The Bristol - Tasting Collective Dinner

It's funny, while I have been to The Bristol several times, I've never written about their dinner.  I've been here and written about Brunch and events, but never their dinner menu.  While this dinner with Tasting Collective was a group dinner, it did feature kind of a greatest hits selection from their dinner menu.  The plates at The Bristol are meant to be shared anyway, so other than having to serve everything at once, it shouldn't have been a huge difference for the kitchen.  We were seated upstairs in a room that used to be a bar area that served no food, but is now a private dining room and event space (with it's own bar).  For the dinner, there was one long communal table set up and we shared plates with three people sitting close to us.  I started things off with an Old Fashioned, made with Very Old Barton Bourbon, Demerara Sugar (raw sugar from sugar cane), Bitters, and an Orange Rind garnish.  An Old Fashioned, as the name implies, has been around for a long time.  It isn't difficult to make, but the ingredients used make an enormous difference.  This was a very good Old Fashioned that was sweet, bitter, and very smooth.  I am generally not a bourbon drinker, but this was very good.

Our First Course was very much a pre-dinner, cocktail hour-style appetizer.  It was Smoked Catfish Dip, topped with Trout Roe, and served with Housemade Potato Chips.  The catfish dip was ver flavorful and topped with a lot of roe.  It was very good, though the one complaint that I might have had was that we could have used more potato chips which were very crisp and salty and very good themselves.

After our appetizer, we had a classic salad combination:  Roasted Beets with Feta Cheese.  To add to this, there were Honey Roasted Cashews and Persillade (a parsley and garlic sauce).  The beets were tender and had a sweet and bitter flavor, the goat cheese brings a slightly sour creamy flavor, the cashews added a honey, nutty crunch, and the persillade added a green and garlicky flavor.  It all came together in a wild and yet familiar combination of flavors and textures.

After the salad began our savory courses with one of my favorites, Fried Pork Rillettes with Pepper Jam.  Served on a wood board, it was a very simple presentation, but it made it easy for the four of us to easily get one rillette.  They were like breaded meatballs with a very tender interior and a sweet and spicy Pepper Jam that the rillettes were both topped with and sat in.

Our second savory course was a Duck Confit Cavatelli with Shiitake Mushrooms and Mint.  Many might think that this would be my favorite dish.  It had many things going for it, the duck confit, which was plentiful, the mushrooms, which added texture and a nice earthy flavor, and the mint.  It was very good, but I liked the Pork Rillettes better.

Our final savory course was brisket, which I also love, though not as much as the pork rillettes.  The Brisket was Miso Smoked, which added an extra savory flavor and served with Pickled Turnips, Mashed Potatoes, and Mustard Greens.  I loved the brisket part of this and the potatoes and the mustard greens were fine, but I was not excited about the turnips.  They weren't bad, they just didn't get it for me.

The final dish, dessert, is a dessert for which they are fairly well known for, the Basque Cake.  Again served on a board, the cakes were sized for individual consumption and topped with Chantlly Cream as is traditional for a Basque Cake.  It also had a Seasonal Jam, in this case, Blackberry, and a large Pecan.  I have had several Basque Cakes recently and this one still remains at the top.  I really enjoyed dinner hear again.  The food is very high quality and I like the seasonality of it.  The service is also very good and I got to meet the chef.  I have enjoyed it every time I have come here, and I am sure I will enjoy it again when I return.     

Uncommon Ground, Lakeview - Brunch

It is rare that I repeat a place for brunch, but these were special circumstances.  Uncommon Ground has two locations with different menus and special things about both.  While their location in Edgewater seems to have the more interesting menu, I have never been there and gone to the Lakeview location every time I have gone.  The Edgewater location has the nation's first Organic Rooftop Garden and Lakeview is the location of Chicago's first organic brewery, which was not there when I went there last.  The space in Lakeview is located almost across the street from Wrigley Field and has two rooms, the bar and the performance space which also serves as a gallery for local artists.  There is also a large patio area outside for warmer days.  While it was a sunny day on the day we went, it was not yet warm enough for patio dining and we sat at a table in the bar area.  It was brunch, so coffee was a must, but as the place is also a brewery, their beer was also a must.  I started things off with some great coffee and a beer, Orion's Nebula Funk Berliner Weisse. I like Berliner Weisses because they are sour and generally have a low ABV.  Orion's Nebula Funk filled the bill well.  It was slightly sour, though not overwhelmingly so and an ABV of 3.1%  It was very easy to drink and had a very full flavor for a beer that is only 3.1% ABV.

 

 For my main course, I had more beer.  This one was a DIPA called Skyrocket Nirvana that also included 0.27mg CBD per ounce.  It was a good DIPA with a full mouthfeel and little if any dankness.  For my food I had Ham and Cheese Stuffed French Toast with Crispy Shaved Brussels Sprouts and a side of Bacon.  The Stuffed French Toast was, for all intents and purposes a Monte Cristo Sandwich.  Made with Brioche, it used Local Ham, Rosemary Neufchatel Cheese (very similar to cream cheese), and Bourbon Mapel Syrup.  It was sliced in quarters, sprinkled with Powdered Sugar and had the Crispy Brussels Sprouts served along side and on top with a liberal portion of Maple Syrup.  Were it not for the Maple Syrup, it would have been fairly easy to eat by hand.  As it was, it would have been pretty sticky to handle by hand, so I ate it with a knife and fork.  Despite the method of eating it, it was really good.  It was very flavorful with plentiful ham, the bourbon maple syrup and the rosemary in the cheese and I enjoyed eating it.  As for the bacon, I was given three large slices that were thick cut and cooked to the point where it was crispy, but still having a nice amount of chew.  Overall, I really enjoyed brunch here and would definitely come again, the food and drink is very good and the service was friendly, but I will also have to try their other location.