 This Wicker Park hacienda serves some classics --- including carne asada and custom-made guac --- in a color-splashed, art-decked setting with cozy booths and a back patio that all but begs you to linger on lazy summer nights. But it’s the more innovative dishes that hold our interest, thanks to executive chef Armando Gonzalez, a native of Huajuapan de Léon, Oaxaca. Start with the sultry tuna --- barely seared, ginger-jalapeño-marinated ahi with zucchini, yellow squash and jalapeño chimichurri. Then, tackle a fine, if surprising given the setting, oven-roasted pork chop; it arrives with truffle oil aromatics atop bacon-thyme white beans. Another fave? Banana leaf-wrapped pork shoulder slow roasted in Mexican herbs, citrus juices and achiote. The cocktail program is reason alone to come; the cucumber margarita is as balanced and refreshing as it gets. That said, the Jarochita --- made with house-infused vanilla bean-pineapple tequila --- is killer, too. Also available are oodles of swank sipping tequilas.
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