we would definitely come back here, especially to try their rosemary margarita (tequila, fresh lime juice, fresh orange juice and rosemary simple syrup) and of course to order one of their horchata milkshakes on a warm day (yet, which to choose is up in the air, as the joint offers up cinnamon, banana, almond, and vanilla varieties). Yum!

V Live

WHAT: V Live (Club)
WHERE: 2047 N. Milwaukee Ave.

OUR RATING: Do It! (If text to get in free)

This is a hot new venue in Logan Square was voted Chicago’s best new club by Metromix in 2009 (so we guess it isn’t new anymore, but oh well). A huge space (over 30,000 square feet) spread over three levels, each a unique locale, V Live has a little bit for everyone. After entering the long corridor, decorated with plasma screens, and up a flight or two of stairs, you enter the main dance area, for about 950-people and with a 200 person VIP lounge. Adjacent (a different space) is V Lounge and the VIP lofts, although we didn’t frequent these this time.

(vlivechicago.com)

(vlivechicago.com)

Adam: V Live is a great venue, with a huge dance floor, nice seating areas and a wide variety of drinks. With the DJ elevated upon a dais at the far end of the dance floor and two bars running along the left and back walls, the space is all encompassing and electric, with great beats pumping out of massive speakers.

Interestingly, this crowd isn’t that sleazy, which is nice to find in a club these days. Well dressed and guarded by ample security, you don’t feel unsafe here, which is nice considering the location. In terms of drinks, I tried a rum and coke, which was alright, but nothing special. I think you’re most likely there to experience the space, not the drinks.

(vlivechicago.com)

(vlivechicago.com)

Alicia: First of all, let me reiterate how huge this place is. This isn’t the hole-in-the-wall disaster that Max Bar is, that’s for sure. I’ve read that acts like Nadia Ali have performed here and I’m not surprised. It’d be the perfect space to host popular DJs and other performers. Yet when they aren’t hosting some big name, be sure to expect a random array of music, anywhere from club music to Top 40 to salsa…one right after the other. Kind of odd, honestly.

Yet, I would totally go back for the atmosphere of the place, especially their dozens of funky lights on the ceilings that look like rotating solar systems of fiber optic lights. Really awesome. Add to that the huge music-video screens behind the stage, other moving lights, and the swankiness of their seating areas, and you’ve got a really unique space.

(vlivechicago.com)

(vlivechicago.com)

Final Thoughts: V Live always has deals going on, so check the website and Do312 for text in deals that get you free entrance (and sometimes even a free drink or two). If you have to pay the $20 cover fee, don’t bother going, but as a free evening, it’s very nice and we would love to go back and stay later when the dance floor is sure to be full.

Silence Kills

WHAT: Silence Kills (Photographic Exhibit)
WHEN: February 1 – 25
WHERE: 1431 N. Milwaukee Ave. (inside EyeWant Eyewear)
HOST: Eyeporium Gallery

OUR RATING: Do It!

Credit: Brian Leli

Credit: Brian Leli

Last week, Storefront City dropped into the Eyeporium Gallery in Wicker Park for the opening reception of Brian Leli’s photography exhibition “Silence Kills,” which also provided the perfect opportunity to celebrate the release of his new photo and essay book, “London in a Year.”

Credit: Brian Leli (August 2011: A man rests in front of a wall painted with street art at the Notting Hill Carnival.)

Credit: Brian Leli

“Silence Kills”  tells the everyday story of a city (in this case London), which seems to prove the point that an ordinary day doesn’t exist for a huge metropolis. Documenting everything from protesters in the Occupy Movement outside St. Paul’s Cathedral, gay pride celebrants in Trafalgar Square, or a coffee shop owner in Camden, Leli’s work focuses on the people that make a city tick, and their place beside these well-known monuments of old. As such, this is a snapshot of Londoners, rather than the city, and what it means to be a member of (or outsider in) a modern cosmopolitan capital.

The exhibition is located within the Eyeporium Gallery, which is, in turn, inside an eye-wear store, EyeWant. But this isn’t your average Pearle Vision. Colorfully decorated with Oriental lamps topping display cases, luxuriant plush seats, a plethora of bespectacled  mannequin heads, and fantastical representations of the ocular variety (yes, even including a hoard of The Residents paraphernalia), EyeWant is the perfect space to host a gallery, and really peer into a different kind of retail experience.


Due to the eclectic nature of this salon-style gallery, the gallery can maintain an attractive fringe quality while not being subsumed by the faux vogue of similar galleries elsewhere. Owned by local philanthropist Annette Sollars, the gallery is directed by Carron Little, who we had the good fortune to speak with at the opening. Apparently, this little gem has represented some of Chicago’s more well known visual artists, including Tony Fitzpatrick and Marc Hauser, but we’re always excited to see galleries who nurture a variety of artists, both emerging and established.

Credit: Brian Leli (October 2011: Occupy London: a woman smokes a cigarette at the steps to St Paul’s Cathedral.)

Credit: Brian Leli

Photography often ranks lower on the scale of artistry for some people, probably because it is believed that anyone can snap a photo, while only a talented few can apply paint to canvas with even a modicum of success. However, Leli’s work seems to show us that a certain artistic endowment is absolutely necessary to capture that look of proud triumph while marching with Occupy London or a state of complete defiance whilst protesting against the bombing of Yemen. Then again, the choice to close the shutter on a mundane puff of a cigarette whilst outside St. Paul’s or the pain of illness in a London hospice, seems to immortalize moments otherwise lost, perhaps because we don’t want to remember these happenings in the grand scheme of history. By being forced to remember them through photography, artists like Leli do humanity a service that any other profession would be hard pressed to emulate.

Ravishing, didactic and insightful, Leli’s exhibit will let you explore London at your own pace, and see the city (and its people) behind the monuments.

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