Jonathan Zaragoza, one of Chicago’s most promising young chefs, finally has a permanent home. So it makes sense he chose to name the project Čálli, the word for house in Nahuatl, a prehispanic language still spoken in parts of Central Mexico.
“Čálli is inspired by places in Mexico that made me feel at home,” Zaragoza said. “The hospitality will be very similar to Mexico, where people are very warm and endearing.”
The restaurant opens Thursday.
Though open to the public, Čálli is located on the second floor of the Soho House Chicago, a members-only club in the West Loop. In fact, it’ll be in the same space that formerly housed Sueños, the excellent Mexican seafood pop-up from chef Stephen Sandoval that just ended its stay. Currently, Sandoval is getting ready to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant in West Town.
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Unlike Suenos, Čálli is not a pop-up. “It’s a permanent fixture,” Zaragoza said.
Instead of focusing on a specific region of Mexico, Zaragoza hopes to showcase what he’s learned from his extensive time in the country. “It’s based on things that I like to eat when I’m traveling around Mexico,” said Zaragoza. “So it’ll feature some raw seafood preparations, inspired by the country’s thousands of miles of coastline. But there will also be a mole presence, from places like Oaxaca and Puebla.”
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Zaragoza said there will also be a deep focus on working with masa, the dough made from nixtamalized corn. “I love working with masa, and we’re going to show it off in numerous forms,” Zaragoza said.
That will definitely include housemade corn tortillas, but he’s just excited about other offerings. “We’ll be making garnachas, which are like smaller tortillas that are fried lightly and then topped,” Zaragoza said. “That’ll be served with carnitas and fermented tomatillo.” He’ll also be making tostadas raspadas, made by cooking a tortilla halfway, scraping part of the underdone part off and then frying it. “They are whimsical and frilly, with lots of nooks and crannies,” Zaragoza said.
The menu will feature a mix of smaller and larger plates so diners can choose the experience right for them. “It’s a little bit of everything,” Zaragoza said. “You can come in for something small and quick, or go with a larger plate and have a sit-down meal.” The cocktail program will be focused on “keeping it really simple and showing what makes Mexican drinks really good.” That means using lots of fresh fruit juice. But there will also be drinks like a mole old fashioned, where the glass will be fat-washed with mole.
Zaragoza started working in the Chicago restaurant scene early. He’s the son of John Zaragoza, whose restaurant Birrieria Zaragoza is one of the most beloved neighborhood restaurants in Chicago. (Recently, the Zaragoza family announced that it was opening a second location of their birrieria in Uptown.) He also was a chef at Masa Azul and consulted on the short-lived Con Todo.
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Čálli has been more than a year in the making, so Zaragoza is mostly just ready to let people in. “It’s going to be a fun space for people to hang out and explore Mexican food through our lens,” Zaragoza said. “The Mexican culinary landscape in Chicago is super rich in talent. I’m just thankful to be a part of it.”
Čálli opens in the Soho House Chicago (113-125 N. Green St.) on Thursday. It’ll be open Wednesday through Saturday, from 5-11 p.m. On Sundays, Čálli is open for brunch, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations can be made on OpenTable.
