Esmero Is a Modern Mexican Dinner Party in the Charlie Trotter’s Space
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Taking over the kitchen at 816 W. Armitage in Lincoln Park is no easy undertaking. It’s here that the groundbreaking chef Charlie Trotter put the first-ever table in a kitchen, wrote new tasting menus daily, and used his vast cellar to spotlight wine service. So when the Alinea Group, headed by chef Grant Achatz (who famously quit Trotter’s after just a few months), approached the chef’s son, Dylan, who now owns the space, about hosting a new residency, they knew they had a lot to live up to.
As this is the Alinea group we’re talking about, deliver they do — in the form of Esmero, a Mexican tasting menu restaurant overseen by executive chef Adair Canacasco, who has been with the group for nearly a decade. Once you settle in, you quickly realize this experience is nothing like what you’d find with the previous tenant. “It’s ‘my house’ inside Charlie Trotter’s,” Canacaso said. “It was about finding something different, that’s more my culture with more stories. I want you to come in and feel like you’re a friend or partaking in a family dinner.”
That means you’re getting a peek inside Canacasco’s Mexican heritage and culture, eating food that for him is nostalgic, with a touch of modernity and experimentation. You’ll likely see familiar notes like tortillas, mole, and flan, but beyond that, you’ll experience a range of dishes that hail from all over Mexico. Canacasco took inspiration from regions like Oaxaca, the Yucatan, Veracruz, and Hidalgo (where he’d visit his grandparents), and Mexico City, where Canacasco lived until he was 12, when his family moved to Madison, Wis.
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Canacasco grew up around food: His grandparents had a stove, but never used it, he said, preferring to cook tortillas, stews, and lamb barbacoa in a large fireplace to work with live fire. His parents both worked in food markets and restaurants, and Canacasco often helped raise and butcher animals. His mom was known around the neighborhood as an incredible cook and his home had an open door policy, inviting in friends and neighbors. “I developed a love for cooking because it was always around me,” he said. “As a family, we’d always sit down together at the table. I was never afraid to share.”
And share he does, with a 14-course tasting menu starting at $195 a person, with optional wine and non-alcoholic beverage pairings. It’s a robust offering where you’ll leave feeling quite sated — and maybe get a surprise mezcal tasting.
What else do you need to know about Esmero, which runs through Nov. 22? Let’s dive in.
The room still very much feels like Trotter’s … with small changes
The adjoined buildings that sit among Armitage Avenue’s eclectic mix of shops and cafes still feel like Trotter’s. You still walk into the dark-walled reception that doubles as a host area with an intimate bar. It’s a dramatic entrance, with a Brazilian cherry wood floor, 20-foot ceilings, and balcony peering down from above. The dining room still has the burgundy carpet and beige-painted textured walls. A collection of dried heirloom corn cascading from the ceiling over the wine service station, creating a vegetal chandelier, is the one dramatic change. Otherwise you’ll feel like you’ve gone back in time.
A menu coursing with flavor and nostalgia
Where you’re reminded it’s 2026 is in Canacasco’s regional Mexican menu. Throughout the meal, a parade of dishes, many served on blown-glass plates created by local Ignite Glass Studios, gets delivered by servers and chefs, each presenting their dish with a little panache and a quip. Sometimes you’ll gain insight into Canacasco’s past, how each dish is tied back to a different Mexican region or recipe, and the importance of the ingredients to Mexican cuisine and culture.
Through 14 courses, you’ll enjoy ingredients like corn, tamal, chiles, and avocado. Mole in a range of flavors and colors — blanco, verde, negro — plays a starring role in a number of dishes, including the one that started this journey for Canacasco: tender and meaty lion’s mane mushroom in mole blanco with pomegranate and jameed, a sheep’s milk yogurt. This dish, which originated with Canacasco at Roister, gets presented like a snowy hillside that explodes with sweet-savory flavor.
Other standout dishes include the early avocado- and caviar-topped “infladita,” puffed masa filled with wagyu tartare and avocado puree; the refreshing melon-adorned scallop aguachile with a habanero kick; a king crab-stuffed chile relleno with a delightful crunch delivered by salsa macha and dried shellfish that recalls an XO sauce (Canacasco calls it MexO sauce); and a tender lamb barbacoa layered on a fresh nasturtium leaf that begs to be eaten by hand.
Choose between three beverage pairings to enhance the meal
Alinea Group wine director Jon Leopold has selected a range of wines and other beverages to pair with the meal. Even if you don’t opt for a pairing, everyone starts with a refreshing NA aperitif blending tamarind, pineapple, and guajillo pepper.
The $75 standard wine pairing puts a spotlight on Mexican wines — chenin blanc from San Miguel de Allende, sauvignon blanc, mourvedre, and a tempranillo from Valle de Guadalupe, and a sweet vin santo from Tuscany’s Chianti Classico region, the one outlier. The more global $155 reserve package delivers a premier German riesling, a Left Bank Bordeaux blanc, grenache from Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe in Baja, and two from Tuscany, including a surprise cab franc and that Tuscan vin santo. Each pairing includes an early whiskey cocktail that’s made with sherry, corn, and a hint of vanilla that plays off beautifully with the huitlacoche in the tamal dish.
Chloe Fisher, beverage director at The Aviary, created a $65 non-alcoholic pairing that subs out the booze without losing the intention. You’ll see natural ingredients like sweet corn, honeydew melon, guava, tart cherry, cola, and dried banana blended with different teas to offer flavors that pair well with the menu.
Dining room … or the exclusive kitchen table?
Where you choose to sit matters, too. As of now, the restaurant only utilizes the first-floor dining room, mainly for two- and four-top tables for 56 covers over the course of a night. Soon, Esmero will expand to the second floor, adding 40 more seats. For a more immersive dining experience and a peek behind the curtain, book the table inside Charlie Trotter’s gleaming stainless steel kitchen. For $215 a head, you’ll dine through the same menu, with a few additional bites and a mezcal or tequila tasting.
Esmero beyond Trotter’s
While this residency ends on Nov. 22, it may not be the end of Esmero or another restaurant Canacasco could run. Details are still coming together, but after helming the M in Big Sky residency in Montana and running the kitchens at Roister and Fire, the Alinea team has put their stock in the 30-year-old chef. “I would love it if it’s something like Esmero,” he said. “I feel passionately about this type of food. I’ve worked in a la carte and tasting menu restaurants next to each other and that’s what I would love to do. Something casual and high end in the same space.”
Esmero: 816 Armitage Ave, Chicago. Open Wednesday through Sunday 5:30 – 9:30 p.m.
