better basics
TRANSFORMED MENUS FOR A TRANSFORMED MARKETPLACE That Old Pueblo’s cheese crisp has done so well isn’t a surprise—nor is it an anomaly. In 2020, convenient dishes that traveled well proved the lifeline that helped many restaurants hang on through what The NPD Group calls “one of the most unpopular years in history”—one that brought with it “the steepest declines the industry has experienced since the Great Recession.” Businesses that already had strong carryout and delivery menus (think pizzerias and QSRs), as well as those that New to the neighborhood: Old Pueblo Cantina’s Pancho’s Pick-Up window
pivoted to add those options, weathered pandemic challenges most successfully; those that didn’t, not so much. Take pizzerias, for example. According
DISH UP
to a report from Pizza Today magazine released in November, they have fared far better than the overall restaurant
Take-out Friendly Fare
industry. And although 60 percent of
| BY KATHLEEN FURORE | The pick-up
quickly—and it’s never been off since,”
more over 2019 sales.
window carved out of the brick at Old
says Ashleigh Englenton, Old Pueblo’s
Pueblo Cantina isn’t what you’d expect
manager.
to find at an upscale Mexican restaurant
The Carne Seca version with green chile, pico de gallo and cotija “is the
Lincoln Park neighborhood. But there
owner’s favorite and the
it is—Pancho’s Pick-Up, added just
one we always recom-
after COVID brought inside dining to a
mend,” Englenton adds,
halt. One menu item customers have
noting that the take-andbake option is best for
waxed and waned? The Sonoran Cheese
carryout customers be-
Crisp, available in cooked or take-and-
cause baking the cheese
bake form.
crisps at home best recre-
“We took it off the menu in the first early lock-down, but brought it back
24 el restaurante | JAN/FEB/MAR 2021
ates the dish the way it is served in the restaurant.
crease in sales, the report showed that 50 percent of those that experienced sales growth were up by 16 percent or Based on data from the National Restaurant Association’s 2021 State of
in the heart of Chicago’s very gentrified
carried out as dining restrictions have
pizza restaurants experienced a de-
the Restaurant Industry Report, which
Old Pueblo’s Carne Seca Sonoran Cheese Crisp
(continued on page 27)
