Tag: restaurant

The Wellington Room

Seth Anderson0 comment

Matthew Sharlot and Karen Sharlot have finally opened their own restaurant. The menu looks delicious.

In an intimate dining room where all guests enjoy the spectacular view of the Piscataqua River, The Wellington Room is sure to be a memorable dining experience. Our chef hand selects local products of the best quality and freshness, and prepares all dishes himself… including the pastries. We offer a broad variety of cuisine and all dishes are made fresh to order (even the coffee), so special requests are welcome.

[From The Wellington Room Home]

Too bad I live too far away to drive over for lunch.

Rachel Forrest liked it too:

I watch the door when people come into a restaurant and I’m always surprised at how anxious people look when they step up to a host/ess podium for the first time. I can see them wonder if their name is on the reservation list, if this restaurant will make them feel welcome, if they’ll feel good at the end. They really don’t know what to expect. I get that.

There are restaurants I go into where I know the owner, host or bartender pretty well and I go to these places in part because I do know them and feel welcomed and comfortable, but it can take a few visits to become a “regular,” to feel like I belong. Not so at The Wellington Room, where Karen Sharlot, who owns the romantic restaurant with husband and executive chef, Matthew Sharlot, can make you feel like a regular from the moment you step through the door.

[From Seacoastonline.com: Dining Out: The Wellington Room, Portsmouth]

Aroma is Disgusting

Seth Anderson0 comment

We haven’t eaten at Aroma on Randolph for many years1 because I thought the place was kind of gross. The food wasn’t fresh, and the entire restaurant looked unclean, unkept, unswept, you name it. Apparently, my instinct was correct, the City of Chicago agrees that Aroma is gross.

Aroma on Randolph, 941 W. Randolph, was shut down after inspectors found dozens of cockroaches in the kitchen, particularly in the drip pan of a stove.

The restaurant also was cited for raw sewage backing up from a floor drain in the basement kitchen, no hand washing sink in the basement kitchen, a non-functioning hand washing sink in the kitchen on the main floor, no soap or hand towels at any sink on the premises, employees laying their shoes and clothing on top of plates and utensils, houseflies and fruit flies in the kitchen, and a poorly maintained outside garbage area (grease on top of and on the ground around the grease box).

CDPH inspectors also cited Aroma on Randolph for two violations of the Chicago Clean Indoor Air Ordinance. Inspectors found two dozen dirty ashtrays hidden behind the bar. The second citation was issued because management had failed to post “No Smoking” signs as required by law.

The Aroma on Randolph web site states, “Our restaurant has a smoking area…”.

Smoking is prohibited in all restaurants in the city, as well as in the rest of the state.

Today’s inspection was triggered by a customer who contacted CDPH via the City of Chicago web site to allege that she had found a cockroach in her food.

[From City of Chicago – Near West Side Restaurant Shut Down by City Health Department]

I’d be surprised if they manage to emerge from this violation: that’s pretty harsh. Also the first violation of “No-Smoking” I’ve ever heard since the ordinance was passed.

see this screenshot from their website:
Aroma Randolph Smoking

Footnotes:
  1. though there used to be a Thai restaurant in the same location called Hi Ricky which was quite good [↩]

Beer and Pork

Seth Anderson1 Comment

Donnie Madia in front of Avec

Paul Kahan and Donnie Madia’s new beer and pork place is finally given a name: the Publican. Not sure of the location exactly, but it looks like it is on West Randolph Street somewhere.

After years of speculation and anticipation, it looks as though the beer-, pork- and fish-focused restaurant by chef Paul Kahan finally has a name: The Publican.

[snip]

The Publican (the name takes a little getting used to) will serve up beer-friendly foods (see the braised pork potee in the photo above), along with more than 100 brews from England, the U.S., Belgium and Brazil and more far-flung locales. The chef de cuisine is Brian Huston (pronounced like the Texas town), who worked at Blackbird years ago, went off to cook in Colorado and returned to town about a year ago to work on this project. While developing The Publican’s menu, Huston has been working at Avec and can be seen there almost nightly.

[From The Stew – A taste of Chicago’s food, wine and dining scene | Chicago Tribune | Blog]

I know D won’t want to ever set foot in the place, pork and beer are not favorites. Maybe if my brother comes in town…

update: location is 845 Fulton for this nitrate central.

Blackbird Project Named and Dated
The Blackbird/Avec team has finally announced that their third sib, a culinary homage to beer, pork and fish in the West Loop, will be named the Publican (British term for pub owner). The tentative opening date has been set for Monday, August 18th. Exec chef Paul Kahan and chef de cuisine Brian Huston have developed a network of purveyors to supply the restaurant with hand-selected, sustainably harvested seafood and sustainably raised heirloom pork to anchor a rustic menu of simple, eclectic fare. And beer enthusiasts are thirsty for the more than 100 ales, lagers, stouts and ciders to be served by the bottle, with another dozen available on tap (845 W. Fulton Market).

[From Blackbird Project Named and Dated – Best of Buzz – Zagat Survey ]

Topolobampo and Obama

Seth Anderson2 Comments

Topolobampo is excellent, I’ve eaten there a couple of times. Sepia? Not much of a fan, but then we weren’t exactly treated like royalty, or potential presidential candiates, when we dined there.

The Obamas’ favorite spot for a night out in Chicago is the alta cocina Mexican restaurant Topolobampo, according to Michelle Obama spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld. For a simpler bite, the Obamas turn to RJ Grunts, a cartoony Lincoln Park emporium of burgers, ribs and Tex-Mex standards, the spokeswoman says. On her own, Mrs. Obama has favored the more cutting-edge food at Sepia in the trendy West Loop neighborhood near the atelier of her suddenly famous dressmaker, Maria Pinto.

[From The Candidates Dine Out – WSJ.com
[Non-WSJ subscribers use this link]]

[snip] The WSJ’s Raymond Sokolov is a fan of Chicago dining:

Altogether more interesting on the Obamas’ dining list is Topolobampo, Rick Bayless’s superb little shrine to the full panoply of Mexico’s cuisine. We have eaten there happily for years, enjoying its authentic, even scholarly versions of classic dishes such as chilaquiles and Yucatecan roast pork. Topolobampo (named after a Mexican port) is one of the reasons we think Chicago is arguably America’s top eating city, with fewer high-end addresses than New York but a more stellar, dramatic pantheon.

From its diverse and creative menu, Topolobampo says, Sen. Obama often orders sopa azteca, a dark broth flavored with pasilla chilies, grilled chicken, avocado, Meadow Valley Farm handmade Jack cheese, thick cream and crisp tortilla strips.

Sepia, the potential first lady’s glam West Loop haunt (she ate there last Saturday), was new territory for us. We started out with one of the restaurant’s signature flatbreads, this one topped with applewood-smoked bacon, chunks of pear and crumbled blue cheese. We also sampled the ethereally smooth and densely flavored chilled carrot puree with chive cream swirled on its mirrory surface.

As a nostalgic Great Lakes native, we were thrilled to find Sepia offered walleyed pike, moist and fresh as the northern waters from which it came, dressed up with wild mushrooms and a cashew vinaigrette. Other fresh and naturally produced items on the menu included elite Berkshire pork and artisanal domestic cheeses. If Mrs. Obama has the chance to encourage this kind of food in the White House and can get Mr. Bayless to bring a Mexican touch to state dinners, the Obama administration would be a golden era for American gastronomy.

Yats Cajun Creole

Seth Anderson4 Comments

Was walking east on Randolph, and glanced at a soon-to open restaurant called Yats Cajun Creole. The owner, Joe Vuskovich, a gregarious fellow, recently of New Orleans, came out and chatted for a minute or two. He said the restaurant will be be opening mid-July, or early August, if all goes as planned. I forgot to get a photo of Joe, but I did snap a shot of the storefront (forgive the poor exposure).

Joe mentioned he used to work in a factory over on Fulton1, so it was a homecoming of sorts for him. Also, his dad had been an oyster farmer, so the smells and sounds2 of Fulton Market brought back fond memories.

I am a great lover of all things New Orleans (mostly the music, but the food too), so am eager to have my first meal at Yats Cajun Creole.

Yats Cajun Creole

—
update, now open!

Footnotes:
  1. from his webpage: Most recently, Joe has owned and operated a wholesale business, (a) blending, grinding, packaging, and selling spices to the restaurant trade, as well as (b) offering his spicy native cuisine to restaurants in a pre-prepared fashion. After a few big clients went out of business about two years ago, Joe decided to launch a no-frills, back-to-the-basics, neighborhood restaurant. Thus, Yats was reborn. [↩]
  2. diesel, and food, and other less pleasant items too. I grew up on the edge of Toronto’s Chinatown, and we had a poultry market several buildings down the street, sharing an alley with us, so I know of what Joe is referring. Smells are such powerful unlockers of the dusty corridors of memory. [↩]

My Pie to Close

Seth Anderson0 comment

or My ∏ as it says on the sign. When I lived on Belden, I ate at My Pie quite frequently. Not spectacular food, but good and cheap enough, with a decent salad bar, another vestige of a previous time. I probably have a photo somewhere, I’ll have to look.

My Pie, which has been a fixture in the Lincoln Park area (and a crucial part of my collegiate dining options) for 31 years, closed its Clark Street location over the weekend. Rich Aronson, part of the family that started the My Pie pizzeria mini-chain a generation ago, says the unavailability of an affordable lease led to the restaurant’s demise. “We knew it was coming,” he said. “They [the landlords] had different plans for the place, and the rent was skyrocketing by four, five times. We want to do something else in the neighborhood, but it’s just difficult to find anything.”

[From My Pie closes its Lincoln Park location, hopes to reopen]

Lincoln Park continues to transform into yuppie heaven. I’m sure the building owners want to sell to a condo developer – that’s where one gets enough money to retire to Florida.

Sepia Sucked

Seth Anderson1 Comment

*repost

We had the worst meal in years at a newcomer to the West Loop called Sepia.

[From S E P I A Chicago Restaurant ~ 312.441.1920 123 N. Jefferson, Chicago, IL 60661] – warning: one of those annoying flash websites that take forever to load, and worse, one that autoplays music. You can turn the music off, but the toggle doesn’t appear until after 8 warbled bars by a Billy Holiday imitator. I should have canceled my reservation once I visited the web site. Though some of the sepia-toned photos are nice.

Sepia Interior

This is the only photo I managed to take as before we were served any food or drink, four different people visited our table to ask who we were (I think they wanted to know if we were food critics or not) before a manager came and told me that “Photos were not allowed”.

I am certainly not a food critic (read below if you want proof), just a typical consumer. Perhaps if we had said we were writing a review, we might have been treated better.

Here were my scribbled notes from later that evening.

•The service was ok, once we let the waiter rattle off his spiel without interruption. He was initially ‘annoyed‘ at us for daring to ask questions, but eventually he warmed up, and was ok. I’ve waited tables, so I know how sometimes customers can be irritating for no particular reason. The bus buy in charge of our table hovered nearby, refilling our water every 2 or 3 minutes. Perhaps they get a bonus if they sell more than one bottle of water? Grade: B.

•As mentioned, was told firmly there would be no photographs allowed, per ‘policy‘. Not sure what that’s about. Perhaps afraid of proof of bad reviews? Grade: F.

•Atmosphere, not quite to the level of the home of a tribe of serial killers, but still kind of freaky. I wonder how many folks ever return to have another meal? I could easily visualize ritual sacrifices occurring in the basement. The tables are crammed up against each other, you can borrow napkins from adjoining tables without even turning your torso. We ate early, so most of our meal enjoyed a buffer, in three dimensions, but the staff constantly bumped against our chairs, or stumbled over our feet. Sepia’s layout obviously was not approved by a Feng Shui master.

Food:
•Flat breads: sauteed mushrooms on a homemade cracker. Profit margin of 99%. I calculate the ingredients as 1 mushroom diced (perhaps 2, of different varieties, but hard to tell), some butter, some oil, about .05 of a garlic clove, and a bit of flour and water. $7. If I made this, even if I was more generous with the amount of mushrooms, and if I didn’t have the benefit of economy of scale, still would be hard to spend $0.25 on the dish. After the 300 word buildup mouthed by our waiter (and probably written by the owner), I expected more. Grade: D-.

•Salad – a handful of moldy lettuce, or perhaps a sour vinegar dressing. Served with cold, marinated grilled carrot strips, of there must have been a surfeit, as these same carrots appeared in all our other dishes too. Grade: F.

•Fish – a nice chunk of sturgeon, cooked to the consistency of leather. Yummm, chewy! Served on a bed of watercress, with mold- marinated carrots. $26 dollars. Grade: C-.

•Grilled vegetables. Actually not bad, the only thing we completely finished, though again, 20 dollars for a couple ounces of grilled/baked vegetables (squash, carrots, brussels sprouts, red cabbage) seems a little steep, especially since nothing was organic or locally grown. Sysco vegetables are pretty damn cheap. Perhaps the kitchen staff has a very competitive pay scale, or perhaps there are too many of them, or perhaps the rent is not favorable. Or something. We were hungry about an hour after leaving Sepia, and had to have a second dinner.

•Goat cheese cake, cloyingly sweet, but not bad. Served with a bitter, insanely dry cookie, and one lonely pistachio nut, crumbled, and spread out across an over-large plate. Actually, I think it was less than one pistachio nut, perhaps 1/4 of a whole nut. Whatever. We left most of it uneaten, lonely on the vast plate. Allegedly the desert chef is going to be featured in some food magazine, but that is no guarantee of quality, just evidence of payola in the corporate media. Grade: D+.
Final Grade – are you kidding? We didn’t even drink wine (contrary to my habit), and our bill was still over $100. If I want a special, delicious, romantic meal, and am willing to spend more than $100, there are several options to choose from in Chicago. Sepia is not one.