All Together Now - Brunch

 

If you look around Chicago, you will find many ethnic groceries with an attached cafe.  There are also many bottle shops where you can buy beer and wine that also have an attached bar, locally known as a slashie.  To a lesser extent, you can also find restaurants that also sell packaged foods (normally gourmet).  Last year, a place opened up in Ukrainian Village that was both a bottle shop/bar and a cafe/gourmet packaged goods store.  Called All Together Now (and originally Brothers & Sisters), it aims to fulfill many of your quick food and drink desires.  The front is a glass fronted storefront and walking in, the first thing that you will encounter is the Cheese and Cured Meat display counter.  There is a counter behind the cheese and meat display with a cash register on the left, where you place your order, and seating to the right for drinking and dining.  There is a beer refrigerator opposite the counter with a lot of local beers and wine shelves on either side of the beer refrigerator and around a pillar in the center of the room.  Aside from the counter seating, there are tables in the back, next to the beer and wine and a large communal table in the front, where we sat, that was made from a large log.

 

As I mentioned, you place your order at the cash register and pay up front.  You then find a seat with your beverage and your food is brought to you.  It was a warm day when we went, so I went with an iced coffee from Ruby Coffee Roasters.  It was a Central American blend with a medium roast and flavors of chocolate and citrus and a little inherent sweetness (I don't add cream or sugar to my coffee).  It was very good and I think I ended up having a couple of cups.  While I was waiting for my food, I decided to take a look at the cheese and saw something that excited me a lot.  When I was at a fine dining restaurant earlier this year, on their tasting menu one of the courses included a grilled cheese sandwich made with Tomme Cheese which was the best grilled cheese sandwich that I have ever had.  When I saw that All Together Now had Tomme Cheese in their display case, I had to try it again, so they cut me a small sample.  Tomme Cheese is a hard French Swiss-style Cheese made from Skim Milk.  It is light, but despite the lack of fat found in other cheeses, it does have a lot of flavor.  While this wasn't as good as the Grilled Cheese Sandwich (and Fermented Tomato Soup), it was good and brought my memory back to the sandwich.

 

Normally for brunches I will tend to order a sweet course and a savory course.  In this case, I actually ordered two savory courses, though admittedly the first did have some sweetness to it.  I had what was essentially an Open Faced Beet and Goat Cheese Sandwich that was a special.  It had Golden Beets, Heirloom Tomatoes, Chervil, Chevre, and Blue Cheese, on a thick slice of some very good Country Bread.  One of my friends dining with me had another Open Faced Sandwich.  This was Creamed Eggs over Toast with Pork Fat Collards, Pickled Pearl Onions, Lemon, and Aleppo Pepper.  It looked and tasted good, but I liked mine better.  Beets and Goat Cheese seems to be a natural pairing and this worked very well.  I liked the bitterness that the blue cheese added as well.  While I did try to eat this by hand, I quickly saw that that would not happen because everything would fall off the bread, so I enjoyed it with knife and fork.

My main course was a Breakfast Sandwich.  As with most breakfast sandwiches, it was built with an egg, meat, and cheese on an English Muffin.  For this one, the meat was Underground Meats Sorpressata, the cheese was Aged Cheddar, and it was finished with Fresno Chile Aioli on a Housemade English Muffin.  While fairly standard, the ingredients used were very good and resulted in a very good sandwich.  While All Together Now is very casual, the service and the food and drink that they both sell and serve are very good and it is a good option for a stop when I am in Ukrainian Village.  

Zingerman's Deli

Years ago when perusing cheese shops around Chicago, I started seeing cheese from a place in Michigan called Zingerman's.  After doing some studying, I found that they had started as a Jewish Deli that focused on the best local food that could be had.  This made them a little more expensive than you standard, but it also made them really good (and Popular).  Over the years, they developed a Creamery, a Bakery, A Candy Manufactory, a Coffee Roaster, a Mail Order Business, a Fish Store, and a sit down restaurant, in addition to the Delicatessan.  Their sit down restaurant, Zingerman's Roadhouse, won a James Beard Award a few years ago, showing that they are doing some really good work.  When I traveled to the area recently, visiting the Deli, the start of everything, was very high on my list.  Located in downtown Ann Arbor, it's easy to walk from from the train station.  The is located in the front of the deli and has an amazing selection of meats, cheeses, bread, coffee, and other specialty items.  There were many things that I was interested in, but as I was traveling by train and didn't have a way to refrigerate anything for the trip, my choices were limited and while I ended up trying a few things, I didn't buy anything.

 

As one might guess from their market selection, they also have an amazing deli selection.  While Zingerman's is ostensibly a Jewish Deli, they do also serve a variety of hams and bacons.  In addition to the Pastrami, Corned Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Fish, and other things, as well as a wide variety of salads.  They do not serve beer or liquor, but they have a variety of specialty soda's, in addition to Coffee, Tea, and Malteds.  I started things off with a Blenheim Ginger Ale, a Golden Ginger Ale that has a pronounced ginger flavor.  I much prefer the Golden Ginger Ales to the Dry (Canada Dry, Schweppes), but I prefer Vernor's to Blenheim.  For my sandwich, I decided to go with a specialty of Jewish Delis, the Reuben.  They had 6 different variations on the Reuben, I went with the S. Muno's Montreal Reuben with Wagshal's Smoked Brisket, Emmantal Swiss Cheese, Brinery Sauerkraut, and Russian Dressing on Grilled Rye Bread.  It was served with one of two Dill Pickles, New (Crunchy and Cucumbery) or Old (Garlic Cured).  I went with the New, which had a nice crisp crunch and a lot of flavor.  There was obviously a lot of dill flavorm but there was also a pretty good garlic flavor as well.  The sandwich was really good with a good crunch and flavor.  The brisket was tender and had a good smoked flavor, the sauerkraut was crisp and sour, and the Emmantal added some creamy bitterness.  On the side, I ordered Swiss Potato Salad with Redskin Potatoes, Neuske's Bacon, Switzerland Swiss Cheese, Sea Salt, Tellicherry Black Pepper, Scallions, Mayo, and Dijon Mustard.  I like potato salad, but this was a very good potato salad.

I really enjoyed my trip here and will definitely have to return when I return to the area.  While I could order food from them (I could order the ingredients for a sandwich and build it here), the place is very friendly and the selection they have is pretty incredible.

Vault & Vator - Greenville, SC

It was kind of funny to me that both friends that I visited on the East Coast decided to take me to a speakeasy.  I had mentioned going to Captain Gregory's in Alexandria, Va.  When we went down to Greenville, SC and we went out for the evening, my friend suggested we go out to this place called Vault & Vator.  I am always up for a good speakeasy, so I agreed that we should start our evening there.  Located downtown, my friend had a general idea where it was located, but as with a good speakeasy, the entrance was not obvious.  It was located in the back of a building in the basement.  We had to walk downhill to a wrought iron door under a metal deck with mirrored glass behind it and a small sign behind it with the Rules.

Looking at the Rules, I found them very familiar.  No cellphones, appropriate attire, no reservations, no standing at the bar, be respectful, I thought it sounded very much like the rules in Chicago speakeasy, The Violet Hour.  Entering, and finding my self behind a large and heavy velvet curtain, I was reminded further of The Violet Hour.  It was dark with a bar in the center of the back of the room with seats on three sides, lounge furniture, and some booths off to one side.  The walls were black and most of the lighting came from behind the bar.  We sat at the bar and talked to the bartenders.  The space was the location of a Dr. Pepper factory with the original storage (Vault) and Elevator (Vator).  It was started by a bartender originally from Chicago who loved The Violet Hour, hence the Rules.

While they had a set of rules similar to those of The Violet Hour, they weren't quite so stringent on their adherence, so I was able to take a picture of our drinks (though a flash would not have been permitted).  The drinks are modern takes on classic cocktails and styles, using small batch liquors and their own tinctures and bitters.  They also serve a small menu of Small Plates, mostly consisting of meats, cheeses, and dips, and a selection of chocolates.  For my drink, I ordered Don't Fear the Reaper, which contained Blanco Tequila, House-made Carolina Reaper Tincture, Grapefruit Sherbet, Lime, Honey, and Simple Syrup.  It was sweet, a little tart, and had a pretty nice bite to it (though it wasn't overwhelming).  My friend ordered a Caribbean Mule, which was essentially a spin on a Dark and Stormy.  It started with House Infused Pineapple Rum, Ginger Syrup, Fresh Pineapple Juice, and Ginger Ale, and was served in a Copper Pineapple.  With the Rum, and Ginger, it just needed Lime to go the Dark and Stormy route.  With the Pineapple, it was definitely Caribbean.  The place was a lot of fun and the drinks were very good.  We actually returned a few days later and tried a few more drinks which were equally good.  I would happily return if I was in the Greenville, SC area.  

Two Brothers Beer Dinner at The Signature Room

When talking about the view at area restaurants, while there are some restaurants with some very good views, there is one that is far and away much better than any other and anyone who has been there would agree that it has the best view in the city.  This would be The Signature Room on the 95th Floor of the Hancock Building.   I had gone there several years ago and while the food was good, it wasn't great.  I felt that they were using the view as the draw and the food was kind of an afterthought.  This changed with the arrival of Pat Sheerin as Executive Chef who remained for 6 1/2 years.  He has since gone on to open Trenchermen, but he left The Signature Room in the capable and talented hands of his chef de cuisine, Cardel Reid.  I came to The Signature Room for a Two Brothers Beer Dinner.  I mentioned that The Signature Room has an amazing view.  Unfortunately, it was foggy on the day that I went, so while we could see out the large windows, all we could see below us were clouds.  It was kind of like being in an airplane.  The dinner took place in a private dining room on the lounge floor on the 96th Floor.  Two of the walls were the fantastic windows with a third being a mural of the view of the city if the wall wasn't there.  The dining room was carpeted and had 6 large round tables that would seat 10.  There were two long tables that were used for staging before serving along the wall with the mural.  Overall, with the exception of the view and the mural, the room itself was not that exceptional and it actually kind of reminded me of an office building.  In any case, when I arrived, they were friendly and professional.  They gave me a placeholder with my name and table number and when I was seated, I was poured a Two Brothers Prairie Path Golden Ale.

Before the dinner officially started, we were served an Hors d'Oeurvre consisting of a Fried Frog Leg Drummette with a Dipping Sauce.  Frog Legs are not something that you see on a lot of menus so I was comforted that they had upped their game since the last time I had dined there.  The breading was crispy and peppery and the frog leg itself tasted very good.  Frog legs are said to taste like chicken.  I will say that the meat was very mild like chicken, but the texture was a little different.

For our first course, we started out with Seared Scallops with Creamed Corn Grits, Popcorn, and Shrimp Roe Butter Sauce that was served with Two Brothers Ebel's Weiss.  I have said in the past that popcorn doesn't do anything for me.  I will say that while it added to the aesthetic of the dish, it really did nothing for me as far as taste was concerned.  The scallops were perfectly seared and the grits and butter sauce paired well with it.  The beer was light and soft with a slightly sweet flavor.  I will say that while I didn't think it was a perfect pairing, they also didn't interfere with one another.

For our next course, we were served Grilled Octopus and Asparagus Salad with Coriander Vinaigrette it was paired with Two Brothers flagship beer, Domaine DuPage French Country Ale .  This was a very simple dish that was done very well.  The octopus was well cooked and flavorful with a light char as was the asparagus.  The greens that were served with the asparagus were very fresh and the coriander added a peppery flavor.  The full flavor and the breadiness of the beer paired well with the pepper and the char flavors of the food.

The entree left the ocean and went to the woods with Seared Wild Boar, Morel Mushrooms, Cranberry Beans, Haricot Verts, and Two Brothers Outlaw Reduction which was paired with Two Brothers Outlaw IPA.  The boar was tender and flavorful, the morels added an earthiness, the cranberry beans added depth, and the haricot verts were crisp and juicy with a vegetal flavor that tied the hoppiness of the reduction to the boar and the beans.  The pairing with the beer was very good although I have to say that it was undoubtedly helped by the fact that the beer was used as the reduction for the food.

I will say that while I had liked everything that I had had up to this point, everything about dessert was a win.  We were served an Orange Chiffon Cake with Citrus Whipped Cream, Toasted Almonds, Basil Simple Syrup, White Balsamic Vinegar Reduction, Blueberries, and Toasted Almond Ice Cream which was served with Two Brothers Night Cat Hoppy Dark Wheat Beer.  The cake was moist and sweet with sweet tartness from the citrus whipped cream which tied in the balsamic reduction and the toasted almonds on the cake tied in the toasted almond ice cream.  The beer was unusual, having flavors and aspects of a wheat beer, a stout, and an IPA.  It was good though and the broad flavor spectrum paired well with the cake.

 The dinner finished with a cheese course with small bites of several cheeses and assorted accompaniments which were paired with Two Brothers Bare Tree Weiss Wine Barley Wine Weiss Beer.  Our cheeses were Vermont Creamy Coupole, Mitica Quadrello di Bufala, Five Spoke Creamy Cheddar, Harmony Lemon White Stilton, and Bongrain Cheese Company Saint Agur Blue served with Raisin and Walnut Bread, Polenta Bread, and House Made Chutney.  All of the cheeses were good and it was a good finish especially with the hearty and fruity beer.

I really enjoyed my dinner here and I will have to consider it for something other than the view.  It seems that they are taking their food seriously and the view is something to behold.   

 

25° Restaurant

There are any number of bars and grill where you can get a burger.  Most of them aren't bad but most are also not memorable in any way.  There are a few places though that step things up and offer something more than the standard burger.  Kuma's Corner is the best of these but there are a few other places that do a good job offering there own take on gourmet burgers.  I went to 25° recently because I wanted a good burger and was looking for something new.  While technically a chain, there are four in the world, two are in Southern California and the other is in Bangkok, so I will give it a pass.  The burgers offered at the Chicago location are also slightly different than the other three.  The name 25° comes from the difference in temperature between medium rare and medium well.  The restaurant is located in River North and is actually kind of small considering its location.  It isn't too hard to find though, because it's painted black with a white 25° painted on it.  Inside, the space is dominated by the bar in the center of the room.  Seating is on all sides of the bar with tables on the outside of the room next to the red velvet walls.  There are several TV's in the room playing ESPN although I would not call it a sports bar vibe.  Lighting is from hanging lighting including two chandeliers inside the bar.  For food, the restaurant does four burgers with an option to build your own.  They also do a variety of hard floats, shakes and sodas.  What makes their burgers special besides their high quality meat is the wide variety of cheeses that are available.  They offer 15 different cheeses ranging from the standard American,  3 Cheddars, Mozzarella, and 2 Blues, to such things as Vella Toma, Grand Cru Gruyere Surchoix, and Cardona Goat Cheese.  The burgers are also put in a Brioche Bun.  For my burger, I ordered the creatively named Number One.  The Number One had (besides the ground sirloin and the Brioche Bun) Aderkasse Reserve Cheese (a soft, mild, pasteurized cow's milk blue cheese), Vella Toma Cheese (a soft slightly-ripened cow's milk cheese), Caramelized Onions, Bacon, Arugula, and Thousand Island Dressing.  This was a big, very good, and very flavorful burger with the onions, the blue cheese, the funk of the Aderkasse reserve all adding something.  The only thing I would say on the down side would be that it needed a little more bacon.  The bacon did add a textural element but the flavor was kind of lost with everything else.  It was a very good burger but with a little more bacon to bring the flavor out, it would have been much better.

 For sides, there are a lot of the bar and grill standard sides with standard and sweet potato fries, onion rings, chicken wings, and salads, but they also have spicy tuna, bacon wrapped dates, charcuterie and cheese, fritters, and tempura fried green and yellow beans.  I decided to go with the standard french fries which were well crisped and salty, but as far as taste was concerned, not that different from any other order of good french fries.  They were served in a container like a Chinese take-out box that was spilled over a long plate.  It was a good presentation that elevated the dish.

I finished things off with a Spiked Shake.  There were eight shakes on the menu that would have been good without the booze but the alcohol added something extra.  I ordered a Salty Caramel Shake which came with Makers Mark, Vanilla Ice Cream, Butterscotch, Red Hawaiian Sea Salt, and a lot of Whipped Cream.  This was very good, if a little dangerous.  It was easy to forget the alcohol.  It was sweet, salty, and buttery, and oaky, and a great finish to the meal. I enjoyed my meal and will definitely return to try more cheese and more shakes or floats.   

Siena Tavern

I generally am not a celebrity follower when it comes to restaurant.  I am concerned with whether the food is good, what the space looks like, and service.  If the restaurant draws celebrities or if it is owned by a celebrity it is worthy of note, but is not a deciding factor in coming there.  When Italian (by way of California) chef Fabio Viviani decided to open Siena Tavern, it went on my list, not because of his celebrity (he was on Top Chef and several commercials and talk shows), but because he has written a couple of best selling cookbooks and his food has reviewed well.  Located in the River North neighborhood, the restaurant takes it's inspiration from an unnamed tavern called simply La Taverna in Siena, Italy.  The room is large and open divided into a drinking side and the restaurant side.  The bar side has a large open bar with seating completely around it.  There are leather covered booths and several tables.  The restaurant side has a large crudo/pizza bar/open kitchen with several semi-circular booths and high banquette seating with high top tables.  The design is vintage and industrial with, besides the semi-circular booths, vintage incandescent hanging lights and a line of pictures along one wall that really remind me of Rene Magritte.  I came for lunch and was seated in the dining area at a high top banquette.  The menu is very wide and varied with selections possible from antipasti, salads, pasta, pizza, crudo, charcuterie, cheese, sandwiches and sides.  There were a lot of things that looked really good, so it was kind of hard to decide how I was going to put a meal together.  I started with an antipasto, Coccoli.  This started with Pancetta which was served with a couple of balls of Crispy Dough, Stracchino Cheese, and Truffle Honey.  Individually, each of the pieces of this dish were very good.  They were all very light and tasted very good.  The pancetta was delicate and flavorful, the dough had a nice and light crispy crust on the outside and was very soft and fluffy on the inside.  The Stracchino cheese tasted very fresh creamy and was similar to a Burrata, and the truffle honey brought both sweet and funk.  If the dough was opened, and eaten with everything else, it was like a rustic ham and cheese sandwich.

 I hadn't had a good pizza in a while and the pizzas here are flame cooked besides having good ingredients so I decided that a pizza was a must.  I would say that this may not have been the best decision except for the fact that pizza travels well and is good as a leftover.  This could also be considered as the best decision because it travels well.  I ordered a Truffled Mushroom Pizza with Wild Mushrooms, Garlic Cream, Mozzarella, and White Truffle Oil.  This was very close to a Neapolitan-style Funghi Pizza.  It was a white, thin crust pizza with a floppy body and crispy and chewy outer crust.  The truffle oil and mushrooms provided a lot of flavor and was very good but when it was served, I knew that it was more than I could eat.  I did want to have a dessert so I had half of the pizza boxed.

My dessert was Bombolonis. or Italian Doughnuts.  I was served four large, powdered sugar covered, fried dough balls which were texturally like yeast doughnuts.  They were served with three syrups that you could mix and match as you wanted.  The syrups were Whiskey Caramel, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Raspberry Chianti which were all good individually but I liked the combination of chocolate and caramel, and chocolate and raspberry best.  As one might expect, caramel and raspberry didn't really work, nor did a combination of the three.  It was fun trying them out though.

I really liked the look of the restaurant, and the food and service were very good as well, but it may not be the best place for a single diner to go.  I left stuffed and didn't eat for the rest of the day.  When I do return, it will be with a group.     

The Purple Pig

There are some places that are foodie destinations.  This does not necessarily mean that the place is outrageously expensive and exclusive.  What it does mean is that it is a place that is very creative and different and operates at a high level.  The Purple Pig is one of these places and it has been on my list for several years but for a variety of reasons, a major one being the fact that they don't take reservations and the wait times can be extremely long.  Several of my friends have asked me if I have gone but I would have to say I have not been there.  Recently however, circumstances played out such that I am now able to say that I have been here.  A friend recently came to town and was staying at a hotel a block away from the restaurant so I decided that it was time to go.  The plan was to go for dinner and meet with my friend after.  Unfortunately I was unable to get there as soon as I would as I would have liked and by the time I arrived the wait time was an hour and 45 minutes.  I really had no desire to wait there for that long but they did allow me to leave my name and number and they would call me when the table was ready so that is what I did.  I met my friend (and his family) and hung out until I was called.  My friend joined me.  While the address of The Purple Pig is on Michigan Ave, the only thing on Michigan Ave. is an archway with a sign.  There is a walkway that leads to the entrance which is actually above Illinois Street and closer to Rush Street than Michigan Ave.  There is a covered patio for outdoor dining with a fire burning (because it was rather chilly on the evening that I went).  It was full though and we dined indoors.  The dining room looked had high ceilings with a large L-shaped bar and a vintage look.  As it is very popular, it was crowded and pretty loud.  As The Purple Pig is known for their Cheese, Swine, and Wine, we decided we had to have some of all of these.  They have a large charcuterie list and many of the meats are self made.  The menu has something called The Purple Pig Platter which includes a few slices of all of their cured pork.  As this place is called The Purple Pig, we decided that this was a necessity.  On the platter was Lingua Agrodolce, Cacciatorini, Catalonian Fuet, Chorizo, Testa, Coppa, Tartufo, Jamon Serrano, Prosciutto di Parma, Prosciutto di San Daniele.  This was all sliced thin, and prepared well.  I liked most of the slices especially the ham (Jamon and Prosciutto) and the Lingua Agrodolce (tongue) but the Testa was a little too gamy for me and I don't know if I would order it on it's own.

If you are going to have charcuterie, it's a given that you also have to have cheese.  For our cheeses, we went for delice de bourgogne,a cow's milk triple cream cheese from the Burgundy region of France, Caveman Blue, a cow's milk blue cheese from Oregon's Rogue River Creamery and an unlabeled smoked Gouda.  The cheeses were served with Fig Jam and Toast and were very good on their own or combined with the charcuterie.

With the cheese and swine, we also had wine to fulfill our "obligation" to go for cheese, swine, and wine.  We had a bottle of Syrah, but what specifically we had, I could not say.  I could say however that it was good.

We decided to continue with the swine after the charcuterie and cheese and had a couple of prepared dishes, one of which was a house specialty.  We had a Milk-Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes and Milk Gravy.  The waiter told us that this was a specialty and I can see why because this was amazing.  The pork was fork tender and amazingly flavorful.  The mashed potatoes were very creamy and the gravy was essentially the braising liquid for the pork.  It was creamy of course, but it also brought with it a good bit of pork fat and flavoring which tied the mashed potatoes to the pork shoulder.

Our other entree was a Pork Secreto with Roasted Red Pepper, Leeks, and Pickled Watermelon Rind.  It seems that the secreto is exactly as it sounds, secret.  It is a little used cut of pork located close to the pork belly.  It has a bit of the pork belly flavor and while it is tender and has a bit of bacon flavor, it isn't as fatty.  It was very good in any case and the red pepper, leeks, and watermelon rind that were served with the secreto kind of reminded me of the red pepper sauce that is served with Ćevapi.

For dessert, I had what were essentially Greek doughnuts.  I don't remember what they were called and I forgot to take pictures of them but they were fluffy, sweet, and like everything else that we had, very good.

Dinner at The Purple Pig was great and I am glad that I finally made it here.  The food and drink was very good, the space looked very nice, and the waitstaff were very friendly and helpful.  It was very loud here, but as it is a very popular place, and it was crowded, it was to be expected.  I will definitely have to find my way back here some time because there were some dishes that I still have to try like the pig tails and the pork jowls.

  

Table, Donkey and Stick

The space doesn't look like much from the outside, and the address to the small building is bigger than the restaurant name but the space has been a restaurant of note for years.  Occupying the space formerly occupied by the Michelin starred Bonsoiree (which didn't have a restaurant sign at all), Table, Donkey and Stick goes in a completely different direction, serving rustic alpine food.  The space is small, seating about 20 people but it does have a covered patio in back that has a thick lumber communal table that seats about 10 people and several 2-top tables for seating for an additional 30.  The name of the restaurant comes from a Grimm's Fairy Tale about an ever full table, a donkey that spews gold, and a stick that punishes those that have wronged the owner.  We were seated at the communal table in the patio.  All of the furniture in the restaurant was rustic and looked like it would go well in a hunting lodge.  While the building itself is not exceptionally rustic, there are rough hewn wall hangings that contribute to the rustic look.  The menu is divided into Wanderteller (charcuterie), Cheese, Small Plates, Large Plates, and Sandwiches (with a separate menu for dessert).  With the many varieties of cured meat available, if a restaurant offers charcuterie, I will always try it.  Table, Donkey and Stick offered six types of Wanderteller, all of which seemed to be of the forcemeat type.  We had three Wandertellers, all of which were very good.  On the left (for me) was Duck Liver Mousse with Blueberries.  In the center was a Pork and Burgundy Snail Pate served with Walnuts, and on the right was Beef Tartare.  A Housemade Buckwheat Baguette was served to eat with the meat.  The duck liver mousse was very creamy and the flavor kind of reminded me of liverwurst.  The blueberries actually went very well with it.    The pate was mostly pork but you could see the snails, which were a gray brown color as opposed to the rest which was kind of pink.  The snails had been soaked in burgundy so there was a good, red wine flavor, as well as the savory flavor of the snail.  The walnuts add a textural variety to the pate.  While I like beef tartare in general and I did like this beef tartare specifically, it did surprise me.  The beef tartare that I have had in the past was finely ground like hamburger.  This was more roughly chopped.  It was served with a raw egg (a quail's egg in this case) and seemed to have been marinated in a soy-type sauce.  While it was a little different than your typical beef tartare, this was very good.

What goes with charcuterie (wanderteller) if not cheese?  We also got three cheeses although I can only remember one of them because I had had it before.  The one cheese that I can remember the name of was the Gorgonzola (blue).  There was also a semi-firm cows milk cheese that had a slightly sweet grassy flavor and a natural rind cheese that was slightly funky.  The cheeses were served with another housemade bread, honey, and walnuts.

For my small plate, I didn't really need to go back to snails because I had them in my wanderteller, but the dish sounded so good that I had to try it.  I had the Snail Agnolotti with Cocoa Cured Pork Loin, Green Garlic, Rhubarb, and Cocoa Nibs.  The flavor in this dish was amzing.  The pork was sweet and slightly bacony with a bitter chocolate edge.  The green garlic isn't as pungent as regular garlic and it has a green flavor in addition to the garlic.  The rhubarb and cocoa nibs were both used lightly did add to the flavor when they were encountered.  The rhubarb adding tartness and the cocoa nibs, bitterness.  The snails were in the perfectly cooked and toothsome agnolotti.  It was a nice chew and a joy to eat.

For my entree, I had a chicken that actually had some taste.  The chicken I had was from Slagel Farms and was served boneless with Smoked Pickled Ramps, Bulgur Wheat, Boiled Peanuts, and Chicken Hearts.  The chicken was tender (and tasteful) and the boiled peanuts were chewy.  The chicken hearts were mixed with the peanuts and I really didn't notice it.  It was tasty and very good.

Dessert was a perfect ending to a great meal.  I had a Goat Cheese Panna Cotta which was served with Pickled Cherries, Pickled Rhubarb, Granola, a Horchata Sauce that was poured over it, and garnished with mint leaves.  It was sweet, tart, crunchy, creamy, a little minty, and I really liked it.

I enjoyed my meal at Table, Donkey and Stick and am glad to see that while the look has completely changed and the food is much more rustic than the previous restaurant, it is maintaining the high standards established by Bonsoiree. 

     

Pastoral

While I really like the sandwiches at Pastoral, if I just talked about their sandwiches, I would be shorting them big time. I first read about Pastoral a few years ago when they had opened in Lakeview but first visited them after they opened a shop in the Loop. I got to know them as a cheese shop. It was very cool to go there because they have a great selection of cheeses and are more than willing to help you learn about cheese. If you buy some cheese without sampling, you either know exactly what you want or you aren't paying attention. It's very easy to browse the cheese selection and I would frequently sample three or four cheeses before choosing what I want. They carry a wide variety of cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, blue, and Bries. Most of their cheeses are cow cheeses but they do some pretty good goat and sheep cheeses as well. In addition to cheese, they also carry olives, charcuterie (which sometimes includes Pata Negra), bread, and some small wines. They have a picnic without the basket. With all of this good stuff, it should make sense that they can make some pretty good sandwiches which they do. Usually when I get a sandwich here, I get Le Canard, which is an herbed duck confit, Fromager D'Affinois, local shallot confit, whole grain dijon mustard, and field greens on a baguette. While I am a sucker for duck, I decided to change things up this time and get something different. This time I got what was called the Blue Pig 'n Fig. It contains Jamon Serrano, Ader Kase Reserve Blue Cheese, local fig and black tea preserve, whole grain dijon mustard, and field greens on a baguette. Basically it was a ham and cheese with fig jam but it was a very good ham and cheese. Even without the great sandwiches, Pastoral has great ingredients and is very willing to teach those who are interested. I always manage to learn something new when I go there and always enjoy going there.