Growing up, when I did something wrong, my father would punish me by putting me to work in the restaurant,” says Ralph Cruz, who owns and operates the 50-year-old Cafe Central. “That’s how I learned the business.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Cafe Central remained on West Madison until 1968, when the family lost their lease, and moved to its current location on Chicago near Bishop. Ralph has been in charge now for nearly 20 years. “For a while I owned the restaurant with my brother,” he says. “Then my brother bought a musical instrument store from the same uncle who had originally owned the restaurant, and I was on my own.”
Open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Cafe Central serves an extensive menu of traditional favorites and lots of seafood. Hearty meals not particularly well suited for low-cholesterol diets begin with an assortment of Puerto Rican specialties like mofongo, balls of mashed plantains mixed with garlic and bits of crushed pork crackling; alcapurrias, fritters made from a puree of plantains and yautia, a starchy white root related to taro, and stuffed with ground beef; and pionono, sweet-plantain fritters stuffed with ground meat.
Cruz would like to pass management of Cafe Central down to the third generation. He expects at least one or two of his five children to be involved with the restaurant eventually; like their father most of them have spent time there as punishment for various youthful offenses. “When my oldest boy graduated from college, he came and worked for me part-time as a chef. He’s a police officer now, but when he gets burned out, he’ll come run the restaurant.
