WoodWind - Restaurant Week

 

 

 

 

It's hard to expect a fine dining restaurant at the top of a hospital.  While Green River occupied the same space  and actually earned a Michelin Star, it did run into the problem of a dearth of customers who didn't think about it because coming to a hospital to eat is not obvious and finding the location after was not made any easier with the fact that there was no signage down on the 1st floor to let you know you are in the right place.  WoodWind, located on the 18th Floor of the Lavin Family Pavilion of Northwestern Hospital, has avoided a few of the problems that Green River had by putting a sign on a pillar on the first floor and also locating a Host Station on the first floor to direct you to the elevator to the restaurant.  Having been there before (to Green River), I knew where the elevator was and knew that the restaurant was on the 18th Floor.  Walking out of the elevator, I immediately saw an impressive wine rack with the host station to my right.  I was led to a table in the middle of the main dining room.  Green River also had an impressive patio with a great view, but it was February and at night, so it was obviously not open.  The dining room for WoodWind remained largely the same as Green River, though the color scheme and theme was different.  While Green River was more green with maps of the Great Lakes area, WoodWind is brown and tan with a wall of plants and many diagrams of plant life.  While the tables in the center of the room were close, it was a good place to see the lay of the land.  The kitchen was open and over my right shoulder.  The bar was in front of me.  I was sitting among a group of high top tables that were all full with low tops and booths off to the left in a corner of the dining room.  While the wine list did look pretty impressive, the cocktail list also looked nice.  I started out, while I was looking at the menu, with The Big Boss, a cocktail made with Bombay Dry Gin, Pear Liqueur, and Mint.  I liked it and it was very good.   It wasn't listed, but it also seemed to have a strong Vanilla flavor.  The drink was very refreshing and I really enjoyed it.

The Restaurant Week offer here was to choose three courses and a common dessert would be served to all.   For my starting course, I started with House Ricotta, Honey, Mish Mish, and Grilled Toast.  The Ricotta was very light and creamy.  Mish Mish is a Lebanese Colloquialism for Apricot.  With the honey and the citrus flavor of the mish mish, it kind of reminded me of breakfast.  It was sweet, tangy, and creamy, and on the crisp toast, it was a very nice start.

My second course was a bit unusual, Sunchokes.  Sunchokes, also known as a Jerusalem Artichoke, are a root vegetable and come from a species of Sunflower.  The Sunchokes were served three ways:  Roasted, as a Fermented Puree, and as Chips.  They were also served with Apple and Parmesan.  I have, in the past, liked sunchokes.  They generally have an earthy, potato flavor, with some sweetness.  This, while it had all of that, also had a funky tart flavor, which came, I imagine, from the fermented puree.  Other parts of this I liked.  I liked the roasted sunchokes and the chips, but with the funky flavor, it didn't come together.

My entree, like many of the entrees that I had during Restaurant Week was fish.  This fish, Smoked and Grilled Sturgeon with Black Garlic, Housemade Creme Fraiche, and Shoestring Potatoes, was very good and came together well with all of it's elements.  The sturgeon was tender with a nice smoky flavor which went well with the earthy flavor of the black garlic and the crispy shoestring potatoes.  The sour flavor of the Creme Fraiche brought in a complementary tartness.

 

      There was one dessert that they were serving everyone, Cashew Gelato.  It sounded fine, but didn't seem exceptionally exciting.  I did notice that they had a nice list of Digestifs.  I decided to excite my gelato with a Braulio Amaro, not to add to it, but to drink it along side the gelato.  The Amaro was very nice, lightly spicy and bittersweet with a lightly minty finish.  It was nice and went well with the gelato, but the gelato was actually very good on it's own served with mint, tangerine, and cashews on the side.

For the most part I enjoyed my meal, the service was great, and while I didn't think much of the Sunchokes, I learned that I didn't care for fermented sunchokes.  In many places after the dessert come Petit Fors or Mignardises, which are generally a bite of love, to say thank you.  There was a Mignardise served here, but it was very unexpected.  The waitress came out with a huge mass of Lime Cotton Candy.  I will grant that Cotton Candy is mostly air (the rest being spun sugar), but the sheer size of the mass was a huge surprise.  A lot of cotton candy is incredibly sweet.  As this was Lime, it also had some tartness to it and I really enjoyed it.  It was a very good dinner in a great space.  I hope to be able to return in the future.