The Loyalist - Restaurant Week

Last year a combination Gastropub/Fine Dining Restaurant opened last year in the West Loop.  Headed by Husband and Wife Team, John and Karen Urie Shields, who met while working at Charlie Trotter's, Smyth and The Loyalist got a lot of buzz after opening.  Smyth, the fine dining half, is located upstairs, and The Loyalist is located in the basement.  Although they are both very different experiences, I was very interested in visiting both, Smyth because it's a fine dining restaurant which is like experiencing art, and The Loyalist, which looked to have some very good bar food.  In fact, The Loyalist was noted by Bon Appetit to have one of the best Cheeseburgers in the country this year.  Unfortunately, both restaurant and bar operate using Tock, an electronic reservation system that frequently makes it difficult to book odd numbered parties.  I understand the logic, an odd numbered party leaves an open seat which can't be booked and makes it that much harder to make a profit, but it does make it difficult for those people that like dining solo.  Luckily, The Loyalist decided to participate in Restaurant Week this year and I have an easier time finding someone to dine with during this festival of food, so it was a given that I would go.  The building in which Smyth & The Loyalist are located is kind of a non-descript office building.  Entering the building, you encounter a landing with stairs leading downstairs for The Loyalist and Upstairs for Smyth.  Going downstairs we enteres a space that was like a partially finished basement.  The floor was cement, the walls were black, and the lights were hanging.  The furniture was wood and steel and had a bit of a Colonial bent to it.  We were seated and we began perusing the menu.  The restaurant week menu was small, but it did select items from the regular menu.  The cocktail menu was pretty extensive and adventurous so it took some time to decide what I might be interested in.  I decided to start things off with Buddha's Little Finger, a cocktail with Genever (a Juniper flavored liquor that is the national liquor of The Netherlands and a predecessor to London Dry Gin), Italicus (an Italian liqueur using bergamot and with a citrus and floral flavor), Buddha's Hand (a hand shaped citrus fruit that is all rind and no fruit and is used in cocktails for it's citrus flavor), Lemon, and Egg White.  It had a nice creamy head, a citrus and floral flavor, and was a nice start to a relaxing evening.

For the Restaurant Week menu, there were two choices each for entree and dessert with a salad served for the first course.  We decided to order one of everything and add an additional salad off of the regular menu, so we could each experience as much of the menu as possible.  The Salad that came as part of the Restaurant Week menu was a Bibb Salad served Family Style.  It started with Bibb Lettuce leaves with Watermelon Radish, Walnuts, Dill, Green Goddess Dressing, and Fromage Blanc.  The vegetables were very crisp and fresh and the lettuce was served as whole leaves.  It was very good and flavorful, but I had a little trouble with the lettuce, because it became stuck in my head at a young age that you don't cut lettuce.  I realize as an adult, that while you might not want to cut the lettuce before service (to prevent bruising), the diner would be perfectly within his rights to cut the lettuce.  While the Bibb Salad was good, I liked our additional salad better.  It was a Beet and Endive Salad with Smoked Salmon, and Caramelized Mandarins.  It had a variety of flavors and textures and it was easier for me to eat.  The beets were bittersweet and cubed, and the salmon was served between the beets and endive leaves which were served on top.  While I knew that it was there, it was hidden under the endives, and it was a surprise to find and taste it.

 

 

For our entrees we were very happy to see the Cheeseburger on the menu.  If it had not been, we would have had to have ordered it off the regular menu.  Leaving without trying it was not an option.  The burger on the Cheeseburger was a mixture of Short Rib, Chuck, and Ground Bacon.  It was griddle fried (which results in crispy edges) and presented on a Sesame Seed Bun with American Cheese, House Made Pickles, and Onions prepared three ways:  Charred, Pickled, and Raw.  It was presented with a Jus and Onion Infused Mayo on the side as well as some perfect fries that tasted like they were double fried.  It lives up to the hype and is one of the best burgers that I have ever had.  Our other course was Fusilli with Short Rib and Tripe Bolognese, Goat Cheese, and Parsley.  The pasta was simple and had a nice flavor, and was presented perfectly Al Dente.  It was good, but it really couldn't compete with the cheeseburger.

Dessert was another winner.  We were presented with a couple of Macaroons with a Chocolate Mousse Brulee on top.  There were two served, so there was no worry of dividing them.  They were crispy and sweet with a nice smooth and creamy mousse topping that had been touched by fire crisping the outside and making it a little sweeter.  While these were good, I liked our other dessert better even though it was a little tricky to divide.  It was a large and very delicate cream puff with Hazelnut Praline topping, lots of Whipped Cream filling, and Toasted Hickory Nuts.  It was sweet, delicate, nutty, but also very much a mess.  I think that I did consider eating it with my hands, if I had, I would have ended up wearing as much as I ate.  Both desserts were very good and made for a perfect ending.  I decided to pair them with another cocktail.  The Lonesome Dove, a Gin Cocktail with Gentian, Lavender, Lemongrass, Lime Bitters, and garnished with a sprig of Sage.  It was tart and floral and was a contrast to the sweet desserts.  Everything was very good and I would be happy to return either here or to go upstairs to Smyth, for some fine dining.

Tasting Collective Dinner at Quiote

I really enjoyed the first Tasting Collective Dinner that I went to at Split Rail, but I was very familiar with the restaurant and the chef.  The next dinner that came up was at a location to which I had been (when it was Letitzia's Fiore), but I had not been to since it had become Mexican Restaurant, Quiote.  I had tried the food of Chef Dan Salls at Pop Ups, benefits, and other events, and had been pretty underwhelmed, but I had never been to his restaurant.  I had noticed that the restaurant was very popular, so I had to wonder if I had just picked the wrong dishes, so I decided to actually try it out.  I also invited my friend, Rich, to accompany me.  The restaurant is small and narrow and is divided into two dining rooms.  A small bar/counter area is in the back of the front dining room it looks over the preparation area and into the brick oven.  We sat here and were able to watch courses being prepared and were able to talk to the staff.  Like the first dinner, we were given a menu which was also a critique sheet and a separate menu for drinks which were offered on a cash only basis.  There were some interesting cocktails on the list, but I decided to take it easy and just stuck with beer, namely a Warpigs Lazurite IPA.  It was bitter, citrusy, and I imagined that it should go well with the flavors of the Mexican food.

We started out with Crab Tostadas with Uni, Mustard Seeds, Hot Sauce, and Microgreens presented in a pan of Dried Corn.  The Tostadas were small, but were full of flavor and texture.  THe tortilla chips were crisp.  The crab was tender and full of flavor and the mustard and hot sauce provided a nice burn.  It was a nice start and it began bringing my opinion around.

After the Tostadas came a Hamachi Crudo with Burnt Chile, Grapefruit, and Sunchoke.  While not precisely Mexican, it was very good.  The hamachi was very tender and flavorful in in a sour and spicy broth that was similar to ceviche.  The grapefruit was very juicy and had a texture similar to the hamachi and the sunchokes, a root vegetable that comes from the root of a sunflower, was served as crispy chips.  It was very fresh tasting, spicy, tart, and very tender with a crisp crunch from the sunchokes.  

After the appetizers came the salad/vegetable dishes.  We started with an Avocado Salad with Brussels Sprouts, Apples, Quinoa, Tomatillo, and Cotija Cheese.  The salad was fresh and crisp from the brussels sprouts and the apples,the quinoa provided some nutty crispiness, and the avocado gave the salad some creaminess.  The tomatillo provided some tartness and the salad was finished with a lot of Cotija cheese. 

The next course was widely thought of as the best dish served for dinner.  It was a Roast Cabbage served with Pepitas, Serrano Peppers, and Burned Sourdough.  The cabbage was roasted in the brick oven until the outside was burned and the inside was tender.  The burnt sourdough was combined with the Serrano peppers to make a sauce that was char sweet and spicy and the pepitas adding a nutty flavor.  It was apparently a very dish to make, but it was very good and well liked.

Our first meat dish started with pork, specifically Pork Belly.  Bacon comes from pork belly, although it is salt cured, smoked, and sliced more thinly than pork belly generally is.  The pork belly was served with Apples, Escarole, Jalapeno, and Queso Fresco.  The greens were crisp with some apple tartness, and a little queso fresco.  The jalapeno was thinly sliced and mixed with the greens adding a little spice.  The pork belly itself was crisp and tender with a good pork flavor.  The greens provided a nice counterpoint to the meaty flavor of the pork belly.

The next dish was another relatively simple dish that was prepared simply and very well and was a favorite.  We were served a bowl of Clams and Mussels with Crispy Rice, Pasilla Peppers, Grilled Orange. and Mint. The dish might have been fairly simple, but it was also kind of messy and it was good to have an extra bowl in which to discard the shells.

Our final savory dish was a Mexican classic, Pollo en Mole.  There are numerous moles, many that have numerous ingredients and take many hours to prepare.  This mole had something on the order of 27 ingredients and took a day to make and had a nice complex, bitter and spicy flavor, but did not use Cacao as many Moles do.  It was also served with Roasted Carrots and Granola which added a nutty and earthy flavor.  The chicken was well roasted, tender, and went well with the mole, carrots, and granola.

Being served nine courses, we will have numerous of each type of dish.  We were served two desserts, the first generally being a favorite of mine, Tres Leches Cake.  This version, served with Dulce de Leche, Burnt Cinnamon and topped with Whipped Cream, continued the streak.  It was desnse, soft, sweet, and very creamy, and very good.

The last dessert, served with coffee to finish the meal, while not bad, almost felt like an afterthought.  We were served Churros, Bananas, Banana Ice Cream, and Piloncillo (Mexican Raw Sugar).  It was sweet and had a nice banana flavor.  The coffee went well with the dish and made for a good finish.  I think that my biggest problem was the fact the churros were just one bite.  If the churros were emphasized a little more and were a little bigger, I think I might have liked it a little more.  Despite this complaint, this was a very good dinner, both as the food presented and the presentation itself.  I will continue to participate in Tasting Collective events and I will definitely return to Quiote for more very good Mexican food.             

 

Barrio - Restaurant Week

 

I love Chicago Restaurant Week.  It allows me to visit old favorites and try out new places at a price point less than I would normally pay.  In recent years, most of the restaurants that I have visited have been return trips, but I still visit the occasional new place.  One of the new places was Barrio, a Mexican place that is part of the DineAmic Group, the same group that runs Siena Tavern.  Like Siena Tavern, Barrio is run by a celebrity chef, another Top Chef Alum, Katsuji Tanabe.  I was a little baffled as to how a Japanese Chef came to be cooking Mexican food.  I have little issue with authenticity and am more concerned with whether the food at an individual restaurant tastes good.  A good chef should be able to cook just about anything well, I just think that some chefs are more comfortable with some styles of food than others.  I discovered later that Chef Tanabe had a Mexican mother and was raised in Mexico City, so it made a little more sense that he might gravitate toward Mexican food.  Located in the same building as Siena Tavern, Barrio has similar design elements.  It has both a modern and industrial look with references to Mexican style and some Japanese elements thrown in.  The dining room is large and open, but is also divided into several spaces with different styles.  The bar is separated from the main dining area with a screen and is large and oval with inlaid wood designs that reminded me of a combination of Mexican desert and Alice in Wonderland.  Both the Food and Liquor Menus are printed on single sheets of poster board about 11x17 inches in size and the Restaurant Week Menu came on another long and narrow sheet.  While there were several things on the main menu that looked good, I decided to reduce my choices and focus just on the Restaurant Week Menu to limit my choices.  In many cases, the Restaurant Week Menu is kind of a Best Of type of menu so I thought that it would give me some variety and an idea of what might be good.  The liquor menu had cocktails on the top divided between Traditional Cocktails and those made with Tequila and Mezcal, with beer and wine down menu.  I decided to start things off with a Mezcal based cocktail called Smoke Show, which started with Union Mezcal, continued with Ancho Reyes, a spicy liqueur using Ancho Chiles, Pur Likor, a German pear liqueur, Lime, and was garnished with a Dried Pear.  The drink was smoky and spicy with a fruity flavor and a tart finish.  I liked the taste of the cocktail even though I am generally not a fan of pears.  While I did like the flavor of the cocktail, I really didn't care for the dried pear garnish.  My issue with pears is not the flavor, but the texture, and the drying of the pear emphasized the grittiness that I dislike.

Even though I limited myself to the Restaurant Week Menu, I still had a bit of trouble making decisions as to what I wanted.  There were four items to choose from for the appetizer, four for main course, and a couple for dessert, and there wasn't anything that I could eliminate outright.  For my opening course I had a choice of Burrata (which isn't Mexican, but still looked good), Queso Fundido, Roasted Sweet Potato Guacamole, and Grilled Octopus.  I finally decided on the Grilled Octopus which was served with Crispy Papas (Potatoes), Agave-Jalapeno, and Roasted Tomato Mayo.  The octopus was meaty, the potatoes were large and had a nice crispy and salty exterior with a nice and firm interior, the agave-jalapeno sauce added some nice spice, and the roasted tomato mayo finished the dish off with a nice savory flavor.

For my main course, I had a choice of Forest Mushroom Tacos, Chicken Al Pastor Tacos, Diver Scallop, and Tamarind Beef Short Rib.  While everything here looked really good, I was able to limit my choices because I had had the Forest Mushroom Tacos at First Bites Bash, and while undoubtedly different, I had had Short Rib at Untitled.  I finally made my decision for the Chicken Al Pastor Tacos because I had already started with seafood with what turned out to be some very good grilled octopus.  The Chicken Al Pastor Tacos were served Deconstructed with Achiote Marinated Chicken, Pickled Onions, Avocado Rice, Crispy Kale, Agave Salsa Verde, Morita (Chipotle) Salsa, and Housemade Blue Corn Tortillas.  Everything was really good and went well together.  Because it was sent out deconstructed, I could put the tacos together in whatever combinations and whatever order I wanted.  My favorite construct was with rice on the bottom with chicken, onions, kale, and the morita salsa.  My only complaint is that I ran out of tortillas before I ran out of stuff to put in them.  It was okay though, because I just combined what was left and at it as it was off the plate.

Before I had my dessert, I decided to order another cocktail, this time from the Traditional list.  As I like Gin, I decided to try out their gin cocktail.  Called the Whispering Eve, it was kind of a spin on a Negroni, with Plymouth Gin, Combier Peche de Vigne (a peach liqueur with peaches grown in wine country, the Loire Valley), Campari, Lemon, and Thai Basil.  Negronis are pretty bitter, but the Combier Peche de Vigne added a little sweetness, and the Thai Basil added an Asian twist to it.  I generally have to prepare myself for a Negroni because it is so bitter.  The liqueur and the Thai basil moderated the bitterness and made it easier to drink.  That said, I did prefer the first cocktail better.

To finish things off, I had a choice between Churros and a Cocoa Taco.  I like both and both sounded good, so I just randomly decided to go with the Cocoa Taco.  Built in a Waffle Cone-style Taco Shell, It also had Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, Brownie Crumble, Coconut Crema, Guajillo Caramel, and Coconut Toffee.  It was sweet and chewy, with a lot of textures and a very nice finish to a very good dinner.  I really enjoyed the food and drink here.  While things were spins on Classic Mexican cuisine, dishes were updated and made a little more modern and seasonal.  The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, and willing to answer all of my  many questions.  I will definitely have to return for dinner, and also possibly for brunch.                    

Hopewell Brewing Monday Dinner with Wood

 

 I have been to Hopewell Brewing's Monday Night Dinner several times.  The brewery invites friends who are chefs at pretty good restaurants around town to prepare a private dinner at the brewery where the brewery will provide the beer.  It's like the beer dinners that are done at many restaurants except in this case, it is the brewery that is the host and the restaurant that is the guest.  In this case, the brewery invited Wood to do dinner there.  I have been to Wood for brunch and for a benefit dinner and I have had bites of their food at other benefits, but I have never been for dinner.  With the tastes I have had of their food, I do know that it's very good, and they are on my list for dinner sometime.  As was typical we started out with First Lager, their first beer (surprisingly).  I have mentioned in the past that the pub space is kind of plain, a friend actually used the word sterile, though I don't know if I would go that far.  There is a window into the brewing area in the back of the pub looking at three large vessels, one with googly eyes.

In past dinners, the beers were paired with the courses.  For this dinner, things were a little looser.  We were given four beer tickets to choose our own beers and to make our own pairings, and while many restaurants served four course meals (family style), the guys from Wood served more than 4 items.  Some, it could be argued, could be paired together to make a single course, but where exactly one course ended and the next would then begin is kind of unclear.We started out with Foie Gras Biscuits served with Honey Butter and Braised Collard Greens with Spanish Morcilla (Blood) Sausage.  The muffins were very good, though where the foie gras may have been used is unclear.  my only thought is that because it has a very high fat content, it at least partially substituted for the butter that would normally be used.  They were light and fluffy and tasted good with the honey butter.  As far as the collard greens are concerned, I am generally not a fan of greens of that type because, to me, the leaves are too stiff and they frequently have a strong flavor.  With the Morcilla Sausage, though, the fat tenderized the greens and provided some very nice flavor.  My first beer with dinner was the Side Salad Grisette (a low alcohol Belgian style, similar to a saison, with a mildly tart and funky flavor) which was very good and went well with the greens.

Our next set of courses, we were served Hoppin' John with Sausage, Marinated Fingerling Potatoes, and I had a Take Care Biere de Miel.  Hoppin' John is a Low Country Southern dish featuring Black Eyed Peas and Rice.  Wood is generally, a French inflected restaurant, though this dinner seemed largely Southern, I'm not sure how that decision was made, but it was good.  I'm not sure what the sausage was but it was tender and peppery and the Hoppin' John was tender and flavorful.  The potatoes were perfectly tender and seemed to be prepared with a lot of greens which enhanced the flavor.  I had had Take Care before and knew that I liked it.  A biere de miel is another Belgian style similar to a saison, but using honey.  It isn't exceptionally sweet, but has a nice head and a good malty character.

Our main course was pork, specifically, a Braised Pork Saddle taken from a whole pig that was carved just before service.  It was incredibly tender, sweet, and very flavorful.  There was also a Carolina Mustard Style Barbecue Sauce that was served on the side, but the pork was so good, that I never got around to trying it with the barbecue sauce or even the barbecue sauce on it's own, for that matter.

 After the pork, we arrived at dessert and as with many desserts, it was paired with a dark beer by the brewery.  We were served Hopewell Deluxe, an Imperial Coffee Stout made with Metric Coffee and served out of bombers as opposed to the other beers that were on tap.  It was very full bodied and had a great coffee flavor and it did go well with the Snickerdoodle Cookies and the Apple Crisp that we were served for dessert.  The cookies were soft and had the slightest tart flavor, and the Apple Crisp was fried apples topped with biscuit dough.  It was good, but I prefer my crisps with a granola topping.  After finishing dessert, I had only used two beer tickets of the four that I was given so I decided to finish with a fruity beer.  Ya Filthy Animal is a Tart Red Ale brewed with Spices, Black Currants, and Plums modeled after the mulled wines that are served in the winter time.  It was a very good finish to a very good dinner.  I enjoyed myself,the food, and the beer.  I will most certainly return at least for a beer to Hopewell, and Wood will move up on my places to go for dinner.