Southport and Irving SIP - Brunch

For brunch this month, we went to a Wine Bar/Market/ Restaurant with one of the most obvious names ever.  SIP Southport and Irving Restaurant is located at the corner of Southport and Irving Park with the entrance to the wine bar right at the corner.  There is a second entrance to the main dining room on Southport, but most of us did not know this and entered the main dining room through the bar via a long winding hall.  The building is an old brick building obviously divided between the bar and the dining area.  The floor is hardwood as is the bar and furniture.  The hall to the dining room is darker and has several turns before getting to the host station which is where the entrance to the dining room also is.  The dining room is laid out like a market (which it is) with several large wine racks in the middle of the room as well as on the front wall.  There are also several large communal tables made of a heavy wood along the walls.  There are also smaller tables between the wine racks.  The seats along the wall used a padded banquette with a hardwood bench seat.  The drink menu features the usual coffee, tea and orange juice, as well as beer, wine, and cocktails.  There were a few cocktails ordered, and I was interested in the Espresso cocktail, but I decided to go with a cup of coffee, which was good, but not terribly notable.  The food menu was divided into Sweets, Eggs, and Lunch.  As I like to try both sweet and savory for brunch, I started things off with an order of Beignets for the table.  The order was served on a piece of slate and came with four beignets which were covered in powdered sugar and served with a buttery sweet dipping sauce.  While they had a lightly crusty exterior and a very airy interior, they were pretty big.  This is not a complaint.  I was happily surprised to see how big they were.  While we had 9 people at the table, one plate was sufficient for all of us.

My main course was also listed under Sweets, but I think that that was only because it couldn't easily be included under eggs (my order did come with eggs, but that was an extra charge) and it almost certainly was not Lunch.  I had Chicken and Waffles with 4 Buttermilk Waffles, Cajun Fried Chicken, and 2 Eggs, served to order which, for me, was Over Medium).  It was served with Harissa Honey which I poured over everything and added a sweet and slightly flavor.  The chicken was crisp and crunchy on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside.  The breading did have some spice to it, but it probably could have used a little more.  The eggs though, were cooked perfectly.

I enjoyed brunch here, the atmosphere was rustic, the staff was friendly, and the food was good.  There was a hiccup in the service of one of my friend's orders, but, while it did take a little more time, they were very apologetic and took it off the bill.  I would happily return for brunch and I might want to try it for dinner sometime.         

Café Marie Jeanne

While there are a few places that are really good there, I generally don't think of Humboldt Park for dining out.  I happened to be in the neighborhood one morning for other reasons and I hadn't eaten, so I decided to check out a place on a corner that I knew to be blowing up.  From the outside, Café Marie Jeanne looks like one of the many independent coffee shops or small restaurants in the city.  It sits on a corner and has large windows on both sides of the corner.  The sign is nice, although understated, with painted script on the lower part of the windows.  Walking in, the look is of a cafe, with hardwood floors, a painted tin ceiling, several tables laid out cafeteria-style (straight lines), and a few booths.  As you walk in, there is a small display counter with some beer, sodas, and produce, and pastries, which is one end of a long slate topped bar.  While they operate primarily as a restaurant, you can also buy fruit, milk, coffee, some produce, beer, and wine for take out, as in a market.  There seemed to be another dining room in the back, but I was happy in the front at the bar where the beer, wine, coffee, and liquor were.  While I was given a couple of menus consisting of breakfast and drinks to look at, I also noticed that there were several chalkboard menus at different places that emphasized specials, coffee, and beer and liquor.  While I was looking at, and comparing, all of the menus, I decided to start things off with some coffee.  I had not had a Capuccino in a while and they used a good coffee (Metric), so that's where I started.  I was happily surprised that, in addition to good tasting coffee, I also got some nice Latte Art.

The a la carte menu features a lot of meats, cheeses, produce, and pastries, so it potentially could take a little work to put together a composed meal, but a pastry is a good start.  I ordered a Ham & Comte (Cheese) Croissant and from the start, it reminded me of something I might find at a French Patisserie.  The plate, in fact, had a blue design around the edge and a blue farmhouse painting in the center.  It really reminded me of something I bought in France years ago.  The croissant was very light with a crispy and flaky crust and a nice chewy interior.  The ham was thinly sliced in the center and was very tender and flavorful and the Comte, while mostly melted into the croissant , still provided a nice funky cheese flavor.  I would have been happy with this alone, but there was more to come.

While I said that there were a lot of pieces and it could take a little work to create a composed dish, Café Marie Jeanne provided an easy way to do it.  On the menu is a Breakfast Sandwich that you essentially choose yourself.  How it works is that you choose two items from the Breakfast A La Carte Menu which are then placed, with cheese (White Cheddar) and an egg to order, on Country Wheat Bread or an English Muffin.  You could also build your sandwich on a muffin for a premium.  For my sandwich, I chose Smoked Brisket, and Jowl Bacon on an English Muffin with my egg over medium (so I get a little yolk, but it doesn't explode), which with the egg and cheese, made for a seriously hearty sandwich.  Everything about this sandwich was very good (although it was a little work to be able to get a good first bite because it was pretty big).  The brisket and jowl bacon were very flavorful and slightly crispy, but not charcoal, the egg was cooked perfectly and the cheese was melted.  I really enjoyed this, as well as my breakfast in general, and will definitely have to return to try different versions of the sandwich. 

Wellfleet-The Fishguy Market

The Mayfair Area of Elston Avenue is largely an industrial area.   There is some residential but it is mostly  garages and construction businesses.  This is not an area you would think of for fresh seafood.  Just north of Montrose though, is a seafood market called The Fish Guy.   This market carries carries all manner of seafood including lobster, shrimp, scallops, oysters, and when I visited, langoustines as well as salmon, sturgeon, and other sea fish and sells to restaurants as well as walk-in buyers.  There is also a small cafe that will seat about 16 people between the counter and the tables located inside the market called Wellfleet.  The market (and cafe) are done in white tile and the table and counter tops are stainless steel.  There is also a skylight so between the white tile walls and floor and the stainless steel counter and table lights, they make good use of the available light.  The menu is small and is on a clipboard at every seat when you walk in.  There isn't a lot of description to the things on the menu but the kitchen is right behind the counter and the cooks and chef are very friendly (and right there) and encourage you to ask questions.  When you are ready to order, it's easy enough to order all at once or as you go.  The menu items are fairly simple so it doesn't talk an extensive amount of preparation after ordering and everything is right there so if you will not experience a significant wait if you order one course at a time.  I wasn't sure how much I wanted to eat when I came in so I only ordered a main course and a drink.  As I was waiting, they brought me an Amuse Bouche consisting of Salmon Tartare with a Garlic Lime Aioli.  It was a spoonful of awesome and I thought it boded well for the rest of my meal.  The salmon tasted very good and the aioli both held it together physically with it's creamy texture and complemented the flavors with the savory garlic and the sour of the lime.

For the course that I actually ordered, I ordered the Pan Fried Langoustines in a Garlic Butter Sauce.  I thought that I had had langoustines before and thought them similar to shrimp.  When I received them, I saw that they are a bit similar to shrimp but are more like small lobsters.  I also saw that I had never had them before and I really had no idea how to eat them.  They were served with a sliced lemon and a couple of slices of baguette to soak up the garlic butter sauce.  After the cooks saw me puzzling over how to get the meat, they quickly told me that the best way to get to it was to grab one and to split it along the back and the meat would come right out.  I tried it and while it was messy, it did work well.  The meat was very light, tender, and was slightly sweet.  The flavor actually reminded me more of crab than shrimp but it was really good.

After I fought my way through the langoustines and soaked up the garlic butter sauce, I decided that this had been very good and I should order a dessert.  They had a Tortuga Rum Cake on the menu so that's what I ordered.  A Tortuga Rum Cake is a bundt cake with bundt cake with walnuts that is soaked in Tortuga Rum.  It was sweet, dense, and slightly rum flavored although not overwhelmingly so.  The chef suggested having it with whipped cream but I decided to wave that off because I didn't want to be overwhelmed with the whipped cream and wanted to actually taste the cake.  I probably could have ordered a little on the side but I didn't think about it.  In retrospect, I do think it would have gone really well with whipped cream but it was good as it was.

Wellfleet-The Fish Guy is a small operation but they do some very good stuff.  It does surprise me that they are not located in the West Loop where there are a multitude of specialty food businesses and warehouses and fine dining restaurants but if they can do a good business in their location, good for them.  It is actually to my advantage that they are located where they are because I travel near their location frequently and would not have to make a special trip.  Admittedly, I don't cook a lot of specialty seafood but as it is close to a route I travel frequently, I do see myself stopping in again.