Taqueria Los Comales celebrating 50th anniversary in Little Village
CHICAGO (CBS) -- In Little Village, a family has been serving up food and building community for five decades at Taqueria Los Comales, a neighborhood institution.
Behind every order is a Chicago story so good you can almost smell it. As Larry and Christina Gonzales tell it, Los Comales started when their father, Camerino, first arrived in Chicago.
"He was working two, three jobs at a time, and he was always looking for food to eat. He's going to these diners that are mostly Eastern European, and it's ham sandwiches or patty melts, and in the 70s," Christina said. "He was looking for home, and said, 'I need a restaurant out here. It needs to be tacos, it needs to be tortas, it needs to be food … comfort food from home.'"
Food like the kind Camerino served at his grandfather's taco stand in their native Mexico. He reached out to the community for loans to open Los Comales' first location on 26th Street in Little Village.
"A lot of chaos and a lot of work," Larry said. "There was no book written. There was no manual written."
Camerino got what he needed to start what would become one of Chicago's best known taquerias, while creating a legacy far beyond the food.
"He was really close to all of the employees. He made them all part of our family," Christina said.
Camerino served flavors from the old world, while helping people build lives in the new one.
"He didn't want them to feel that they were in a foreign land, which they were. He just wanted to give them a meal that 30, 40 minutes they would feel, 'I'm back home,'" Larry said.
Juan Cisneros worked with Christina and Larry as kids, and now owns the restaurant's location in Niles.
"When I first started, my goal was to better my life. I came for a better life ti this country, and I was able to find it at Los Comales," Cisneros said through Christina, serving as his interpreter.
Maria Cardoso went from cashier to an owner of Los Comales' location Orland park.
"He was the one who gave me the opportunity," she said of Camerino.
And 33 years after she started, Rosa Robles serves customers with as much pride as she did on day 1.
"I'm happy. I'm content. I'm proud to be working with Los Comales. Los Comales became a part of my life, where I was able to accomplish my goals and be happy here," she said through Christina.
With so much heart beating behind this family business, Christina and Larry couldn't help but follow in their father's footsteps.
"We would meet at least two or three times a week to talk about, 'Okay, this is what we want to do. This is how we want to do it.' He would ask us, 'what are your visions?'" Larry said.
That vision of growing the business and giving back just as big is what Camerino left his children. He died after a cancer battle in 2021, and they have stepped up to lead. This month marks Los Comales' 50th anniversary celebration, and their father's mission continues to guide them. And when they're not talking to customers or running the company, they're struck by what their family's created.
"The 50th anniversary, working through all the memories, having the second, third generations come in, a lot of it now is coming out like, 'Wow.' This is a lot that we've done and he's done for us that's taking us into the future," Christina said.
From feeding people to fostering community, it's a Chicago story ready for its next 50 years.
The Los Comales location on 26th Street is having a big anniversary bash on Saturday to coincide with the Mexican Independence Day celebration in Little Village.
The Gonzales family is huge on giving back to the community; everything from funding dance classes and boxing programs for kids to donating food to the families of inmates at the Cook County Jail down the street.
You can find Taqueria Los Comales locations throughout Chicago and the suburbs, and even in Texas.
