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.  

Hopewell Brewing - Monday Night Dinner with The Winchester

 

I have come for Hopewell's Monday Night dinner several times.  Unlike other beer dinners where a restaurant will invite a brewery to showcase their beer, in this case, the brewery is inviting local restaurants to do a family style dinner.  Hopewell has done a good job in bringing in a variety of interesting and Notable restaurants to work with them.  Their most recent collaboration was with The Winchester, a restaurant in Ukrainian Village (on Winchester as a matter of fact), that specializes in local, seasonal, and organic food.  While my friends have joined me a few times, for this one, I was attending by myself which was fine and actually kind of funny because I ended up sitting with a few people that after talking for a little while, we discovered that we frequently ran in the same culinary circles and yet had never met.  Many beer dinners start with a welcome beer and Hopewell's beer dinners do as well, though they are decidedly more casual.  There is a cooler in the corner filled with cans of beer and you can grab what you want.  For this evening they had First Lager and Swift IPA, a couple of their mainstay beers that, while not exceptionally creative, are solid beers and good representations of the styles they are representing.

 

For our first course, we started out with People Power, a Pale Wheat Ale created by an idea from a Brooklyn Brewery, Threes Brewing, who suggested breweries around the country should make a beer (choice up to the individual brewers) called People Power and donate 10% of sales to the ACLU.  Hopewell's version was a light and crushable pale wheat ale that is great for summer drinking.  Paired with People Power was a spin on a classic summer picnic starter, Deviled Eggs.  The eggs were colored with Sumac and finished with Red Pepper and Paprika.  There were 12 eggs to the board and there were 4 of us sharing, so if we had split them evenly, we could have had three each, but there were a couple people that didn't want three, so a couple of us had to make up for that.  While the eggs were a little messy because they were held to the board with the whipped yolk.  They had a sweet and spicy flavor, were very easy to eat, and it was very easy to eat multiple.

 

Our salad was a favorite of mine as was the beer.  The beer was called Crudite and was a Wild Saison.  Saisons will have a funk to them and this was more so.  The salad consisted of Pickled Beets, Burrata, Arugula, Mandarin Oranges, and Candied Walnuts.  I liked every part of this dish, all of which were done very well.  The pickled beets were sweet and tart with a slightly bitter finish, the burrata was exceptionally creamy as burratas are.  The Arugula was lemony with a slightly peppery finish.  The mandarin oranges added a tart and slightly bitter citrus flavor, and the candied walnuts were sweet and bitter.  The sweet, tart, and bitter flavors played very well with the wild saison and it was a great pairing.

 

For our main course we started with Stay Crispy Helles, a Helles is another classic German style and is another great summer drinking beer.  Because of it's lightness, it will pair with just about anything.  For our main course, it was paired with a Pork Tomahawk with Cajun Spice with Pesto Frascatelli, Frascatelli is a very simple hand rolled pasta (called a dumpling) similar to Spaetzle.  The pork had a nice flavor and a good spice, the frascatelli added a nice chewy texture, and the pesto added a nice herbal flavor.

To finish, we were served a spin on a couple of classics.  Many beer dinners will finish on the beer side with a dark beer, normally a stout or a porter, which will typically go well with the sweetness of dessert.  Hopewell has a good dark beer that serves this purpose well, Cold Brew, a brown ale which is brewed with Metric Cold Brewed Coffee.  For dessert we were served Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Dark Chocolate, Caramel, and Chantilly Cream, a sweetened whipped cream that also uses vanilla.  It was sweet with the chocolate caramel, and vanilla, and went well with the coffee flavors from the beer. 

This dinner was a lot of fun.  The food and beer were both good and they paired well together and the company was also a lot of fun.  I will definitely do this again. 

   

Bareburger

New burger joints are opening up every day in the Chicago area.  While I prefer solo restaurants (as opposed to chains), if the chain is small and allows each restaurant to have a personality of its own, I am willing to check it out.  A friend of mine and I recently tried out a new burger joint, Bareburger, that recently opened in Roscoe Village.  It is a small chain based in NYC (The first Bareburger opened in Queens although the burgers were based on a burgers made in a former bar in Brooklyn).  They emphasize local, organic, and sustainable, which are all good things, so I was interested.  Restaurant is located on an odd corner on Lincoln Avenue that is almost, but not quite a six-way intersection and the building oddly shaped with the entrance on the narrow side.  The dining room is vaguely L-shaped with the bar and kitchen occupying the area inside the corner.  We sat on the long side of the L where there is three rows of seating, tables by the outside windows, a center row of two-tops, and the bar.  The floor, bar and furniture are light wood, polished smooth, but not shiny.  There is also a lot of wood trim on the walls, as well as bust portraits of farm animals in more formal attire (not tuxedos, but nice suits and dresses).  It kind of reminded me of the animal portraiture at Boka.  The menu is divided into Crops (salads), Greens (large salads), Shares, Wiches, Burgers, and Sides.  All menu items also have the calories listed.  There is also an interesting selection of shakes.  They have a nice beer selection (served in 12 or 20 oz sizes) and a small list of house cocktails. As we were both interested in the burgers and the beer, that is what we focused on.  I started with a Temperance ESB (12 oz), which was pretty good, and decided to share an order of Rings and Fries which were served with Smoke Sauce (BBQ), Special Sauce, Habanero Mayo, and Curry Ginger Ketchup for dipping.  They were served in a cardboard boat on wax paper marked with a bear and a burger.  My friend also noticed that the white plates with blue striping around the outer portion also had a bear and a burger opposite each other in the area of the striping.  Both the fries and rings were crisp and flavorful and while the dipping sauces were nice and very good (I liked the Habanero Mayo and the Curry Ginger Ketchup best), they were really not necessary to enjoy either the onion rings or the fries.

The burgers were interesting.  While they had a very wide variety of options to build your own burger (11 different patties, 4 buns, 4 bacons, 15 different veggies, 11 sauces, and six spreads), I was very happy that they had a good number of preselected burgers, because, in the past I have run into what sounds good does not all necessarily go together.  While I was deciding to build my own burger or go with a preselected burger, I ordered a Maplewood Fat Pug Milk Stout, which while flavorful and tasted like a stout should, was also eminently drinkable.  I went with a burger called the Grindburger, which started with Elk Burger, and added Manchego Cheese, Piquante Relish, Green Leaf (lettuce), and Paprika Mayo on a Toasted Brioche Bun.  This was a good burger.  The elk had a gamy flavor to it, as should be expected, but the rustic flavor of the manchego, and the spice from the Piquante Relish and the Paprika Mayo went well with it.  I am not going to say that this was a burger for everyone, as it was a bit strong, but I thought that the flavors worked well together, and made for a good burger.

Bareburger has differentiated themselves from the many other burger joints that are opening and have opened in Chicago recently.  I like their aim, to be local, sustainable, and organic, and the fact that they have a lot of choices on their menu.  It is worthy of consideration when you are looking for a good burger and a beer.                

Gaston Acurio - Tanta and Astrid y Gaston, part 1

Before I travel somewhere, one of the first things I do is to look at what good restaurants, I might have the opportunity to try there.  When I first thought about traveling to Peru, I looked, and quickly discovered Astrid y Gaston.  It was listed as one of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World, but I wanted to find out what it was about.  In my investigation, I learned about Chef/Restauranteur Gaston Acurio.  His history really interested me and his restaurant aims convinced me that Astrid y Gaston was a restaurant that I really wanted to go through.  The son of a politician, Gaston, first went to Law School thinking that he would follow in his father's footsteps, but he discovered that he really didn't want to be a lawyer and went to Paris, where he went to culinary school.  He met his wife in Paris and they returned to Lima in 1994 where he decided to apply his acquired fine dining skill to Peruvian food and try to introduce the world to Peruvian cuisine.  Through the years, Gaston Acurio has opened about 40 restaurants in several countries including the United States (La Mar in Miami, San Francisco, and San Diego, and Tanta in Chicago).  I had been to Tanta in Chicago and found that Peruvian cuisine was a fusion of various influences and it really interested me so, when plans for a trip to Peru started happening, I knew that Astrid & Gaston had to be on the list of places to visit.  We made plans to do an organized tour, but also to spend several days in Lima after the tour ended, so we would have a chance to explore things at a more leisurely pace and to see things that we might want to see on our own.  Looking at our schedule and what day might work to go to Astrid y Gaston, we found that our best day to go was going to be on the day our tour ended so that is when I made the reservation.  We left our tour hotel and settled into our apartment in the morning and our reservation wasn't until the evening so we decided to explore.  We were fairly close to the coast, which was a cliff and there was a mall, Larcomar, built into the cliff.  It was a place recommended while we were on the tour so we decided to check it out.  It was a very nice mall with a lot of high end stores, but what makes me mention it is that Gaston Acurio's Cafe Restaurant, Tanta, was located there.  As it was lunch time and we had not eaten yet, we decided to stop there for lunch and use it as kind of a preview for Astrid y Gaston.  I will start out by saying that Tanta Larcomar and Tanta Chicago have very little in common except that they serve Peruvian food.  Tanta Larcomar is very brightly colored, using a lot of reds and yellows in their color scheme.  It reminds me of a restaurant/bar that you might find on the beach which is appropriate.  It actually has two levels, the main level which is primarily bar and patio with a red and yellow canvas tent roof.  The interior of the restaurant is on the side of the cliff and you actually have to go down from the main level to get to it.  The outer walls were windows overlooking the ocean and allowing for a lot of light.  While the place looked relatively casual, the waiters were dressed very professionally with black pants, bright blue shirts (with a Tanta logo) and ties.  The place looked very friendly and casual and the menu looked very good, but as we were going to be having a 29 course meal for dinner, we thought it a good idea possibly, to take it easily and eat lightly.  After ordering and seeing other people's orders come out, we determined that that was not going to really be possible.  I started things out with Tiraditos Dos Cremas.  I knew from having it earlier that tiraditos is a dish of raw fish or seafood prepared similarly to ceviche and it sounded good.  This Tiradito was prepared with Corvina, a Drum Fish native to the Southeastern Pacific, and two sauces, Aji Amarilla (yellow pepper) and Rocoto (Red Pepper).    The Corvina was very thinly sliced and covered in the sauce, so when the plate came, it looked at first as it if I was getting a plate of sauces divided by garnishes (Sweet Potatoes, Peruvian Corn, and Red Peppers).  I had to stab my fork into the sauce to find that the plate was actually covered with fish before the sauces and garnish went on.  The corvina was very tender and tasty and went very well with both sauces.  The sauces also use a lot of lime juice so they were both pretty sour.  Of the two sauces, I would have expected the red to be spicier, but it was actually the yellow that was more spicy.

For my main course, I went with a Roast Pork Sandwich with Vegetables with a side of French Fries all served with a Yellow Pepper Sauce.  The vegetables were fresh and crisp, the pork was thinly sliced and the French bread that it was served on was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside like good French Bread is supposed to be.  The way the flavors and textures came together, this really reminded me of a Banh Mi and I really liked it.

My dining partner had a Chauffa, a Peruvian Chinese (Chifa) dish of Fried Rice and Potatoes with Shrimp, Onions, Corn, and Beef.  While it was similar to Chinese Stir Fries that I was familiar with, it very definitely had a Peruvian bent to it with the potatoes and the sauce.  Everything tasted very fresh and it tasted very good.

While some of the desserts that we saw looked very good, we really wanted to have room for dinner that night so we waived dessert.  The food and service here were very good and I would happily return. but on this trip we had other hills to climb.

We arrived a little early for service at Astrid y Gaston that evening and were told we could sit at a high top outside the restaurant which was part of the attached bar.  The place was actually an old Spanish-style farmhouse and was enormous.  There were actually herb gardens and green houses in the front that I would have investigated further had I been able to see better, it was night after all.  When we were first seated inside the restaurant, we were seated at low love seats with a low table and a round light between us.  We had a view overlooking an inner courtyard and a kitchen which was great, but my first thought was that if we were going to be sitting here for an extended time, it could get uncomfortable.

We were told that the theme for tonight's dinner would be Things We Remember.  Our first course was then served which consisted of a Sparkling Cocktail, Guinda de Huaura, a drink containing some Sparkling Wine and Morello Cherries, and some Pate Finger Sandwiches.  The drink was very bright and flavorful and the sandwiches were delicate and flavorful.  It was a great start and I was excited to see where we might go next.

Where we went next actually was on a tour of one of the restaurant's five kitchens before being seated inside in one of the interior dining rooms which was decidedly more comfortable.  The room had tall ceilings and several round tables with comfortable chairs.  The windows were curtained and there was a tall bookshelf with knickknacks and shelved mirrors on either sides.  There were also several paintings in the room that were seemed meant to evoke memories of childhood.

Such was the start of our dinner.  To be continued in part 2.  
 

Uncommon Ground on Clark - Brunch

I don't often do brunch two days in a row, but events played out that way and I like brunch, so after enjoying brunch at Marmalade on Saturday, I went to Uncommon Ground on Clark (there is a second Uncommon Ground with a different menu that is also on my brunch list).  I have been to Uncommon Ground a few times and really like it.  Their emphasis on on organic and local and the fact that they have been listed as the Greenest Restaurant in America can give people the idea that their menu might be pretty boring.  This is not the case, as can be seen when the menu, which is printed on recycled printed paperboard, is looked at.  We were seated in the dining room off to the side of the main room where musicians play in the evening.  With hardwood floors, walls, and furniture, it really reminds me of a hunting lodge.  The only thing that is really missing is a fireplace and that is in the main room.  There are a lot of veggies on the menu, and it is very veggie-friendly, it has many brunch standards enough bacon, sausage, corned beef, to make most people happy.  My goto for brunch is generally a hash and their hash looked really good to me, so that is what I ordered.  Served in a bowl, it was a little surprising to me, but it still looked good.  The hash had House-Corned (salt cured) Slagel Farms Beef Brisket, Fingerling Potato Confit, and Roast Brussels Sprouts, and was topped with a Poached Egg, Baby Kale, and Lemon Hollandaise Sauce.  It was served with a side salad of Augula, Radicchio, and other leaf vegetables, Butternut Squash, and a House Vinaigrette.  The salad was relatively simple, but it was very fresh and provided a little lightness to a dish that would have been very heavy by itself.  The hash was very good.  All of the elements, the brisket, potatoes, and brussels sprouts, were very tender and flavorful.  The poached egg was perfectly cooked, and after breaking the yolk to let it run and mix with the rest of the hash, it made sense why it was served in a bowl.  The hollandaise was applied lightly, but provided a nice lemony taste, which paired well with the brussels sprouts and brought the egg in well. 

I again liked my experience at this Uncommon Ground.  The food was again great and while there were a few hiccups in service, they were taken care of quickly, and with the appropriate apologies.  I will again enjoy returning here and look forward to also dining at the other Uncommon Ground.

Tweet ...Let's Eat - Brunch

I will admit that when I choose a restaurant whether for brunch or for some other meal, I tend to rely on online buzz.  I will listen to opinions of friends occasionally, but if I haven't really seen much online, I may be a little skeptical.  This was the case when I planned a brunch at Tweet ..Let's Eat.  Some friends recommended it and while I knew that it was associated with Big Chicks Bar, a very popular gay bar in Uptown, but that's all I really knew.  I was told that Tweet was very popular, that it took no reservations and was cash only, so I warned the people that were joining me and I planned for a visit a little earlier than I usually plan my brunches.  I arrived a little early and confirmed what my friends said, that it was a very popular place.  The fact that we went on Father's Day may have contributed to the crowd, but I saw enough people that didn't seem to be or be with parents that I would guess that it's popular in any case.  I also saw that it looked rather small, or at least has a small storefront.  When I entered, I saw that while the patio was small and the entrance was narrow, it did have two rooms and was fairly deep.  The room was set up with banquette seating on both sides with a walkway between the two sets of tables.  The banquette was wood but it did have throw pillows which did add some comfort.  The walls were covered with pictures, both photographic and painting that are curated around the notion of space, interior, exterior, urban, and rural.  The images were very good and it was interesting to look at all of them.  When we were seated, we were greeted with a plate of Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake that was sprinkled with Powdered Sugar.  The cake was moist, sweet, and had a lot of chocolate chips.  I am sure that it would have been very good with coffee had I actually ordered coffee.  I ordered a breakfast cocktail which I enjoyed.

We made our orders and found that all of our dishes came with a Fruit Salad.  The fruit was very fresh and sweet, but I would have enjoyed it much more had it not included Cantaloupe.  Other than the cantaloupe, the salad included Pineapple, Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Honeydew, and Watermelon.  With the variety of fruit, the salad was a joy to eat and if it didn't have cantaloupe, I would have really enjoyed it. 

Between the coffeecake and the fruit salad, it was unnecessary to get a sweet to pair with my savory main course.  So on to my main course, the menu was pretty big, and included, in addition to the standard eggs, pancakes, French toast, skillets, and omelettes,  hash, a variety of quiches, and a good selection of breakfast burritos, which is where I went.  I ordered a Numero Ocho also known as the Dirty Man.  It was a meat lovers burrito that contained Chorizo, Ham, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Onions, and Hash Browns.  It was topped with Cheddar Cheese and Cilantro, and served with Creme Fraiche, Pico de Gallo, and Salsa.  The tortilla, if not made in-house, was fresh and it was stuffed.  Unfortunately, for the first several bites, all I got was scrambled eggs and hash browns.  I thought at first, that I had the wrong burrito, but I eventually found it on the other side and it was much better with the meat.  The salsa did have some spice, but it was not exceptionally spicy and it did add flavor to the burrito, as did the creme fraiche and the pico de gallo.

I really enjoyed my meal here.  The space looked really nice, the art was nice, the staff was very friendly, and the food was good.  I was surprised that it stayed so far under the radar online and have to think that the crowds are locals.  In any case, it was very good and would enjoy returning.    

Rootstock Wine and Beer Bar

I had nothing planned for the weekend but I didn't really want to do anything big and extravagant so I decided to go to a wine bar.  I had heard that Rootstock was a very good and low key wine bar that also had a pretty good beer list so I decided to try it out.  Located in a low traffic area on California Ave. south of Humboldt Park, it has a pretty low key storefront.  The sign is black and white and building wide but the building is pretty plain.  There is a door in the front but the entrance is actually through an alley in the back.  The dining area is long and narrow with a long bar opposite the entrance.  The room is rather dim with a lot of the light focused on the paintings on the wall which are done by local artists and are for sale.  The food menu is small but changes frequently.  It starts with bar snacks continues to larger plates and finishes a selection of 6 charcuteries and cheeses.  The charcuterie and cheese lists looked interesting so I decided to start there.  The charcuteries and cheeses were all available individually, you could get the entire list, or you could 3 of each which you could choose yourself.  I decided to go with the choice of three charcuteries and three cheeses (with bread).  I started with a housemade duck rillette which was served with jalapeno peppers.  The rillettes were a little more wet and coarsely ground than I would have expected but it did taste good and spread easily on the bread.  I didn't try the jalapenos because, while I do like spicy foods, I am not partial to peppers on their own.  The next charcuterie was a spicy salami from Smoking Goose Meatery out of Indianapolis called Delaware Fireball.  It was a pork salami cured with crushed chili, espelette pepper, and garlic and dry aged with caul fat.  It was very spicy and good and served with currants which helped to mellow the heat somewhat.  The last charcuterie was also from Smoking Goose and was called Dodge City.  It was cured with Fennel Pollen and Pink Peppercorns and had a quick anise flavor followed by a fatty pork flavor.  The mushrooms that were served with it brought an earthy flavor which went well with the dry sausage.  The first cheese was a semi-soft goat cheese which was smooth and creamy with a light goaty flavor and was served with fig jam.  It spread easily, went well with the fig jam and was the first piece to disappear.  The next cheese was Willi's Cheddar, an aged raw cow's milk cheese that had a strong cheddar flavor and salt crystals in the cheese.  It was served with pickled fennel which mellowed the intensity of the cheddar flavor.  The last cheese was a blue goat cheese which was served with an apple jam.  This actually had a mellow flavor and was a favorite.  If I could remember the brand, I would buy some for myself.

To continue the meal I decided that since I had already started with a lot of protein, I should go with some vegetables.  I wanted something more than a salad so I decided to go with Pickled Baby Carrots with Whipped Butter, Anchovies, Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Curried Granola, Pickled Onions, Chevil, Tarragon, and Dill.  I really liked this.  It was tart, spicy, and very flavorful and the carrots despite being pickled had a good crunch.  After the carrots would normally come dessert.  As Rootstock does not offer dessert though, this is where the meal ended.  The food was fresh and flavorful, the beer list was very good, and the wait and bar staffs were very friendly.  Rootstock is a friendly and low key establishment with an eclectic and very fresh menu.  

Uncommon Ground - Central Waters Beer Dinner

While Uncommon Ground has been on my radar for several years, going to Wrigleyville is not one of the first neighborhoods that I think about when I decide to go out for dinner.  When Central Waters Brewery scheduled a beer dinner there though, I decided it was time to go.  While I was familiar with the Central Waters name, and I may have even had one of there beers, I wasn't exceptionally familiar with them.  The Uncommon Ground space is actually divided into two rooms.  The room in which you enter contains a large bar, several side tables, and a small lounge area with upholstered furniture, a central table and a fire place.  Other than the furniture by the fireplace, the room is largely light wood.  The other room is also light wood (floor, walls, ceiling, and furniture) and while it is used as a performance space, it reminds me of a hunting lodge.  There are tables along both walls and a large common table in the center. A window wall looks out on Wrigleyville, and on the other side of the room is an open space where performers perform.  There is no stage, but there is a carpet to demarcate the performance area.  Also, on the walls in the performance space, are paintings for sale from local artists.  The beer dinner was held in the performance space and I was seated at the communal table in the center.  The food that they regularly serve is local and organic and they have a vegetable and herb garden on the roof of their Edgewater space.  Uncommon Ground is listed as the Greenest Restaurant in America.  Central Waters Brewery is actually a good partner for Uncommon Ground because they aim to be as sustainable as possible as well, using solar and wind power, a water treatment plant, and recycling their used mash.  When I arrived, the dinner had already started (in a matter of speaking).  While we were seated, the first course(s) were served as hors d'oeuvres.  Hors d'oeuvres are generally served during a cocktail hour with waiters walking around with a plate of them while attendees walk around with a drink.  I do understand though, while we were seated, because having a standing cocktail hour would have required more space than the restaurant had and we would be sitting for dinner in any case.  The first course was actually two hors d'oeuvres, the first were Braised Moullard Duck Ragout Tacos and the other were Crispy Wisconsin Cheese Curds served with Harvest Moon Heirloom Tomato Puree.  The hors d'oeuvres were paired with Central Waters Ouisconsing Red.  As I was seated, the waiter offered me the last "taco".  I wouldn't have called it a taco myself because the ragout was served on a flat tortilla chip.  It was a little messy to eat because there was a lot of ragout on the chip and there was no plate but it was good.  The ragout was very savory and had chunks of tender duck in it.  The chip was crunchy and remained crunchy with the ragout topping it.  It provided a good textural contrast to the ragout.  I actually had several more cheese curds than I did the "tacos", so I was more able to experience the taste.  The cheese curds had a light breading which was crispy.  The curds also seemed to be very fresh as they actually squeaked when I bit into them.  The tomato puree was thick and sweet which both contrasted and complemented the saltiness of the cheese curds.  It actually reminded me more of a jam than a puree.  The beer went well with the cheese curds.  I imagine it went well with the taco as well but I really didn't have enough of the taco to make the comparison.  The beer was a red ale which was slightly hoppy and had a light head.

For the second course, we had Braised Grass-Fed Beef Stuffed Calamari with Watercress and Horseradish.  This was probably my favorite dish of the night.  The calamari was breaded which was very crispy.  The horseradish was used in the breading.  It was subtle and surprising because the taste of the horseradish snuck up on me, providing the sinus clearing burn that you would expect from horseradish.  The watercress was used as a garnish which added a little bitterness.  The beef-stuffed calamari was obviously meaty, but it was also very tender and had none of the rubberiness of many fried calamaris that I have had.  The beer served with the calamari was the Glacial Trail IPA.  It had a good head and a nice hoppy taste to it and went well with the calamari.

For the main course, we were served an Organic Lamb Loin with Citrus, Fennel, and Olives.  I am generally not a huge fan of lamb because it can have a rather strong flavor.  In this case, the flavor of the lamb wasn't as strong as I have had but it was strong enough.  This was actually a good thing because all of the side ingredients were also strongly flavored.  The flavors of this dish were strong and diverse, but they all went together well.  There were a variety of citrus fruits used including tangerines, mandarin oranges, lemons, and grapefruit.  They were all sour and most provided with some bitterness which went well with the lamb.  The olives were black which are also bitter and the fennel, which was tender, provided a nice light licorice flavor.  The beer served was a Slainte Scotch Ale.  It was dark and malty bitter with some peatiness and slight chocolate notes.  The bitterness played well with the bitterness of the food.

For dessert we were served Dark Chocolate and Organic Coffee Tarts with Coffee Ice Cream.  This was paired with Peruvian Morning, a Russian Imperial Stout.  While the tart wasn't bad, with this pairing, I preferred the beer more.  The tart was bittersweet and I really liked the ice cream that was paired with it.  The tart crust however was a little on the tough side and it took some time to break through.  Once that was achieved though the chocolate-coffee part of the tart was creamy dense and pretty good.  The beer was very thick, black, and very bitter, with a slightly sweet finish and not much of a head.  It poured like a thin syrup and was very good.

I really enjoyed my dinner here.  The food and beer pairings were very good, the staff was friendly, and the space was very nice.  I have been here a few times since this dinner so it has been a fast favorite.  

Sprout

While there is something to be said for being on Top Chef, unless you win, it doesn't help a lot other than name recognition.  This was especially true in the early seasons of the show.  Dale Levitski finished in second in the third season of Top Chef.  While he was fairly well known in the Chicago scene, having worked at Blackbird in it's early days and replacing Grant Achatz at Trio, when it came to finding money to open his own place, it wasn't happening.  When Sprout opened about 5 years ago, it was trying to do a completely organic menu including a $100 veal chop.  This didn't play exceptionally well and it struggled for about two years before they hired Levitski, who was working Front of the House at Sola at the time.  When he started, he decided to go with a 3 course Prix Fixe menu for $60 which he used to introduce people to his food.  While the menu is still divided in three parts, the names are a bit ambiguous and it's a little difficult to tell what might be appetizer, entree, and dessert.  There is also a 10 course tasting menu which I went for becaause I figured that it would give me an opportunity to try more of his dishes.  While I waited for my first dish, I looked at the dining room which was actually divided into two rooms.  Both rooms were fairly small and could seat about 30 people each.  The room that I was in looked like it was a patio at one time.  The walls and floor were white stone and the ceiling was pyramidal with a skylight at the peak.  The furniture was wood topped with a black metal frame and there was a repeating theme of a stylized sprout on the menus and on the wall art.  When my first dish arrived, the Amuse Bouche, I thought it looked cool but I wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to eat it.  It was a Rabbit Rillette on a large spoon (like a pate) topped with Red Borage, sitting on a Mustard Creme Fraiche, and served with Basil Powder.  All of the individual pieces tasted good and many of the pieces tasted good together but I was never able to get everything together.  While I liked the artistry of this, it did make me a little nervous for the rest of the meal.

The next dish though, helped to allay my fears.  It was the soup course and while it had much of the artistry of the amuse bouche, it was easier to figure out how to eat.  It was a peppery Potato Soup with Microgreens stuck to the side of the bowl with Creme Fraiche, and Olive Oil Croutons that were hidden in the Greens.  This was excellent.  The soup was creamy and peppery, the microgreens added a fresh vegetal flavor, the croutons were a surprise crunch, and the creme fraiche provided a nice tartness to finish the taste.

The next dish was the fish course.  It had a lot of elements and it was kind of busy but every element was very good.  It was a Striped Sea Bass fried skin-on, Edamame Greens, Malted Brown Butter, Faro, French Fried Ramps, and Pork Belly, and was garnished with radish slices.  This was another one of those dishes where I was puzzled where to start.  The fish was well fried.  It had a nice crust and was very tender.  The French Fried Ramps and Pork Belly was set opposite the fish and was also very good.  The other elements were very delicate.  They did taste good by themselves but they worked better as an accompaniment to the fish or pork belly.

After the fish came a dish that was based on Bouef Bourgignon.  The beef was a Braised Beef Cheek that was fork tender.  It was served with Carrots Two Ways, as Roasted Baby Carrots and as Carrot Chips, and with a little Creme Fraiche to fill out the taste.  This was amazing.  As I said, the beef was fork tender, but it was also very flavorful.  The roasted baby carrots were tender, of course, and the carrot chips had a nice crunch to them, but the chips were surprisingly flavorful as well.

After four dishes, while I had liked the look of every dish, I had only completely liked every other dish.  If the trend was going to continue, I should have expected a dish that was beautiful with elements that tasted really good but did not, in the end, come completely together.  This dish broke the trend and it was in fact, one of my favorites.  It was Filet Mignon with Fried Shallots, Grilled Bok Choy, and Worcestershire Barbecue Sauce.  It was a high end spin on Texas barbecue.  The shallots were everything that you might expect in good onion rings.  They were crunchy and salty on the outside and soft and oniony on the inside.  The filet mignon was cooked medium rare and was very tender and juicy and the bok choy maintained it's fresh crispness while adding a nice grilled smokiness to it.

I am not sure the order made sense to me but the next course was a salad.  I am sure many people would have liked this salad because all of the elements were fresh and crisp and the dish was very flavorful.  The green in this salad was Bibb Lettuce, it was topped with Macadamia Chips, and Fennel, served with Asian Pear, and sprinkled with Licorice Root.  The creamy vinaigrette was served on the side and while I am sure it was very tasty, I don't remember what it had in it.  Every part of this salad was fresh and crisp and the licorice root provided a nice spice to the dish but as I really don't care for pears, I have to call this a fail.

The next dish was a very creative cheese course.  There was a wedge of Goat Cheese in the center framed by Candied Walnuts and Figs, which was all set with a Golden Squash Puree.  It was a simple dish that was artfully presented.  It presented both sweet and savory both of which paired well with the cheese.

Generally with multi-course meals, there is a palate cleanser served between the entree and the dessert.  Sometimes it is counted as a course, sometimes it is not.  Many times it is a sorbet.  In the case of Sprout, a palate cleanser was served between the last entree and dessert and as everything that was brought to the diner was counted as a dish in the 10 course meal, this counted as a dish.  The palate cleanser was a Grapefruit Sorbet topped with Red Flower Petals of some sort and paired with a Sauternes.  There are many things I could say about this.  It was made well but there really wasn't any element of this that I liked.  I like grapefruit but for whatever reason, the grapefruit flavor was too strong.  The flavor of the flower petals did go with the sorbet but I didn't like the way it felt.  The Sauternes was very sweet.  Sauternes are supposed to be very sweet but for me, it was too sweet.  I understood the idea of the dish but I didn't care for the execution.

The dessert was beautiful.  It was a Chocolate Tart Shell filled with Mascarpone Powder and topped with a Graham Cracker Cookie and Chocolate Ribbon.  There was a smear of Housemade Caramel off to the side.  It actually kind of reminded me of a S'more.  Together everything was very good although with the mascarpone powder, you did have to be a little careful.  At one point, it felt like I had swallowed some dust and I started coughing a little.  It tasted good but it was also a little irritating.

The last course was the equivalent of the after dinner mint.  It was a Financier Cake and a Grapefruit Gellee served with a sprig of fresh mint.  It was a simple presentation for a couple of simple bites which were prepared perfectly.  The Financier was light, spongy and buttery, with a nice almond flavor.  The gelee had a nice grapefruit flavor (as opposed to the sorbet) and while it wasn't quite as firm as a gummy candy might be, it did kind of remind me of that..  It was a nice and simple end to a very complex meal.

While I didn't like every dish that was presented to me at Sprout, I will say that part of that was my own personal preference and not the execution of the dish.  I found the dishes very creative and visually stimulating even if they didn't completely come together on the palate.  There are other dishes that I saw on the menu that I thought sounded interesting so I may very well come back.                 

  

Swim Cafe

I first encountered Swim Cafe a couple of years ago when they catered a pre-show event for Redmoon Theater.  I really liked the freshness of their food and the fact that everything seems to be made from scratch.  I thought at that time that I would visit their place and try their regular fare.  That didn't actually happen until recently.  While they aren't really far from where I live, they are a breakfast and lunch place (they are open until 7 pm but I generally don't go for sandwiches for dinner) and are in the wrong direction for a stop on the way to work.  Stopping by would require a special occasion which happened recently.  I don't own a car so when I travel to visit my family in Michigan, it is by Amtrak.  I will generally pick up food for a meal for the trip because the food on Amtrak is expensive and not much better than something that you would get out of a vending machine.  In this case, I will take a sandwich for dinner.  I do like some variety so I am always looking for a new shop that might do things a little different.  In this case, Swim Cafe fit the bill.  Located across the street from Eckhart Park, it looks at the natatorium (indoor swimming pool) which is where it took it's name from.  The design of Swim Cafe looks like any number of coffee/sandwich shops in the area with an with tables along one wall and a counter looking out the front window.  There is an order counter off to one side behind which the coffee, tea, sandwiches and salads are made and there is a display case with the available baked goods (which are made in the back of the restaurant).  It also has a hardwood floor and an unfinished ceiling with exposed ventilation pipes and a tin ceiling (painted blue).  There is also art from local artists for sale on the walls.  The thing that catches your eye though when you walk in is the fact that the place is painted like a swimming pool.  The lower part of the wall is painted in various shades of light blue like a swimming pool is tiled, the ceiling and top two feet of the walls are painted bright blue as if looking up from the bottom of a pool at a blue sky, and the space between the upper and lower blues is white. 

Swim serves a variety of salads and sandwiches to satisfy vegetarians and meat eaters alike.  The meat and produce served at Swim is largely organic and the baked goods are made from scratch.  All of the sandwiches are served with a choice of side.  For my meal, I chose a Roast Beef and Gruyere Sandwich.  It was served on a Pretzel Roll with Red Onions, Mixed Baby Greens, tomatoes, and a horseradish creme fraiche.  For my side I had an Asian Slaw with baby greens, red onions, and a sesame dressing.  While the slaw and the sandwich don't exactly sound like they would work together, surprisingly they do.  The sandwich had a lot of strong flavors from the horseradish creme fraiche, to the gruyere, to the onion, to the pretzel roll (all of which complemented each other).  The greens and the tomato provided a moderating influence to the flavors which may have been why they were able to complement instead of overwhelm each other.  In order to make any influence on the taste buds after eating that sandwich, the flavors on the salad also had to be prominent which the sesame was and the greens and the onion from the sandwich also showed up in the slaw tying them together.  For my baked good "dessert", I had a Dulce de Leche Bar.  This was amazing.  It started with a crisp and buttery butter cookie base.  It was then topped with the dulce de leche, a slowly made caramel-like confection that is made with caramelized sugar and sweetened and condensed milk.  All of this is topped with butter cookie crumbs.  It was crisp, buttery, sweet, chewy, and very, very good.  I will return here just for this bar.

Swim Cafe does seem to be a place inhabited by a group of regulars.  While I do think their food is good to great, because of it's location and operating times, I will never be a regular.  I will however, definitely return when the circumstances dictate a sandwich for the road.     

Big Jones - Brunch

I make a point of going to brunch every month and invite a bunch of people to come with me.  I don't expect everyone to join me and in fact, have had a different group of friends join me every month.  This month, we went to Big Jones, a restaurant that specializes in Southern food.  Located in Andersonville around a wide variety of other restaurants, it is in an area that draws a lot of foot traffic and deservedly so.  The restaurant is small, seating about 50.  The host station is on the left as you enter the restaurant.  There is a bar on the right side of the restaurant (looking into the restaurant from the front) and seating on the left.  There are a few tables on the right in the back beyond the bar.  This is where we sat.  We ordered, and while we were waiting were brought some beignets.  These were great.  They were very light and airy and covered with powdered sugar.  I imagine that if it wasn't covered with powdered sugar it would also be very flaky.

For starters, I started with Tête De Cochon Cajun-Style otherwise known as Hog's Head Pâté with Brandy and Peppercorns.  It was served with Pickled Red Onions, Bourbon and Brown Sugar Mustard, and Rye Bread.  I do like pâté but this was a little different than the pâté that I have had previously.  Most have a uniform texture and are pretty smooth.  This was pretty chunky with pieces of meat actually visible in the patty.  It was spicy and had a sharp taste but it was really good and went great with the mustard and red onions on the rye bread as an open faced sandwich.

There were many things on the menu that really looked interesting and it did take me some time to decide on what I might be interested in eating but I finally decided on something.  I ended up getting the Shrimp and Grits.  This was kind of a risky move for me because I have had Shrimp and Grits at Hot Chocolate Restaurant which set a very high bar.  I like Shrimp and Grits so I decided to try it out.  With this, the shrimp were gulf jumbo shrimp served in a Tasso Ham Gravy seasoned with Worcestershire Sauce and the grits were cheese grits.  It wasn't quite as good as the shrimp and grits at Hot Chocolate but they did taste very good and I didn't regret ordering it. 

After everything, I was very satisfied with my brunch.  It was very good, and I would really like to come back to try more of the menu.  I would also be happy to come back for dinner some time.   

Standard Market/Standard Grill

While you won't see a restaurant in a grocery store often, it really isn't that uncommon.  Most groceries of any size have a deli section (without a dining area),  and a lot of Mexican grocery stores have attached taquerias.  Whole Foods also has a deli and a bar with a dining area.  In Westmont, there is a specialty grocery store called Standard Market.  From the outside, it looks a little odd.  While it is on the main drag (Ogden Ave.), it looks either like a large white barn or a funeral parlor.  The interior though, looks as one might expect of a specialty grocery with sections for fresh, local produce, cheese, beer, the bakery, meat, and some prepared dishes.  Located off of the produce section is the Standard Grill which features burgers, sandwiches, salads and pizzas.  They also feature a variety of rice bowls (called Buddha Bowls) for lunch and grilled chicken, pork, fish, and shrimp for dinner.  The order counter is at the front of the grill with the menu above the counter.  After ordering (and paying with a credit card because this establishment doesn't take cash), you seat yourself, and your order is brought to you when it is ready.  The dining room is set up like a nice cafeteria with several round tables and a few high tops.  There is also an outdoor dining area that didn't seem to be open when I was there.  As one might expect of a food establishment associated with a grocery that specializes in local, organic, and artisanal foodstuffs, the ingredients used in the food on the menu is of the highest quality.  The meat used in the burgers is ground daily, the cheese is from local dairies, and the produce is organic and local.  I ordered a Bacon & Blue Burger which other than the very juicy burger, contained Neuske's Bacon, Danish Blue Cheese, BBQ Sauce, Oven-Roasted Tomatoes, Bibb Lettuce, and Sweet Onions on a Sesame Seed Bun.  The burger came with a choice of French Fries, Cole Slaw, Market Salad, or Sweet Potato Fries which is what I ordered.  It also came with a small dish of honey mustard served on the side.  The burger was light on the BBQ sauce but it was okay because it was juicy and flavorful enough as it was.  The bacon was cooked not quite crisp so it still had a nice chew to it and the blue cheese added a nice sweet bitterness to it.  I did add some of the honey mustard to provide a little tartness to the burger.  As simple as it was, it was still very good.  The sweet potato fries were cut thick and were tasty although admittedly, they were a little more droopy than I like fries.

While this isn't a place that I would go every day, both the grocery and grill are nice with a variety of fresh and artisanal foods.  I will definitely be back when I come to the area.

Elate

In general, I would not recommend a restaurant located in a hotel. There are exceptions, but a hotel restaurant, having to serve three meals a day for a wide variety of patrons, will have to generalize. When you are located in a boutique hotel aiming for a niche audience it is easier to focus your cuisine. Elate, located in LEED certified boutique Hotel Felix has been on my radar since it opened but when an opportunity to come out for brunch availed itself, I dived in. The dining area is laid out like a lounge. The space is very open and high ceilinged with window walls on two sides. The ceilings are unfinished and have an industrial look about them with big, black iron I-beams in the overhead with hanging lights also made of black iron and having a kind of unfinished, industrial look. There was a hostess station at the entrance and a big, heavy looking wood bar behind that ran most of the length of the dining room. The center of the room was divided by banquette seating on three sides which is covered with black leather. The tables used by the banquettes are wooden black two tops which can be pushed together for larger parties and there are several larger round six top tables outside the area surrounded by the banquettes. I was by myself so I got a two top and sat at at one of the very comfortable banquettes looking out on the street. I looked at the menu and saw many things that interested me. I decided to start with something at least slightly healthy because whatever I was going to have after was decidedly not going to be. I got a bowl of mixed berries which were really good. It contained strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and some blueberries. The presentation was simple and it didn't seem to have any extra sugar sprinkled on it which was fine because I thought that the fruit was good enough and could stand on it's own. It tasted very fresh and the strawberries were slightly crisp. It was a very good start because what I decided on next was a bit on the decadent side.
While I have heard before of a breakfast pizza, I had never had one. I like pizza and with the ingredients offered on this pizza, it sounded like a home run so I ordered it. As one might expect for something labeled breakfast, it had a fried egg on it which was very good but it also had, smoked ham, caramelized onions, truffled potatoes, and aged gouda. This pizza was ridiculously good. All of the ingredients had very prominent flavors which went together very well. They also announced themselves with every bite. The aroma of truffles was immediate when the plate was served but the flavor while prominent, didn't overwhelm the rest of the ingredients. The most subtle of the ingredients were the caramelized onions but they were very tasty when they were bitten into. On top of that (or underneath it as it were) the crust was thin and very crisp and didn't crumble when bitten into or cut. It held together very well.

It was kind of funny to find another such good breakfast place so quickly after my last one, both of which feature seasonal and organic food. While they are both very good, they are decidedly different and there is very definitely room for both of them. I will have to return here sometime for dinner because the dinner menu also looks very appetizing and after the great breakfast here, I am sure that the dinner is at least as good.