There’s a lot going on at the General, a bar/taqueria/general store in Logan Square that, like the neighborhood, is named after General John A. Logan. It’s a western-themed saloon serving locally sourced food with southern and Mexican influences. The general store in front offers staples like milk, bread, eggs, and produce, as well as beer and wine. And, improbably, it all works—especially if you’re seated on the back patio on a late summer evening.
The menu is fairly brief aside from the tacos: a few sides and snacks, a single green salad, and a house-made pie of the day. My favorite of the lot was the southern-style boiled peanuts, served hot in a salty, savory liquid (the waitress said the recipe was a secret, but the umami flavor makes me suspect that soy sauce and dried mushrooms are involved). I’d never had boiled peanuts before and they seemed weirdly soft to me at first, but their flavor quickly won me over.
