The Taste of Puerto Rico
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Galarza and his ex-wife, Virginia, opened the place in 1989, more than four decades after leaving Puerto Rico. Eddie had been a laundry manager at Bethany Hospital in Lares, and in 1946 transferred to the same job at the Bethany branch in Chicago. Over the next 20 years he held a series of odd jobs: paint mixer, nightclub owner (remember El Cafe Ole in Lincoln Park?), and finally, restaurateur. By 1975 he and Virginia had saved enough money to open La Siesta, a popular Mexican restaurant in Lincoln Park that had an impressive run of almost 20 years.
But Galarza had always wanted to cook the food he remembered eating as a child. “Eddie always made Puerto Rican food at home,” says Virginia. In the late 80s they ran El Criollo Restaurant near the corner of Elston and Damen, serving dishes from Argentina, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. But they never much liked the building, and business wasn’t great. At the same time, the neighborhood around La Siesta started gentrifying. “Parking there is so bad,” says Virginia, taking a break from waiting tables on a weekday afternoon. “The rent got too high….We liked this area. It was off the expressway, and there was no trouble with the gangs like there is on West Division.”
There are plenty of exotic dishes to choose from: baby goat that’s been marinated overnight in red wine, garlic, peppers, and grape juice, then slowly braised until fork-tender; pigs’ feet cooked with chickpeas; even a lobster gumbo. But there are also basic dishes like sandwiches, including a Puerto Rican favorite, the jibarito: steak or chicken between two long slabs of green plantain that have been smashed thin, deep-fried, and brushed with mayo. The word “means hillbilly or peasant,” Eddie says matter-of-factly. “It means something that’s very typical.” Sure enough, signs on stores throughout Logan Square and Humboldt Park reveal the word “jibarito” can refer to more than just food–it advertises to a Puerto Rican clientele that the establishment in whose window it appears offers a taste of home, whether it’s furniture or just a snack.
