Quiote Served Booze Without License For Months Before Eviction

CHICAGO — Restaurants fail. That’s just how it is. But it’s a real bummer when one of your favorite joints suddenly shuts down with neither warning nor explanation.

That’s what happened to Quiote, the Logan Square Mexican spot beloved by locals and heralded by critics that twice in two years earned a spot on the prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Chicago food-truck pioneer Daniel Salls’ brick-and-mortar homage to his culinary hero, Rick Bayless, wowed skeptical food writers with “some of the best tortillas in town” and “bright takes on chicken mole and churros."

Since Quiote’s February 2017 debut, Salls and his creative partners tweaked the menu to rave reviews, added late-night eats and tapped into the hipster craft-cocktail scene by rebranding the basement as Todo Santos, a Mezcal lounge run by Bayless protégé, beverage director Jay Schroeder.

Last year, Salls bragged about Quiote’s future in an interview with a Chicago food writer, “This restaurant’s got legs. So how do you then start to think about creating a legacy?”

Indeed, Quiote seemed to have it all before closing up shop Aug. 11.

Maybe that’s why it was especially shocking for Quiote lovers like me to learn from an Instagram post that “personal reasons” were to blame for the Logan Square culinary darling’s unexpected demise.

The rather cryptic explanation left my curiosity unsatisfied. And, as I expected, public records showed Quiote’s “personal” troubles weren’t private.

Salls didn’t respond to my request to talk about what went wrong. His attorney, Michael Kralovec, declined to comment except to say, “The restaurant is closed.”

According to court records, Quiote’s parent companies controlled by Salls struggled to keep up with debts and battled with a disgruntled investor as the restaurant gained a loyal regulars and international acclaim.

In 2017, Jake Miller, who owned a 10.5 percent stake in The Salsa Truck, Salls’ former food-truck business, alleged in a lawsuit that his former business partner engaged in deceptive business practices, Cook County court records show.

Miller accused Salls of transferring assets from The Salsa Truck to the “Quiote Project” without compensating investors, and “wound down” The Salsa Truck business and launched new limited-liability corporations to avoid paying outstanding debts.

In February, the case was settled for $25,000, court records show. Miller’s attorney declined to comment.

And Quiote's troubles got worse this year.

The restaurant and basement bar at the corner of Altgeld and California had been serving booze months after its Illinois liquor license expired in March, state records show.

In July, Quiote’s parent companies — Making The Donuts, LLC and Agave Flower Management, LLC — were “involuntarily dissolved” by the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.

And on Aug. 5, a Cook County judge signed an eviction order against Making the Donuts, LLC, for failing to pay $40,266.55 in rent, court records show.

Six days later, Quiote’s staff quietly served up its final round of lamb carnitas tacos, among other tasty dishes.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."