Prairie Moon

While there are a lot of good restaurants in Evanston and I do like the town, I don't really head up that way that often because even though it is an immediate suburb of Chicago, it's a bit of an ordeal to get there considering it's location. In any case, I happened to be in Evanston on a weekend afternoon and we decided to go to Prairie Moon for lunch. I had never been there before but for whatever reason, when I thought of Prairie Moon, I thought of a place that was very green. By this, I mean that it serves a lot of fresh and seasonal fare. I was correct in that but the decor was also light green and blue. The color scheme actually reminded me of Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are). The ceilings are very high and unfinished. The floor and furniture are wood, the windows are very large, and there are hanging lights so the space is bright (in the daytime). Prairie Moon has a very good beer list and the food they serve reminds me of a combination of the Gulf Coast and the Midwest. They serve a lot of seafood, steaks, and vegetarian cuisine, with some good looking burgers and some Mexican fare thrown in for good measure. It all looked good and it was actually a little hard to decide what I wanted but I hadn't had a good etoufee in a while so I ordered the Gulf Shrimp and Crawfish Etoufee. I hadn't had it before so I wasn't sure that it was good but I was hoping. When it came out, I was excited for the first bite because it smelled and looked great. It tasted as good as it looked. Besides the shrimp and crawfish of which, there was a lot, it also had celery, onions, and green peppers in a dark brown and medium spicy roux. It was served over white rice.

I really enjoyed lunch here, the food, beer, and service were all very good and I would be happy to come here again when I find myself in Evanston.