A Respected French Chef Opens a Casual Mexican Restaurant in Winnetka with Longtime Members of His Team

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A respected French chef is going casual and joining with longtime members of his team to open a counter-service Mexican restaurant in the northern suburbs. Fondita Miguel is the latest project from Michael Lachowicz of the George Trois Group, located a mile up Green Bay Road from his brasserie Aboyer. A joint venture with his business partners Miguel Escobar and Sergio Angel, it will serve tacos, tortas, and burritos at 544 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka.

“We’re going to turn it on its ear and we’re going to do something different,” Lachowicz says.

They’re doing something different because the restaurant business has changed drastically since the pandemic. Lachowicz, Escobar, and Angel opened another Mexican restaurant, Fonda Cantina, in Evanston last year, but had to close it this summer because the business plan wasn’t working. “Everything changed,” Lachowicz says. “And for the most part, people were not willing to acknowledge it – and I was one of those people.”

Unlike Fonda Cantina, Fondita Miguel will focus on takeout and catering; New Trier Township High School is nearby, as is the Winnetka Metra station, providing plenty of potential drop-in customers. There will only be a few tables and counters to dine at inside, and no waiters or bartenders. Only four people will work there at a time – Escobar and Angel themselves, plus two other staffers – allowing the restaurant to cut back on labor costs, one of the most difficult problems for restaurateurs to solve in the current environment.

Not having the extra front-of-house staff will allow the partners to keep the prices of food low without skimping on quality, according to Lachowicz. “I’m going to have product that looks like it should be twice the expense,” he says. A tight menu offers fillings ranging from birria to mushrooms to chicken in chipotle sauce alongside a few salads, sides, and desserts. 

“Having Sergio and Miguel working in Fondita is going to be the coolest thing, because they’re going to talk about the food that you’re eating at the table,” he adds, putting a positive spin on a necessary business development. “You’re engaging in a dialogue with the person who actually created the meal you’re about to eat.”

Lachowicz has worked with the chef Escobar for 18 years and wine director Angel for almost 30; Angel’s wife, brother-in-law, sons, and daughter are all also involved in the George Trois Group restaurants.

“I find that it is far more beneficial for me to be not only pragmatic, but to work in more of a collaborative” since the pandemic, Lachowicz says. “I’ve done that now with Miguel and Sergio.”

Fonda Cantina was an opportunity for Escobar and Angel to step forward with Lachowicz’s support behind the scenes, with a focus on the “abuelita” style food of Escobar’s youth in Mexico. Angel and Escobar will continue to take the lead at Fondita Miguel.

That’s why the restaurant bears Escobar’s name – just as one of Lachowicz’s first restaurants was named Restaurant Michael. He eventually renamed it George Trois, after his uncle and grandfather, and earlier this year closed that to subsume it under a newly reimagined Aboyer, which has also shifted to become more casual in the long wake of the pandemic.

People’s habits and the economy evolve, and the chefs and owners who can’t relinquish their love of the restaurant business try to shift along with it.

Fondita Miguel will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm and Sundays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. They’re aiming to open in the last week of November or first week of December.