tapas and paella

There's also one in Geneva called Emilio's Granada.  I've heard that the Naperville and Geneva locations were bought out by someone involved with the Naperville location and are no longer related to the original.

Someone wrote:
>
> Amit P. wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm looking for a restaurant that serves really good paella and tapas.
>
> Try Emilio's, northwest corner of Clark and Diversey. They have a
> sister restaurant in Naperville, named Meson Sabika.
>
> I've never been  to the Clark & Diversey restaurant, but I've been to
> the Naperville one many times and have always enjoyed the food. (BTW the
> N'ville restaurant does a tres yummy brunch)
>
> enjoy,
>
> .max
>

The Chicago location of Emilio's is on Fullerton at Clark (NW corner). I went there once last year and thought it was okay. About half of our tapas were quite good, the rest nothing special. The paella seemed decent, certainly not inspired. The thing I remember most about the meal was their house cured olives and how incredibly well they went with a glass of sherry. If you go, I'd strongly recommend a glass of La Ina to go with the olives before dinner.

I'm mad at myself for never having dinner at Brio on Hubbard. Their menu, which didn't include tapas or paella, had a lot of things that sounded very interesting. Actually they did serve tapas but only at the bar (free with an expensive and minuscule glass of wine). I won't soon forget the fresh green tomatoes with Cabrales blue cheese, something I was very skeptical about but turned out to work perfectly. The other tapas I tried weren't nearly as memorable. Anyway, Brio closed recently.

  Someone wrote:
> Try Emilio's, northwest corner of Clark and Diversey. They have a
> sister restaurant in Naperville, named Meson Sabika.
>
> I've never been  to the Clark & Diversey restaurant, but I've been to
> the Naperville one many times and have always enjoyed the food. (BTW the
> N'ville restaurant does a tres yummy brunch)
>
> enjoy,
>
> .max

NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 22:58:38 CST
Organization: MediaOne Express -=- Central Region
Xref: usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu chi.eats:7188

Jude C. wrote:
>Someone wrote:
>> Also Tutto Tapas on Madison St. in Forest Park (which has the added
>> benefit of being theoretically accessible by public transportation).
>> It's mid-way between the Harlem stop on the Blue Line and the Harlem
>> stop on the Green Line.  It's a long walk from there (if walking from
>> the Blue Line exit the Harlem stop at the Circle Ave. end), or transfer
>> to the Harlem Ave bus going north or south, respectively.
>
>It's gotten excellent reviews.  I can't wait to go... what's kept
>me away so long?... I just don't know.  Len, have you been there yet?
>
>
>Jude
>
>

I did go with friends a few months ago but they were not adventurous and we were late for Circle Theater   so we didn't get to try much.  The space was very nice. Thanks for reminding me. I have to try it again.  Maybe we should all get together again soon.

Reminds me of one of my favorite places, now gone.  Cafe Barcelona, which was in the same neighborhood. Strange, a Spanish restaurant with an almost entirely Irish staff.

In its early days they had excellent tappas. We used to order round after round. Then came that very cold winter when no one seemed to go out to eat. They never recovered.

For my last special birthday, half a dozen years ago, it seemed everyone was out of town, so, dejected,  I asked my wife to call some friends (hmm, the same ones who joined me at Tutto). It was an odd hour early on a Sunday evening. I had wanted to go to a white table cloth place but they insisted on Barcelona.  I said I didn't think they were open on Sundays. The place looked dark from the outside but when we opened the door it was packed. I recognized other friends. It took a while for it to dawn on me that Sally had taken over the whole place for me. They usually are closed on Sundays.  They had a steam table with lots of tappas items and kept bringing out more. And paella for everyone. What an evening.  Oh to be 50 again.

I miss that place, but after the business downturn they lost their edge and never met their old standards.  Neither have I ;(

Len

Leonard Grossman
Reflections of a ModemJunkie  - [not] a Weblog http://www.mcs.net/~grossman/mjnk/