Sunday Dinner Club - "Made Wrong" Burgers at Half Acre Brewery

 

I like Sunday Dinner Club, the underground dinner club that hosts dinners with many various themes and I try to go several times a year.  Their main location is above their restaurant, Honey Butter Fried Chicken, which itself started as a Sunday Dinner Club dinner, but several times a year they will partner with Half Acre Brewery for a dinner at one of their tap rooms (mostly the Lincoln Tap Room).  These dinners are similar to the dinners in their home space in that when people are checked in and seated, they will come out and introduce themselves.  With the dinners at Half Acre, a Half Acre rep will first introduce themselves and welcome everyone before introducing the SDC crew who will then introduce themselves, tell the story of Sunday Dinner Club, and tell everyone about the dinner they will be having.  The dinners at SDC Headquarters are BYOB, but the ones at Half Acre come with four beers.  This dinner also came with a sample of Camchi's Kimchi, a product from one of their crew that they plan on commercializing.  The beers that I started with were Eat Shop Apricot Milkshake IPA with Lactose and Apricot and Deep Space Double IPA, both IPAs, but very diffwewnt from one another.  Eat Shop Apricot was creamy and hazy with a nice soft mouthfeel and apricot and tropical flavors.  Deep Space was decidedly heavier with grapefruit and pine flavors and a nice dry finish.  

Their former sous chef Becca, had an enormously popular Cubano sandwich which they used as a theme for a pop up at Revival Food Hall.  It was also very successful, so there is now thought of opening another restaurant under the Sunday Dinner Club umbrella.  While the Cubano Sandwich is good, it's hard to build a restaurant on one item, so this dinner was sort of a try out to expand the menu.  For this dinner, they did a spin on the Maid-Rite Burger, a spiced loose meat sandwich similar to a sloppy joe without sauce, they called a "Made Wrong" Burger.  It was also a spiced loose meat sandwich on a bun, but it also had Camchi's Kimchi made with Cucumbers and Carrots, Spicy Aioli, and Muenster Cheese.  It was served with a very good Potato Salad made with Mustard and Spices.

For my beers to drink with dinner and finish off, I went with Shrub Tundra Coffee Brown Ale and another IPA, Half Acre makes a lot of IPAs, Fluorescent IPA.  Shrub Tundra is a collaboration with a local coffee roaster, Dark Matter Coffee, uses 5% liquid coffee by volume, the variety of which varies every year.  This years blend had a nice head, light carbonation, and a thin mouthfeel.  The coffee aroma and flavor were good and while there was a hop flavor, it was light.  Fluorescent IPA poured light yellow with a light haze.  It has a medium body and tropical flavors and was pretty good.

To finish our dinner, we were served Brownies.  I really like brownies in general, but these brownies were pretty fantastic.  The Brownie was Dark Chocolate topped with Peppermint Cream Cheese and Fueilletine Flakes.  Fueilletine, meaning leaves, is a very light pastry that tastes like a very light and crispy sugar cone and provided a nice crunch to the brownie.  The brownie had a great flavor and provided a great finish to a great dinner.  While Sunday Dinner Club does not do just one thing, there style is very homey and a lot of what they do is to elevate comfort foods.  I have liked the dinners that I have had with SDC, and I will continue going to their dinners.

Sunday Dinner Club - Big Steak Dinner

 

While I have been regularly going to their smaller events at Half Acre Brewery, it has been a while since I have been to one of Sunday Dinner Club's dinners at their main space above Honey Butter Fried Chicken.  When they announced their Big Steak Dinner though, it was a given that I would go.  Knowing the stuff that Sunday Dinner Club does, I was sure that what we would be getting would be similar to what you might see at a steakhouse, but with a spin incorporating more Farmer's Market Fare and generally more creative.  A look at the menu for the evening confirmed my thoughts.  As Sunday Dinner Club is a BYOB space, I decided to bring a variety of beers, two from local breweries, Ten Ninety Sharp Wit Sour Belgian-Style Ale with Coriander and Orange Peel, and Marz Rhubarb Rain American Brown Ale with Rhubarb and Strawberries, Old Nation M-43 a highly rated New England-Style IPA from Michigan.  All of the beers were very good and contained fruit flavors, I imagined that the fruit flavors would match well with the gresh ingredients that we would be seeing at dinner.  All of the beers were very good and different and did go well with dinner.

For our first course, we got a spin on Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion.  Called a Bloomin Market Onion, it was a small and oblong-shaped onion from Green City Market that was cross cut like the original, Breaded, Fried, and served with a Remoulade Sauce made with Herbs from their Patio.  It was smaller than the standard Bloomin' Onion, but generally, more than one person is going to try to finish an Outback Bloomin' Onion and if you do finish it, you really won't want much else.  This was tender, crunchy, and perfect for one person.  The Remoulade Sauce provided some additional herbal flavor.  It was a great start for a dinner aiming at Steakhouse Fare.

After the Bloomin Onion, we had to have a Shrimp Cocktail.  While it wasn't precisely Shrimp Cocktail, it was a spin on that idea.  We had Wild Gulf Shrimp served with a Green Tomato Cocktail Sauce (instead of the standard red cocktail sauce), and Pickled Horseradish.  The shrimp was tender and the green tomato sauce was sour.  The pickled horseradish provided some heat, though less than fresh horseradish would.   

Another standard in Steakhouses is the Wedge Salad.  We also were served a Wedge Salad of sorts.  While it shared many of the same ingredients as a standard wedge salad, Greens, Buttermilk Blue Cheese, Bacon, Fresh and Pickled Cherries, and Pecans, the greens were not left in a wedge and actual cherries and pecans were used, as opposed to Cherry Tomatoes.  The cherries paired well with the blue cheese and the nuts added a nice crunch.  Lettuce doesn't have much more than a slight bitter flavor so it can go with anything.  It was a good salad that went well with a steakhouse theme.

With the standard appetizers and sides covered, we then came to the Steak.  We were served a Thick-cut Grilled Strip Steak served with a Panzanella Salad of Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Torn Bread, and Grilled Onions, and a Homemade Worcestershire Sauce on the side.  The steak was served medium rare and had some nice grill marks in addition to being very juicy.  The Panzanella was flavorful and great for adsorbing the steak juices, and the homemade Worcestershire Sauce was something else.  It apparently had 32 ingredients and took several days to make.  While the chef said that because of the amount of work it took to make it, it probably would not be made again, it was worth it.  It was sweet, spicy, flavorful, and went very well with the steak.

To finish things off, we were given a brownie.   This was a Tahini Brownie with Halva Cremeux (a creamy pudding made with Sesame Seeds and Cinnamon), Dark Chocolate Sauce, Raspberries, Feulletine, and Sesame Crunchies.  The brownie was prepared the way I like it, a little more on the crispy side and it was obvious that good chocolate was used.  With the tahini, the halva, and the sesame crunchies, there was a lot of sesame flavor, that moderated the bitterness of the chocolate.  The Raspberries added some tartness to round out the flavor and the fuelletine and sesame crunchies added a crunchy texture.

This was a lot of fun.  The food was both familiar and surprising and was very good.  I really enjoyed the meal and my experience and I will definitely return.
   
  

Sauce and Bread Kitchen - Foraged Feast 2018

I like Sauce and Bread Kitchen, the Bakery/Hot Sauce factory/Cafe that does pizza on Fridays and the occasional dinner that you have to be on their mailing list to attend.  I am on their mailing list and have attended several of their dinners, but it has been a while, so I was happy to see their announcement for their Foraged Feast, a dinner where many of the ingredients used in the various dishes were foraged.  Looking at the menu beforehand, things looked very good, so I was pretty excited.  Dishes are served family style, though Sauce and Bread Kitchen is a BYOB, so anything that you want to drink, other than water and coffee at the end of the meal, you have to bring yourself.  Whether you want to share that is up to you.  I brought enough beer that I thought interesting that I was able to share some.  I brought an Ommegang Fire and Blood Red Ale with Ancho Chilies and Jaden James Monkey Butter Porter.  The Red Ale was good with a nice head and the Ancho Chili bite was very light.  The Peanut Butter Porter was weird, but I expected it to be weird.  It had a strong peanut aroma and finished with flavors of chocolate and coffee like many dark bears.  It was like eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for breakfast.

We actually started with an Amuse Bouche, 3 Sisters Crostini with Hominy, Winter Squash, and Chickpea Miso, and Radish, crisped on Pickle Bread, with Ramp Giardinera.  As with all amuse bouches, it was a little bite of wonderfulness.  I tried the crostini with and without the giardinera and it was good either way, though better with the giardinera.

Our first actual course was a Hawks Wing Bao with Smoked Dryad Saddle Mushrooms, Sweet Onion in Peanut Miso BBQ Sauce, Shaved Asparagus/Birds Eye Pepper Salad, Wild Chive, and Chili Peanuts.  It was fresh, spicy, crisp, and crunchy, and was a lot easier to eat than I expected.  I would have expected that trying to hold it together while trying to eat it, might have squeezed many of the vegetables out.  This did happen to a small extent, but for the most part, it stayed in the bun.

After our first course of mushrooms, we continued with another course of mushrooms.  We were served Wild Mushroom Pasta with Chilled Buckwheat Noodles, Ramp Olive Oil, Poached Morels, Sauteed Morels and Golden Oyster Mushrooms, and Fried Pepitas.  This was really good.  It was tender, nutty, and the ramp olive oil acted as a nice vinaigrette.  It reminded me of a vegetarian dish that I make every summer.

Our entree was our only dish that actually had meat and that was fine because everything else had been great, thus far.  We had a Choucroute.  Choucroute is the Alsatian version of Sauerkraut (and sausage).  This used a Venison Andouille Sausage.  While venison eaten at home is generally wild, venison found in a restaurant is generally farmed.  For the Choucroute itself, that was pretty wild, using Grilled Escarole and Ramp and Carrot Kimchi (the Korean version of Sauerkraut).  It was tart and flavorful with a little spice, though admittedly, the escarole was a little tough to eat.

For dessert we finished with a Financier Pistachio Vanilla Cake with Rhubarb Sorbet, a Candied Basswood Leaf, and an Edible Flower.  While the ice cream and cake were good, the best part about this was the candied basswood leaf.  It was sweet and very delicate with a lightly crisp texture.  The flower, also very delicate, unsurprisingly tasted like a flower.

This dinner was a lot of fun and I would be happy to see what they come up with next year.  

  

Claudia Pop-Up

 

I like to keep track of underground dining in Chicago even if there are a few that I will probably never go to (for whatever reason).  I had first heard about Claudia, an underground pop-up run by Chef Trevor Teich and open only on weekends and doing a fine dining menu, a couple of years ago and while I was very interested, I couldn't bring things together for a night out there.  When I heard that they would be closing and that former Moto Chef Richie Farina would be a guest chef for their last dinners, I said that I had to make this happen.  As it was, I made it to Claudia's last dinner.  I have a special spot in my heart for Moto.  It was the first fine dining restaurant that I went to and they were full on into Molecular Gastronomy, a combination of science and art.  Richie was one of the chefs when I first went, but had risen to Executive Chef by the second time I came.  After he left, he has kind of flown under the radar, so I was interested to see what he would do.  Claudia was located on the second floor of a building in the West Loop, an area that used to be the warehouse district for the local food companies.  The building looked like it had formerly been a warehouse, but had been converted to offices.  Our dining area was small and stark and had two 8 seat picnic tables.  There was a table for the drinks that people brought and two doors, to the room.  The first door was the entrance, but the second led out into a large ballroom area that separated the dining room from the large industrial kitchen.  The diners could wait in the ballroom and socialize with each other and the chefs until dinner was ready to be served.  When dinner was announced, we were told that we could sit wherever we wanted at either picnic table.  I was by myself, so I sat at a corner to give other diners who were dining with other people the ability to dine together.  I sat across from a brother and sister who were both involved in the tech industry and a young man, his female friend, and aunt.  The people that I was around were very interested in technology and science, so the conversations were very interesting.

When we were seated, our first course came out and it looked for all the world like Chicharrones served on a paper towel.  While similar, the "chicharrones" were actually Flash-Fried Beef Tendons.  The texture was similar, very light and crunchy, but the flavor was a little more savory.  The paper towel was also an illusion.  While it looked like a paper towel, it was actually a ceramic plate.  It was very cool and set a great stage for a night of experimentation.

While the Beef Tendons were good, they weren't an official course and were more an Amuse Bouche.  Our first course was about lamb.  It started with Lamb Loin Tartare and accompanied it with Lamb Fat Aioli, Red Carrots, Onion Strings, and as with most tartares, a raw egg.  I like Steak Tartare, this had a more funky and gamy flavor than does beef as might be expected from a dish using a lot of lamb. 

The next course was apparently a classic of Chef Trevor's and was frequently on the menu.  Called Snails in the Woods, it was very much a visual experience.  The plate with the dish was presented first and then water was poured into a vase on the table.  The vase apparently had dry ice because when the water was poured into it, steam poured out to set the atmosphere for the dish.  The dish itself consisted of Tempura Fried Snails, Black Truffle "Dirt", and Herbs.  With the steam (fog), the leafy herbs, and the dirt, the illusion was complete.  The snails were very good.  The tempura crust provided a light crunch to the regular chewy texture of snails.  The herbs and dirt added some nice flavor to the snails.  The dirt tasted of truffles (of course), but it didn't have the overwhelming flavor of some truffle flavored dishes.

Our next course was called Coconut Squid and seemed to be an unusual combination, especially that was what the course almost completely consisted of.  It was a multi-layer course starting on the bottom with Coconut Custard, topped with Squid Ink Marinated Squid.  On top of this was Deep Fried Young Coconut.  This was all seasoned with Togarashi and Nuac Mon Kombu (a Fish Sauce Braised Seaweed).  The dish was a mixture of flavors and textures from soft and chewy to crunchy.  The squid ink marinade did little to the squid other than turn it black.  While all of the individual components were good on their own, if you could get a bite with everything, it was the best, with a wealth of flavors and textures.  I have to think that this was one of Richie's dishes, because I noticed that there is something similar in the Moto Cookbook.

The next course was very pretty and delectable as first presented even in its simplicity.  It started with a couple of Butter Poached Scallops with Cuttlefish, Fennel, and Confited Orange.  To this was added a Red Wine and Scallop Consomme.  The scallops were incredibly tender and flavorful.  The cuttlefish added some texture, the fennel - some flavor, and the confited orange concentrated the orange flavor.  The consomme, was very light, but added flavor to the dish and was all pretty good.

The next course is a classic flavor combination, but the dish was very much an expression of art and science.  It was Beef and Cabbage which you would expect to be simply brown and green which were there, but there were a variety of shades of red and green striped on the plate (from cabbage juice at different pH levels).  The dish consisted of an incredibly tender Red Wine Braised Short Rib and Bacon Braised Cabbage, with the previously mentioned Cabbage Juice, Leek Ash, and Sarsparilla Beef Glaze.  It was rich, tender, savory, and almost as much fun to look at as it was to eat. 

Our last savory course that reminded me somewhat of a Deconstructed Cubano Sandwich.  It was made with a Quick Cured Pork Belly, Pork Loin, Corn Bread, Rye, Carrots, and Mustard.  I will grant that a Cubano has two types of pork, Swiss cheese, Mustard, and Pickles, on Grilled Bread, and this dish replaced cheese with carrots, but the flavors still really reminded me of a Cubano.  It was simple, very flavorful, and very good.

I said that the Pork Belly was our last savory course.  That was sort of true.  Our next course was dessert which was sweet as a dessert should be, but it was also very savory.  It was a Rice Cake with Kombu (seaweed) and Amazake (fermented rice) Ice Cream.  If any dish could be considered a fail, this would be one.  It was mostly ice cream in a flavor I didn't care for.  The rice cake and kombu did provide (savory) flavor, but it added to something that I didn't really care for in the first place.

The first dessert was essentially a palate cleanser, the second dessert was actually fun to eat.  While the menu labeled it Chocolate, it could have just as easily been called Coffee.  It started with Chocolate Gelato, continued with Coffee Espuma (culinary foam, this was thick enough almost to be called a mousse), and Caramel.  It was really good and actually kind of reminded me of a Caramel Macchiato turned into a dessert.

 

Our final dessert was a course in two parts and I have to think that each chef made one part.  Called Embers & Ash, We were first presented with Embers:  Flaxseed Caramels, on individual spoons for each diner, and presented on a burning log.  It was supposed to evoke the image of eating sweets around a campfire.  After Embers come Ash and that is what the course very much looked like, ash.  We were presented a plate of powders consisting of Smoked Creme Anglaise, Dark Chocolate Powder, and Brown Butter.  Before we were allowed to dig in though, Chef Richie came around and dug chunks of Liquid Nitrogen Frozen Chocolate Cake which "smoked" and was meant to look like smoking coal.  When we ate these pieces, because they had been so cold, we would blow a lot of steam out of our noses and mouths.  It was very cool, a lot of fun, tasted good, and was a great ending to a fine dinner.

When dinner was finished, the chefs were in the ballroom to talk, sign menus, and take pictures.  I did all three.  I really enjoyed my dinner, I just I wish I had gone sooner.    

   

Sunday Dinner Club - Taco Night at Half Acre Balmoral

 

I like Sunday Dinner Club and have been to many of their events.  Their regular space above Honey Butter Fried Chicken is nice and cozy, but it's also fun when they do a collaboration with Half Acre Brewery.  Most of the time they will do it at Half Acre's original location on Lincoln in Lincoln Square which is still in operation, but they recently decided to hava Taco Night at Half Acre's newly opened tap room on Balmoral in Bowmanville which is part of Half Acre's Production Brewery.  While the address for the brewery is on Balmoral Ave, and there is a sign there, the entrance is actually a block north on Rascher.  There is a parking lot on Rascher which is surrounded on three sides by brewery, so it's easy to see that this space is much bigger than their original space.  There is also a large bike rack at the front of the parking lot, which I really appreciated.  Entering from the parking lot leads to a long hallway which passes by the windowed kitchen and eventually into the taproom.  The bar is on the same side of the room as the entry hall and stretches the length of the room, as opposed to the bar at the Lincoln taproom that is basically in a corner.  The room is brick walled with a light wood bar and floor.  There is also a wood frame on either side which support open rafters and joists.  It looks both unfinished and very open and lodge-like.  There are also a couple of windows on the bar side that look into the brewery itself.  At the time that I was there, it was filled with palettes of highly stacked cans.  There were lot of palettes, but there were passages between them so you could see just how deep the space was.

I sat at the bar because it allowed me to follow the action better and gave me better access to the bartenders so I could more easily ask questions.  The wall behind the bar had a large wood covering that was the same color as everything else that was engraved with parallel lines of decreasing length making an interlocking triangle pattern.  Half Acre was engraved at an angle in one of the triangles.  It was a cool design and could keep someone's eyes busy for a while.  Generally when I go somewhere several times, I try to try something different, even if I have a favorite on the list, because what's to say that I won't find another favorite among the new things that I try?  There were a lot of new things on the beer list that I hadn't tried, so there were a lot of things to try.  I started with Longhouse Belgian Single.  I am much more familiar with Dubbels, Tripels, and Quads then Singles.  All of these start with Singles, so I decided to see how their single was.  Like many Belgians, it had a nice head.  It was slightly foggy and flavor wise reminded me of a light Tripel with a light, sweet, malty flavor.

As this was Taco Night, I couldn't not have a beer called Taco Day.  Taco Day was what they called a Wakatu Pale Ale.  I had no idea what that meant when I ordered it, so of course I had to ask.  Taco Day, is apparently a Single Hop Beer, and they use it to experiment (kind of like Old Irving Brewing's Trendii Series).  For this version, they used Wakatu Hops, a New Zealand Hop Varietal.  They also dry hopped the beer with Wakatu Hops.  The beer had a nice citrus lime flavor and medium bitterness.  While I was enjoying Taco Day, my Tacos came out.  They were very definitely not authentic Mexican.  I would probably call them authentic Midwestern.  Having said that, they were very good, though.  Built inside Fried CornTortilla Shells,  the tacos had some good quality Spiced Ground Beef, Lettuce, Tomato, Cheddar, and Sour Cream.  The tacos (We were served two) were served with Black Beans and Spanish Rice, which were much closer to authentic Mexican and had a good texture and flavor.  While I was enjoying my tacos, I ordered my next beer.  We got four, in total, with the meal.  I had a Dopee IPA, one of the more clear beers that I have had from Half Acre.  It had the nice bitterness of a good IPA with some nice herbal flavors.

To finish things off and to pair with my dessert, I went with my biggest beer, Bivouac Double IPA, which, in actuality, is kind of small for a Double IPA at 8.1%.  Having said that, it was full bodied and slightly sweet, though it did have a dry finish.  This, I paired with a cookie that I saw recently in SDC's Pizza Night.  It was a Lemon Frosted Cornmeal Cookie.  It was very good with Pizza, it also finished a very nice Taco Night.

I always enjoy Sunday Dinner Club's dinners, so I will continue to go to them.  It's also a lot of fun with Half Acre because I get to try a variety of beers.  The Balmoral facility is very cool and I will have to return and try some of their regular fare. 

Sauce and Bread Kitchen, The Stew Luau

I enjoy going to Sauce and Bread Kitchen for their supper club, The Stew and have gone several times. mostly at Sauce and Bread Kitchen, but also at alternate locations.  The coffee shop/cafe itself is religiously local and seasonal and is the home of both Crumb Bakery and Co-op Hot Sauce.  While both of these are very good, their self imposed rules can be a little restrictive.  The Stew, their monthly supper club, allows them to break out and get creative and for this episode, they were very creative.  They did a spin on the food of a Hawaiian Luau (having never been to a Luau or even Hawaii).  Hawaiian friends of theirs that consulted on the menu development said that while some were pretty close to authentic, some were very creative.  In any case, the food we were served was very good.  We started out with a dish called Puri Puri that took a little work from the diner to put it together.  It consisted of very "balls" with very thin shells.  We were to crack them open to fill them with the Avocado Citrus Kissed Salmon and Sauce with which they were served.  The shell was like a very thin cracker, the salmon was very fresh and had a nice citrus flavor along with pureed avocado.  The sauce was like a Salsa Verde and added a tart spicy flavor.  It was a nice start with a very interesting dish that tasted really good.

Our next dish was called a Masubi Roll, but looked nothing like any roll that I might normally think of.  Having said that, it was similar in technique to a Maki Roll that you may find in a sushi restaurant.  It was an Onigiri Roll with House Made Ham, Egg, Rice and Umebashi Plum Sauce wrapped in Nori.  Onigiri is a roll with rice, and some sort of salted or sour food, and frequently, umebashi (salted plums), in this case the ham stood in as the salted portion and the Umebashi was served as part of the spicy sauce served with the side salad.  It was very different, but it did taste good, despite the burn. 

For our third course, we had Lau Lau, Braised Octopus and Poi (a tick sauce consisting of mashed and baked Taro root and in this dish, acted as a very thick sauce for the tender octopus) wrapped in a thick and edible leaf.  Served with the leaf were Purple Sweet Potato Chips.  While this tasted good, I couldn't figure out an easy way to eat it without making a mess.  As it was, I wrapped the leaf more tightly than it was served and ate it like a burrito, although more quickly.  While it did help somewhat, the leaf was tough, so it was tough to bite through, and the poi was very liquid.  The sweet potato chips were sweet and salty and provided a nice textural counterpoint to the leaf.

Our last savory dish was unusual in that it was a vegetarian dish.  Called Manapua, it consisted of BBQ Jackfruit in a Steamed Hawaiian Bun with Carrots, Pickled Red Onion and Grilled Pineapple.  Jackfruit is a large citrus fruit, with a banana/pineapple flavor, but it also unfortunately had a slight aroma similar to body odor.  The BBQ provided a sweet and tart flavor over the sweetness of the Hawaiian bun.  It had a nice crunch and other than the slightly unpleasant aroma, it tasted pretty good.

 

For our dessert, we finished off with Haupia, a traditional Hawaiian dessert consisting of Coconut Milk cooked with Arrowroot to make it thicker.  It had a texture similar to thick gelatin and was served with Pineapple, Passionfruit Curd, and Coconut.  It was sweet and tart from the passionfruit and pineapple and had a lot of textural variety.  It was very good and a good and interesting finish to a supperclub that I will undoubtedly enjoy again.