Almost two years to the day, the husband and I found ourselves in Chicago. In this case, our favourite band was not playing Chicago, but the city was on our way to see them in East Troy, Wisconsin. However, this time we brought friends with us – Rachelle and Scott Vivian, the owners and culinary minds behind Beast Restaurant.
Scott and I spent over a month going back and forth with emails with restaurant suggestions before finally creating an itinerary that maximized the number of restaurants that we could frequent in five days.
Our first stop after our marathon drive from Toronto was Graham Elliot. The last time I was in Chicago, our big dinner out was at Alinea – an unforgettable experience. Graham Elliot’s was Scott’s choice and I was really happy with this decision because was unforgettable as Alinea is, it is a very formal dining experience. At Chef Elliot’s restaurant, I truly felt like I was at the restaurant operated by a rock star.
The music could have come out of our own collection. There was a great vibe in the dining room of everyone having fun. One of the components of the servers’ uniforms is that they all wear a belt buckle with Chef’s initials. The food was thought through, beautifully presented and playful.
We were walked to our table and given a glass of sparkling wine and a bowl of Chef’s signature popcorn: truffle oil, chives, parmesan and ground pepper.
Our first amuse bouche was a lollipop made of foie gras mousse with Madeira that was rolled in watermelon pop rocks. The combination of textures of the smooth mousse with the explosion of the pop rocks will remain one of my most vibrant food memories.
Our second amuse was a tomato consommé shot with watermelon pieces and mint with jalapeño oil. Extremely refreshing and I think Rachelle wanted to have another round entirely for herself.
I know that every restaurant offers a version of their Caesar salad and I should know better when the word deconstructed shows up on a menu but you won’t find this dish anywhere else. Torpedoes of lettuce that were dressed and then rolled in lightly grated Parmesan, topped with anchovies and accompanied by a Twinkie crouton that was stuffed with mascarpone with a nice zing of garlic.
Others at the table had the stuffed zucchini flowers with shrimp on braised briny eggplant with eggplant purée. I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but I remember that puree. The husband had the corn bisque and described it as complex: The vanilla marshmallow gave the contents of the bowl a spicy sweetness while the spiny lobster imparted a bacon-y like smokiness. The more the dish mellowed together, the richer it became.
For main dishes, I had the fried chicken roulade, which was served with chicken liver paté, fried okra, coleslaw, puffed dirty rice and gizzard jus. Yes, you read that correctly, the dirty rice was made with puffed rice. Scott’s sweet bread schnitzel was coated in mustard before being fried and was served with braised Napa cabbage, pickled spring vegetables with a chanterelle sauce that was brought together with caraway seeds. The husband had the bison loin, which was described as being a cookhouse style and did not disappoint. The spiced, seared crust around the loin gave it a smoked, spicy feel, in a very subtle way.
I think that if you are going to splurge on a big-budget dinner in Chicago, you have some great options. We spent three hours at Graham Elliot’s and it was simply a more relaxed dining experience that delivered great food at the level of fine dining.
(In the interest in full disclosure, we believe that we received a few extra courses based on Scott’s tweet that we were on our way and they recognized us as industry.)
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