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“Humboldt Park Nouveau-Rican”
By Benjamin Ortiz, for
Café Latino Lifestyle Magazine
May/June 2009


Step into Coco Modern Puerto Rican Restaurant and Lounge, and “Los Mejores del Mundo” greet you at the door. It’Â’s a panorama of Caribbean greats, from Tito Puente to Felix “Tito” Trinidad to Celia Cruz and Don Pedro Albizu Campos, captured across paintings by artist Adalberto “Cuco” Rivera.

Festive photos, sketches of bomba y plena sessions with plantation panache and a 25-foot-long sculpture-mural titled “La Boricua” enhance the rich, exposed brick and dark-wood interiors that compose a long room with private vantage points rounded by gauze-thin earth-tone curtains. Against the back wall, a faux-balcón opens the kitchen to a full view, while toasting Old San Juan’Â’s snaking streets and vistas.

The art works and dining display celebrate the diversity of talents from La Isla del Encanto, and it feels like theyÂ’re all here to join you for dinner, drinks and maybe some salsa, if you meet the right dance partner.

You head for your table, past the middle-aged white couple that will stay on the dance floor all night, from happy hour till the band warms up for a medley of merengue, bachata, boleros — whatever the crowd feels. But before all that gets started, how about a drink first? Try the Bochinche Martini, described by the menu as “The gossip drinkÂ…Sure to make you talk.” Lime juice, coconut, fresh mint and vodka give it that urban-lounge savor, but with a tropical twist.

Dark and curly-coiffed ladies at a table across the way lift their oblong martini glasses with long, sparkly, neon-blue fingernails contrasting mango and coconut-colored highlights. As the place gets moving with people packing the 65-capacity dining area and cozying up at the bar, youÂ’re distracted by the tables filling with a variety of cultures, styles and versions of Spanish.

For starters, try some plantain tostones stuffed with crab, a mini-jibarito sandwich and bolitas de yautia, breaded and mashed root vegetables with a side of sofrito-tinged sauce. In one Bandeja de Coco appetizer tray, your palate enjoys the collision of indigenous Taino, Spanish and African foodstuffs, reinterpreted a la Nuevo Latino cuisine straight from the heart of Humboldt Park.

But before you can think about the main course, the Bochinche Martini starts working its magic, loosens the lips and gets you talking. At the next table, two younger, mixed-race couples are double dating, so you ask why they chose Coco for the night. “It’s Chicago,” says Christine, a 20-something Latina. “It’s so diverse, and you gotta try everything.”

This is the kind of place where you can easily meet new friends and end up closing the joint down when food service yields to live music – samba on Thursdays, DJs on Fridays and a full salsa combo on Saturdays, all going from 10 p.m. till closing.

Like his clientele, owner José Allende fills the room with warmth and spirit, one minute welcoming you at the door, the next suggesting an entrée and then tweaking the house speakers for just the right atmosphere and balance of lively dining. He joins you for a bit and talks about the inspiration to open this place – basically, to offer Chicago’s first upscale Puerto Rican dining experience.

From the art collection to the music to the traditional eats jazzed up with five-star estilo, Allende intends Coco to be the spot where you want to take mom on Mother’Â’s Day, a place where you can also learn and be proud of the Puerto Rican culture. “”I think the bottom line is that people never viewed Puerto Rican food like this,”” he says, referring also to the odyssey of research, travel and hard work that has kept the place open for more than five years now.

““A lot of people still donÂ’t know about Puerto Rican food – they come in sometimes and say, ‘’Where’Â’s the chips?Â’ No, really!'”” He cuts loose with a typically full, gusty laugh that hits high notes with joy, coming back down to a serious but light-hearted tone. “”I have to admit, I was told when we first opened that it was not gonna work.”” Allende remains the sole owner, head chef and host extraordinaire.

But back to dinner, right? Allende recommends the mahi mahi with lobster bisque sauce and mofongo de yuca. Or the pork chop stuffed with plátano maduro and raisins. Maybe with an after-dinner rum and flan.

The tables nearby are getting really flirty, and lights are dimming for the band, so eat up and get ready to move. ¡A gozar!

INFOBOX
Coco
2723 W. Division St.
(773) 384-4811
Wheelchair accesible, all major credit cards accepted, Live music

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