This marks the end of my second year of Chicago Restaurant Week coverage. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed eight meals between January 24 and February 6 that were part of the annual dining promotion – and yes, that’s one more than in 2013, because that’s how I am.
Here are all of this year’s posts, listed below in chronological order.
For the second year in a row, I’ve spent all December celebrating the rest of my favorite bites and sips from 2013. These are all dishes that I didn’t have a chance to cover as Best Bites when I originally enjoyed them. You can check out the full list of 30 below in chronological order.
Roasted beet salad with strawberries, grilled onions, ricotta, black walnut butter, and black garlic
Why it’s this week’s Best Bite: This was technically my second visit to Perennial Virant – the first was on opening night a couple years ago, but I’d been looking for an opportunity to go back ever since. It’s on the first floor of Hotel Lincoln, right across the street from where the Green City Market is held every Wednesday and Saturday in Lincoln Park, and so it’s easy to understand the inspiration for the heavily seasonal menu. Of all the dishes we tasted, I was most blown away by the roasted beet salad. I’m not a huge beet person, but I was practically obsessed with the combination of beets and strawberries. Joined by the creamy ricotta, mellow garlic, and balsamic, it hit every note and felt exceedingly fresh. I also loved the crispy rice cake, nicely contrasted by the smoky vinaigrette.
To make the evening extra-special, our meal concluded with a tour of the kitchen (let’s just say it helps to know people!), which was a surprise to my three girlfriends and me. Once we weaved downstairs, through cooking and dishwashing areas, we reached the real highlight of the tour: the wall-to-wall shelves of the pickles and preserves for which Chef Paul Virant is best known. Every kind of produce you could imagine was meticulously jarred and labeled, ready to be judiciously incorporated into dishes in the weeks and months to come.
All kinds of pickles in the pantry
And in the summer, it’s almost impossible to leave the building without hopping an elevator to the roof and emerging in what is probably my favorite rooftop bar in the city, the J. Parker. Between the meal itself and the incredible post-meal view, it was hard to stop oohing and aahing.
Crispy carnaroli rice cake with brunkow cheese curds, pea shoots, smoked spring onion vinaigrette, and pickled summer beansSundae with Hazzard Free Farm oatmeal cookie, rum ice cream, and rum raisin caramelThe Lay Up, with Russian Standard, rhubarb, yellow chartreuse, maraschino, and lemon
Skuna Bay salmon with braised peanut, strawberry, chimichurri, spiced beef, and shallot yogurt
Why it’s this week’s Best Bite: Just under three years ago, you would have found me constantly refreshing OpenTable.com, waiting for the restaurant page to first become available so that I could make a reservation for the night of my birthday at Girl & the Goat, the much-anticipated restaurant by Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard (in case she isn’t a household name for you already) that was finally going to open. That dinner remains one of my all-time favorites in Chicago: experiencing all her outlandishly flavorful food for the first time, sipping surprise birthday champagne, and getting to chat with Chef Steph herself at the end of the meal. So could future visits live up to that first one? My answer this weekend was a resounding yes.
You know your meal is off to a great start when you’re spreading coffee butter onto warm bread and drizzling blueberry vinaigrette on top. And then you bite into a squash blossom rangoon, a fleeting seasonal jewel that’s stuffed with creamy crab and fried in airy tempura batter. And then you’re chowing down on what you immediately know are among the best green bean and cauliflower dishes in existence, each with layers of salty and spicy and sweet, and then savory empanadas filled with the tender goat meat that’s incorporated into enough dishes to merit its own menu section. And then the salmon, which you ordered partially because the server told you the fish was flown in from New Zealand and partially because you can’t believe that salmon could really work with strawberry and beef and peanut and yogurt, could it? But of course it does, all of the distinct components tangled together in the best way. And then there’s the chicken. You’ve come to expect at this point that it will be unlike any chicken dish you’ve had before, especially since the server explained it would be brined to order, glazed with maple-y goodness, and baked in the wood-fire oven. And indeed, you can’t stop talking about how good this chicken is, not to mention the soft, buttery naan and remarkable ramp goddess dressing that come with it. You’ll order dessert without question.
I think you get the point here. The service is outstanding, the atmosphere feels special yet free from pretension, and all the little details come together for ultimate consistency. So set a date 6–8 weeks in advance, make a reservation, and get ready for a meal to remember.
Squash blossom rangoon with crab, chive yogurt, and toasted almondsSauteed green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashewsGoat empanadas with romesco and radish-endive slawWood-fired Walter’s chicken with asparagus, rhubarb, and “ramp goddess” dressingThe Lake Effect cocktail with Journeyman rye, F.E.W. gin, Koval chrysanthemum honey liqueur, and lemon
All month long, I’ve been celebrating my best bites (and sips) of 2012. The full list of 30 appears below in chronological order – click the name of the dish to view its full post.
Here’s to a great year of eating and drinking! Check back later this week for a look at what’s to come for hillaryproctor.com in 2013. Thanks for reading!
What were your favorite bites in 2012? Leave a note in the comments!
