UPTOWN — Though Diana Dávila's tenure at the Cantina 1910 restaurant was brief, it had a profound toll on her life and solidified her desire for her newest venture, she says.
While she left the recently shuttered Cantina 1910 Mexican restaurant at 5025 N. Clark St. after only three months as executive chef, she spent months prior to its opening helping perfect its details, from the glassware to the menu.
It was during that time she realized what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
"I had one of those moments where I knew this is what I wanted to do. I only want to cook Mexican food for the rest of my life. It was very powerful," said Dávila, who's now planning to open a Mexican restaurant in Logan Square. "There's nothing like slanging the food that really has made you."
The new restaurant has a name, but she wasn't ready to reveal it or the street location because she didn't want to jinx it considering contracts and licenses haven't been signed, she said.
While she was scarce on details, the place will be small with seating for about 40 people and definitely will not be a fine-dining establishment but more of a mom-and-pop joint, she said.
"It's just going to be me cooking, cooking, cooking Mexican food," said Davila, adding it would not be located on Milwaukee Avenue because "no one would be able to find it [since] there's so many new places" along that stretch.
Dávila was raised outside Chicago and began her culinary career at age 10 in her parents' taquería. She studied at a culinary school in Oaxaca, Mexico. By the age of 20, the Sun-Times dubbed her a “Mexican Marvel." At 21, she received a two-star review from Phil Vettel of the Tribune.
Before a stint in Washington, D.C. — where she served as the head chef of Sidebar, a contemporary cocktail bar, and Jackie's, a contemporary American restaurant — Dávila fell in love with Logan Square, where she and her husband purchased their first home.
"I think it has a little of everything," Dávila said, adding she's excited to contribute to the neighborhood not just as homeowner but also as a business owner. "I'll be able to walk my daughter to school then walk to work."
In September 2015, Dávila officially began her tenure as executive chef of the upscale Mexican restaurant Cantina 1910 when it opened in Andersonville. But just three months into the venture, she left citing "irreconcilable differences" with the co-owners of the restaurant, Mark Robertson and Mike Sullivan.
They "parted ways in the interest of continuing the restaurant’s mission to provide their highly regarded regionally-sourced Mexican cuisine," Jamie Solomon, a spokeswoman for the restaurant said in December.
The relationship fell apart simply because "we weren't seeing eye to eye," Dávila said Tuesday. While chefs and owners do butt heads, their relationship "should be a healthy one," she said.
"They wanted to run their business a certain way and I felt it wasn't what I had signed up for. In retrospect, that's what it came down to," she said, adding as the chef, "I'm the one with the people every day."
Monday, Cantina 1910 suddenly announced it was closing after being open less than a year in the former location of T's Bar, citing concerns about minimum wage hikes.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closing of Cantina 1910 and Café 1910 effective immediately,” said Robertson and Sullivan, who are also the co-founders of Root Group, which is also runs Crew Bar and Grill in Uptown and the SoFo Tap also on Clark Street.
"Unfortunately, the rapidly changing labor market for the hospitality industry has resulted in immediate, substantial increases in payroll expenses that we could not absorb through price increases," they said in the statement posted on the restaurant's Facebook page.
The abrupt closure shocked employees, who learned they no longer had jobs, via an email sent around 10:45 p.m. Sunday as some finished up their shifts.
While Dávila was "caught up in moving forward," she never saw anything that would make her think Cantina 1910 would close. But she wasn't really focused on their day-to-day operations or "looking that much into their future," she said.
Though Dávila didn't leave on the best terms, she has no animosity for the place, she said. The chef kept in contact with the staff and still remembers "wanting to get into the building. It's beautiful," she said.
"I spent a lot of time [there]. ... I've met a lot of people throughout that project," Dávila said. "It's sad for me to see the physical place close, but it happens a lot. It's sad, but I'm trying to embark on my own adventure."
Eventually she hopes to employ some of the staff she connected with, but "it all depends if it works favorably," she said, adding she was unsure if "I'd be able to afford them."
Dávila hopes to open the restaurant about two months after receiving the keys, which could happen any day, she said.
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