Business was so good that they opened a second location on Harlem Avenue just two years later. Customers filed in the minute Rivera opened the doors. “We were so busy trying to make it happen and working nonstop that we didn’t have time to stress.” Though the neighborhood was transforming, Arrieta says there was never any concern about whether a restaurant like Jibaritos would work in gentrifying Logan Square. Her concept was simple: Use her finely honed expertise to put out Puerto Rican dishes with fresh ingredients at affordable prices. She knew all the tricks and whistles to open a restaurant.”Īfter 15 years of working for others, Rivera fulfilled her dream of opening her own place in 2016 when she took over an old Puerto Rican restaurant on Fullerton Avenue. “She worked here, she worked there, saved a little money. “She got good at it and that’s what she dedicated her life to,” her son Jesús Arrieta - who also manages the family business - says. A few years later, she moved on to Ponce Restaurant, another neighborhood fixture, where she continued to immerse herself in the island’s culinary traditions. She first worked at a Puerto Rican food stall in Logan Square’s infamous Megamall, an indoor flea market that served as a hub for the Latinx community. Rivera arrived in Chicago from her native Maracaibo, Venezuela 20 years ago. The Logan Square location | Credit: Jibaritos y Mas How a Venezuelan immigrant ended up creating one of the city’s iconic Puerto Rican restaurants is a tale shaped by the city’s own history of immigration, gentrification, and food. Instead, it honored the longstanding community that had kept the neighborhood going before the “cool” factor came into play. With its busy take-out counter and no-frills tables, Jibaritos y Más chased no trends. It’s against this complicated backdrop that Yelitza Rivera opened her tiny Puerto Rican restaurant.
The new businesses were a sign that the neighborhood was gentrifying rapidly, from a majority Latinx community with a sizable Puerto Rican population to one that was whiter and wealthier. Award-winning restaurants sprouted on the tree-lined boulevards, hipster cafés dotted every corner, and bars boasted about their resident mixologist.īut dining wasn’t the only buzzworthy word surrounding Logan Square. The area exuded effortless cool, even being named as one of the nation’s top 15 hottest neighborhoods by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield in 2016.
And no neighborhood was more in demand than Logan Square.
Bon Appétit and Condé Nast Traveler magazines were only moments away from crowning the Second City as the number-one restaurant city. When Jibaritos y Más opened on an unassuming corner of Chicago’s Logan Square in 2016, it would have been easy to assume it was a holdover from pre-gentrified Logan Square.īy then, Chicago was making a name for itself as a hot dining destination. Here now, a look at how Puerto Rican mainstay Jibaritos y Más turned into a Chicago essential.
Location of Business (Latitude - Longitude) : 41.9248161 -87.Welcome to The Greats, a series on the restaurants that define their cities. Some other information about the company is as follows According to these evaluations, the average score is 4.6 There are 3515 reviews and comments for Jibaritos Y Mas business or place registration. You can reach by phone.ĭo you have Ratings, Comments and reviews for Jibaritos Y Mas?Īverage score of the business It appears to be 4.6 stars. There is a phone number for the business or place. Jibaritos y Mas found as company or location record. Searched for keyword Illinois Chicago Logan Square Restaurante Puertorriqueño.
Full address for business registration Jibaritos y Mas, Address details, 3400 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, Il 60647, United States. Illinois state,Chicago city, Logan Square county is located.