Gastrogasmic Dining at State & Lake With Kellye

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I made the foolish mistake of checking out The Wit, on opening weekend.
It was energizing, exciting and best of all pleasing to my taste buds. Although I was only able to try two of the restaurants, The Roof and State and Lake, the latter was my favorite.

As they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why not start that day off with something unexpected. Sure pancakes and eggs over easy would be fine but they wouldn’t be gastrogasmic!

State and Lake is billed as a gastro pub. Their breakfast menu is disproportionately meat friendly but that’s never a problem with this carnivore! The restaurant offers omelettes and frittatas, pancakes and waffles, fruits and veggies all laden with that gastro pub/comfort food feel.

I grazed through items like Steak and Bennies, Braised Pork Shoulder with Biscuits and smoked garlic and the Short Rib omelette and thought to myself, will I need a nap or a cardiologist after this meal? I opted for the short rib omelette. Four eggs wrapped around 16 hour braised short ribs, Wisconsin cheddar, mushrooms and caramelized onions. As if it needed anything else, breakfast potatoes and a stack of pancakes tagged along too. It was love at first bite. The beef was incredibly tender and melted away with the firmness of the mushrooms, and bite of the cheddar. Who would ever think that this flavor combination would work? How could eggs compliment beef like this? I continuted eating and eating. I did sample the pancake, too doughy and raw. The potatoes were a nice touch but didn’t hold a candle to the omelette. To be honest they were really just wasting space on the plate, begging to be included in the omelette fiesta!

I rarely flash around my membership card to the Clean Plate Club but that morning was something other worldly. In a word, gastrogasmic. State and Lake offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Though the service is spotty it’s worth it to get a nibble at what’s been created here.

There are different 16 beers on tap and thankfully you won’t find Budweiser here!! All offerings are premium boutique beers ranging from Abita, Dogfish IPA to Allagash and Two Brothers! The wine list is obscure but familiar. All in all, this place is worth waking up early on a Saturday for.

The Wit Hotel
State and Lake Restaurant
201 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60601
(312)467-0200

Labels: breakfast, brunch, chicago dining, chicago restaurants, efete.net, gastro pub, kellye washington, state and lake, the wit hotel

Gastrogasmic Dining at Table 52 With Kellye

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

It was supposed to be better the second time. Everyone said give it another shot. A girlfriend said that it’s always awkward the first time and I needed to give it time to get better. My only thought was, “it’s a restaurant not the birds and the bees.” So I did. I waited over six months to take a trip back to Art Smith’s Table 52. The little greystone was jammed. People waiting to be seated? Maybe it would be better this time! The reviews had certainly improved so what did I have to lose? After taking a long look at the fancified Southern favorites I was pleased. The menu had evolved and read like a Low Country cookbook. Chef Smith had brought favorites like pork chops, greens, grits and jambalaya to the menu and dressed them up with a price fitting this Gold Coast restaurant.

We began with the Low-Country shrimp and stone ground grits. When they arrived I was pleased. The grits were topped off with four large shrimp sautéed beautifully and then topped with a smattering of roasted red peppers that brought my taste buds to attention. The grits were creamy and buttery, dense without being chewy. The shrimp popped when I bit into it and made me hungrier for what awaited. Little did I know I should’ve had another order of grits and called it a night. Next came the quail. Two adorable little birds, arrived with grill marks (I love these) and a generous serving of carrots, braised legumes and onions. I thought it would be impossible for a chef of such high caliber to destroy something as simple as vegetables. Even my mother, who would rather make reservations than a home cooked meal, has mastered braising and sautéing vegetables. The quail while tender and generous in proportion was flavor free. Art Smith, meet Salt and his wife Pepper. The ancho-chile crusted pork chop with butter beans and brussel sprout leaves looked quite appealing on the menu so I was quite anxious to taste it. It arrived in perfect time. Prepared medium rare just as it should but completely overdone with the heavy ancho-chile crust. I tasted the smokiness of the chile and lots of salt. It only took two bites before I needed to be reassured that my name wasn’t Bullwinkle and that we had indeed ordered a pork chop. Not a salt lick. How could the appetizer have been so good and the mains making me wish I’d stayed home with leftover Chinese and a Law and Order marathon?

Thankfully dessert saved me from my hunger. I dove into Chef Smith’s Hummingbird cake. The symphony of pineapple cake with banana icing repeated over several layers was the life boat of this dinner. It was Gastrogasmic. Sweet chunks of pineapple fell out of the cake and begged to wrapped in the homemade vanilla ice cream. Hummingbird cake is the new crack.

While the wine list is studded with obscure international picks and the stateside selections are what you’d expect. Well priced bottles and glass pours were a welcome surprise considering the dining menu.

Table 52
52 West Elm
Chicago, IL 60610
312-573-4000

Labels: art smith, chicago dining, chicago restaurants, fete select tv, fine dining, gold coast, kellye washington, oprah's chef, soul food, table 52

Gastrogasmic Dining at Eve With Kellye

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I recently had a serious craving for a good, juicy burger. It was imperative that I got a great burger before the week was out. Of course we’ve all seen the ads and read the press about “amazing hamburgers” in posh restaurants. Chefs will top, insulate, infuse and marinate their designer burgers with everything. Caviar, 20 year old French cheeses, Trappist monk beer, lobster, Asian pears, carrots and sauerkraut have all found their way between the beef and a bun.

Like any other reasonable carnivore I love my beef. It’s a staple of my diet and I don’t need a lot of hoopla to go with a classic meal. I’m easy when it comes to the hamburger. Swiss cheese and crispy bacon. So the question remained, where? Where could I go to find nirvana on a plate? What restaurant wouldn’t charge me $27 for Wisconsin beef and their idea of fancy mushrooms? More importantly, where would the service be good too?

Generic chain restaurants were out. I needed something that would make me take pause. A burger so good that I might just eat the whole thing.
It came in a flash, Eve. It was two blocks from my house and I’ve never had a bad meal there.

Much to my surprise, Executive Chef Troy Graves has added classic Korean spice to an American favorite. The Bulgogi Burger. In Korea bulgogi consists of strips of sirloin marinated in sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar and garlic, grilled to temperature then laid on a bed of noodles and vegetables. At Eve, Chef Graves has added green onions and shallots into his sirloin patty and for extra an kick, laid the burger on bed of Kimchee, and topped it all off with a hard fried egg.

The order was in. I would have classic Korea and American on a plate. Rome wasn’t built in a day so be patient. Each burger is made to order. This includes onion and shallot dicing, patty forming and then grilling.

In the past I’ve struggled with the bun to burger and toppings ratio. I’ve found that there is always too much bun. So I’ve started making a “nest” for my burgers. If the kitchen won’t do it I will. I just scoop out the excess bread in the top of the bun, and then I’m left with a little dome for which my beefy treat can rest in easily. The bun for the Bulgogi was perfect, it allowed the flavors of the egg, beef and kimchee to take center stage and refuses to be masked by unnecessary starch. It was, gastrogasmic. After my first bite all of my senses where ignited. Literally. The fiery kimchee made my tongue spark and only added to the intensity of the onion and shallot laced beef. The meat was cooked to perfection (medium rare) and the juices of the meat ran down my hand. It was exactly what I was looking for. I’m not one of those people who make noise when the food is good. I just enjoy the experience but this was other worldly. I was speechless. At one point my server asked me how it was and all I could do was nod my head and make some noise that resembled the satisfaction I feel in other adult situations!


Eve
840 N. Wabash Ave. (btw Pearson and Chestnut)
Chicago, IL 60611
312.266-3383
Evechicago.com

Labels: chicago dining, chicago restaurants, dining out, efete.net, eve chicago, gastrogasmic dining, gourmet burgers, kellye washington