Z & H on Check, Please!

posted by chicago pop

Almost exactly three years after getting some love from Hungry Hound, Hyde Park - Kenwood's favorite sandwich shop and locally-sourced, organic specialty foods boutique, Zaleski & Horvath Market Café, gets some attention from Check, Please! Worth noting: of the two reviewers who recommended other eateries, neither dinged Z&H!

Hat tip to HPP reader LN

Robust Coffee Lounge: Caffeine in an Urban Fastness

posted by chicago pop

One of Hyde Park - Kenwood - Woodlawn's newest cool things is in the lower left-hand corner of the above building: Robust Coffee Lounge. We've been flagrantly remiss in not heralding its arrival much, much sooner. Chicago Weekly has a very nice write-up of Robust here. Neighbor blogger Woodlawn Wonder gives her personal take on it here.

So, after several friendly proddings from readers, we finally made it down to their corner location on 63rd and Woodlawn -- where, as a rosy-cheeked youth I walked in days of yore, neath the dappled sunlight of a cacophonous elevated rail spur, in search of Harold's Chicken -- to find that we weren't the only ones retracing our footsteps.

For the most interesting thing about Robust Coffee Lounge-- where, despite the name, it is hoped they do not brew robusta coffee beans -- is actually the owner Jake Sapstein's backstory. In opening up Robust, Sapstein is retracing footsteps of his own. Talk to him for a little bit and you'll quickly realize that he knows the South Side. The reason is that his family owned a chain of pharmacies throughout the area, back in the day when Walgreens was not the only game in town.

It's clear that running a small business, and entrepreneurial spirit, are in his blood; so is running a store on the South Side of Chicago.


I mention all of this because I couldn't help but wonder, approaching the building in this photograph from the north, surrounded as it is by enormous tracts of empty land, who would have the guts to open up here. Not just because it's kind of scary at night (ask Jake, he'll tell you), but because commercially it's deserted, and business loves company. The whole story has a sort of poetry: the old threads of social fabric, torn for over half a century, have been stitched together again on one particular street corner. With any luck, so we are told, Sapstein and his business partner may open up a restaurant next door.

And the coffee? Well, if you've gotten used to Z&H, you may be a little let down. Then again, Sapstein's aim is not to be a solo foodie boutique, but to grow and make money -- full-disclosure to Old-Guard Hyde Park anti-capitalists. But the baked goods are all locally sourced, and everything on the deli menu -- which is substantial, and includes staples that you can't get in Hyde Park anymore, like chicken salad -- is made in-house. "We want to be a curator for local vendors," Jake told me.

Seems to be working so far. Go check it out, if you haven't already.

More Orly's Drama: Celebrity Chef Splits on Shopiro

posted by chicago pop

Celebrity Chef Jen Gavin, formerly of The Big Easy/Orly's*****

We'll get straight to the dish on this one: at a time when many folks have reason to celebrate all things New Orleans, The Big Easy (or Orly's, as it will always be known in our hearts, sort of like the Sears Tower will always be just that) is down one celebrity chef.

Here's what Hungry Hound Steve Dolinsky has to say about the drama on his Adventures in Urban Eating blog:

Less than a month after opening its doors, chef Jennifer Gavin and The Big Easy (not to be confused with Big Easy Cajun at Old Orchard Shopping Mall) have parted ways. Gavin – a former contestant on “Hell’s Kitchen” – had been brought in to help overhaul the new menu and concept in the former Jalapeño’s/Orly’s space in Hyde Park, on 55th St.

We ate there once a few weeks ago and noticed a definite improvement in the menu, plus an attempt to spruce the place up with a coherent decor and a new coat of paint. But, alas, the curse of Orly's seems to have quickly set in, and now the folks behind the latest Orly's makeover are now kitty-hissing at one another:

“She up and quit on us, right in the middle of the shift on Saturday afternoon,” said owner David Shopiro. “Jennifer, while a good kitchen person, was more into being a celebrity.” Shopiro said the restaurant was pretty busy this past Saturday, and they were expecting a large group from Operation Push to come in around 1 p.m. Gavin had approached him, asking if she could do an exit interview for the Fox TV f0lks at 1 p.m. “She told me it would take a few minutes, so I thought, o.k.,” said Shopiro. Next thing he knows, the kitchen is in the weeds, and the team is clamoring for help. Customers were getting upset that the food was coming out slow. “I went to the office at 1:25 p.m., and it was locked, so I was shaking the door, asking her to get off of the phone, and come out to help,” said Shopiro. “By 1:40 p.m., customers were getting pissed off, so I started pounding on door, telling her to give them your phone number and call them back,” an exasperated Shopiro recounted. Two minutes later, he says, the chef walked out to the kitchen, told her boss he owed her an apology for yelling at her, and left the premises.

OK. So now here's the other side of the story:

For her part, Gavin says “things were getting a little weird, and the situation was not what I had planned on.” She has hired an attorney to assist with her separation from the business.

A little weird. That just about gets it.



****(And for more weirdness, check out Dolinsky's upcoming bit on The Big Easy this Friday (ABC 7, 11 AM) in which he interviews now-departed Gavin.)
*****Photo above sourced at: [http://www.buddytv.com/pictures/jen-1-pictures/viewer.aspx?ai=58463&pi=1021928]

A Hyde Park Users Guide to South Loop: Opart Thai House

posted by chicago pop

The happy truth of the matter is, South Loop isn't just for groceries anymore.

In the space of time -- less, actually -- that it's taken Hyde Parkers to deep six The Point, to mothball Doctors Hospital, and to even get the ball rolling on a possible redevelopment of Harper Court, a city-within-a-city has arisen on the skeleton of boulevards that frames Chicago's historic heart.

As recently as 5 years ago, when the old boulevards of Indiana, Prairie, State, Wabash and Michigan were being decked out with new high-rises seemingly every week, there was barely a Subway sandwich shop to be found. The whole area had the potential, so it seemed, to go awry in the way that Jane Jacobs argued is most likely when large concentrations of urban development are built at once.

But that doesn't appear to have happened. Now, together with a bustling China Town and Bridgeport, Greater South Loop and the Near South Side offer an increasing variety of attractions for South Siders. To highlight that fact -- and to make life more interesting to Hyde Parkers while we sit out the development deep-freeze in our own neighborhood -- we offer you this and subsequent installments of A Hyde Park Users Guide to South Loop.


Opart Thai House

We visited this place on South State Street a few weeks ago after an event at Columbia College. Located on the ground floor of a new building, we were able to park around the corner and immediately get a seat on a Friday night. This is a third location for Opart, and from what we've heard from those who have tried both of its Chicago locations, it is superior to the original at Western and Lawrence.

Short take: a decent neighborhood Thai place with authentic and flavorful food.

Eggplant in Oyster Sauce with Basil and Tofu

If you're used to Thai from the folks on 55th St., it does a world of good to get out and calibrate what's on offer elsewhere in the City. The eggplant in the dish above was properly cooked and softened enough to absorb the seasonings and eliminate any fibrousness. The tofu was not battered and only lightly pan fried, which helps preserve its flavor and smooth texture. Simple achievements, but as with so many urban Thai or Chinese restaurants, not always ones bothered with.

Gaeng Panang Curry

Opart is a clean, modern space, and is quite tastefully appointed and decorated for a restaurant operating in the range of $7 to $9 entrees, making it competitive with 55th Street.

Overall, Opart Thai House is the best Thai experience available to Hyde Park from within a striking distance of about 5 miles. Check it out.

And, it's worth noting, the bathrooms are clean, brand new, and built for use.

Opart Thai House
1906 S. State Street
312-567-9898

Hours:
Sun.-Thurs. 11:00am-10:00pm
Fri.-Sat. 11:00am-11:00pm

Maravilla's Restaurant, on Lake Park

posted by Elizabeth Fama

Maravilla's is open on Lake Park and 55th, in a storefront of the Deco Arts Building. The owner, Carolina Cossyleon, is in the process of obtaining a liquor license (margaritas, here we come!).

The old Maravilla's in Harper Court (which also has a liquor license) will close up shop in June, according to the waitstaff. The University is clearing out Harper Court tenants while it waits for responses to the RFP (request for proposals) that it released in November of 2008, along with the City of Chicago, to prospective developers.

The restaurant is small inside, with a bar (not quite visible in the back, right, of the photo above), four booths, and six tables. The food we ordered was OK. We had nachos, tacos, enchiladas, and a tostada. There are also breakfast items on the menu, as well as sopes, soups, tortas, burritos, and hamburgers. I'd prefer it if they offered black beans in addition to refried pinto beans, and some sort of vegetable sides. What we ate (at least this time around) was on the order of food from Chipotle, without the free-range-chicken guarantee. The guacamole, however, was excellent, and aggressively spiced.

The new location seems like it could be good for college-student walk-bys, although I wonder if that will change when the Shoreland closes. In general, the staff said, business has been good.

Maravilla's Restaurant
5506 S. Lake Park Ave.
(773) 955-7680
Monday through Saturday, 10 AM - 11 PM
Sunday, 11 AM - 10 PM
Hyde Park and Kenwood delivery service.

Chicken tostada, nachos, guacamole, refried beans.

Orly's: 30 Years and Still No Concept; Treasure Island Puts in a Soda Fountain

posted by chicago pop

A piece of paper floated to my doorstep the other day, a promotional menu for the restaurant once known as Orly's, but now apparently the "Hyde Park Barbeque & Bakery."

Now admittedly, this new name, which exists only on the menu, tells you more about what to expect there than the other, superceded name, which carried the symbolic baggage of an air terminal redolent of jet fuel in the fields south of Paris, unless you happen to be more familiar with one of the great names of Israeli tennis.

All fine and good, but didn't this place put out a similar promotional menu a year or so ago, when it was converting itself into an old-schul delicatessin? There were the bagels, pomoted on this blog until they were outclassed by the competition from Zaleski and Horvath, and there was the overhauled menu with home-made corned-beef, matzo-ball soup, kreplach, and knishes.

It turns out The Restaurant Formerly Known as "Orly's" has gone through multiple mutations over the 28 years of its existence. Even the name of the restaurant's owner changes spelling as one voyages back in time and through the Herald archives (David ShOpiro, SApiro, or ShApiro).

Mutability may be a source of inspiration among romantic poets, but is it good for restaurants? Let's review the history of Orly's, starting at The Beginning, when the Herald proudly reviewed the new establishment in 1981.

Walk into Orly's and you feel that Hyde Park is a place where exciting things are happening, that you don't have to go to the North Side to find out what is current in dining. A complete redecorating job on the first floor of the Mayfair Apartments has produced an elegant Art Deco interior with heavy black mahogany tables, brass railings and hurricane lamps, lots of palms and fresh flowers and inset tanks of tropical fish. White Naugahyde upholstered booths, roomy tables, light rock recordings and a bright, active ambience spell comfort plus fun. From servers wearing Izod shirts and introducing themselves by first name through cutesy menu terminology ("One Helluva Burger") and "health" ingredients to elaborate fruit-ice cream cocktails, everything is almost slavishly obedient to current trends. Owner David Shopiro designed both the interior and the menu himself, and currently supervises both dining room an kitchen at lunch and dinner— a superhuman task.

Orly's Server ca. 1981

That was Concept #1, which was greeted by a rave review from the Chicago Maroon. Then came concept #2: in 1991 , Orly's completely "revamped its menu," "providing Hyde Park's only gourmet, low-calorie, low-cholesterol meals," focusing on "Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Polynesian and Israeli dinners."

Concept #3 came in 1995, when Orly's diversified a bit by adding "the most spectacular salad bar Hyde Park has ever seen," and a complementary Asian vegetable stir fry bar.

Concept #4 followed shortly thereupon in 1996, when Orly's ditched the tightly focused Japanese, Italian, Polynesian, and Israeli menu with attached Asian vegetable stir fry bar to concentrate on Southwest cuisine. This is most likely when the Sonoran murals went up (the Sponge Bob fish tanks set into the walls date to Concept #1, and blend nicely with the arid, desert wall paintings). Orly's began sprinkling its print ads with lots of words like "huge" and "massive".

Two years into Concept #4 (1998), Orly's became "Jalapeño's" until a revolt of "old Orly's" regulars resulted in Concept #5, a return to Orly's from Concept #3 in 2002.

So bearing in mind that Concept #5 is really Concept #3, Concept #6, a "Corner Bakery style cafe in Hyde Park," arrived in 2006, when Orly's owner realized that opening a bakery and selling "focaccia and bagels" "was a no-brainer," and Orly's cooks were sent for one month to train at the California branch of a New York bagel-eria and started making the bagels that we reviewed on HPP in 2008. (There was also talk of an "oatmeal bar").

Which makes the Hyde Park Barbeque and Bakery Concept #7

So there you have it. A little bit of something for everybody.

In other news, we see from a Treasure Island ad in the Chicago Tribune that a soda fountain is coming.

It's things like this that will help make the onset of the Great Recession bearable.

chicago pop ca. 1981

Hyde Park's Bagel Breakthrough

posted by chicago pop

Hyde Park Scores Major Bagel Asset; Zimmer Provided Vision, Zalevski & Horvath Supplied Execution

Brain function requires quick calories. There are a lot of quick calories in bagels. University research communities achieve optimum brain function when fueled with lots of bagels.

The above syllogism establishes one of the foundational truths of University life. Behind the research grants, the search for donors, the battles over funding, it all boils down to bagels. If you've got them, you can go farther, faster.

If you don't have them, well, it's just harder. So we expect great things from the assembled minds of the University of Chicago now that Hyde Park-Kenwood has made its great bagel breakthrough: Zalevski & Horvath Market Cafe has decided to round out its delicatessen-ess by offering bagels on the weekends.

For those of you who remember last year's Great Hyde Park Bagel Hunt Part 1 and Part 2, it was then determined that there is a great, pent up reservoir of unmet demand for real bagels in the neighborhood, and it wasn't being met by any of the local options.

At the time, we concluded that the best of Hyde Park's limited selection was available at otherwise questionable Orly's. We weren't necessarily satisfied with this, it was just the best we could find. If you don't bother to get out and eat a real bagel once in a while, over a period of time you might be able to convince yourself that Orly's makes a real bagel.

But those days are over, we're happy to say. We've taste-tested a batch of Zalevski and Horvath Market Cafe's glorious, aromatic, chewy, and just plain delicious bagels today and we're still feeling the glow.

Clockwise from Upper Left: Plain, Poppy Seed, Onion, and Everything Bagels from Zalevski and Horvath Market Cafe

Z&H's Samuel Darrigrand tells us that University President Zimmer convinced him it was time to make the move when he observed that there was "a lot of bagel-shaped bread" in Hyde Park, but no bagels. After an initial stint distributing bagel-shaped bread from Orly's, Z&H decided to throw their own dough in the vat, and not long afterwards found a cook that really seems to know what they're doing.

Taste Test Results


This onion bagel just looks like a bagel. Its lumpy, has an irregular hole in the middle, and has a gnarled, wrinkled skin. It does not look like a fat little balloon or a doughnut. Like the other samples, this one was completely blitzed with flavoring. So far, so good.

Let's cut it open.


This bagel is hard to hold while you cut it, because it's so moist and floppy. The knife tears the bread inside, leaving a ragged edge, which is good, and indicates that this is not a muffin, not a biscuit, but a punchy, chewy bagel. And when both sides fall apart, a pleasant, sweet odor immediately rises from the dough. Perhaps a little honey in the water during boiling, in the Montreal tradition?

Only on toasting does the exterior of the Z&H bagel crispen, and only moderately, while the interior retains its moist density. The sweetness first detected on slicing the bagel survived the toasting and comes through in the mouth.

You Know You Want This.

Good news is hard to find these days. So we'll take what we can get, and this is pretty solid. So we salute the historic synergy activated by Zimmer and carried out by the gang at Z&H, who are doing their part to bring the delicatessen back to the city where it belongs.

Sit Down Sushi: Bright Spot on East 53rd Street

posted by chicago pop

53rd Street west of about Kenwood on a wintry Sunday evening is a desolate, almost spooky place. So when the four of us found ourselves at a table near the window of The Sit Down Cafe and Sushi Bar at around 7PM, watching the restaurant slowly fill to about two-thirds capacity, I experienced a "wow" moment.

The restaurant begins with an enormous geographical advantage: it's not on 55th Street, and therefore runs no risk of guilt-by-association with any of the bottom-feeder operations between Lake Park and Hyde Park Boulevards.

But it's a bit off the beaten path for some; Third World Cafe across the street, a minor hub of caffeinated intellectual activity during waking hours, is usually by then dark and in hibernation.

A few blocks east is a bleak gas station and a vacant lot Christmas tree vendor who happened to have sold a tree to Obama that afternoon, according to HuffPo Chicago and a stylist at Japanese Spa Zen; and directly across from Sit Down is the stretch of unexplainable blackness that is Nichols Park's truly uninviting 53rd Street facade.

So if this place can pull people in on a Sunday night in mid-December, they may just be able to make the long haul. We'll be back to help them out.

The four of us were roundly satisfied with our meals, which sampled only the Japanese side of the eclectic menu. Not mind-blowing as at some of the higher-end spots on the North Side, but better than many run-of-the-mill sushi places on Clark Street in Lakeview. Overall, our experience of The Sit down was of decent and solid food, in a welcoming and pleasant decor that is still novel for most Hyde Park eateries.

Dining Partner #1 summed it up nicely: "They've got the block and tackle down." The service was friendly, competent, and attentive, the sushi chefs greeted us as soon as we walked in the door, and we were checked on twice by someone who must have been owner Salvatore Pappalito.

The sushi, according to Dining Parnter #2, a veteran of some time in Japan, was "fresh, tasty, well-prepared," and he recommends the seared Tuna Tataki.

Speaking on behalf of Dining Partner #4, myself, I began with a bowl of miso soup, one of the primary comfort foods of all humanity, and it hit the spot. I followed this with a few maki, specifically the wonderfully named Smoky Bear, and an ebi tempura roll. Both were quite savory, with the Smoky Bear coming as close as a roll can to fish candy. Depending on the restaurant, an extravagant roll like this can drown out sour or unfresh fish, with the cream cheese filling and sweet unagi sauce hiding any untoward fishiness.

But the yellow tail and mackerel sushi held their own beside the rolls, assuring us that there was no sushi sleight of hand going on behind the counter. A bowl of complimentary pickled octopus was a nice touch.

I admit that when I first learned that The Sit Down would be serving sushi together with pizza and hummus, I was a bit fearful that this might be a sort of culinary hedge-fund -- and we all know how those are doing these days. They tend to go under the banner of "American Restaurant," or "European Dining," serving everything from gyros and Persian kabobs to Italian pizza, spaghetti, and American steaks while being good at cooking none of them.

None of us strayed from the waters of Japan this time, but word of mouth so far supports Dining Parnter #3's claim that the Italian-style, thin crust pizza is "super thin and super delicious!"

We'll have more on that and the sandwiches in Part 2.

********

The Sit Down Cafe & Sushi Bar
1312 E. 53rd Street Chicago
773-324-3700

Menu for Two:

Miso Soup
Steamed White Rice
Smoky Bear Roll
Ebi Tempura Roll

Green Tea
Mackeral Sushi
Spicy Crab Roll
Negihama Roll

Chant and Repeat: 6 Months Later

posted by chicago pop

The photo of Chant's interior above -- which doesn't do justice to its calming charm -- is stolen from Time Out magazine, since by the time we had eaten our meals, my dining partner and I realized we hadn't smuggled a camera in to bootleg the whole experience. Next time, we promise, it will be on YouTube.

So we'll breath deep, exhale, and get to the point:

The prices at Chant are much more in line with the quality of the food than previously -- which is to say, no longer overpriced -- and the menu is solid. If you want hard-core Asian cuisine of any national or regional variety, you'll probably find Chant on the bland side. If you want squat-and-gobble Thai or Chinese, for which there is no lack in Hyde Park, you'll probably feel ripped off.

If, however, you want an awesome vibe -- there is no better date or couples restaurant in Hyde Park -- with gracious service, cozy seating, in-house liquor, together with well-done, varied albeit somewhat bland offerings of Asian fusion, you'll be relatively happy. We both were.

Six months after our first visit, the menu was almost unrecognizable, and neither of the entrées we ordered the first time around were available. The same is true, so we were told, of the chef, who was brought in a few months after Chant opened in fall 2007 to shape up the original, faltering, menu.

To begin with we shared an order of seafood shu mai in a lime dipping sauce, which struck me as unremarkable. It needs to be tweaked.

For her entrée, my partner took in the snapper with honey miso glaze, which was cooked artfully and presented well. With a side of carrots and sugar snap peas, along with some potato slices, it left her with no complaints. The sauce was reported to be a little salty, usually a sin to the East Asian palate, but we agreed that such is the nature of miso broth.

I thought I would put the kitchen to the test with beef tenderloin and so went for the Szechwan filet mignon, the restaurant's big ticket plate. I was not disappointed. The cut was choice and the meat was cooked as ordered (rare), with an understated char of peppercorn seasoning that linked up nicely with the equally light hoisin broth.

The highlights of this dish, however -- given that slabs of beef must generally stand on their own -- were the sides of wasabi mashed potatoes sake-sauteed baby bok choi, both of which were enjoyable counterpoints to the uniformity of the beef and helped keep up my momentum as I made it through the latter.

My partner ordered a side of white rice with her snapper, but it never came to the table. The waiter was very gracious about the mistake, and took it off our tab right away. Apart from this, we agreed that the service was fine -- not too cloying, but friendly and professional. Nothing objectionable, and certainly above the mean for the neighborhood.

Menu for 2

Hors d'oeuvres

Seafood Shu-Mai

Entrées
Miso Glazed Red Snapper
Szechuan Crusted Beef Filet Mignon

Drinks
Chant Mojito

Tab (Tip not included)
$65


Chant, 1509 E. 53rd Street, Chicago, Illinois. Hours may vary.
773-324-1999
773-324-9994 (Fax)
Sun-Mon Noon-10
Tu-Th 11:30-Midnight
Fri-Sat 11:30-1:00

Park 52 Review

posted by Elizabeth Fama

Kleiner's signature: stenciled walls and copious red velvet.

Note: If you can't slog through a long blog entry, feel free to scroll to the bottom for the QUICKIE REVIEW.

Here is the...
LINGERING REVIEW

You should go to Park 52. All of you. You'll have a good time, and then we can talk about what you liked and didn't like. It turns out that it's not my style place, but I can tell that many people will love it, and (hooray!) that's progress.

Park 52 feels like some of Jerry Kleiner's other restaurants in many ways (Red Light, Opera, and Room 21). I don't care if it's a little formulaic, though. The fact is, Hyde Park deserves a Red Light. Hyde Park deserves a Room 21. The interior is trendy but not off-putting. The food is upscale, but rich and hearty, with large portions. Maybe too large. (If any restaurateur asked me, "What's the one thing the average Hyde Parker wants in a dining experience?" I'd have to say with a discouraged sigh, "Large portions.")

When you enter, the space is open with long sight lines, a bar on the south wall, and stairs on the east wall that lead enticingly to what must be private dining rooms. Without a foyer I'm not sure the revolving door will be defense against the cold when we're having a sub-zero, gusty night, but maybe they'll hoist up even more of the ubiquitous red velvet in the entryway during winter months. There are colorful light fixtures with gigantic fabric shades. The velvet upholstery on the chairs makes them look like Pee Wee Herman dominoes, with large, multi-colored buttons. The walls are ragged, stenciled, stippled, gilded...you name it, the faux finisher has done it. There are celebrity photos on the walls -- not my favorite art, but like everything at Park 52, the aim is not for "unique" but rather "highly serviceable."

The menu is simple, with few choices, which is better than too many. I've heard people describe the genre as American Bistro, which must mean high-class bar food. There are honkin' sized cuts of beef with enormous cottage fries, chicken, salmon, and a pile of short ribs slathered in BBQ sauce (with a few apologetic strands of carrot slaw). The only vegetable sold a la carte is succotash, which I count as a starch. I'm not a wine expert, but the list seems respectable -- decent choices in what might be considered a mid-range price. I had a margarita, and it was unfortunately a mix.

Our waitress, Nia H., was top notch. In contrast to Peter Rossi's waiter a week ago, Nia did everything she was supposed to do, in the right order, with grace and relaxed charm.

I ordered the seared tuna with apple crisp salad as my appetizer, and my husband and I shared the spinach salad with dried cherries and jicama. The tuna was perfectly cooked, with a thin crust of breading on the outside. The apple crisps were not crispy in the least, but they were cute, and the dressing on their little bed of endive was fresh and nice. The cherries were a sweet addition to an otherwise unremarkable spinach salad. For my main course I ordered the roasted whitefish because Nia said it was one of the lighter things on the menu. It was beautiful to look at, but overcooked, and the presentation didn't make it seem light. For one thing, the bed of curly fries was too tough to break into along with a forkful of fish, so I hacked away at it separately. I think you can see in the photo that the curly fries are sort of a "block" under the fish. Perhaps it was fried and shaped ahead of time. The spinach between the fish and fries was salty.


My husband ordered the special: a grilled lamb loin with an eggplant-wrapped pillow of goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Now, I'm a sucker for anything with eggplant, goat cheese, or sun-dried tomatoes, and the combination was wonderful (and of course rich). The lamb was exactly medium-rare, as he ordered it, and it was a nice cut of meat, too. That's a dish that could survive on the regular menu.

Our kids ordered the NY strip with cottage fries, the lone vegetarian offering (fettuccine with wild mushrooms and asparagus -- richer than it sounds and a near-miss "meh" sort of dish), and that huge blob of short rib Hot Mess.

We were so full we didn't even contemplate dessert. But given that Istria Cafe is almost on our way home, we broke down and got a couple of gelati, sat in the outdoor seating, and enjoyed the rest of a warm spring evening together.



SILLY SIDE STORY
I was so intrigued that Kleiner decided to put pictures of Audrey Hepburn in the women's room of two of his restaurants that I asked my husband, "Did you notice if the photos in the men's room were the same as the ones in Room 21?" He said, "No, here they were softer core, not full frontal nudity." My fourteen year-old son immediately agreed. Yes, readers, it turns out Jerry thinks that women want to see high class images of Audrey Hepburn while they pee, and men (and boys) want nameless females in lingerie spreading their legs for the camera.


QUICKIE REVIEW
Park 52 is a very nice addition to the neighborhood, and well done overall, but not my style. The menu is upscale enough to count as trendy, but the food is hearty, not fussy. The interior design is nouveau bordello. The food was presented well, the ingredients were good, the waitress and busboys were helpful. The downside is that other than the salads, the dishes are almost uniformly heavy, salty, and rich -- not something I want to eat often. The prices are high ($7 for a salad, $12-14 for an appetizer, up to $28 for a main) but no higher than this experience would be anywhere in the south loop or north side. If you're like me, you'll be quite happy with a salad, an appetizer, and a glass of wine. And next time, if the coast is clear, I'm ducking into the men's room to take a gander at the art.

It's Friday and Istria/Cornell is OPEN

posted by chicago pop

Why is this day different from all other days? asks the child of his father.

Because on this day, Istria Cafe opened its branch on Cornell, the father replies.

Yay, and though they were held in bondage by Pharoah's armies of permit inspectors -- some 19 years old and unqualified, others qualified for corruption, the rest caught up in Pharoah's Mother of All Bureaucracies -- today the coffee-makers are free to brew espresso for commuters.

And for this we are thankful, and dip our biscotti in honey.

And on this day, we will only drink Red Bull, to remember the 2+ years we waited for coffee at this location. And though we hold no grudges against Pharoah, because Istria was once in bondage, we see now all the other small businesses that still are.

Woe to cheap landlords and to other harassers! May the stones of their neglected and overpriced buildings crumble upon their heads.

What Servers Need To Know - a HP Primer

I wince every time I go into a restaurant in HP. I expect incompetent service and I usually get my way. Last night's experience at Park 52 was no exception. Beth Fama is planning a full review post soon, but the service was not up to snuff. It wasn't a matter of delays which one might expect in a new restaurant (which has been open 2 weeks); it was a matter of gaffes. It seemed to me as though no one had bothered to train the wait staff in the fundamentals.

I hope things get better as HP deserves a restaurant that is well-run.

In hopes of promoting better service, below is a primer on the basic flow of events in any quality restaurant:

1. Host/Hostess seats party
2. Busboy asks water preferences, serves water
3. Waiter drops by for drink order
4. Waiter brings drinks, ask "do you want to hear the specials?"
5. Waiter asks if you are ready to order, if not comes back in a few
6. Waiter takes order, asks for refills on drinks
7. Waiter/other servers bring courses
8. Busboy/waiter clears entree plates
9. Busboy asks if you would like coffee/tea
10. Waiter drops by after c/t served and asks if you would like to see the dessert menu
11. After a discrete interval, the waiter drops by and asks "is there anything else?"
12 . Check is delivered

Park 52's untrained wait staff left off many of the above and muffed the others.

Can someone explain why Jerry Kleiner can pull this off at 21st and Wabash (Room 21) and not at 52nd and Harper?

Some will say -- give them a break, they just opened. Come on, people! This is a simple matter. Our waiter apologized profusely for his incompetence (this reminded me of a U of C undergrad waiter apologizing to me at the Court restaurant, years ago).

Stay tuned for Beth's review.

On the Pavement: Istria/Cornell and Park 52 Coming Soon

posted by chicago pop

Wow. We needed that little break. So now we're back, and ready to raise a little more ruckus.

So let's start the new quarter with some uplifting news. Word is out that Jerry Kleiner will be opening Park 52 -- for real -- on April 8. That's this Tuesday.

Let's hope that competition from the new arrival gives Chant, with its good-looking decor but still-struggling menu, the kick in the pants it needs to break out of the bland pan-Asian cul-de-sac that left us somewhat disappointed last fall.

The savory irony of Kleiner's arrival, hopefully no less savory than the dishes we soon hope to sample at Park 52, is that while the hoary Hyde Park talking shops have been spinning their wheels about Harper Court, a local entrepreneur walked in and did something about it.

Right next door. In fact, this seems to be a trend with the most interesting things going on in the neighborhood: where there's less talking going on, more things are happening. Did we need a survey to get Park 52? Zaleski & Horvath Market? Hyde Park Produce?

But that's not all. Anyone who walks down Cornell weekday mornings has surely noticed the activity behind the shredded window papering at Istria's north Hyde Park location. The windows have been etched with the offerings soon to be had, and the coffee machines have been spotted against the wall.

Once the hardware's in, there's no going back. I'm already looking forward to my first morning café au lait at a sun-dappled table, beside the broad windows of the new Istria.

Notes From Undergrads: Hooked on Hookahs?

posted by Jason Finkes

One of an occasional series at Hyde Park Progress exploring things from an undergraduate perspective.

As has already been discussed (and at great lengths in the comment field of my last post), Hyde Park lacks in late night locations for cups of tea, conversation and general hang-outs. This time around, I want to examine one of the places that I was excited and surprised to see make it in to Hyde Park: the Noon Hookah Lounge.

The first thing to clear up is that it is not the best hookah lounge in the city. That prize goes to one up on the Northside, whose name I can't recall, that really cultivates a unique "oriental" experience complete with floor cushions and low tables, bellydancers and Turkish coffee. For those who want to give it a shot as a one time experience, I heartily recommend making the trek with a group of friends.

However, for the more quotidian experience, Hyde Park's Noon Hookah Lounge does deliver. I've been three times, twice with people who have been to real hookah lounges in the middle-east and the most recent when I conversed with a new friend. The only real complaint that can be offered by my cosmopolitan friends as to the inauthenticity of the experience was the lounge's failure to provide an ashing tool to move around the coal and keep it burning hot. And admitedly, this is mitigated by the Lounge's relatively constant attention towards providing new coals.

The actual experience of the lounge, each time, was stellar. There is little that can compare with spending 3 hours at a time (how the time flew!) chatting about the state of medicine, educational philosophy and a combination of literature, philosophy and politics. The lounge reminds me of the salons and cafes of nascent modernity, an area in which people sit down and have intimate conversation at a broad range of topics, sharing well-reasoned opinions and developing new ones.

I cannot in good conscience ignore the aspect of the smoke, though. There are as many opinions about the healthiness of hookah smoking as there are opinions shared while smoking it. Some say it's worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes due to the length of time spent breathing the smoke, others say that the water filters the smoke well and that it burns at a lower temperature, generating less of the obnoxious noxious elements of cigarette smoking. This is in addition to the issues of cigarette stink, where hookah excels in flavor and residual smell. You come out reeking of mint or fruit scented smoke instead of stale tobacco and additives. So while it can be unpleasant for many, it is a valid if infrequent option for a niche market.

If Hyde Park is to maintain its current small shop feel and mentality (with "like 3 shoe shops" and lamp shops), the Hookah Lounge is of the quality and character that I would expect. A niche market, but a decent iteration; small, but interesting, and due to the health concerns, a place that one would go like to go to with some regularity, if infrequently. It would be even better if there were a few other places to put in to a late night weekend entertainment rotation.

The Great Hyde Park Bagel Hunt (Part 2) & Thai Restaurant Debate (Part 1)

posted by chicago pop

Sesame Seed, Poppy Seed, and Everything Bagels from Orly's

The best bagels in Hyde Park come from a very strange place. Orly's Restaurant, at the corner of Lake Park and 55th. It's weird, there's no doubt about it. But this isn't a restaurant review, so I'll hold off on just why Orly's left me wondering whether I had walked into a Mexican restaurant (southwestern murals), a Wisconsin trucker bar (those tinted windows), or a strip club (those tinted windows). Or maybe some combination of all three, with a bagel rack perched prominently by the door.

But I came here to praise bagels, not to bury restaurants. And on that score, I don't differ from the reader consensus that emerged from the first installment of The Great Hyde Park Bagel Hunt, that Orly's has the best bagels -- in Hyde Park. And considering that Orly's bagels became available only as recently as 2006, this fact alone represents quite an advance. (See this very helpful review from the Maroon on just where to find the best bagels in all of Chicago.)

So Orly's get's an "A" for effort. In fact, I just enjoyed a sesame seed bagel schmeared with my wife's amazing chopped chicken liver, and am now quite content. But the fact remains that Orly's bagels are still not equal to our chosen baseline, bagels from The Bagel on Broadway. And, though we haven't had a chance to get up to Dempster this month, reader sentiment was that Orly's would have to work even harder to compete with other North Side bagel kingpins: New York Bagel and Bialy, and Kaufman's.

Let's take a look at what we have:

Egg and Sesame Seed Bagel Halves from Orly's Restaurant

Orly's bagels come close to the dynamic tension that must be maintained by any great bagel, between an outer surface that becomes nicely crunchy when toasted, and a doughy, twisty-chewy interior. On repeated tastings, however, Orly's seemed to push that dynamic too far, resulting in a very crisp shell encasing an overly- fluffy interior. As far as the seasonings, I have no complaint; it was only the dough that was a little too bread-ish.

By now it should be clear that anyone offering bagels in Hyde Park has to satisfy a discriminating audience. That's how it should be, and how we intend to keep it. Dining establishments only offer quality product where and when they know it will be appreciated, and they only maintain that quality when they face the continuing pressure of discerning customers (which is why the Thai food in Hyde Park is so poor, but that's another post...)

Orly's has definitely raised the bagel bar. Now we don't have to bend down nearly quite so far to get one. If they keep it up, hopefully we might have to reach up a little.

The Great Hyde Park Bagel Hunt

posted by chicago pop

The subject first came up in conversation with a faculty couple from the East Coast. "Where can you get a decent bagel in Hyde Park?" It's come up many times since then. It's not that bagels are unavailable; it's just that, well, they're not really bagels. I don't mind being thought of as a bagel-snob, as I'm sure there are others who would join my club. The point is, progress comes in all shapes and sizes, and in this case it comes with a hole in the middle.

So I've decided to go on a hunt for Hyde Park's best bagels. I'll start with 2 local bagels, and one bagel of reference, imported, of course, from the North Side. There will be future reviews, and this is by no means a definitive or comprehensive sampling. I'll taste bagels as I find them, and maybe readers can tip me off to some purveyors that I've missed. But for starters, here's what I've come up with.

The Bagel Standard

Sesame, Everything, and Poppy Seed bagels from The Bagel, 3107 N. Broadway

OK, these are real bagels. They look the way a bagel should look, like that girl your mom keeps inviting to dinner, the one with hair on her forearms and a broken nose, but an undeniable va va voom. They're lumpy and have a nice, random smattering of topping. They're nice and crispy-golden on the outside. But let's not limit ourselves to superficial appearances, as pleasant as they are.

Now, when you cut one open, here's what it looks like:

Cross Section of Poppyseed Bagel Above

Like good French bread (which is another post, Bonjour Bakery), there should be some small holes in the dough, which displays a varying density throughout. This contributes to the bagel's "mouth feel" of chewiness, in pleasant contrast to its crisp shell. If I cut into a bagel and it looks like a slice of Wonder Bread -- smooth and fluffy and even -- I give it to my dog.

OK, so armed with a standard of reference, let's see what we've got.

The Medici Bakery

Poppyseed, Sesame, and Cinnamon-Raisin Bagels from The Medici Bakery, 1327 E. 57th Street

These bagels are beautiful. I can't deny that. I like looking at them. The problem arises when I decide to eat one. But sticking to aesthetics, these bagels strike me as the kind that Jimmy Stewart would make with his family on Christmas Eve. No hairy forearms here. They are perfectly round, have geometrically round holes in the middle, and look at that almost perfect band of poppy seeds. It's all just so nice!

The problem is, these are bread rolls with holes in them. I think they might be good with butter and jam, but I don't eat bagels with butter and jam. I'm not quite sure how they got this way, but the dough lacks the chewiness and tastiness that lets you know you've bitten into a bagel that means business. I buy these once in a while, but they always leave me wistful for Dempster Avenue.


Third World Cafe/Costco/Einstein's Bagels

Everything and Sesame Seed Bagel from Third World Cafe, 1301 E. 53rd St.

Third World Cafe buys their bagels outside. When I asked the cashier most recently, she told me they were from Costco. I frequently buy bagels in bulk from Costco, and they are usually labeled as Einstein Brother's Bagels. So my assumption -- and it could very well be wrong -- is that these are Einstein's bagels.

I've had Einstein's around Chicago and they are good, and they are just as good when served up at Third World Cafe. They're a little on the oval side, with a nice messy smattering of topping, and when you cut into them, they look like this:

Cross Section of Poppy Seed Bagel Above

Nice and doughy with plenty of holes inside, all translating into that light-but-chewy mouth feel that I love in a bagel. So, you can't really go wrong with the bagels at Third World, but that's because you're more or less buying standardized Einstein's bagels. Not spectacular, but pretty good. They're the best I've been able to find in Hyde Park so far, but I'm not done looking.

Chant: Raising the Bar in Hyde Park

posted by chicago pop

Chant, the new pan-Asian restaurant on East 53rd, doesn't seem to need anybody's help.

Based on our experience dining there on a recent Saturday evening, the establishment has been well received in Hyde Park. All tables were full, and new customers were arriving regularly.

It's no wonder. The place sparkles on 53rd and enlivens the entire block, making it possible, if you squint your eyes, to pretend you're on a date somewhere on the edges of Park Slope, or perhaps the East Village: it's late, sort of chilly, and you're out on the street; you see the clutch of people near the entrance, the flicker of orange and amber lights from the bar inside through the broad windows; once you're in, you smell not the faintest trace of Pinesol as you might in any of the slop-gallies on 55th Street; and, most noticeably, you are greeted by courteous and very charming staff.

Chant, we'd have to say, is off to a raging start as a great neighborhood restaurant. In terms of vibe, decor, and food, they've raised the bar in Hyde Park.

But we also think they could raise it a bit more, and we hope they do.

Pan-Asian is tricky to pull off, and the standard risk is that by trying to be everything, you wind up being less than anything. There's also the tendency to cater to certain preconceptions about what a middle-American market will tolerate as "Asian" food.

Which is why we were prepared to walk if there was any sign of Crab Rangoon on the menu -- an appetizer which typically has very little to do with crab, and even less to do with Rangoon (though quite a bit with cream cheese).

A nervous scan of the appetizers let us get past our own deal-breaker, but only on a technicality: the all-American Crab had been thoughtfully upgraded to Lobster Rangoon. Thankfully, we could continue.

Chant advertizes itself as a tapas place, so it's perhaps appropriate that the kitchen shines brightest with the small dishes. We tried the crispy mussel bites and Szechwan short ribs. The latter are a take on a classic dish found in several regions of China, notable versions of which are served up at a few other locales on the South Side. While good, the didn't come across as particularly Asian apart from the sauce, especially in a town full of ribs. But for that reason alone, they are bound to appeal.

The mussels were a clever assemblage of fried egg, scallions, a crispy mussel topped with sriracha sauce, enough sweetness and crunch to make the mussel-averse forget about sand, seashores, and red tide.

I had the Lemongrass Roasted Chicken, and my companion the Clay Pot Tofu. I definitely placed the better order and was generally happy with it. The chicken was beautifully roasted to a golden crisp while retaining its tenderness. Accompanied by several slices of eggplant in a delicious sauce that carried the aroma of tea-smoked fowl, on the whole I thought it should have been accompanied by a broader range of flavors and textures to avoid the impression of "meat-on-a-plate."

My companion was disappointed with the vegan option of Clay Pot Tofu. Especially in an Asian restaurant, this kind of dish should be bursting in flavor to counteract the potential wateriness of the glass noodles and tofu combo. This dish needed a lot more garlic, ginger, basil, and thoughtfulness before it should be sold for $9.

The shiraz was a happy and workable accompaniment to the relative spiciness of the appetizers, and held up well through the more savory flavors in the entrees. My companion was very happy with the mohito.

Dining at Chant was, overall, a very pleasant experience. The service was fast, attentive, and fantastic (let's hope it lasts!) the ambiance a very welcome departure from the utilitarian neighborhood standard. The tapas-like appetizers especially, the range of which we only sampled, were peppy and enjoyable.

The entrees, in our opinion, need some refinement, especially for the price. The Chinese bun added little to the Lemongrass Roasted Chicken, which was somewhat overwhelmed in a tasty but monochromatic bath, with little to give it contrast. The Clay Pot Tofu was bland, and fell far short of tofu-based vegetarian dishes that can be ordered on Cermak and Wentworth.

Chant has definitely raised the bar. We just encourage them to keep doing so.

Menu for 2

Hors d'oeuvres

Crispy Mussel Bites
Szechwan Braised Short Ribs with Spicy Sesame Mango Dipping Sauce

Entrées
Lemongrass Roasted Chicken with Enoki Mushroom Gravy and Chinese Eggplant served with Rice and Chinese Bun
Clay Pot Tofu (Vegan)

Drinks
2006 Bong Bong Shiraz
Chant Mojito

Tab (Tip not included)
$50


Chant, 1509 E. 53rd Street, Chicago, Illinois. Hours may vary.
773-324-1999
773-684-2817 (Fax)
M-S 11-10
Sun 11:30-10:30