esmero
/ez-MEH-ro/ craft with care and intention
esmero is more than our name, it is our philosophy. Translated, esmero means to work with exceptional care, intention, and devotion. But what that translation may miss is the tenderness in it. The care put into something because you love the person it’s for. It reflects how we source our ingredients, honor traditions and most importantly - welcome every guest.
Led by Chef Adair Canacasco, esmero is the culmination of a lifelong exploration of Mexican identity, memory, and craftsmanship. Born in Mexico City and raised in the American Midwest, Chef Adair brings together heritage and contemporary technique through a collaborative creative process rooted in curiosity, discipline, and intention. Each course is thoughtfully composed to engage every sense, transforming familiar flavors into experiences that evoke emotion, inspire conversation, and create lasting memories.
Our ambition is not to redefine Mexican cuisine, but to contribute to its continuing story.
To honor its past while embracing its future. What we seek to provide is an invitation to explore, embrace and expand understanding of a rich and robust culinary landscape.
Every dish at esmero is an act of care.
Shaped by memory.
Refined by craft.
esmero is our practice.
Chef Adair Canacasco
executive chef
Chef Canacasco has spent the past nine years within The Alinea Group, helping shape some of its most distinctive restaurants. Starting at Alinea in 2017, he has since led the kitchens at Roister, FIRE, and the group's Big Sky, Montana, residency.
This residency is a chance for Chef Adair to lead something deeply personal, a concept shaped by his Mexican heritage, his family's roots in Mexico City, Hidalgo, and Guerrero, and his life and career in Chicago.
His earliest food memories are tied to family, land, and ritual. Those memories are the foundation of the cooking here, a cuisine that honors the ingredients, techniques, and traditions of Mexico and carries them forward through his own perspective and years at The Alinea Group.
Rather than reinterpret heritage from a distance, the cooking grows from inside it, exploring how memory, craft, and contemporary thinking can share one table. The result is rooted in tradition and open to where it might go, faithful to its origins yet curious about how to challenge them.