Papa Cenar - Brunch

 

 

 

 

I mentioned that while I really liked the restaurant Twain, I was happy to see that when it changed to Papa Cenar, the design at least, remained largely the same.  I decided to go for brunch recently to see how that compared.  I noticed when I went that in addition to the outdoor color change, they had added an oval sign with a twisting and stylized sign holder (2-dimensional) looking similar to a grapevine.  The door was still a big and heavy wood door with a steel handle that looked like a stylized squirrel.  I sat at the bar because it gives me a better chance to ask questions.  I noticed next to me another stylized animal sculpture, this one appearing to be a fox.  As I was there for brunch, coffee was a given, especially since it came from one of the best coffee roasters in the city, Sparrow Coffee.  It was a medium roast that had some chocolate and berry flavors and it was a nice way to get things started.  As it was also brunch, a cocktail was also in order, so I ordered a wine based cocktail called Byrrh, It's Cold Outside with Byrrh Grand Quinquina, Branca Menta, Angostura, and Lambrusco.  Quinaquina is a red wine based apertif that uses Cinchona bark (Quinine).  Branca Menta is a blend of Fernet that also includes Peppermint and Menthol.  The cocktail was interesting, tasting like red wine with mint and tonic.  I will not say that it was my favorite cocktail ever, but it wasn't bad.

For the sweet part of my brunch, I went with a doughnut.  This doughnut, however, was a bit ridiculous.  Called Nick's Doughnut, it was a yeast doughnut with Amaro Montenegro and Mascarpone Glaze, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Berry Jam, Mint, and Powdered Sugar.  It was like a fruit salad built on top of a glazed and filled doughnut.  While I would normally eat a doughnut with my hands, this would have been very messy.  It was very much a knife and fork thing but it was really good.

The savory side of my brunch is a classic of Spanish cuisine and while brunch isn't necessary to have it, it does work for brunch.  I had a Spanish Omelette, made with Scrambled Eggs, Potatoes, Red Peppers, and Onions, and served with Fried Potatoes, and Arugula and Fennel Salad, Burrata, and Toast.  The arugula and fennel were very fresh and crisp, with a slight licorice flavor provided from the fennel, The potatoes had a crisp and crunchy exterior and a fluffy interior, the toast was crisp without being exceptionally dry and the Spanish Omelette was served cold as it is supposed to be.  It had a lightly crisp topping, was very flavorful, and I really liked it.

While I was eating, I was talking to my bartender/server about Gin.  He was recommending Letherbee's Autumnal Gin to me, so to finish things off, he made me a mini Last Word.  The Gin included roasted rice which with the roast flavors evoked images of autumn.  It was very nice and made for a nice finish.  I really enjoyed brunch and the Last Word at the end was nice.  I will definitely return when I want to do something a little different in the neighborhood.        

Bad Hunter - Tasting Collective Dinner

 

 

 

While I am not a vegetarian, in recent times, I have been judging restaurants by how creatively they do their vegetables.  Luckily for me, there have been several restaurants that have opened in the past few years that have been vegetable focused, if not strictly vegetarian.  One of the most high profile to have opened recently was Bad Hunter, in the West Loop.  I was very interested in checking them out when they opened, but they had a fire that shut them down for several months.  They reopened recently and while they went back on my list, I was happy to see that Tasting Collective scheduled a dinner there, so I made a point to get a ticket for dinner.  Located in the heart of restaurant row on Randolph in the West Loop, it is not exceptionally flashy.  The building is brick with smaller windows and if it were not for a one color neon sign in one window, the fact that the building holds a restaurant would not be exceptionally obvious.  Looking into the windows, you can see tables and plants, but the space may well be a conference area or cafeteria as it might be a restaurant.  While the exterior is not obvious, the interior is obviously a restaurant with a very relaxed feel.  There are a lot of plants, both hanging and in plant holders, and the space has light colored walls and parquet floors.  The bar, on one wall, is long and runs into the space with round stones cemented together and ground flat to make the bar top.  It looks very cool and with the stone top, I don't imagine that they really have to worry about condensation ruining the bar top.  The rack behind the bar is bookcase like and holds a nice variety of both liquors and plant life.

I found before I came, that I had a friend that was working at Bad Hunter and was working on that night, so I decided to stop in early, say hi and grab a beer.  The beer that I grabbed fit in very well with the feel of the restaurant.  Whiner Brewery is a brewery on the south side located in a former meatpacking facility, their work is very much about sustainability and reusing as much as they can.  They produce a lot of wild ales and are very focused on barrel aging.  The beer that I got, Le Tub, is one of their most popular beers.  It is a Blended Barrel-Aged Wild Saison with a tart and funky flavor.  It has flavors of white grape and lemon and while it is good and I liked it there, I prefer their Le Bleu Tub variant, which includes blueberries.

After saying hi to my friend and finishing my beer, I continued upstairs to The Herbarium, their upstairs event space for dinner.  I started with Mermaid Water, made with Dolin Blanc Vermouth, Gin, Nardini Grappa, and Lime.  This was very refreshing, like a Gimlet, and was nice to enjoy with my meal.

Starting out, we were served a Caseificio Artigiana Burrata, a Burrata (Cream-filled Mozzarella) with King Trumpet Mushrooms and Sott'Olia, a combination of Cured Olives and Lemon Peels.  The Burrata was very creamy, of course, and the mushrooms, olives, and lemon peels added a tart, briny, and savory flavor.  The one thing that I didn't care about this, and it was minor, was that the olives weren't pitted, so you had to watch how you bit into them.

After the cheese came the salad course, and with this we were served Butter Lettuces, Lemon Cream Vinaigrette, Black Radishes, Bleu Cheese, and Cashews.  While it had all of the standards of a salad, it wasn't bad.  All of the ingredients were good quality and it did taste good, but ultimately it was a salad which, in many cases, is not exceptionally exciting.

Our next course, however, kind of blew me away.  We were served Butter Dumplings with Charred Corn, Smoked Peanuts, Corn Cream, and Radishes.  The dumplings were perfectly cooked and the corn and peanuts added a lot of smoky flavor.  The corn cream added a sweet corn and creamy flavor and the radishes added a crisp and lightly spicy finish.  This was probably my favorite dish of the night.

Our next course went the fish and seafood route.  We were served Monkfish Tail with New Potatoes, Saffron Fish Stew, and Asian Pear.  It was good and while I don't like pears, the Asian Pear was edible because it was cooked.  The stew reminded me of a Brazilian Stew that I had and enjoyed several years ago.  The Monkfish Tail was very tender and had a light flavor, though was spiced well.  Absent the stew and pear, though, it would have probably been a bit bland.  Together it made a very nice and flavorful bite.

Our last savory course was kind of a surprise.  While I knew that Bad Hunter was not a vegetarian restaurant and that there was meat on the menu, I figured that for those courses that did include meat, the vegetables would still be the star.  This course, though, Adobo Whole Roasted Chicken with Celery, Caramelized Onions, and Labneh over rice.  The chicken was the star with the vegetables working to elevate the chicken.  The chicken was well cooked, tender and had a nice and spicy crust.  The celery, rice, and labneh (soft cheese made by draining the whey from salted yogurt) tasted good on its own, but did a good job complementing the chicken.

From here we proceeded to dessert.  Dessert was pretty simple, but it did taste good.  It was a Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Boysenberry Jam and Cardamom Whipped Cream.  The cake had a texture of Coffee Cake and the Poppy Seeds added a little spice and crunch.  The boysenberry added some sweet and tart, and the whipped cream was light, fluffy, and sweet, with the citrusy, minty, and herbal hit from the cardamom.  All together, the elements made a perfect bite, with many flavors and textures that played very well together.

Dinner was very good and I really enjoyed it.  The lower dining room is very relaxing and the vegetable focused menu used a lot of styles to keep focus on the vegetables.  They also do a weekend brunch that I am interested in so I will definitely return.                 

Vajra

 

For a long time, I was intimidated by Indian food.  I am guessing that it was because I had very little experience with it when I was growing up in Michigan.  It is very different from anything that I had had, so I didn't really have anything to base it on.  The names of the dishes, also gave me little to base things on.  Because I didn't speak any of the languages that are indigenous to India, unless I new what something was, I would have no clue as to what I would be getting.  I have slowly built up my knowledge of Indian cuisine, and have found many things that I have liked, though I still like to have a guide when I am dining out at an Indian restaurant.  Years ago, I tried out Cumin, a Nepalese restaurant that had received high praise and I really liked it.  Recently, the manager of Cumin went off and founded his own Nepalese Indian Restaurant, Vajra, and Tasting Collective hosted a dinner there.  I figured that it had some good people behind it and with Tasting Collective, I would be having a curated menu, so it was the best of worlds and I had nothing to lose.  Located in a little used section of Chicago Avenue in West Town, despite the fact that the entrance shelter was black and it was night, it was not difficult to find.  The front of the space has a couple of classic French doors that were closed because it was both cold and dark, but the long narrow windows, easily allowed people to see in or out.  The dining space and bar both had elements playing on the classic and Indian art, which also looked to me to be a bit psychedelic.  The space was both nice and comfortable with a lot of wood, tin ceilings, a nice bar, and a very cool Indian mural on the back wall.  I started things off with a cocktail because a cocktail is a good way to start everything off.  Called The Rubicon, which is decidedly not an Indian name, it was definitely international, containing with Roca Patron Silver Tequila (Mexico), Italicus Rosso di Bergamotto (Italy), Lemongrass (South Asian), and Lime, which was dehydrated.  It was tart and very refreshing and made for a nice start to things.

For our first course, we started with Lobster Momos with Nepalese Spices and Tomato-Szechuan Sauce.  Momos are a steamed dumpling native to portions of India similar to Chinese steamed dumplings.  The lobster was sweet, the dumplings had a nice chew, and the spices added an exotic flavor.  The Tomato-Szechuan sauce was spicy, but only mildly so and added a savory flavor to the dumplings.

After the Momos, we continued with Gobhi Manchurian with Fried Cauliflower Florets and Sino-Indian Spices.  While I do like cauliflower, I was actually surprised at how good this was.  The cauliflower was incredibly tender and the spice added a complex and exotic flavor.  This may have been a favorite of mine of the savory dishes.

 

Our next course started with Naan.  I really like Naan and this was very flavorful.  It was served with Paneer Malal, Spiced Paneer Sandwiches with Creamy Sauce and Rice.  Paneer is a soft, unaged cheese that was served in the sauce.  This was like a spicy and flavorful grilled cheese sandwich (with the naan as the bread) and some very good rice.  It was a little messy, with the paneer in the sauce, but I found the best way to eat it was to mix the paneer and sauce with the rice and to pick that up with the naan.  It made for a great bite.

Our first entree were Farm Raised Goat Steaks with Butter Spiced Brussels Sprouts.  The Goat Steaks were really flavorful and surprising.  They seemed to be breaded and fried, but the meat inside was fork tender and very flavorful.  With the Brussels Sprouts, I was a little disappointed.  They were seasoned well and cooked tender, but we only received one each.  With the food we had received to this point, I would have been happy with three.  I don't think with one that there were enough Brussels Sprouts to complement the flavor of the goat steak.

For our final entree, we were served a classic of Indian Cuisine, Butter Chicken.  It was served in a Tomato-Onion Sauce which was also very good.  The chicken was tender and flavorful and a nice finish to the entree side of things.

Dessert was very definitely not Indian or Nepalese, but I had no problem with that because it was really good.  I say that it was not Indian, it was not, but it did have an Indian twist.  We were served a Black Forest Gateau, a rich cake with Chocolate and Cherries with a Classic Indian Sweetbread Crumble.  The sweetbread crumble consisted of chocolate shavings spiced subtly with Indian spices like Cinnamon, Ginger, and Coriander.  It was also served with Whipped Cream, Cherry Jam, and a large Cherry on top.  It was very good and a very nice finish to what was a very good meal.

I really enjoyed my meal and found it both very good and educational.  While I still might go by myself to a random Indian restaurant, I think that I've learned enough that I could come and an enjoy a meal here.  

 

        

Papa Cenar

 

 

 

I really liked Twain, and was sad when it closed.  When the space reopened a few months later as Papa Cenar, I was surprised that the space remained largely the same.  I mentioned it to my server and she said that the ownership remained the same and most of the employees remained.  The major change was that the Chef and his wife, who was in charge of the wine program, left.  Instead of doing a memorial to Mark Twain the restaurant now takes as it's theme, the time that Ernest Hemingway (Papa) spent in Spain.  Cenar is the Spanish verb meaning "to eat", so the restaurant focuses on those things that Ernest Hemingway may have had for dinner in Spain.  When the restaurant was known as Twain, the outer wall was baby blue.  It has now been painted to a dark orange.  Inside, the space remained, largely the same.  The murals on the walls, the wooden tables, and the decorative hanging lights remain as does the bar with the decorative copper etching on the wall behind the bar.  There is a new chalkboard behind the bar where the Happy Hour Menu is written.  The bar features a lot of Spanish Wines as well as some classic cocktails like a Daiquiri and the Papa's G&T which is what I ordered.  Papa's G&T contained Mahon's Spanish Gin, House Made Tonic with Quinine, Lavender, and Grains of Paradise, and a Lime slice.  This was clean, crisp, a little peppery, and very nice.

Just after I put in my food order, I received something that I will call a cross between an Amuse Bouche and a Bread Course.  It was a nice and thick slice of Toasted Bread served with Crushed Tomatoes and grated Manchego Cheese.  If the Tomatoes had been served on the bread, I might have called it a Bruschetta.  In any case, it was still nice and fresh and made for a very nice introduction.

For the start of the food that I ordered myself, I had Smoked Whitefish Dip with Olive Oil Crackers, and Fermented Chili.  Everything about this was great.  The fish was whipped and held together well enough to spread on the crisp and flavorful crackers.  The fermented chilies were a sauce served with the whitefish that gave a sour bite.  It was a nice addition to the flavors of the whitefish and crackers.

My second appetizer was a Farmer Squash Pisto.  A Pisto is a vegetable dish that, when done traditionally, looks similar to Ratatouille, containing Tomatoes, Eggplant, Onions, and Red Peppers.  This took a decidedly Midwestern Fall twist, using Roasted Farmer's Squash, Frisee, Spiced Pepitas, and Goat Cheese.  It was still a vegetable dish that focused on the flavors and textures of local vegetables, despite being completely different from a Spanish Pisto and it was a favorite.

 

 

And then came my entree, Bone Marrow.  The Bone Marrow, served in long bones sliced lengthwise, of course, was served with Lamb Bacon, Onion Jam, Fresno Chili Peppers, a Pickle Salad, and Toast.  In the past, I had learned that the proper way to eat bone marrow was to spoon it out of the bones and spread it on the bread.  You would then top it with any accompaniments that you might have and top all of that with your greens, which helps to cut the fattiness of the marrow.  I did all of this and it was good, but then I was told about another thing that could be done to clean the bones and finish things.  called a Bone Marrow Luge, it involves pouring an Apertif down the bone channel and into your mouth.  The Apertif that was recommended was called Bonal, a Wine-based Gentiane-Quina drink.  I poured the Banal down the bone and into my mouth.  It was sweet and spicy with a definite meaty aftertaste.  It was a lot of fun, very flavorful, and a great way to finish the savory side of things.

While it was wrapped in Spanish clothing, dessert was definitely Midwestern.  I was served a Couple of Apple Empnadas with Fall Spices, Chocolate, and Persimmon Sorbet.  The empanadas tasted like Apple Pies and the Persimmon Sorbet added a sweetness similar to peach or apricot.  The chocolate was sweet with the bitter aftertaste that chocolate tends to have, which tied things together.  For a digestif, I finished with a very dry Amontillado Sherry.

The food and service was very good here and while I was a little disappointed about the closure of Twain, they made a good transition with Papa Cenar.  I will be happy to return and to introduce friends. 
    

Eleven|Eleven - Tasting Collective Dinner

The majority of my posts are positive, because I like food and I think that most places that I go to try their best to please their customers.  There are some restaurants, however, that while I want to like, had some serious problems during my visit.  I had encountered Eleven|Eleven at a few benefits around town, and while I had liked what I had tried from them, they weren't really on my radar.  Most of the dinners that I've had with Tasting Collective I have really liked, so I trusted them to curate a good meal at a restaurant that might not be known well by the greater dining community, but should be, so when I signed up for dinner I was pretty excited.

The menu is very eclectic with global influences, so I was very interested to see what would come out.  We started with California "Maki" Rolls with Grilled Calamari, Avocado, and Hibiscus Rice.  While three of the rolls were wrapped with Nori, they were all essentially the same.  I really liked these.  It was presented nicely, the rice was very flavorful, and the calamari and avocado made a good combination.  It was better, in my opinion, than a standard California Roll which uses Imitation Crab instead of the calamari.

The second course was also very good and kind of a show stopper.  It was a spin on chicken and Waffles, a dish that I like, but it was presented in a very unexpected manner.  The Breaded Chicken Nuggets were presented in a Waffle Cone with Buttermilk Dressing in the bottom of the Cone, Green Mango Salad topping the nuggets, and XO Sauce, a spicy sauce made with roughly chopped seafood like scallops and shrimp, originating in Hong Kong.  The chicken was tender and flavorful.  The Green Mango salad added a tart flavor, along with the buttermilk dressing, the XO Sauce added a spicy seafood flavor, and the waffle cone added a nice crunch.

 

 

 

The third course was when the wheels started to fall off.  To start, the third course had actually been listed as the fourth course on the menu.  This isn't a big deal most of the time, but it seems now that it was foreshadowing.  The course was Charcuterie and Cheese presented with accompaniments and served with Rice Crackers.  We were served three different meats, 3 different cheeses, Celery, Olives, Cranberry, and Peppers, and Rice Crackers.  The idea of this was good, but we only received one tray of each item for the table, which was set to receive two plates of each.  All of these items also arrived separately, so it was a bit confusing trying to try things and/or combine flavors, without knowing if the last plate had arrived yet.  All of the meats and cheeses and were from good companies (La Quercia and Smoking Goose), so it all tasted good, it was a bit confusing.

 

Our fourth course also arrived in two separate parts, was not explained, and we weren't brought enough, so the kitchen had to come back with another service.  We were first served our Salted Shishito Churros that were supposed to have been drizzled with Butterscotch, but seem not to have been.  The churros were very light and flavorful, it just seems that we weren't served enough.  After we wolfed down our churros, the Bourbon Glazed Pork Belly arrived.  It was tender and tasted good with a nice flavor of bourbon and wood with the sweetness from the pork, but the presentation looked like a joke.  There were three pieces of meat on the plate (for six people) and they looked like they were thrown on the plate and sprinkled with baby greens.

 

There was a pause for a bit before the fifth course showed up.  It was essentially Steak Frites served on two plates.  We first received a large bowl overflowing with Sticky Black Truffle Fries with Grana Snow which were the side to the main course, the Steak, a Wood grilled Bavette Steak with Pesto and Chips.  The steak was very good, flavorful, tender, and perfectly cooked, but it took about half an hour to arrive at the table and there really wasn't enough for the people it was serving.  The fries (Frites) were also perfectly cooked and flavorful, but there was enough for the table.

When we finally got to dessert, there were many people waiting for it to be over.  Luckily, dessert wasn't a fail, though it wasn't completely what is was advertised.  We were supposed to be getting a three pie flight.  What we received were three Shortbread Cookies with some very good pie fillings, Mama's Apple Pie, Banana Cream, and French Silk.  My argument in this case is semantic.  What we received tasted good and the pie fillings were there, if not the crusts, along with some very nice Whipped Cream.

While this dinner was ultimately a fail, it was not a failure of flavors; all of the food that we had tasted very good.  Our service also seemed polite, if harried.  This seemed a failure of poor planning, something the management has vowed to correct, so i am willing to give them a second chance soon.