A tiled storefront at 4629 N. Broadway, a few doors from the planned Molino Los Hermanos space. Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Chef Norman Fenton is getting ready to open a more casual neighbor to his Michelin-starred Uptown restaurant Cariño. Molino Los Hermanos, a restaurant and wholesale tortillería, is slated to open in mid-December at 4666-68 N. Broadway, Eater Chicago reported in its fall openings list.
Fenton first described the project in the spring. Block Club Chicago wrote in April that the new spot would put a large molino, the mill used to make tortillas, at the center of a 26- to 34-seat room, with a counter where customers can watch masa being ground. Fenton said in a statement then that the idea was “honoring the full process” of masa, “to respect the farmers who grow it, the work that transforms it and the tradition behind it.” He also planned to sell fresh tortillas and masa to the public and to other restaurants.
Eater, writing in September, called the space 2,800 square feet and described it as half all-day restaurant and half wholesale tortillería, a casual counterpoint to Cariño next door. The menu, both accounts said, is expected to include foie gras enmoladas, suadero tacos, ceviches and aquachiles. Eater also listed cocktails, beer and frozen margarita slushies, and said the room’s materials are meant to reflect the colors of corn.
Cariño, which Fenton opened in late 2023, already nixtamalizes heirloom corn from Mexico in house. Molino is the version of that work you can watch from a stool on Broadway, if the mid-December target holds.
Linh Tran-Whitaker covers Argyle Street, dining and community life.
