Our list of takeout places just got shorter. Cisco Grill in Snider Plaza has closed with little warning. Originally opened by Susan and Marc Hall in 1987 and sold in 2012 to Eric Dean the always present manager who knew every customer by name. The menu was filled with classics like Picante Caesar salad, Southwestern Chicken wrap or Poblano soup with interior decorations to match. Let’s not forget a Potato soup and a Tortilla soup that were always perfect for my taste buds when I was a little hungry. Others loved the grilled salmon with that amazing rice, the wraps, pot roast on certain days and the fan summer favorite of watermelon chicken salad. I changed up my order depending on my mood, some days it was uno, dos, tres, others it was Chicken Colorado, maybe quesadillas or spinach salad. When I was down in the dumps, skinny or just plain hungry it was a burger and fries. I can’t tell you how many birthdays my dad took me to lunch at Cisco Grill, just the two of us. It was a good day when the booth just to the right of the door was available. I could almost predict who was sitting in the other booth to the left of the front door. I often saw the UP mens’ “mafia” (you know who you are) having lunch there back in the day.
We haven’t even touched on dessert, the pies! My favorite the key lime without the topping, my dad would easily fall into the buttermilk pie that was so good it had an article written about it. Marc Hall’s mom, Carolyn was the original mastermind behind the pies.
Those nights that life had thrown too much at me, Cisco Grill was always one of my husband’s four choices he would give me. His favorite was the grilled salmon and that bed of dreamy rice and a side of the spinach and corn salsa or black beans. I would try to steal some rice or hope he left some in the to go container but usually he would scoop it clean.
I guess my age is showing as I notice Snider Plaza is changing the way Highland Park Village changed. Long gone is M.E. Moses, the A&P, Inges knitting shop, Sam’s meat market with those amazing rotisserie chickens and now Cisco Grill. Thank goodness for Jack’s (Burger House), Bubba’s Amore, Kuby’s, Lawrence Jewelers, For Heaven’s Sake and Suzanne Roberts’ fine gifts at least some of the landscape is still familiar as I pass the old fountain or drive down Hillcrest as a strategy to turn into the plaza to find a good parking spot.
I suppose I need to start experimenting with rice recipes and perfect my pie game as it looks like I am headed back into the kitchen.
