This year, there will be a new Mexican restaurant at 7240 Madison St., where the Archery Custom Shop closed in 2023.
Bàrbaro Taquería’s y Cantina aims to open before summer to sell tacos and Mexican street food inspired by family recipes and inspiration from around the world.
When college friends and Chicago residents Hector Herrera and David Morales discovered the old archery space on Madison Street, the pair got excited about expanding their Humboldt Park restaurant, Bàrbaro Taquería. Their second location will bring Bàrbaro staples to Forest Park, like al pastor and carne asada tacos, and mole served over quesadillas or enchiladas.
“Not only do we fit into the fabric [of Forest Park] but we will add to it,” Morales said. “We know what Madison Street looks like, and we feel like Bàrbaro is going to complement what everyone else is already doing but also bring something else to the neighborhood.”
Though there are other Mexican restaurants on Madison Street, the co-owners said the same types of dishes are often made through very different lenses. Bàrbaro’s food is inspired by cooking from Mexico, Chicago, and what Herrera and Morales ate when they were younger.
“When we talk about Mexican food, a lot of it is rooted in what your experience was growing up,” said Herrera, Bàrbaro’s head chef. The restaurant is “my perspective of what I felt Mexican food was like growing up in my dad’s taquería.”
While Morales’ dad opened a restaurant in Mexico City later in life, Herrera came of age in his father’s restaurant: La Haciendita, a Mexico City inspired spot in Chicago that opened in 1994.
“I grew up in his kitchen, since the age of 12,” Herrera said. After school, he would cut onions, and throughout college, remembers getting to La Haciendita at 7 a.m. to prepare the meat for beef head tacos that had been cooking for 12 hours — one of the specials at the Bàrbaro in Humboldt Park.
“You might be surprised to find it in a space like Bàrbaro, but we do it because I know what it means for me to cook it there,” Herrera said. Morales’ “parents still go to my parents’ restaurant just for the tacos de cabeza, the tacos de lengua,” Herrera added of the classic Mexican dish. “There’s a lot of nostalgia there, but it’s also like, ‘Let me introduce you to this.’”
Opening a third neighborhood restaurant
Herrera opened La Haciendita Taquería in 2012 in Chicago, named after his father’s restaurant. Herrera and Morales opened their Bàrbaro location in Humboldt Park right before Covid-19.
“One thing that we found out through Covid was how important it is having your neighborhood be a part of your success,” Morales said. “We have a lot of regulars. It’s kind of an industry spot, which we love about it. The neighborhood really supported us through Covid.”
With such support, Bàrbaro was able to add a second location in Forest Park. Herrera said that, while La Haciendita resembles a classic Mexican taquería, Bàrbaro has a smaller, more specific menu.
La Haciendita is “where you would take your family, and Bàrbaro is where you take your first date,” Morales said.
“You could also take your mom for a new experience, and it’ll be familiar to them as well,” Herrera added of Bàrbaro. While the space might feel new, the food is classic. Both restaurants use the same high-quality ingredients.
While Bàrbaro’s kitchen staff makes tortillas from scratch, “At La Haciendita, you have the option to buy into that, but the crowd is different. They want their [store-bought] Milagro Tortillas,” Herrera said. “People go in, and they often don’t have to look at the menu because they already know what they want.”
So the business partners introduce new specials, often only at Bàrbaro.
“I think we’ve introduced a lot of things to people there that you might not be able to see at your local taquería,” Morales said.
Current seasonal options at the Humboldt Park Bàrbaro include pozole soup with chicken, chiles and avocado, plus tlayudas, which are toasted tortillas topped with chorizo, queso, spicy pickled onions and salsa.
Bàrbaro also has a full cocktail program that’s agave-forward with many tequila and mezcal options.
Herrera and Morales designed the interior of the Bàrbaro in Humboldt Park and are doing the same with the Forest Park location, which will likely look similar.
Contractors have gutted the building where the archery shop once stood, completed structural work, and the co-owners are now designing the space. That includes a bar with custom built-ins, a space for a DJ to play music on weekends, a front wall that opens up during warmer weather, and an open-concept kitchen that customers can see into.
“The idea is to represent Mexico City street food, where you get to experience when the taqueros are cooking right in front of you, and you’re able to talk to them if they have time,” Herrera said.
“We get a lot of feedback that this is very Mexico City. We’ve got an inspiration from there, but we’ve always felt like we could open up a bar in Mexico City and it would also be unique,” Morales said. “We wanted to open up a place that’s representative of us, but that we can open up in any city in the world.”
