What is it with brunch? What’s so special about pancakes and eggs that we’re
willing to suffer the indignity of hour-long waits, often with hangovers or
small children in tow? Why are we willing to pack cheek to jowl inside a
freezing vestibule, bleary-eyed and undercaffeinated when, as my mother
likes to say, we could’ve just eaten at home? Brunch is one of those odd
cultural phenomena that defy explanation. There’s just something about a
steaming mug of coffee, the mercy of a Bloody Mary, the cheerful din of
brunching humanity; certain intangible qualities that simply can’t be
reproduced at home.
John Latino and Derrick Robles, the two friends who founded the Bongo Room and still run it today, are endearingly averse to the spotlight. In this era of Instagram food porn and celebrity chefs, they are refreshingly low-key, preferring to steer the focus of our interviews to a group of people who helped them along the way. And that is how this story became about the girls. They’re women now, women who have, in Robles’s words, “forged amazing lives for themselves.” But back then, they were girls who found each other at that tender time in life and made the Bongo Room their home.
Margaret MacKay: I moved to Chicago 20 years ago, to an apartment on Evergreen and Wicker Park. I met Derrick the day I moved in and it was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. My sister Catherine used to live on Honore and we would all go to her apartment to play board games. I had a masters in social work and had just moved from Madison. I couldn’t find a job. Everything in Madison was so neat and orderly, and I was having trouble adjusting in Chicago. Then one night over a board game, Derrick said, “You need a job, I need a food runner, you need to come in on Saturday.” I said I’d never worked in a restaurant, I don’t know what I’m doing. He said, “You’ll be fine.” As it turned out, I was terrible. So I became a hostess.
Kristin Lewis: The magic sauce at the Bongo Room was working with your best friends, forming a united front against an onslaught of people demanding brunch. Especially in the winter. The winter could be so traumatizing. Everybody squeezing in to wait out of the cold. Trying to navigate through the masses with trays. We supported each other. We took lots of deep breaths. Especially on Mother’s Day. We had to give each other serious pep talks on Mother’s Day.
Kristin Lewis: Derrick and John were always so supportive of us and all of our artistic endeavors. Whenever we ran away, they would always welcome us back.
Manao Davidson: At four o’clock when the shift was over, Derrick and John always bought the first round.
