As many of you know, I keep faux-sher – not strictly kosher, but I refrain from eating swine and shellfish. Well, my g/f wants to take me out for my birthday, this weekend…which happens to be during Passover, meaning no bread, pasta, etc. We had originally planned Balena, but Italian is pretty limiting.
Any great ideas (and yes, I already know I waited too long to make rezzies…sorta forgot about the Passover problem)? I’d prefer someplace hip but not OTT, especially since my g/f is picking up the check.
I’m not that familiar with Passover restrictions, so this may or may not be helpful. Some of the cocktail-focused places serve good food, like Scofflaw and Violet Hour. No reservations at either place, and not a break-the-bank night out. I imagine your choices at Fat Rice would be pretty limited, but everything I’ve had there has been great.
Yeah, George, bone marrow is ok. I’m not strictly kosher, I just refrain from eating food that is explicitly forbidden. So in my book, all bovine is good, no matter how it’s killed or what part of the cow it is from.
Larry, Fogo is a good call but completely wasted on my g/f who eats like a bird.
Menu and wine list are on line. You can decide for yourself if it is spendy. FYI corkage is waived if you buy another bottle off the list. $50 if you don’t. Which is a pretty good deal IMO
I am curious to hear about your dinner. We had a reservation for tonight (easy to get mid-afternoon for tonight so not sure how receptive Chicago is to NYC prices), but I mistakenly thought it was much more casual (we were going to take our 9yr old) - glad I looked at the menu this afternoon since I am not sure I want to pay $50 for an main course for my son. Though, the menu looked excellent and we will try to go soon.
Not happy to hear about the $50 corkage - that may actually prevent us from going.
Should have also added that we really like Yusho as well. We also had a great dinner at Matt’s newish place A10 down by the U of C - really well done and recommended.
Wow, $50.00? That’s height given Naha’s generally friendly corkage or at least that’s my memory. A friend of mine went a while back, loved Brindille, but did mention wine prices.
Dinner at Brindille was excellent. We sort of made a tasting menu by ourselves by ordering a combination of starters and mains which the kitchen did a great job plating. Splitting plates for larger courses and soup etc… We ended up with 7 courses plus dessert. Dinner was about 3 hours and perfectly paced. Among the highlights.
Roasted scallops, uni custard and parsley scallion purée, kumquats, tapioca and marrow emulsion.
Wild frog legs au vinaigre de vin, grilled ramps, kohlrabi and Easter egg radishes
Whole roasted squab and country patè, green garbanzo beans celeriac mousseline, braised Savoy cabbage and huckleberries
Wine list was small and pretty expensive but well thought out. We had a 96 Vincent Dancer Meursault 1er. $195 so not cheap. Great wine perfect with the scallops. We brought a 67 Poulet Clos de Bezè which was really excellent and perfect with the squab. Corkage was waived
Whether it was expensive or not is of course subjective. All in we paid $535. Personally I thought the food was absolutely worth the price we paid and I would definitely go back
Thanks for posting on your experience - sounds wonderful - menu was terrific when I looked. I guess given the cost they are positioning the restaurant at the top of the Chicago scale. Sounds like you think it fits there. I am looking forward to trying it.
I did glance through the wine list and thought it was a nice list though with some decently priced and some overly expensive. I’d probably bring but have to check on the corkage. As I recall they had a few selections in the $40-60 range so $50 for corkage is really strange, particularly if they waive on a bottle for buying a bottle. I guess I could always buy a $40-50 bottle to take home and get the corkage waived on the bottle that I want to open.
What time did you walk out? There was a couple walking out with a young child when we were walking in about 6:30. I think I held the door open for them. (Maybe you?.)
I was in a brown suit my wife was in a black dress with red trench coat
![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}
![[whistle.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/87d24eb81ec6dc01d84f3d6c19fa9a357e90218e.gif "whistle"){kind=small}