North Berwyn’s La Parra restaurant is welcoming a sister restaurant just one mile away in Forest Park called Di’Vino.
It’s a family business, with the two restaurants having owners from the same family. Fernando Muñoz, Jose Muñoz, Valerio Muñoz and Maria Plascencia are siblings, and Salvador Plascencia is married to Maria. All five owners have had years of experience at restaurants across the Chicagoland area.
The remodeling at the restaurant is almost done and will feature a dark, sleek interior with moody chandelier lighting. It is expected to open in September.
Di’Vino will feature a menu by chef Jesus Petit, and will change based on what is in season.
The menu will be a mix of traditional and experimental dishes.
“We’re trying to do old yet new stuff,” Jose Muñoz said. “We will try to get out of the norm.”
On the menu? Savory waffles with bacon and cheese, ceviches and chilaquiles, to name a few.
“Presentation for us is extremely important.” Jose said, adding that they want to make sure every dish is Instagrammable.
Di’Vino will also have a full bar with unique cocktails.
“We will have a mix of classic cocktails and new cocktails you haven’t seen yet,” Jose Muñoz said.
Expect a wide variety of bloody Marys and mimosas on their weekend brunch menu.
“We are going to try to have at least five different flavors of bloody marys and then mimosas, bellinis with different flavors,” he added.
Because all of the owners live in Berwyn, opening their next restaurant in Forest Park made sense.
The family opened their first restaurant La Parra in January 2021, the month that dine-in seating became permissible again in Chicago and Cook County after the COVID pandemic started.
Opening a family-run restaurant had been a dream for the family for years.
“At family reunions, we would always talk about opening our own business. We tried more than 10 years ago, but it was really hard. We just kept trying and trying,” Jose Muñoz said. After the COVID pandemic started and many of the restaurants the owners were working at closed, they decided to go all in on La Parra.
“We decided to not start working for somebody else and we would invest all of our time in La Parra and we were very successful,” Jose said.
The restaurant’s names and their meanings — La Parra translating to vineyard in Spanish and Di’Vino translating to wine — are a reminder of their story.
“After COVID, we pretty much lost everything. When you work out in a winery in a vineyard, if your vines freeze out or burn you can lose everything, but if you start working with the roots and you keep working hard it’s going to come into bloom again,” Jose Muñoz said “Now this one will be named Di’Vino, which means wine. Di’Vino is the juice of La Parra.”
Jose said their restaurants strive to bring together residents of Berwyn, Forest Park, Cicero and the other surrounding communities.
“If you go to La Para all of our guests are extremely diverse,” he said “It’s really beautiful to see.”
The restaurant is located at 1527 S. Harlem Ave.
