On a recent drizzly weekday at lunchtime, the simple dining room at Pozoleria El Mexicano is quiet, save for a few diners and delivery drivers picking up orders. Inside, the roomy space is outfitted with papel picado and a few colorful scarves. Outside, signs affixed to the door proclaim, “Everyone is welcome here except I.C.E..” The signs also prohibit full face coverings aside from medical masks and religious headwear.
Arriving soon at the red booth will be Oaxacan-style pozole mixteca with shredded chicken and hominy the size of small shrimps, its savory broth tasting of smoky, charred red sauce.
The night before, the place brimmed with 80-odd volunteers packing emergency whistle kits, as part of a series of “Whistlemania” events hosted by the community group Belmont Cragin United.
“A lot of people stayed and ate,” said owner Ricardo Rodriguez in Spanish. “In that moment, it was really good.”
Rodriguez and his family opened Pozoleria El Mexicano during the COVID-19 pandemic and grew it into a thriving neighborhood restaurant. The menu of sopes, tacos and multicolored pozoles represents the family’s Mexican heritage, which stretches from Oaxaca to Mexico City and Guerrero, where Rodriguez was born before moving to Chicago 25 years ago, at age 16.
But now the restaurant might not survive the next four months of operating costs if business doesn’t turn around.
“When ICE came, it got slower and slower,” Rodriguez said. “People are afraid to leave the house.”
Restaurants in majority Latino communities like Belmont Cragin, Hermosa, Avondale and Little Village have reported significant drops in sales since ICE and Border Patrol agents descended in September under the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration operations. Increased arrests and the specter of ICE sightings citywide over the past six weeks have prompted local customers to stay home and foot traffic to slump, even on historically bustling weekends.
But some neighbors say they want to help combat the slowdown and are organizing volunteer parties and other events to try and bring diners back out. Belmont Cragin is roughly 77% Latino, the largest such population of any Chicago neighborhood.
“We’ve heard from both new and legacy businesses that have been there for 20 years who’ve said they had three customers dine in in a week,” said Alfonso Zaragoza, a community organizer and the founder of Belmont Cragin United, a Facebook group with 150,000 followers that serves as a resident resource center. “They still have to pay their employees, pay their bills, mortgage and rent. They can’t survive on takeout and delivery.” (Third-party delivery services take anywhere from 15 to 30%.)
This month, Zaragoza and his small, all-volunteer crew started organizing Whistlemania events at small businesses across West and Northwest side neighborhoods like Logan Square, Hermosa and Belmont Cragin. Volunteers pack kits with whistles, instructions on using them and rights cards to use if someone they know is detained. The events also spotlight restaurants folks might not have otherwise tried, Zaragoza said. The first Whistlemania drew 400 participants to Pozoleria El Mexicano alone.
On Oct. 28, BC United will host its second Taste of Belmont Cragin crawl to highlight a trio of Latino-owned businesses in the neighborhood. BC United regularly boosts local restaurants on its social pages, but Zaragoza was inspired to do more after driving east down Armitage from Laramie Avenue toward Logan Square one Thursday evening.
“West of Pulaski, all the restaurants are mostly empty and dark,” he said. “Once you get past Pulaski, you just start seeing all these full businesses. And I’m, like, man, if just a portion of those customers came a couple blocks west, it would make such a difference.”
A few days later, at Barca Birrieria y Restaurant on the razor edge of Belmont Cragin and Portage Park, a table by the window heaved with shallow bowls of succulent goat birria tatemada in consommé alongside salsas ranging from fiery to mild and chopped onions and cilantro. The family-owned storefront with white tile counter specializes in this dish from Jalisco, which is served with a basket of warm tortillas.
“Can you see her making our tortillas by hand right now?” asked local food writer Dennis Lee. The chef pressed masa rounds into tortillas then slid them onto the hot griddle until they blistered and puffed like little balloons. A few customers trickled in throughout the ensuing hour and a half.
Lee, who lives in Belmont Gardens, has lately used his Chicago restaurant review Substack, The Party Cut, to uplift Latino-owned restaurants in areas impacted by the immigration crackdown, including Chinese-Colombian Wok Dong and Mexican Minna’s Restaurant. In a post on Oct. 6, he dangled yearlong subscription upgrades to readers who sent evidence that they’re supporting local, Latino-owned restaurants, street vendors and grocery stores and received about 20 responses.
Impressive masa manipulation was also on full display at woman-owned Minna’s on a recent sunny Tuesday afternoon. The converted diner was packed with people gossiping in Spanish over tacos de chicharrón and boat-shaped huaraches piled with shredded chicken tinga and puréed beans. Servers joked with customers, and the mood felt relaxed.
Minna’s counted among the featured restaurants at last week’s Taste of Belmont Cragin, which also included El Guerrerense Restaurant and Taqueria La Paz. The event also featured an elotero cart that used to rove around Blackhawk Park. Since the owner hasn’t been able to go out, his son and nephew manned the cart.
This week’s crawl will highlight a cluster of restaurants on Diversey: Peruvian restaurant Fina Estampa, Magos Tacos & Tamales, Mr. Pollo and La Michoacana Ice Cream Shop.
“Alfonso is doing such a great job for all the businesses here,” Rodriguez said in English. “We try to support each other. It’s very hard for my community. People are crying all the time.”
For now, BC United’s efforts appear to be making at least some difference at Pozoleria El Mexicano, too. In the past few weeks, Rodriguez has noticed more white customers coming in, and the restaurant hasn’t had to cut any hours for its staff of 10.
“We know it’s important to them to support their families right now; no one wants to lose their job,” said Rodriguez, himself a father of three. “It’s hard. Some days I just go to my wife and say, I want a hug. I have a hard time, with the business, with the situation with ICE.” He switched back to Spanish: “It’s too much.”
Updated: This story was updated to reflect that the Oct. 28 Taste of Belmont Cragin will feature restaurants on Diversey Avenue.
Maggie Hennessy is a Chicago-based food and drink writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Bon Appetit and Food & Wine. Follow her on Instagram.