1. RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA
We’re getting lots of restaurants from central Asia—Uzbekistan, Kyrgysztan, etc.—but the poshest one is probably Stumara in Wheeling. John Kessler reviews it and explains why (that) Georgia is the place to eat:
Perhaps this small nation in the Caucasus is on your radar only because of its recent civil unrest. Perhaps, if you have any notion of Georgian food, it’s because you once ripped into an Adjaruli khachapuri — a boat-shaped flatbread filled with tangy, stretchy sulguni cheese, butter, and a runny egg yolk that one swirls into dairy goop heaven before eating. Perhaps you’re aware of Georgia’s now-fashionable qvevri wines, aged in egg-shaped clay vessels buried underground.
Let Stumara be your introduction to all of it and then some. Georgian food will surprise and charm, and maybe even elicit a new craving in you. It is all about colorful spreads and juicy soup dumplings, sour plums and nippy tarragon, grilled lamb kebabs and fried chicken. The more you explore this cooking, the more you find the romance in it.
One note: he speculates what the oldest Georgian restaurant in town is, suggesting Diplomat Cafe on Lincoln. I honestly can’t tell you what the oldest might be—this is a part of the world often overlooked by food writers—but I can at least push it back to at least the early 2000s by mentioning Argo Georgian Bakery on Devon, which is gone now but which surely introduced many Chicago foodies to khachapuri.
2. SHORTIES
Short reviews at the Trib; Ahmed Ali Akbar on Perilla Steakhouse:
But how’s the beef, you must be asking? The steak was seasoned to bring out the clarity of its marbled, savory beefiness. The Premium Set ($65) featured four cuts of beef — American wagyu hangar steak, wagyu bavette, short rib and marinated short rib — and was cooked by waitstaff on a communal grill. The staff made it easy for us to share, splitting each cut into fork-sized bites.
It’s with the marinated short rib that I really understood what territory Perilla is wading into.
“Traditionally, galbi is a really sweet marinade,” [chef Andrew] Lim said. “We wanted to do a more savory version of it. A lot of the time the sweetness would blow your palette.”
Zareen Syed on Sando Street:
To me, a Japanese sando is iconic. Clear lines, tightly packed, almost too cute to eat. From strawberry and cream fruit sandos to a classic egg salad, that simple yet scrumptious bite is similar to that first-sip-of-coffee feeling. Ah, this is what I was missing.
Lauryn Azu on Santa Masa Tamaleria:
Each tamal came out neatly plated on its husk or banana leaf. My order of their bestselling rajas con queso tamal ($3), strips of charred poblano peppers and caramelized onions with cheese, was moist and fluffy, layered and packed with savory flavor. The pollo en salsa verde tamal ($3) was also well balanced, with juicy chicken nestled in the non-GMO nixtamalized masa from northern Mexico.
To complete this trio of tamales I ordered the December monthly special: a cochinita pibil tamal ($7) beautifully plated with a mole sauce, radishes, pico de gallo and oranges. The banana leaf-wrapped tamal pays homage to the Yucatan, Mexico, origin of the roasted pork dish. This vibrant explosion of sweet and savory blew me away.
3. ARTY CHOKED
When the early word on Joe Flamm’s Rose Mary was mixed, I waited (mind you, seats were hard to get, so they didn’t miss me). It was almost two years old when I finally went—and I loved it, seeing none of the flaws I had read about (and which I’m sure were valid criticisms at that time). Heck, I’m actually going again soon, because I needed something open on Monday for some visitors to town and it was easily the best choice I saw on Open Table. Michael Nagrant says history repeats itself at Flamm’s new Il Carciofo:
Apps at Il Carciofo were a mixed bag including the very best thing I ate and the worst. The best was a very bright and acidic puntarella salad featuring creamy hunks of robiola cheese.
The worst which we only ordered because our server was so enthusiastic was the abbachio alla scottadito or lamb riblets with a drizzle of vin santo and rosemary. The whole thing was a fat on fat on fat jiggly adipose slicked with oil in need of acidic and sweet relief. This dish could be a star if the crust of the ribs was crisped up and glazed with some balsamico or even a reduction of the vin santo, but as is it was like mainlining canola oil.
4. TAMALE SAMMY
I thought one of the unorthodox things deep in the menu at Santa Masa Tamaleria was one of the standouts, and Mike Sula feels the same about another one, the guajolota torta tamal:
The couple [Danny Espinoza and Jhoanna Ruiz]’s guajolota is considerably chef-kissed up from the street originals young Ruiz used to eat with her grandpa while tooling around CDMX. It starts with a pair of their rajas tamales, descended from Espinoza’s abuelita’s own “fluffy and buttery” recipe, stuffed with chihuahua cheese, roasted poblanos, and onions. They’re unhusked and seared off on the plancha, then bedded on a buttered, toasted telera, its base schmeared with black bean mash. From there, the turkey’s breast swells with two fried eggs, salsa verde, crema, shredded romaine, queso cotija, pickled red onions, pico de gallo, shaved radish, and cilantro.
5. MA VIE EN ROADS
In much of the time period covered in my upcoming book, the burbs were where you went for French food—Le Francais, Le Titi de Paris, Carlos’, Cafe Provencal and so on. Now there’s a bit of a French revival in the city, but Steve Dolinsky says Paul Virant’s Petite Vie is the place to go in the western burbs:
“A lot of my formal training is French food, and there’s not French food around the area,” said Paul Virant, the chef/owner of Petite Vie. “We’ve seen a big resurgence of French food in Chicago over the past couple of years.”
Virant embraces the classics.
“Wild burgundy snails that we braise, and then your classic snail butter – lots of garlic, parsley, lemon – Pernod, the anise liqueur,” he said.
A Lyonnaise salad has the curly frisee and soft-boiled egg, as well as tiny fried pork lardons and croutons. Country pâté? Check.
6. OLIVER DAHLING
Maggie Hennessy at Time Out likes Oliver’s—with reservations:
Oliver’s exudes the sort of celebratory vibes to catapult it into the realm of occasion dining—caviar on roe on oysters! truffles (in the gnocchi) and more truffles (in the potatoes)!—which arguably excludes it from hand-wringing price sensitivity. But the food is occasionally inconsistent and underwhelming, which punctures the escape.
…I’m unconvinced that three perfectly adequate, hard-seared diver scallops with an undetectable hit of calamansi vinegar served with puréed cauliflower should cost $39. And despite appreciating the layered umami and tang of roasted tomato risotto laced with deep, aged-Parm bass notes and smoky Pimentón de la Vera, the rice’s texture ranged from toothsome one night to mushy the second. In such moments, I caught myself making mental calculations for how to most reliably leave here feeling satisfied but not gouged—a chilly drizzle on an otherwise glossy fantasy.
7. HANDS SOTTO
The Infatuation seems to like Sotto, in Italian Village, decently well:
Sotto won’t blow your mind, but this Italian spot in the Loop is solid for a post-work dinner or if you have hungry visitors who just paid their respects to The Bean. Just don’t expect more sightseeing: Sotto is in the basement of the iconic, 97-year-old Italian Village. Along with rustic brick walls and mirror illustrations of cocktails and vino, it has windows that can only peer out into darkness. Less iconic are the “Italian-ish specialties” referenced on the sign up front.
8. ANCIENT MEXICAN SECRET
Asian Cuisine Express reveals that it’s different from most Chinese takeout places as soon as you see the huge pastor cone grilling behind the counter. (See it here.)
I cannot impress upon you just how massive this thing is. It’s got to be the size of my torso. (Please do not carve and roast me on one of these things, however.) If the meat on the vertical skewer in this photo looks raw, it’s because we were literally the first customers in that day, so the cooks were still getting prepped. At almost any other time of day, the meat would have a nice crust to it.
9. LAMOORE’S MA ETC.
Someone just asked if I had been to etc. and honestly the (generic) name didn’t register with me. Here’s Friend of Fooditor Lisa Shames to explain at Open Table:
When it comes to his culinary career, star Chicago chef Lamar Moore has done a little bit of everything. He was the Chicago Bears sous chef, the executive chef at the glam Bugsy and Meyer’s Steakhouse in Las Vegas (a gig he earned after winning the Food Network’s Vegas Chef Prizefight), and most recently led the kitchen at the beloved Bronzeville Winery. At etc., his new Loop restaurant, he finds inspiration closer to home.
He’s tapping into the food he grew up on from his Mississippi-born grandmother in a deeply personal restaurant that does an elevated take on Southern food. “There’s a misconception that everything we eat is fried or heavy,” Moore says. “I want to show the whole range of what Southern food means to me.”
10. IN RADISH-BASED NEWS
Hyde Park slowly gets closer to being a dining destination. The latest news is that Pilsen’s well-loved Mexican place 5 Rabanitos, owned by Bayless veteran Alfonso Sotelo, will open a second location on 53rd street. (H/t Anne Spiselman)
11. TAIWANNA GO
Friend of Fooditor Amber Gibson has a nice piece about visiting Taiwan with her mom:
My mom, Chi-Pei Gibson, and I cooled off with a refreshing bowl of chilled tofu pudding with slippery grass jelly, her favorite childhood snack. When she was growing up in Kaohsiung, she recalled, a tofu pudding vendor would bike down her street with a big aluminum tank of warm tofu pudding, honking his horn to entice neighborhood kids to run outside with their own bowls for servings.
12. ROAD DOGS
This piece from Meathead at AmazingRibs.com is a decade old, but he just tweeted it and in the dead of winter, it gives you something to fantasize about: a road trip to scout out regional hot dogs.
13. DON’T BE BULGAR
You’ve had French toast, Texas toast, and maybe Spanish toast, but what about Bulgarian toast? Sandwich Tribunal tells more:
At Mehanata [restaurant in Des Plaines], “Princess” or Принцеса с яйца и сирене referred to a slice of good bread topped with a mixture of egg, feta, and kashkaval cheese, toasted and well-browned under a broiler, served on a plate with pickles and sliced tomato. Strandjanka or Странджанка on the other hand was a slice of the same bread, topped with seasoned ground meat–it seemed to be pork, or maybe a pork/beef mixture–with the meat grilled directly against the bread, served on the same plate with the same pickles and tomatoes. It was served with a small dish of seasoning on the side, which our waitress described as a combination of an herb she did not know the English name for (it turned out to be summer savory) with salt and paprika. I later learned this combination was called шарена сол in Bulgarian–Sharena sol, or colorful salt–and I alternated between sprinkling it on the meat directly, and using it to season the tomato slices I ate atop the meat.
14. BENEFIT FOR L.A.
A bunch of top Chicago chefs—Bayless, Achatz, etc.—will have a benefit on Thursday, January 23 to support World Central Kitchen’s relief efforts in L.A. Tre Dita is the coordinator (which is why Evan Funke gets top billing), go here to find out more and get tickets.
Chicago Chefs Cook, in the meantime, has put together a list of dozens of local restaurants who will be donating the proceeds from specific menu items to LA relief. See the list here.
15. LISTEN UP
Joiners just had Omar Cadena of Omarcito’s, who I’ve sometimes referred to as the Hot Doug of Ecuadoran food. This week… they read my mind, and talk to Hot Doug himself. Look for it at your podcast app.
David Manilow at The Dining Table posits the notion of a Chicago style bagel, and talks to the owners of Tilly’s Bagels. Honestly, if their idea of soft, squishy bagels with too much in the way to gunk on them (like the cacio e pepe bagels, with cold hard cheese all over it) constitute a Chicago style, I’ll stick with New York Bagel & Bialy. In the words of the guy buying a color TV in Tin Men, “Not—for—me.”
Meanwhile on another Crain’s podcast, the Daily Gist, Ally Marriotti talks to host Amy Guth about the business stories behind six prominent openings. Again, no link at the site, go to your podcast app for it.
Chewing talks to Jake Potashnick of Feld, among other things.
WHAT MIKE ATE
I feel like I haven’t been on the South Side—well, except Chinatown—much for a year or two. So I had a South Side day. First I went to grab coffee and something for breakfast at Cadinho Bakery, the Portuguese bakery in a triangle building at 35th and Archer in, I guess, McKinley Park.You can see a bunch of bakers in back working away, and a lot more variety in the case than I typically see on the north side. The big draw, per media coverage, are the various forms of pastel de nata, or as visitors to Chiu Quon in Chinatown would call them, Portuguese Egg Tarts. Honestly, that’s not what made me like the place, because they’re not something new to Chicago—well, the chocolate topped ones are new, sure. But I liked the scones, and I just liked the feel of the place, a sunny, relaxed hangout. I wish it was closer to me! (Read this Chicago mag piece on it to get a key to the mural against the side wall.)
I continued my trek further south to 99th street, to finally get to try Sanders BBQ Supply in Beverly. The reports early on had long waits for the barbecue here, but I arrived around 11:15 and there was no line. Barbecue on the south side is typically in a place with bulletproof glass and no seating, but Beverly is different—probably the most successfully and peaceably integrated neighborhood in Chicago. So Sanders is a sitdown space, with a predominantly black (but definitely mixed) crew, starting with a friendly and helpful woman at the checkout counter. The menu is mixed, too, with things that seem more like the menu at Smoque than what you’d find just blocks to the north—so there’s brisket, and sausages, and some vegetable sides besides fries, like cole slaw and collard greens. I ordered the brisket, and it was a little dry—stopping in a bbq place first thing in the morning brings with it a substantial chance of getting last night’s meat warmed up—but it had good smoke flavor. Given it as a choice, I will order sausage in a place like this, to see if they can cook to order, and the Cajun sausage was cooked perfectly, plump and juicy. Who knows how often I need to drive to 99th street for a place like this, but I liked it and it definitely goes onto my mental map of things to have in Beverly (Top Notch Beefburger, Roseangela Pizza, etc.)
Next week’s Buzz List will be delayed Sunday night to allow me to cover the Jean Banchet Awards. Watch for it by email late Sunday night, or Monday morning online.