Chalk it up to a Midwestern disdain for pretention, the recession that came to stay, or an itchy drive for change, but everyone from Chicago's wunderkind cooks to its top chefs are whipping white linens off the tables and hoisting them as surrender flags to a new era of a downscaled diners. Expect no entrées over $15; comfort food that's preferably butchered and cured in house; and a manly decor that incorporates elements of the toolshed, farmstead, or factory.
Duck "Fries" - Photo by Clayton Hauck/Longman & Eagle
Omnipresent Chicago restaurateur Paul Kahan may be the best emblem of the downsizing trend: The carnivorous Publican, the taco pit stop Big Star, and cozy Avec (still Chicago's best casual diner), have been riffs on his uber-upscale Blackbird. His latest, Publican Quality Meats, a combination butcher, market, and 32-seat café in the Fulton Market, offers killer sandwiches for $10 or less, including the signature PB&L, which consists of one bulging lobster roll packed with pork belly, lamb sausage, feta, and cilantro.
Butcher's Cold Charcuterie Plate -
Courtesy of Publican Quality Meats
Even poor interns can eat at Bill Kim's Urban Belly, where all the streamlined wood—salvaged planks from Indonesian ships, Chinese Elmwood stools and benches—resemble an exquisitely designed scrapyard. Menu musts include dumplings (lamb and brandy, Asian squash and bacon), short-rib-and-scallion fried rice, and soba noodles tossed with Bay scallops and oyster mushrooms in a Thai basil broth. Also in Avondale, Kim joins forces with wife Yvonne Cadiz Kim at Belly Shack, a Seoul by way of San Juan fusion that produces a signature Belly Dog with kimchi salsa that puts a new spin on the Windy City original.
Photo by Yasmina Cadiz
After 14 years Executive Chef-ing at Charlie Trotter's, Matthias Merges drops the top-dollar drastically at glass-fronted Yusho. His posh paean to Asian street food, most priced under $10, includes the world's most elegant chicken wings, brightened by lime and Thai chili; a plate of cabbage and chick peas tossed with shrimp; and a pork shoulder, kimchi, and peanut-stuffed bao that could give David Chang a little bun-envy.
Hama Hama Oyster - Courtesy of Yusho
Though The Peasantry's name announces its 99-percent sympathies, the ambitious global-prol menu by chef Joe Doren (another Blackbird alum) is a plebe feed that even investment bankers could love—and do, given the blue-meets-white-collar crowd that packs the rustic dining room. Think Tur-Doggin turkey-date sausage a la Franks 'n' Dawgs topped with duck confit, a baby octopus gyro, or pigs in a cashmere blanket (housemade chorizo wrapped in puff pastry served with pancetta buttered white beans).
Photo by Kimberly Grosser and Alexander Brunacci
Urban Union's anti-style—exposed bricks, chalkboard menus, industrial metal chairs—favors Euro soul food such as pappardelle with pancetta and peas and sizzling meats pulled out of a wood oven, including a roast duck breast sweetened by farm peaches. But it's the dressed-up Kit Kat Bar that rising star pasty chef Mitsu Nozaki morphs into a hazelnut mousse cake that makes for the best hat trick.
Marinated Spanish Octopus -
Courtesy of Urban Union
Named both for the trench diggers who used to call the 'hood home and the vernacular definition of hearty eater, Wicker Park's Trenchermen sits in a rehabbed Turkish bathhouse that's lost none of its testosterone-infused butchness: hairy, bearded bartenders in leather aprons sling drinks behind a white-tiled bar while bare bulbs hang from thick-knotted ropes. The food, on the other hand, remains surprisingly delicate, especially a quartet of tender sweetbreads laid over a smear of black garlic.
Pickle Tots (w. chicken breast bresaola, red onion yogurt) -
Courtesy of Trenchermen
After 10 years in local kitchens, from working the line at Spiaggia to her most recent gig at the W Hotel's Wave, Kristine Subido's back-to-basics Pecking Order is a feisty second act, expressing her full-on Filipino soul by doing just about everything you can do to chicken, including frying it, grilling it, and roasting the bird with lemongrass and ginger. Pair any chirping iteration with the house's signature sweet plantains.
Courtesy of Pecking Order
Even before it became the in-crowd of inns with six upstairs guestrooms, Longman & Eagle was famous for chef Jared Wentworth's rising star, rooted in his previous stint at Quinn's in Seattle. While main courses and cocktails can run up a tab, most of the buzzing hipsters come for entrée-worthy sandwiches and small pubby plates, wild boar sloppy joes, buffalo frog legs, and deconstructed rabbit pot pie. Build to a big boozy finish with the maple and bourbon cornbread pudding.
Wild Boar Sloppy Joe - Photo by Clayton Hauck
Antique Taco is the latest addition to Wicker Park's "taco road" smorgasbord. Chef Rick Ortiz, who worked several Michelin-starred kitchens in France before a stint as sous chef for Soldier Field, offers a full complement of very swish, seriously sourced tacos such as grilled ribeye, market mushrooms, and a spicy chicken drizzled with honey yogurt. Dress things up with the masa biscuit crowned by Maine lobster and then wash the fiesta down with a sublime horchata milkshake.
Crispy Fish Tacos - Courtesy of Antique Taco
Mark Mendez puts his Spiaggia training to good use at Vera, his West Loop homage to España. Though you can fill up on the skewered pinchos (octopus, beef tongue, chicken thigh)—and get tipsy on wife Elizabeth Mendez's zealously curated list of sherries—save room for the cleanly updated calamari tossed with crispy garbanzos and pickled chiles, a spritely bowl of zucchini with hazelnuts and Romesco sauce, or his Iberian clams-and-chorizo take on traditional surf and turf.
Courtesy of Vera
The city's top chefs and no-star wunderkinds are trading in their toques and 20-course tasting menus in favor downscale delish.
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