Rafael Esparza was a “weird kid” who hated spaghetti. Specifically he did not like his grandmother’s cheesy, chile-spiked pasta casserole, the SpaghettiOs of every Mexican American kid’s diet.
It was discussions about this sort of undersung contribution to Mexican cuisine that inspired the partnership. AbouJamra, a former GM for the DMK Restaurants group (among many more varied hospitality gigs), used to deliver chai to Finom, where Esparza was making magical Hungarian dishes with little more than an induction burner. Deliveries led to discussions about the often overstated contributions of the Spanish to Mexican cuisine over that of the slaves they brought, or the Indigenous people they colonized.
As it turns out, I managed to eat this sandwich just after it was perfected by AbouJamra’s dad, a third-generation butcher who flew in from Tucson to taste through the menu and “fix everything.”
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