Chicago Foodies

Graham Elliott – Soft Launch

A soft launch is like a disaster-check: you make sure people don't slip on the floor, the doors can open and swing shut without sticking, the appliances and kitchen gadgetry doesn't fail, the waitstaff all show and get used to things and that the service timing works out. You should never hold a restaurant that accountable for a soft launch. They usually limit the menu, limit the reservations and take a tentative approach to a seating.

To expect a pretty flawless meal on the first night of a soft launch would really be unreasonable but somehow that's what we got. It's would be like a rookie pitching a no hitter first night out... except Elliott isn't a rookie. So it's more like Orel Hershiser switching teams and pitching a no hitter on his first night in the new stadium. I don't think the baseball metaphor is getting me anywhere but hopefully you get the idea.

The mission of Graham Elliott and his restaurant is to serve haute cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere. There's lots of dark colors and reasonably loud 80's remix piped in. There will be a lunch service more towards summer and there will be outdoor seating, first come first served. Considering the tasting menu approach to food and the consideration given to each plate, this is an ambitious agenda.

The menu is divided into hot and cold first courses and then land and sea entrees. One of the nice things that this casual approach to cuisine gets you is the option of a tasting menu even when the table isn't doing it. We ordered one tasting menu and tried an additional entree. Looking at what was coming out of the kitchen helped underscore the accessible cuisine concept – the full entree portions are quite large.

Graham Elliot Opens...

After a long wait they are taking reservations at Graham Elliot's aptly-named restaurant. It at 217 W. Huron and you call call for a table- 312-624-9975.

UPDATE–Here's the rundown of their soft launch!

Chicago Gourmet

At the start of fall we can all look forward to Chicago Gourmet.  It's going to be a hot ticket. If you've ever been to tasting events, like last month's Gourmet Magazine's tasting event, you know that it's a wonderful opportunity to taste dishes from fantastic chefs side by side. This first annual Chicago Gourmet event showcases too many chefs to mention (follow the link to see all the details). In addition to the tasting the Culinary Institute of Art is hosting a "World of Flavors" pavilion focusing on Latin cuisine. There will be an exclusive grand cru tasting as well as ongoing cooking demos. It sounds sort of like Lollapalooza for the food-focused.

Last week was the launch of their website Chicagogourmet.org

Roy Yamaguchi Cooking at Roy's

Roy's is a chain. There are something like 30 restaurants across the U.S.  You can say that Roy Yamaguchi has done well. He's won a James Beard award for his Hawaiian Regional Cuisine and what else would you want him to cook for you?

This Thursday that's the menu. Dishes like Hokkaido (city in Japan) scallop sashimi with a white soy glazed pear, mizuna (greens) and citrus sake are really intriguing. He's whipping up a 5-course with pairing for $100 a plate. Sounds great!

A portion of the proceeds go to Food and Wine's Grow for Good campaign to benefit local farms and sustainable agriculture. Tickets are available at Roy's Restaurant.com or call Roy's Chicago on 720 N. State St. at 312-787-7599.

Lao Shanghai: Xiao Long Bao!

At the beginning of this year I spent some time in Shanghai and since have been ingratiating myself on unsuspecting Chinese waitstaff looking for xiao long bao – the single best tasting morsel of food I had on my travels. Lao Shanghai is the only place in Chicago to try this dish.

One of my pet peeves is messy food. For some reason my reaction is completely out of my control. Why I ordered the plum short ribs AND the spicy whole-shrimp and tofu was beyond me. My "issue" nearly trumped the fact that I finally got my chopsticks on some Xiao Long Bao!

Lao Shanghai is in the mall on Archer and Cermak. There are tons of restaurants from Spring World to Joy Yee. In light of the earthquake they all have Sichuan Relief Fund collection boxes as well.  The small restaurant tightly fits 52 at capacity. It's snug but not too loud and doesn't seem to suffer any service or kitchen problems.

We ordered too quickly. Once I saw the soup dumplings I resorted to auto-pilot. Short ribs? Hell yeah. Tofu and Shrimp. Done. I give my wife crap about her reticence to eat things that are on-the-bone. That said we both enjoyed the short ribs. The sweet plum sauce was wonderful. The deep fried goodness was a diet-meltdown but none-the-less tasty. The shrimp and tofu dish came in a mini-wok and I had to blow out the sterno a few minutes later to keep it from burning. The whole shrimp covered in sauce looked wonderful but I quickly gave that up. I'd need about 17 napkins, a lobster bib and an after-dinner bath to make that work. It's in the fridge for dinner tomorrow.

Moto's Flamethrower–Baked Alaska

Sure it's over the top. Chef Homaro Cantu's version of baked Alaska would have to be. Especially when you want to stand out from restaurants like Alinea, Blackbird, MK, etc. at the Gourmet Wine Cellar event last night. So break out the flamethrower! A shot of the final product is after the jump.

La Gondola

La Gondola is tucked away in a small space of a "strip mall" shared by Jewel-Osco on Ashland in Lakeview. Blink, and you might just miss this hole-in-the-wall joint. The restaurant literally had about 6 tables and a single waiter bustling around the small space.

ZAP's Zinfandel Grand Tasting

On the 80th floor of what I like to still call the Standard Oil Building, over 30 winery-members will be on hand next week for the Zinfandel Grand Tasting event at the Mid-America Club this coming Tuesday evening. Tickets are still available here.
For $45 ($55 at the door) you cannot go wrong.

Zinfandel Grand Tasting
Tuesday May 20th
The Aon Building (standard oil building)
200 East Randolph

The City Taketh Away, The City Giveth Back

Whether you love foie gras, hate foie gras, never had foie gras, don't even care about foie gras you've likely heard about the ban. It's made front page news now how many times? So the ban has been repealed. Great. The whole foie gras safehouse thing was ridiculous anyway. If anything it was a brief glimpse in to sweetbreads and their wonderfulness... don't forget the glands people!

What the city needs to do, especially in light of the attempt to position Chicago as America's gourmet city (which it is), is to help promote local, small producer meat suppliers. We can argue about the morality of foie gras or veal or what have you but the bottom line for me is the industrial meat farming in America is truly cruel, truly inhumane and truly dangerous. Foreign consumers have been losing confidence in our product and for good reason.

It's an economy of scale and the level at which things are produced with care is at odds with that scale. Look at any industry. You go to Abt and ask about different HD cables and you'll get an answer from someone who likely knows the answer. At Best Buy they might know the answer but they might not. At Wal-Mart they might not even know where those cables are.

I don't know if that's a good metaphor for the meat industry. All I mean to say is that people will try but it's not about them in the industrial farming model. There is no ownership the way a farmer owns his cows. There is also, more importantly, no personal responsibility. That's a big problem especially when you head into a discussion about cruelty and you have a system that doesn't include responsibility... that's my vision of hell. That's the opposite of foie gras production in almost every way.

Free McDonald's Southern Style Chicken Sandwich on May 15th

McDonald's leveraging the power of word-of-mouth by offering their new Southern Style Chicken Sandwich or Biscuit, free with purchase of medium/large drink. The offer is good only on May 15th from 7am to 7pm. Depending on the location, I've been informed the sandwich retails for about $3.00 give or take.

I haven't had a chance to try the sandwich yet but any comments from those who have are welcomed! To watch their juicy demo, go here: For restaurant locations, go here and if you don't know where to find a McDonald's you need to open your eyes, or go here.

Green City Market Opens

Grab a recycled bag, Green City Market (GCM) opens Wednesday. Local farmers from Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois flock to the south end of Lincoln Park between Clark Street and Stockton Drive to bring you fresh produce and specialty foods.

Starting May 14, every Wednesday and Saturday (7 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.) through October.

Freebasing Chocolate

Slate magazine has an article up on how food is addictive titled, "Is Food Addictive?"
It's an interesting piece especially since it's not presented as a question. Apparently food is addictive. Considering what would happen if we simply gave food up...

Zhan Wang: Cookware Skyline

I always worry that I have too many pots and pans. I hear it all the time,"Where are we going to put that?" and "You can't buy that; you have nowhere to put that." Looking at these pictures I realize that I have many more pots to buy and when the cupboards fill up I can simply start stacking. All I need to do would be to find my old Lego people to live in the new skyscrapers.

For his exhibition at the Asian Art Museum, Wang has selected rocks from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, alluding to the nineteenth-century Chinese immigrant experience of mining gold during the California gold rush. Both the actual rocks and their stainless steel versions will be exhibited. The artist will also create a topographic San Francisco cityscape–one of his “urban landscape” series– using steel rocks, mirrored surfaces, silverware, and stainless steel pots and pans.

The city of San Fran was done by Beijing-based artist Zhan Wang. Read the article on Ethicurean.com

Wang's work is on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Fransisco. Here's a link to that site.

Furama's Dim Sum Menu

Here's the Dim Sum menu from Furama. Click here to see full size.

StarChefs Rising Stars Revue at Trump

Tonight StarChefs will be hosting a party celebrating Chicago's rising star chefs. You can get tickets at StarChef's website.
The tasting gala has all dishes paired with wines. It's hosted by Frank Brunacci but I'm not sure if the event is in 16 or a separate Trump room. In either case it sounds like some seriously snazzy stuff, from the site:

"enjoy high-concept food from up-and-coming culinary stars from the top restaurants in town. All dishes are paired with ultra-premium wines selected by the Rising Star Sommelier."

I can do the "ultra-premium" thing. Tickets are $150 ($200 for the VIP thing) but with the talent participating and being recognized it should be worth the dough.

I don't know if the dishes will be the recipes listed on the site but all the better if they are. Pictured are the sweetbreads from Les Nomades. Awesome. Linked is Mike Sheerin's Wood-Grilled Sturgeon with Rye Gnocchi, English Peas, Oyster Mushrooms, Guanciale and Mustard Consommé. Here's the recipe.

Gourmet Wine Cellar Benefit – Sold Out

For the past 6 years Gourmet magazine has been hosting this annual event to benefit the American Institute of Wine and Food. As they are dedicated to culinary education it should be a great night. Demos from Achatz, Moulton, Cantu and Paskewitz should be very interesting.

These "functions" (that's a misnomer) are a great opportunity to get a sampling of a wide variety of food and wine. For $100 it's a steal which is likely why it's sold out.

The field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
May 15th 6– 9pm

Furama – Dim Sum on the Northside

Just across from Thai Pastry on Broadway in a part of town that's known for Vietnamese and Thai is a nice Chinese spot to get Dim Sum. Lots of the enormity and pomp you expect from Chinatown is right there. From the huge dining room to the linoleum and throwaway plastic tablecloths to the validated parking, it's an experience that I'd expect from Chinatown. Granted the decor, if you even call it that, would be subsistence-non-porous... cheap-o but the food was pretty good and in a pinch it's Dim Sum without the drive and it's legit.

Bob San: Neighborhood Sushi

It used to be when you walked into Bob San on Division the sing-song greeting “irasshaimase” would bounce off the celery walls and land on the cement floor at your feet. A pioneer since 2000 on a strip of Division that now boasts a yoga boutique, a chocolatier and a parade of restaurants and bars, Bob San didn’t draw a crowd, initially.

Wine Enthusiast Toast of the Town Event

The Wine Enthusiast event held Thursday night at the Field Museum appeared to be well attended, completely filling the main floor of the museum.  Wine was definitely in the spotlight with over 60 wineries represented.  So many that for someone who does not know much about wine it was very overwhelming - so I turned my attention to the food.  A lot of great restaurants were represented with some good and some bad results. 

Mike Ditka's: River North Comfort Food

Being from Wisconsin and also being loyal to the the state's professional football team, I found it a bit uneasy stepping inside Mike Ditka's restaurant.  However, it was tempting given the rave reviews we have heard about the place.