Get Thee To Acadia (and La Fornette, too)

I am blown away by two new places. The first is new French bakery called La Fournette, located on Wells just south of North Ave. I've been anticipating their arrival since I first sampled their bread at Dominique Tougne's bistro, Chez Moi. We went this morning and sampled some croissants and their Country Bread. Lovely. I'm going tomorrow to pick up a Miche. La Fournette, which means little oven, I think, features patio seating and every traditional French bakery item: macarons (the color was too bright, deterring consumption), homemade preserves, crepes, boulangerie sandwiches, and a wide selection of classic pastry.

Last night we had a delightful meal and amazing cocktails at Acadia in the South Loop. Chef/proprietor Ryan McCaskey was the guest chef at James Beard House in NYC earlier this week and we sampled a few of the dishes he presented in New York. Equally compelling were the cocktails, prepared by a Gary Oldman doppleganger. Presentation was exquisite and featured house made ginger bear, tonics, and cucumber ice cubes, just to name a few. A lovely bar menu would satisfy anyone.

Have you been anywhere new? Do tell!

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Don't Name Your Restaurant

Naming posts, restaurants, stories, books, films, children - is hard work. Originality is good, within reason. An article  in The New Yorker concerning summer movies gave demerits to Bad Teacher and Horrible Bosses because those names tell the story before you've seen the picture. (The Maltese Falcon, by comparison, was celebrated for giving away nothing.)

One of the best baby books I read was called Don't Name Your Baby. I'd like to quote from it, but I lent it to a pregnant friend. Anyway, its author does not suggest you refrain from naming your young breed. What he does is tell you what's wrong with every name you're considering. It's very funny and makes a good gift. And it drives a point home about names: they're important. They say something about you. They need to be good.

Every once in awhile I'll come across a restaurant with a really bad name and it's always shocking. How could someone go thru securing a location, hiring staff, filling out the necessary paperwork, establishing a line of credit with suppliers and then print "Pink Meat" on their awnning?

And yet, these places exist.  "I will never eat at Happy Teriyaki," I told my husband when we were newlyweds living in downtown Seattle. I'm sorry to report I didn't stand by that proclamation. A scant few months later and I was going there for lunch alone, and even took an out of town guest there. I'm not sure why. It wasn't good.

Then it was Tellurice, a now-shuttered Asian restaurant in my old hometown of Telluride.  As I told a friend, "The name is just too stupid to eat there." I stood by that one. If an owner puts a name like that on the shingle one can only assume that there's some stupid sneaking into the food. My friend relayed a story from when she ate there and, get this: they were out of rice.

Lately, I've been grumbling to myself about an establishment that's going in around the corner. It's called Jam and Honey. And it's not a boutique shop selling the kind of imports that make me giddy. It looks to be a restaurant, complete with a hostess stand up front. They are optimistic about reservations, I suppose. I can only assume they will serve more than Jam and Honey, but what else?!? The name is so terrible I'll never find out. I can only imagine this scenario:

"Welcome to Jam and Honey."

"Hey! Got any grapes?"

"No, we only serve pink meat."

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Boka Group 86s Landmark

The hobo cookie, definitely.

If you had to pick the item on the Landmark menu that signaled that the end was near, it would have to be the massive chocolate chip confection that looked as if it were baked in a Campbell's soup can. No, they didn't intend for it to be shared by the table. To their credit, it was called Gigantic Chocolate Chip cookie on the menu. But nothing could have prepared me for its mass. It really was if they let a creative eight-year old come up with the dessert. The can shaped cookie was unsophisticated and an embarrassment, even to the server who presented it.

Boka Restaurant Group has a pretty good thing going. Perennial Virant opened in May (you could say it reopened but it was altered and improved beyond compare) and is turning out incredible food. Boka remains a safe bet and there's a 10-week wait for a table at Girl and the Goat (I'm going in mid-July).

So, the news that Landmark has closed and will reopen with a new chef and name (Balena, which is Italian slang for fat man) isn't surprising. Chris Pandel, who will run the kitchen, hails from The Bristol on Damen. He worked previously at Tru and Cafe Boulud in New York. He doesn't arrive at Balena with the buzz that Paul Virant still has, but I'm expecting good things in time for the 2011-2012 Steppenwolf season.

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Best and Worst Restaurant Chains

If you eat fast food, this is a must read. Men's Heath notes:

The fact is, most restaurants are dangerous to your health. Every meal we eat out adds an average of 134 calories to our daily intake. And if you eat out as often as the average American man does (at least three times a week), those calories could tack on at least 6 pounds of mass every single year. Let's be clear: That's flab—not muscle. And if you eat out more, you gain more.

The article highlights good options and horrible ones at the nation's restaurant chains. Making the A list: Red Lobster, Chipotle and Panda Express. Meant to feel shame: Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's, California Pizza Kitchen. And Olive Garden, of course.

That's all.

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Yelp, Schmelp or Eater, Beware That Recommendation

Yelp is no longer a resource for me. If I'm in Uptown and I need a pizza, stat, I just spam qualified friends in Uptown until someone weighs in with a recommendation. "Qualified friends?" you ask? In this case, friends who only eat good pizza.

Yelp's lack of appeal is not about the obvious payola risks. On a side note, apparently the company has applied a new "strategy" to prevent the practice. The strategy seems to involve not selling merchants the ability bury negative feedback. This is remarkably similar to preventing the exclusion of certain people from serving in the military by not excluding certain people from serving in the military, and then calling it a strategy. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

My mistrust of Yelp has to do with taste: how can you be certain your reviewer is capable of steering you to the best frozen yogurt joint in Lincoln Park? Oh, that's not a good example; they're all the same. But mid-level Italian restaurants? Listen to the wrong person and you'll find yourself faced with a 10-page menu co-written by the Saturated Fat Farmers of America with nary a cream-free option. Side note: Volare, in downtown Chicago, is where I send anyone seeking basic Italian, as opposed to a never-ending pasta bowl or a "Celebration of Cheese."

Anyway, as with movie reviews, the person to take restaurant advice from does not have to be a professional reviewer, and should not be someone who loved something you wouldn't consider finishing, or starting for that matter. Like I recently told a friend who asked if I had a recipe for Creamed Chicken Chili, just because we're friends doesn't mean we share a love of Creamed Chicken Chili. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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On Buying Tickets to Restaurants

Outstanding in the Field does it. Who else? I just read Alinea chef Grant Achatz' plan for his forthcoming (fall 2010), Next Restaurant. The plan is to sell tickets and I'm trying to think of reasons why it's not a fabulous idea. Patrons will know exactly what to expect cost-wise, and can take advantage of cheaper off-peak seatings.

The restaurant can plan more accordingly as well. Achatz told The New York Times, "We now pay three or four reservationists all day long to basically tell people they can't come. Most people don't realize how much of the cost of a meal is the cost of running a restaurant."

My take is that if other restaurants copy the model they'll be Alinea-like in their reputation and the dining experience they offer. Achatz' reservation problem isn't something many other restaurants experience.

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Who's Standing in the Field this Summer?

Tour dates have been announced for Outstanding in the Field, an event I keep missing owing to erratic summer travel plans. There are three dates for the Chicago area, and a host of dates in cities across the country. In Chicago, I'm most interested in the event at City Farm, a vacant lot-turned operational farm. I've passed by it several times (it's located across from the Dominick's at Clybourn and Division) and am completely intrigued.

Check out the schedule here. At the very least, check out the gallery of photos showing the farm tables set in various locals. My faves are the beach shot and the one in the barn.
That's all. Have a great weekend.

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Restaurant Week Ends and Wine Week Begins

Leave it to Chicago to eat and drink its way through winter.

There are just a few days left of Restaurant Week in Chicago. If you couldn't get a table at your favorite steakhouse for restaurant week you've got a second chance. Smith & Wollensky's 46th annual Wine Week begins Monday, March 1 and runs until the 5th.

This is the third year for Restaurant Week, which is sponsored by the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau. Just two years ago for the inaugural event there were 35 restaurants on board. This year they've got more than 170 restaurants participating, so you can easily find a restaurant you haven't tried yet.

The deal is for a prix-fixe three-course lunches for $22 and dinners for $32 through February 28. The Wine Week deal is $10 for ten wines with your lunch order. You go to Wine Week for the wine. Lunch is a mere matter of course.

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A Guide to Neopolitan Pizza in Chicago

Coalfire. Nella's. Spacca Napoli.

That's the order in which you should try Neopolitan pizza in Chicago.

I've been waiting for months for Nella's to open. It's walking distance from where we live and I was anxious to see if they would impress. Nella's finally opened on Friday and we were there the following night.

Nella herself was the pizza maker at Spacca Napoli and the pizzas at her new establishment on Clark, just north of Fullerton, have very similar crust but a much deeper flavor. My only complaint about Spacca Napoli's pizzas were that they tasted like a pizza that lacked any taste of a pizza. Too bland. But their gelato! Salads! Antipasti! It's a decent place to dine, but they need some improvements to the main dish.

So Nella did that at her place, but she also added a bar and some big TVs so it's a bit noisier. Still, it's a nice family spot. She does have a giant cooking-school style mirror above the open pizzaiolo station, so if your seat is oriented toward the back you can watch a pizza being built. My children were also encouraged to go back and have a look at the cooks themselves, which is always nice. Earning other kid friendly points, the young children at the table next to us had bunny ears on their pizzas.

Anyway, at Nella's we had a few pizza Margheritas and a Diavolo (spicy pepperoni). I started with an arugula/Parmesan salad that arrived perfectly dressed with lemon, salt and olive oil. We'll try the gelato on another visit.

Still, Coalfire makes the best pizza, hands down. And when going out for pizza what I want is REALLY GOOD PIZZA. Maybe someday they'll serve lovely salads, salumi and gelati but for now, we'll continue to make it our family pizza joint.

Coalfire
1321 W Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60642-6447
(312) 226-2625

Nella's Pizza Napolitana (soon to be renamed Francesca's Pizzeria Napoletana)
2423 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
773-327-3400

Spacca Napoli
1769 W Sunnyside Ave
Chicago, IL 60640-5312
(773) 878-2420

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Pizza by any other name?

What I don't get, among other things like carburetors, engineering and electricity, is how one gets the word NEAPOLITAN from NAPLES. It's so confusing to me that on occasion I've been stumped when trying to recall the city of origin for my favorite pizza.

Is the root of problem that the city has different names - the whole Naples/Napoli thing? Napoletana is an obvious relation to Napoli, if we could just agree to call the city Napoli and not Naples. Pizza Napoletana...I like it. It isn't even hard to say! Or, if we've got to keep the Naples thing, why not Napolese? Like Calabrese from Calabria? I'm adding the name-translating phenom to my list: carburetors, engineering, electricity, and mankind's penchant for translating names. I get that there's a certain laughability to mispronouncing names in foreign tongues (gringos dropping Neeka-hwa-hwa comes to mind) but, really, does Nicker-ah-gwa sound better? Just because we CAN translate a name doesn't mean that it's helpful. Especially when one is attempting to book a train ticket to Vienna and cannot remember the Austrian name for the city.

ANYWAY, I just love this thin crust, quickly cooked goodness. My all time favorite spot is Coalfire here in Chitown. Pictured above is the pizza Margherita, named after an Italian Queen whose grave we saw in Rome. It's the only pizza we order at Coalfire, and yes, it's that good. Drop everything and get one of these soon. I've been checking in weekly regarding the opening plans for a neighborhood pizzeria, said to be called Nella's Pizzeria. Nella was the pizza maker at Spacca Napoli for awhile, and while Coalfire puts SN's pizza to shame, the latter brings down the house with their salads, salumi and gelato. Oh, the gelato! The cappuccino flavor is unrivaled.

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Fave Five Chicago Restaurants

Kalyn had a great idea with this post. But the comments filled up and not a SINGLE one of my uncommon Chicago faves made it to the list, prompting a last minute post before I pack my bags and head out of town. Have fun in Chicago, ladies who blog. Wish I were here to meet you and show you around...

India House
59 West Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 645-9500

Two words: Lunch Buffet.

Coalfire Pizza
1321 W Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 226-2625

Charred thin crust Pizza - traditional Neopolitan style. We only order the Margherita. It's beyond perfect.

de cero
814 W. Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 455-8114

Love the small soft tacos! My favorite: skirt steak with potatoes, onion, cilantro, lime, and chipotle mayo. Battered shrimp is fabulous too.

Matchbox
770 North Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, Illinois 60622
(312) 666-9292

Though it's a bar and restaurant (inside a very cool train car, no less!) I've only had drinks here. The pineapple infused vodka gimlet is NOT to be missed.

Mixteco Grill
1601 W Montrose Ave
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 868-1601

Fine Oaxacan from a Frontera Grill/Topolobampo alum. BYOB to boot.

There's many other fine places, of course. And given the conference's location, I'd be remiss if I didn't send anyone to Fox & Obel for breakfast or to find a selection of fine cheeses to take back home. Or Volare, my favorite downtown lunch spot. I can hardly pick between Bistro Zinc and Bistro Margot in Old Town, or Athena in Greektown. Oh, Chicago! How well you feed us!

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Places in Chicago

Thank goodness for people who tell it like it is. My husband is one such person - and my friend Louise is another. Louise wrote scathing restaurant reviews in a past life (mine and, I think, hers as well) and took a lot of heat for it. I loved it. With little kids it can be hard to coordinate getting out for the evening and the last thing I ever want is to have overpriced, mediocre food on my plate. When Louise wrote reviews I was at least forewarned. One time I asked her what she knew about a certain Mexican restaurant in town. Her answer: "I know that it sucks."

I'm not interested in writing reviews. But I am a huge champion of great food. The restaurant industry is a tough one. When I have an awesome meal I tend to hype the place. No one should have to eat bad food.

I envision this as an organic list - I'll add to it whenever I'm compelled to promote.

1. India House
59 West Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 645-9500

Two words: Lunch Buffet.

2. Coalfire Pizza
1321 W Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 226-2625

Charred thin crust Pizza - traditional Neopolitan style. BYOB, too.

3. de cero
814 W. Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 455-8114

Love the small soft tacos! My favorite: skirt steak with potatoes, onion, cilantro, lime, and chipotle mayo.

4. Pete's Fresh Market
2526 W Cermak Rd
Chicago, IL 60608
(773) 254-8400

A fantastic grocery store in Pilsen. Pick up great produce, fresh corn tortillas and roast pork.

5. Simply It
2269 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 248-0884

BYOB Vietnamese. The Grilled Salmon Noodles, Sate Shrimp and Grilled Lemongrass Beef are personal favorites.

6. Matchbox
770 North Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 666-9292

Though it's a bar and restaurant (inside a very cool train car, no less!) I've only had drinks here. The pineapple infused vodka gimlet is NOT to be missed.



7. The Spice House
1512 N Wells
Chicago, IL 60610


Great quality and prices on standards like ginger, cinnamon and peppercorns, but don't miss the blended seasonings:  Milwaukee Iron Seasoning, Smoke House Seasoning, Sweet Curry Powder and Back of the Yards Butcher's Rub

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