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“Colombian Exposition”
By Benjamin Ortiz, for Café Latino Lifestyle Magazine
February/March 2010


Leo Suárez believes that the empanada will be the next taco.

“The empanada is the emblematic street food of Latin America,” he says of the traditional stuffed turnover. He thinks this tasty fritter has the potential to be as popular as Mexican cuisine.

In fact, he’s betting that Colombian food and music are in line to gain widespread acceptance in the United States. If that’s so and his wager pays off, then Chicago will be the epicenter of a Colombian empanada and coffee kingdom to rival Starbucks.

Owner of the two Las Tablas establishments, Suárez, 25, opened Macondo Colombian Coffee & Empanadas shop across the street from the popular Lincoln Avenue steakhouse location in October. With his new business — named in tribute to the archetypal Latin American village from Gabriel García Márquez’s 100 Years of Solitude — Suárez aims to franchise not only the empanada but also the culture of Colombia’s Afro-Latino Caribbean coast.

“Fast-forward 15 years from now, and Colombian music is going to be just as accepted in the mainstream as Cuban music and Brazilian music,” he argues.

Enter the Macondo coffee shop and you experience the flavor of Barranquilla, where Suárez was born. Tambora and alegre drums mark irresistible cumbia rhythms that mingle with coffee steam and the piquant aroma of “Chicago’s only single-origin organic Colombian espresso blend.”

Order a tangy cup of Juan Valdez CaféReale direct from the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia. Macondo is the first spot in Chicago to serve the farmer-owned brand that supports social programs back in Colombia.

A barista wearing a sombrero vueltiao — the popular campesino hat handwoven from caña flecha cane strips — will serve your coffee and a fresh-baked Pastel Gloria, a flaky pastry shell filled with guava paste (bocadillo) and maybe arequipe (dulce de leche caramel).

While you’re waiting, you can watch wild performances of Bullerengue and Champeta music on DVD with Colombian cantadoras Totó la Momposina and Petrona Martinez, or enter a tiled alcove where handcrafted hats, purses and jewelry are on display, or read a book from the Spanish-language library among reproductions of Fernando Botero paintings.

You can also buy a music CD or take home Colombian goods such as candies and chocolates.

If you’re hungry for something a bit more hearty than the pastries prepared fresh every morning by Macondo’s Colombian baker, José Chavez, then try the almuerzo corriente, a commonplace Colombian meal, with pinchos (skewers) of beef or chicken, rice and beans, and platano maduro (ripe plantains).

But don’t forget the empanadas! Cooked in the style of Tolima province in central Colombia, these corn flour-shelled goodies are fried in non-trans fat vegetable oil. Macondo says it’s “the only empanada-focused business in Chicago” that offers completely gluten-free fritters.

In estilo Tolimense, Macondo empanadas are somewhat smaller than other kinds and come two per order. The Tradicional pays homage to the standard beef and potato empanada, but there are many variations. Try one with mozzarella cheese and spicy chipotle sauce, or mozzarella with guava, or chicken, all with a side of savory ají hot sauce.

Suárez is ready to roll out new empanada fillings, and he will solicit customer requests for their favorite ingredients. But don’t tell him it’s not authentic Colombian food. “The empanadas that we sell here are from the exact same recipe that my grandmother fed her family on,” he says. “She would literally wake up before dawn to make about 500 empanadas, and my father, when he was a kid, would take them to this truck stop on the highway along the path to Bogotá to sell them, and that’s how they lived.”

Suárez didn’t plan on becoming a restaurateur, but the family business of Las Tablas swallowed him up after his studies at Northwestern University. He hopes to pursue a PhD in ethno-musicology someday.

Meanwhile, he mixes music with business by co-sponsoring performances around town, bringing groups to Las Tablas, managing the traditional Afro-Colombian Grupo Rebolú based in New York City, providing musical direction for the dance company Tierra Colombiana and performing with the Afro-Latino percussion group Ngoma Alegre.

As if all of that weren’t enough, he sees Macondo becoming a franchised fair-trade coffee shop that will have its own non-profit music label to record and preserve endangered Colombian culture while contributing to community survival in South America.

“I’m trying to change the one-note overall perception of Colombia held by Americans, other Latinos and even some Colombians alike,” he says with zeal. “From a business standpoint, the culture has so much potential, and I want to be at the forefront of that now, in the early stages.”

INFOBOX
Macondo Colombian Coffee and Empanadas
Where: 2965 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago
Hours: Sunday – Thursday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Info: (773) 698-6867, http://macondochicago.com/

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