Cantina 1910 – Locally Sourced Ingredients Make Authentic Mexican Innovative and Exciting

By Josephine Layug

Mexican food? Yes, please! Cantina 1910 is an authentic Mexican restaurant using innovative cooking techniques to bring fresh and flavorful food to its tables. Satisfying guests’ carnivorous sides and vegetarian sides, Cantina 1910 sources its food from multiple local farms, producers, and a rooftop garden, as well as a preservation kitchen to keep seasonal foods year-round.

There are quite a few menus at Cantina 1910; there’s a Café menu, Breakfast and Lunch, Brunch, Dinner, Dessert, Happy Hour, House Cocktails and Brunch Cocktails. The dinner menu consisted mostly of sharable plates and small plates for very traditional family-style eating with some entrée plates as well. The sharing-style theme carried over into the cocktail menu a bit, including a few drink options that serve groups of four. This is a great restaurant for groups of friends or parties!

Starting off right, we ordered a “secret drink” we had heard about that you won’t find on the cocktail menu. The South-Sider was a lightly sweet drink that was served with Dry Ice. Definitely order this drink if you want some heads turning your way!

For our appetizer, we had the Guacamole con Crudos y Totaditos (raw roots and fat washed tostaditas). We’ve never heard of “fat washed” anything before, and it was great!

We immediately went into a full taco frenzy after our appetizer. Each taco order comes with two tacos, and trust us, they’re filling. We had the Calabaza Tacos (Rajas, Squash, Sunchoke, Young Peas and Queso Fresco), the Pozo-Pollo Tacos (Braised Chicken, Kohlrabi, Radish, Shallots and Corn Nuts), and the Al Pastor Tacos (Adobo Spit Roasted Pork, Wheat Grass and Tomatillo).

Our favorites were the Pozo-Pollo Tacos because of the great crunch from the veggies and nuts and the Al Pastor Tacos because they gave juicy bites with a kick of heat.

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We also ordered Cantina 1910’s “beast of a sandwich”, the Cemita. This huge sandwich was loaded with Black Beans, Chicken Milanesa, Al Pastor, Headcheese, Avocado, Onion, Oaxacan Cheese, Smoked Pasilla and Papalo on a Sesame Bun. We’re honestly not sure what leaves a bigger mouthful: a bite of this sandwich or the list of ingredients! The Cemita was easily our favorite pick of the evening. We highly suggest this sandwich.

Finally, for dessert, we ordered the Chocolate Mousse with Vanilla Crema and a Cinnamon Tortilla; simply titled, “Chocolate”. The flecks of Vanilla Bean in the Crema really stood out in this dessert. We also ordered the Tres Leches de Café, which came in three small squares topped with Vanilla Whipped Cream and Chocolate Shavings. The Tres Leches were perfectly soft without becoming soggy.

Our time at Cantina 1910 was very enjoyable. The freshness and full flavors of the ingredients in our meals were really noticeable. This is a great restaurant for a fun night out in the Andersonville neighborhood, which is certainly growing its trendy atmosphere, especially on North Clark Street. There’s plenty of seasonal produce to taste, hand-crafted cocktails to sample, and an array of menus to explore through. Your mouth will definitely be busy at Cantina 1910!

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