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Back in town, Monica Eng has a review of Blue Nile, the Ethiopian hot spot (Ziggy Marley's been there!) in a Rogers Park strip mall. Since every Ethiopian restaurant in America serves essentially the same things, it would be enough to say that Eng largely enjoyed Blue Nile's rendition of the cuisine, save for the kitfo. If you've never had Ethiopian before or are sick of the Clark St options, this would be a good introternative (we couldn't help ourselves).
Last week, there were two articles. The first, by Jenny B. Davis, is about an indie wine store in Bucktown called Cellar Rat Wine Shop. Charming, right? It's run by indie musician Dean Schlabowske, who rails against the corporatization of aesthetics in all fields. All the wine in the store is from small and independent wineries, which Schlabowske believes to produce better and cheaper wine. That is a fine opinion to have!
The situation really started coming to a head in the past few weeks on LTHForum. First, CTB started a thread called "Baccala-Is it on it's last Porcine legs?," bearing familiar bad news: "We arrived a little before 9pm and the place was about 25% filled." Subsequent commenters talked about how both the food and service had been going downhill for months (remember, this was a top-reviewed restaurant when it opened at the end of March).It's true, many may have seen it on their radar, but this weekend is the last for the offshoot of timo, and all its pork filled goodness. And no I will not be working there this weekend, so this is not a shill, but rather a suggestion to go get a pork belly with smoked gouda risotto tonight or tomorrow before they are gone. I truly enjoyed the food there, it made serving it to everyone very honest and easy. Although things were inconsistant in the foh at the end, I think that losing Scylla and Baccala is a terrific blow to a neighborhood whose food options are mediocre at best. I feel bad being the bearer of bad news, but it is better than letting it go without it's goodbye's.and everyone on LTH was sad about it. Maybe the neighborhood wasn't ready for that much porky goodness? they mused.
For a city lacking in cheep and decent Chinese food Eat First stands out for great hangover takeout. Calling for pickup is the way to go, as the food is generally ready for you by the time you walk over there. 'Cause secretly we're all sick of Thai.That may be, but people are still putting on a good show about it. Around 10% of the reviews we get each week are for Thai restaurants, and they're usually pretty favorable. This week, for example:
• In the theater district, Custom House turned out a decent prix fixe, although the seafood this reviewer got was not the restaurant's strong point [Chicago Foodies]
So far as we can tell, this has happened three times over the summer, most recently in a review on Drive-Thru. People seem to constantly be discovering its existence, what with its out-of-the-way location, semi-obscure cuisine, and fringy religious ties, but everyone who makes the trip down to 75th Street (and writes about it) seems to enjoy what SVE has to offer.[Soul Vegetarian East's] vegan cuisine is inspired by owner Prince Asiel Ben-Israel's religious beliefs. He and his wife Yohanna are African Hebrew Israelites, one of the purported "lost tribes" of Israel (for a gross oversimplification, think of it as a Jewish version of Rastafarianism), and among the Biblical passages they take seriously, one from Genesis stands out in informing their dietary choices: "God also said: 'See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food." There's plenty of stuff in the Bible about eating animals, too, but whatever - Soul Veg's offerings are a hell of a lot healthier than standard soul food fare, but similarly spiced and entirely enjoyable. Good for the Earth, good for the body, good for the soul, and all that jazz.Finally, we should point out, per Drive-Thru, that SVE's wraps are available for take out at the Barnes and Noble at State and Jackson in the Loop, but we think you shouldn't deny yourself the trip to Greater Grand Crossing for the full experience.
The NYTimes excels at finding a story where none exists. Case in point: this article on the wild ginseng hunters of South Korea. Apparently, the root can command upwards of $130,000 a pound, which is like, more than gold times cocaine. What this reminds us of is the black truffles of southern Europe, although the Koreans aren't able to use special pigs to sniff out the plant. Also, the ginseng isn't intended to be shaved over pasta, oh no - either one makes tea, or more likely, gives it as a gift to connote power and influence. Neither one is worth it!
David Tamarkin's review of the former gropes to find something nice to say about this highly inconsistent Andersonville Italian, while Heather Shouse's write-up of the latter is an upbeat little ditty, almost to the tune of "Save this restaurant." Clearly, these two threes were not created equal. Because how could any scale capture the nuances of expectation and remain consistent between restaurants with vastly different missions? Tamarkin had high standards for Il Fiasco, we'd imagine, because the space, neighborhood, and chef would all suggest a much better experience. Shouse was (probably) happy to champion a nice little cafe in a neighborhood that is sorely lacking in the category. Given all these motivations, what is a three supposed to mean? We don't know, but we're equally complicit in quantifying dining experiences, so we'll let it go (for now).
• Monica Eng has a roundup of inexpensive restaurants that feature locally sourced ingredients, all this in preparation for next month's "Localvore Challenge."
It's called "Salsa Under the Stars," which is both frightening and not bloody likely - it's forecast to be cloudy with occasional thunderstorms this evening. But anyway, the party is free to the public from 6:30pm-10pm, and involves food from the restaurant, Corona beer, and music courtesy of the Mambo Allstars (to facilitate the salsa-ing). Pepe's is also giving away a vacation to Mexico, and if that's not enough, WLS-AM's Jerry Agar will be broadcasting live from hoedown. AM radio!
"We suffer on days and nights with Cubs games. The groups of Cubs fans actually interfere with our business. We expected a different response," Mootoo says. "We have observed that one person controls each group of fans. If that person, be it he or she, stops to sample a waffle, they all do. But most of those in control walk right on buy, oblivious to the aroma, headed to a predesignated destination -- probably to drink.Social Darwinism aside, maybe this means Baladoche should start serving booze?
Basically, while the ban is technically in force, restaurants have found loopholes like "giving away" FG as an accompaniment to some other, mysteriously overpriced dish, or simply on discreet request. This second option sounds like an invitation for a sting, but the accompaniment scheme apparently works. Vettel reports that the Health Department "concluded that [a restaurant doing this] was within the letter of the law."
2) Kinzie Chophouse is having a Gordon Brothers Winery dinner tonight, and Jeff Gordon himself will be in attendance! We certainly don't follow NASCAR, but we still had to go to the website and make sure the vineyard didn't belong to the driver. Because, like, Batali is turning that whole crowd onto wine and fine dining. But anyway, Kinzie will be pairing four courses with wine for $64.95 (classy!) tonight starting at 6:30pm, but don't take our word for it - tonight's menu is enumerated on their website.
• Drive-Thru has discovered Apart Pizza, and likes it! This came as a surprise because the blogger had forsworn enjoying pizza following too much Dominos. Cannot blame her.I also lived in Hong Kong for a year, many years ago. There are very few restaurants in the country that actually remind me of Hong Kong. This one does. It's not high end, but it is very authentic, to the point that one dish (the bitter melon) was too Chinese for my taste. The salt and pepper smelts were great, the baby bok chow with shitake mushrooms were in a perfect brown sauce, even the vegetable fried rice my daughter wanted was exceptionally good. Shrimp with walnuts and vegetable chow fun were also excellent. We ordered a fish filet in scallions and ginger that came out deep fried, and the waitress replaced it at no charge with the same dish but steamed and spicy, which was also very good.We like that this review gives a sense of both the restaurant's accessibility and authenticity. The right balance of both makes for excellent ethnic dining. Also, it's so true that bitter melon can be really intense. Probably best to avoid.
We live in the suburbs, and are always looking for places to meet my city dwelling mother at the north end of the city. This was a good spot.
Hello fellow diners. If you don't fall in love with this place you just don't under stand.I've worked in the biz. for 20 years, and someone at our table made a mistake in ordering their meal,and called the waiter over and made it sound as if the kitchen made the mistake when three other people clearly heard the order being placed, we were shocked by friends "ploy". The waiter said he was sorry the owner stopped by remade the dish and bought the table dessert! Now that was over the top service that you just don't see anymore, BRAVO!! I'm not even going to talk about the great prices and great menu just go see for yourself.If this is a shill, it's taken a very complex form. A guy (probably) attacking his friend for trying to cheat the restaurant, and then praising the restaurant for rising above? This is really a question for The Ethicist, maybe.
Shta bre kenjash, hrana je VR, usluga takodje, a tek muzika, muzika je neprevazidjena. Sad od skora su pocheli da sviraju neki momci, kidaju scenu, a tek pevach Srdjan, majstor zna svoj poso. Tako da, Hrvat, sve u svemu mnogo drobish. POzdrav iz Vrtipupinaca kod Knjazevca.Um, does anyone who knows Serbo-Croatian want to roughly translate this? We sometimes get reviews in Spanish, but this is the most exotic language we've gotten thus far. Also, YO RAP!
even mcdonalds is better. awful, uninspired, bland. worst meal of our lives. should be shut down.We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
• Apparently, Argo Tea, which is sprouting up all over the place, actually has pretty good mixed drinks. Mixed tea drinks, that is, like the chocolate mint [Chicago Foodies]
Moving right along, much of today's section is devoted to suburban restaurants, which are blessedly off our beat. TABLEHOPPING had a review of Tavern at the Park, but the very same appeared in The Stew some days ago, and we already dealt with it in the Blog Review roundup.
It's probably a hipper alternative to the nearby Kamehachi, what with its minimalist decor and its "Sexy Mexican" roll (shrimp, spicy crab, and jalapeno, topped with avocado), but not by much. The most interesting stuff on the menu, as far as we're concerned, is the cold and warm plates on the "fusion" half of the menu. Here, you can try a Honeymoon Shooter (oyster, quail egg, uni, ikura, and caviar topped with gold flakes for $11), or Shisito peppers (scallops and crabs stuffed in fried jalapeno peppers for $10). We're wary of any sushi place that feels the need to offer Pad Thai ($12 for tofu or chicken and $13 for shrimp), but we suppose it's a touristy area. Anyway, that shooter gives them a reprieve from total humdrumness - Metromix recommends giving it a whirl if you find yourself at AMC River East, and that seems like a reasonable course of action.
Yes, the 20th anniversary of Charlie Trotter's! The restaurant opened in "not yet gentrified" Lincoln Park back on August 17, 1987, and has never looked back. Trotter is throwing several celebratory benefit dinners, with the $1,500 and $5,500-a-head fees going to various charities. Also, Charlie is a professed licorice addict, saying "There'll be times when I'm starving for something in the middle of the night and I'll eat licorice. And not just high-quality, European licorice but those Twizzler things. ... You eat like 15 of them and then you're like, 'What did I just do?'" Ah, we know that same feelings of disbelief and remorse all too well.
Having lived 4 blocks from Chinatown my whole life Ive been to several Chinese Restaurants. Ben Pao is by far the best Chinese restaurant I have ever been too. The food is great the atmosphere is awesome. Above all its extremely clean. Its not located in Chinatown its downtown but its worth the drive.and the snob, "Dave" responded (well, probably not) on 8/13:
The only dish I've had here that is well prepared is the eggplant with tofu. Everything else I've had is either corrupted by a desire to be 'gourmet' or 'upper crust' without the know-how to execute it or is just poorly done. Carelessly handled. I will not make the trip again. It's a faux-gourmet waste of space, a pretentious but mindless haven for the those who pretend to be adventurous.Obviously, "Dave" is significantly more cultured and erudite than "Sabrina" (on grammar and word usage alone); Dave hates being patronized by (or patronizing, for that matter), corporate restaurant chains that sap the life out of a cuisine with Americanization and focus-groups and the like, while Sabrina is happy to have food that tastes good in a fancy-seeming restaurant and doesn't have all of Dave's elitist baggage to trip over before she can enjoy her dinner. Would Dave like this food more if he was eating it in a God-foresaken strip mall restaurant in a crappy suburb, served by indifferent waiters? It would be easy to say yes, but probably not at the prices that Ben Pao charges. Dave and Sabrina have different understandings of what constitutes value in a meal. Clearly, BP is not the place for the Daves of the world, but the Sabrinas are likely to have a fine time. You know who you are. This is why we don't copy edit the reviews - so much of the content is in the style.
In the review, Anne Spiselman reports on the foie gras torchons that were being passed around. Sure enough, they're smack dab on the menu, served with french green lentil, red onion preserve, sauterne gelée, and house-made brioche for $17. Rarely is casual disregard for the law so unctuously delicious. There's a whole slew of $10-$20 little nibbles aside from the FG, from a Hawaiian ceviche with Pacific ono, white mushrooms, beauty heart radish, shaved raw fennel and sesame crackers ($15) to a seared lamb loin with braised lamb neck crêpe, English pea puree and cumin-glazed carrots ($24, but everything else is under $20), and a namesake apple salad with poached and raw apples (a good retronym), quartered confit artichokes, arugula, candied walnut, brie panini and cider vinaigrette ($13). Oh yes, and full caviar service, your choice Iranian Osetra or Sevruga. If you don't feel like spending hundreds of dollars but still want your roe fix, LPR graciously offers a Caviar Napolean on a house-made English muffin with soft scrambled farm eggs, potato-bacon foam and caviar for $14.
Okay. Breakfast. Phil Vettel loves the Egg McMuffin and hates the McGriddle. Either way, portable breakfast is here to stay. Ideally not from McD, but with their new 4am hours, how can you avoid them? Pretty easily; we've never had either product, even though partisans have insisted we try the McGriddle. Given where we fall on the savory-sweet continuum, we think we'd like the McMuffin better.
David Tamarkin immediately jumps all over the name, which, strangely, doesn't bother us at all. The name, not Tamarkin's reaction. Tell the truth, the reaction didn't bother us either. But they (the Shikami bros.) like to do eponymous things, and it's a pun, so what's the objection?
The casual Andersonville Italian has gotten fairly good reviews on the blogoboards (except one), which basically find a friendly, neighborhood spot with great prices. How great? Let's take a look:
Uncommon Ground sponsors this event, a confluence of acoustic music, farm-fresh passed appetizers, and environmental awareness. This month, The Green Room is sponsored by Sustain USA, which "encourages sustainable economic development that creates jobs and revitalizes communities in an environmentally sound manner." Now how can you vote against that? The thing starts at 7pm, and the live music at 8pm. How live? "Intelligent power pop" and "soulful pop rock" live, genres to be explored by Phil Angotti and The Idea and Julie Frost, respectively.
Stop snickering. Apparently, it's a game that involves throwing bean bags into boxes with holes in them. STOP SNICKERING. It's also known as cornhole, and it has its very own association. Alright, you can snicker again.
There's a new pie place in Chicago called, appropriately enough, Pie. They sell classic pies with high-end ingredients, including blueberry, lemon meringue, apple, coconut cream, and an appealing-sounding peanut butter ("A sweet peanut butter filling in a ginger snap crust topped with chocolate ganache and chopped salted peanuts").Roy's serves the best chocolate souffle I have ever had. You have got to try it. The appetizers and entrees are definitely tasty; could use a bit more seasoning though. The place is elegant but not over the top and their outdoor area is beautiful. Have dinner but definitely save room for dessert.We love getting blown away by a fabulous dessert at the end of an enjoyable meal. It's not hard - sugar has a direct pathway to the brain, and it's pretty obvious why a great dessert sticks in memory more easily than a great appetizer (it's last)
My friend was here from LA and my daughter decided to take me, friend and her sister out to Gibsons for a real lunch treat .Before we touch on the fudge, let's just remind ourselves how hot sliders are right now. Okay...reminded! Yes, being from Wisconsin does make you a hot fudge expert, if not a chocolate expert. It also takes an expert to be able to fit a chocolate dessert in following a steak dinner. Maybe she was egged on by David?I must tell you it was such a pleasant afternoon. Our table was perfect and our main waiter, David, was a gem. So cute and funny ! The food (tenderloin sliders-YUM) were delicious!!!! The bread on the table was scrumptious and the steaks melted in your mouth. We shared a delicious hot fudge sundae for dessert. The hot fudge was outstanding. I come from Wisconsin where we specialize in custard ice cream and hot fudge - and I feel that I am an expert on hot fudge. Gibson's was fab !!!! My compliments to the Chef, ambiance of Gibson's and David the waiter.
This sushi is incredible! My boyfriend eats at Bentonara three to five days a week and I have been twice in one day before. The owners are super friendly, laid back, and helpful. One day I was craving chocolate and as a joke Jesse the owner put Andes chocolates in a sushi roll. We go here very often and would HIGHLY recommend it to sushi lovers!!!Ah, there's nothing like getting special treatment. This personal relationship between chef and customer definitely trumps the importance of authenticity in sushi. On the other hand, chocolate sushi might very well be the next big thing.
KPang is enamored with the warm goat cheese biscuits baked in mini-cast iron skillets that were brought to his table (not on the menu!), and also thoroughly enjoyed his fried green tomato Napoleon with goat cheese, local greens, apple wood-smoked bacon and olive and sun-dried tomato tapenades ($10.50), Art's buttermilk fried chicken ($18, but normally $12 and normally only on Sundays), a side of three-cheese macaroni ($9), and Art's hummingbird cake (two slices of pineapple, coconut and banana cake with vanilla ice cream, according to Kevin, for $8.50).
• Finally-opened Milk & Honey Bake Shop does savory as well as, if not better, than sweet
[TOC Blog]
• New Turkish restaurant Nazarlik impresses so far, especially the lamacun and cig kofte [Food Chain]
Mmm, rust, our favorite. But okay, how does his vision get translated to the actual menu? We wanted to say "near-sightedly", but then we realized we didn't know what that would imply. Certainly, the names of the dishes invoke the classics, especially in the entrée section: there's chicken pot pie ($17), chicken Milanese ($19), and double cut pork chop ($19). But dig beneath the surface and Hogan's latent sophistication reveals itself. The pot pie is made with braised chicken, wild mushrooms, thyme, and Madeira wine. Note that the diner is not overburdened with the type of wild mushroom involved - its enumeration would dictate a completely different restaurant concept. Also, that double cut pork chop is grilled with a cherry cola BBQ sauce, which is certainly a tad off the beaten path.
The main review this week is for bluprint, the fashionably upscale Merch Mart collabo, employing chefs from Rhapsody, Avenues, and Charlie Trotter's, to name a few. We were wowed by its fancy menu some months back, but Heather Shouse has a cold dose of reality. Lunch, at which bluprint really ought to shine given its worky location, is kind of mediocre. Dinner's quite good, but dessert also falls short. It's still the best thing in the Mart, though.
Phil Vettel also writes the intro on the mini-burger craze that seems to be sweeping the nation. He follows this up with his own take on the trend, which he chalks up to portion control and the fetishization of the shareable dish. Bill Daley has 25 mini-burger options in Chicagoland for your perusal, and Judy Hevrdejs looks into the original mini-burger, which is, of course, White Castle.
1) Janet Rausa Fuller has taken over the section, but unless we're especially confused, we don't see her byline on her introductory article! No matter; it's mostly about how eclectic and exciting the Chicago dining scene is. True enough - let's hope this gets converted into smart and timely article selection. We believe in you, Ms. Fuller!
Last Monday, Rosebud Restaurants unleashed its latest steakhouse into the Loop: Rosebud Prime. And it would be harder to get more at the heart of things with its 1 S Dearborn address. So, if you don't work within a few blocks, what might be the appeal of going?
Let's pretend we're above that, and want to take an ever so slightly more scientific approach: speciation. There are a ton of producers out there, pumping out tons of wines every year at all price points. But there are only so many varietals, and if you can learn which ones you prefer, you can radically and intelligently drill down toward a wine you might actually enjoy.
