WEST TOWN — A popular Lakeview Mexican restaurant is preparing to open at the former home of Tecalitlan on Chicago Avenue in West Town.
Barcocina, 1814 W. Chicago Ave., plans to open its second location in early to mid-October, a spokesperson said.
The restaurant’s West Town menu will include “modern” Mexican dishes such as balsamic guacamole and elotes corn salsa, as well as a variety of tacos and scallop ceviche bites.
Barcocina has retrofitted the former Tecalitlan space to include a large outdoor patio that seats more than 200 people. It will also feature heated igloos during the winter.
The restaurant’s drink offerings include a sangria and two other cocktails on draft, on top of a list of tequilas, mezcals and more.
Barcocina West Town will open for dinner, with plans to launch a bottomless brunch shortly after.
For the past four months, a surrealist mural of a massive fish has stood outside the restaurant as Barcocina undertook renovations ahead of opening.
Artist Joseph Renda Jr. partnered with the West Town Chamber of Commerce to paint the temporary mural ahead of an exhibit in June, with plans to eventually move it to a business down the block, Renda said in an email this week.
But some sections were lost during construction, and while Renda hoped to recreate them, he decided to ultimately scrap the project when the mural was tagged.
Renda said he plans to paint a permanent mural in West Town next year.
Barcocina replaces Tecalitlan Restaurant, a West Town favorite for Mexican food that closed in 2020 after 47 years on Chicago Avenue when its lease expired.
Owners Karla Garcia and Juan Carlos Garcia Jr. said last year they tried to find a new location in West Town, touring some 25 locations in the area.
But nothing worked out, and the restaurant ended up reopening at 1538 N. Clybourn Ave., in the New City development in Lincoln Park.
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