And now for something completely different. At this restaurant the staff gives you a little cooking lesson with the drinks order. The steaks here, we learn, are cold smoked, cooked sous vide to one of three temperatures (medium rare, medium, “juicy well done”) and then finished on the grill. I don’t think I’ll review this restaurant, but if I did there are two parts to the story I find interesting.
The first is food cost. The kitchen manages to offer a reasonable facsimile of a steakhouse experience at half the price you’d pay in a place that bragged on its 800-degree broiler. A teres major steak clocks in at a mere $19, and while I don’t really love that “better living through science” texture of sous vide meat, it is tender and juicy. But other items are also a bargain at this price-aware (and very busy) new restaurant. If there were a bar here, I’d want to sit at it for a martini and a $15, 16/20 shrimp cocktail. The owner clearly understands that guests are looking for a meal where can drink and eat well but keep the check under $100 a head. But man, the food cost must cut close to the bone.
The second point of interest for me is the neighborhood, Avondale. I feel like I’m beginning to see the emergence of a new kind of Avondale restaurant that stands in sharp contrast to the neighboring Logan Square restaurants. The latter are refashioned storefronts with patios spilling out onto the streets and lots of foot traffic. That former are refashioned warehouses, not evident unless you go looking for them, hidden oases behind old brick, with ample nearby parking (this spot has a lot). Avondale restaurants remind me of Atlanta restaurants.
Aside from the shrimp cocktail and the decent steak, I didn’t have a great first impression of the food. Like many Chicago restaurants, everything is so unrelentingly rich, even a salad wrecked by an excess of fried (and slightly rancid) shallots. One exception was a cauliflower steak that looked grand on the place and sang with smoke flavor. It might be a bit cumbersome as an entree, but made for a fun appetizer.