Alright, you’ve just arrived outside Moto. If the building feels a little... unassuming, well, that’s classic Chicago-save the real fireworks for the inside. And in Moto’s case, those fireworks once came in the form of lasers, edible photographs, and more gadgets than Doctor Who’s kitchen.
Moto started life in 2004, smack-dab in what was once a working-class meatpacking area-before the neighborhood got its now-trendy zip. Back then, you might’ve tripped over more packing crates than designer sneakers out here. But restaurateur Joseph De Vito wasn’t looking for “normal.” He’d already done burgers and Italian; this time, he wanted weird. Lucky for him, a guy named Homaro Cantu-imagine your high school chemistry teacher but with sharper knives-walked in and pitched a place where dinner might float, explode, or possibly glow.
Now, De Vito admits he was blindsided. Cantu came across as kind of geeky, but when he whipped up a multi-course wild ride featuring an exploding ravioli and a portable box that cooked fish tableside, that was it. Deal done. They called the restaurant “Moto,” which in Japanese can mean “idea,” “taste,” or “desire”-choose your own adventure.
From day one, Moto gave new meaning to the phrase “food for thought.” Customers would look for sushi and bail when handed an edible menu instead-yes, you actually ate the menu. Apparently, nothing says “dining out” in Chicago like crunching up soy-ink paper and turning it into alphabet soup.
Inside Moto’s kitchen, things got... let’s call it unusual. There was a centrifuge, a particle ion gun, and, at times, a class IV laser-the kind used by NASA, but for fish. Liquid nitrogen froze food solid. And the menu? Try “surf and turf with M.C. Escher”-served with a picture you had to eat, tasting like sea on one end and land on the other. Then there was synthetic champagne squirted into your glass with a medical syringe, and carbonated fruit for dessert. Some dishes even levitated, because-well-why not?
Plenty of food critics thought Moto was more flash than flavor at first. But as high-concept as it all was-twenty-course tasting menus with edible paper and donut soup that actually tasted like a Krispy Kreme-word eventually got out that the kitchen had real chops behind the circus act. Even Burger King execs came calling, looking for their own edible paper magic. By the time Moto earned its Michelin star in 2012, the reservation list was busier than a blue line train at rush hour.
Of course, all these mind-bending tricks came at a price. Back around 2005, a full tasting menu at $240 (about $370 in today’s dollars) was about the same as a round-trip flight to New York, but a lot more fun and definitely more edible.
But at the center of it all was Homaro Cantu-a chef who believed food could be playful, thoughtful, mysterious, and, maybe most important, surprising. Sadly, Cantu’s story ended in tragedy with his death in 2015. The restaurant closed for a few days, but his team reopened Moto to celebrate his life and keep pushing the boundaries he set.
Moto eventually passed to the Alinea Group, but its legendary runs-smoking corkscrews, edible MC Eschers, donut soups-live in the city’s food lore. In a town famous for deep dish and hot dogs, Moto proved even the familiar can be turned inside out, made new, and yes, even printed on edible paper.
So, as you look at this quiet corner, remember: innovation doesn’t always arrive with a marching band. Sometimes it slips in quietly, then fires up the laser. That’s Moto-Chicago style, with a twist and a wink.
