About · Cocina
Three coastlines. One room.
Chef Lucia Marquez · the pass · service
Lucia Marquez was born in Sevilla, raised on a kitchen table that ran from afternoon coffee to midnight wine. Her grandmother kept a clay jar of preserved lemon on the shelf for forty years. That jar is in this kitchen.
She trained in Marrakesh, cooked the line at La Mar in Trapani, then crossed the ocean — Le Bernardin, Spiaggia, Topolobampo — collecting techniques the way other people collect wine. In 2024 she came back home to Ukrainian Village and opened the room she'd been drawing on napkins since she was twenty-three.
Ostería Marquez is what happens when one cook with three coastlines in her hands decides to feed sixty-four people a night. Spain, Morocco, and coastal Italy don't fight each other on the plate — they finish each other's sentences.
"The Mediterranean isn't a country. It's a hallway. We just left the doors open."
The three-coastlines philosophy
Spain
Sherry as a working ingredient. Ibérico fat as butter. Andalusian patience — 12 hours, low fire, until the pork cheek surrenders.
North Africa
Preserved lemon, harissa, chermoula, ras el hanout. The tagine isn't on the menu because it's exotic — it's there because it's the most patient pot in the kitchen.
Coastal Italy
The pasta program. Day-boat fish. Sardinian salt and Sicilian anchovy. The technique that taught us restraint.
Sourcing partners
The people in the supply chain
Mick Klug Farm
St. Joseph, MI
Stone fruit, tomatoes, fennel, herbs — every Tue/Fri April through October.
River Valley Ranch
Burlington, WI
Mushrooms — maitake, shiitake, oyster. The fire-room won't cook without them.
Slagel Family Farm
Fairbury, IL
Iberico-cross pork, dry-aged duck, occasional pheasant. Family operation since 1946.
Eat Drink Sicily
Sicily import
Castelvetrano olives, anchovies, sea salt. Direct from a fifth-generation salt house in Trapani.
Gunthorp Farms
LaGrange, IN
Pasture-raised chicken and the eggs the brunch program lives on.
Hoosier Mama
Chicago, IL
Pastry collaboration — the Basque cheesecake recipe is theirs, and our staff trains there once a year.
The kitchen
Who's behind the pass
Lucia Marquez
Chef · Owner
Sevilla → Marrakesh → Trapani → Le Bernardin → Spiaggia → home.
Marco Salerno
Sommelier
Daniel NYC, Spiaggia. Advanced, Court of Master Sommeliers.
Andrés Vidal
Sous Chef
The fire room. Ten years of secondi at Topolobampo before he came over.
Rosa Quintero
Pastry · Postres
Tartine SF, then NoMad pastry. Olive oil cake is hers.
Jamie Okafor
GM · Front of House
Alinea Group alumna. Runs the room like a metronome.
Kennedy Hale
Bar · Amari
The cart that ends the night is hers. Built the digestif program from scratch.