Blackbird Restaurant

»Dinner at Blackbird - 9/22/2011

And so Lynn and I were joined by our friend Virginia, she from the southern portion of that state we call "home." As a result, we ended up at Blackbird . . .

You see, we originally planned to eat at the Girl and the Goat, but they couldn't accommodate increasing our reservation from two people to three, and so we had to cancel our dinner there -- trading in Stephanie Izard for Paul Kahan....+READ And so Lynn and I were joined by our friend Virginia, she from the southern portion of that state we call "home." As a result, we ended up at Blackbird . . .

You see, we originally planned to eat at the Girl and the Goat, but they couldn't accommodate increasing our reservation from two people to three, and so we had to cancel our dinner there -- trading in Stephanie Izard for Paul Kahan. (Sorry, Stephanie - next trip!) Now, keep in mind that Lynn and I had dined at Kahan's newest restaurant, Publican, the night before, and we enjoyed that so much, the bar was pretty high . . . as was the concern that it might not have met our expectations.

Instead, I should have remembered the motto of one Alfred E. Newman: "What, me worry?"

In other words, dinner was GREAT!

We met Ginny at the restaurant . . . sort of. We were about half an hour early for dinner, and went next door to Kahan's *other* restaurant, Avec, for a glass of wine and to catch up -- after all, we hadn't seen Ginny since last week's conference in Vegas. At 9:00 pm exactly (7:00 for us Californians), our table was ready and we were seated . . .

BTW, the waitress at Avec told us to go ahead and sit down; she'd bring us our check -- which she did. Much easier than having to wait; and very nice, too.

After having so much pork in the last few days, Lynn and I were definitely ready for some lighter fare. She opted for the chilled cantaloupe and buttermilk soup with paddlefish caviar, candied sourdough, ginger and anise hyssop -- fresh, bright, and flavorful -- while Ginny and I both had the salad of endives with crispy potatoes, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg (yeah, yeah, I know -- pancetta IS pork, but still . . . it was soooooo good!).

Ginny had the roasted farm chicken and blue prawns with quinoa, grilled snap peas and mish mish (?) -- sweet, succulent and surprisingly sumptuous. Lynn dove into the roast lobster with lobster and maitaki mushrooms (OMG). Meanwhile, although -- I admit -- I was momentarily tempted by the elk poached in duck fat (?!?!?!) . . . I sighed and instead ordered the wood-grilled sturgeon with chanterelles, kohlrabi, plums, thai poppy jam and brown butter-fish sauce -- oh so delicious! and the 2008 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Puligny-Montrachet "Champs Gains" paired beautifully with all three entrées.

For dessert, Ginny had a selection of five cheeses -- Shadow Brook Farms "Chevre Frais," goat's milk (Lincoln, Nebraska) with bing cherries; Nettle Meadows "Kunik," goat's milk (Warrensburg, New York) with mustard genois; Green Dirt Farm "Bossa," sheep's milk (Kansas City, Missouri) with hazelnuts' Cobb Hill "Ascutney mountain" cheese, raw cow milk (Hartland, Vermont) with blueberries; and the "St. Agur" cow milk (Auvergne, France) with apricots -- paired with a half-glass of Pouilly-Fumé (for the goat cheese) and a half-glass of Côtes-du-Rhône (for the rest). Lynn had the frozen cucumber mousse with musk melon, peanut meringue and lime ice -- brilliant! -- while I chose the raspberry sorbet (so intense, so smooth, so flavorful, and still bright and fresh).

All in all, this was another wonderful meal in Chicago . . .-COLLAPSE / REPLY (by zin1953, created September 25, 2011)

Dinner 2: Blackbird

In deciding where to go for Friday night’s dinner, it was really a toss-up between the two Kahan restaurants that we haven’t been to yet: Blackbird and Publican. What was a big factor in making the decision is the fact that I am still 5 months away from 21 years of age and thus would not be able to sample some of Publican’s fine beers. But, really, when Blackbird is the...+READ Dinner 2: Blackbird

In deciding where to go for Friday night’s dinner, it was really a toss-up between the two Kahan restaurants that we haven’t been to yet: Blackbird and Publican. What was a big factor in making the decision is the fact that I am still 5 months away from 21 years of age and thus would not be able to sample some of Publican’s fine beers. But, really, when Blackbird is the choice you are “left with,” things are that bad.

After a day’s worth of walking the Primehouse burger off, we arrived at the restaurant a little before 6:30. The one word I would use to describe the décor and style of Blackbird is: Modern. In contrast to the homier, wood-covered style of its neighbor, Avec, Blackbird is a sleek white and black with contemporary art and designer outfits for the staff (No, really). When we arrived, the room was mainly filled with businessmen and women ending their week with a nice cocktail from the bar, and only a few of the tables were occupied. We were led to one of the many tables against the left wall. Now, Blackbird is a very small place for the volume of people they serve a night. The tables are very close together. So close, in fact, that to take my seat against the wall, the table had to be pulled out and pushed back in. When both of the tables next to ours were empty, this was little more than minor inconvenience. However, as the night wore on both of the tables became occupied and servers began navigating the restaurant at a more hurried and frequent pace – both of which makes for a very awkward moment of getting out from my seat. With my only major complaint aired, I think it’s time to move on to the definite highlights of the evening.

We began with an amuse of braised lamb belly with watermelon and spicy roasted peanuts. Though the whole thing was eaten in no more than two bites, this was one of my favorites. It was a small glimpse at how Blackbird treats its food – high quality, often unique ingredients that are simply prepared in their own right and brought together in sophisticated combinations. Here we have rich, sweet, and spicy. A classic profile in a not so classic interpretation. I would have ordered an entrée size of this dish! Following the amuse, we were presented with our drinks and some bread and butter. My dad ordered a seasonal cocktail that I took a sip of and really enjoyed, but I can’t quite remember what it was. I, on the other hand, ordered the house made lemonade that the waiter told us was actually Paul Kahan’s own creation at his home, so he decided to bring it to his restaurants. It had a fresh, tart lemon flavor with a good handful of mint leaves. Interestingly, mint in lemonade would make another appearance in our trip (but more on that, later).

For appetizers, we decided to each order our own and split a third. I went with the glazed veal sweetbreads with lime onions, tamarind, bee pollen, and fried chocolate. Always a sucker for sweetbreads, I thought these were fantastic. Unlike Schwa’s sweetbreads, which were deep-fried and crunchy, these were tender all the way through and glazed with a nice sweet syrup. The lime onions had the crunch and burst of acid of pickled cabbage, and the fried chocolate offered some savory relief in an otherwise sweet dish. The bee pollen came in the form of little purple and white flowers. Other than making the plate look beautiful, they gave the dish some unexpected floral hints. However, if the bee pollen was too easily overpowered by the other strong flavors on the dish and was too often lost. If sweetbreads are my weakness, foie gras is my dad’s. Thus, he happily gave in and ordered the roasted Hudson Valley foie gras with charred green garlic, black garlic, green almonds, and shrimp salt. I only got a taste of the foie gras, and I can happily report that it is still as unctuous as ever. As for the composed dish, he ate it with nary a complaint – which is always a good sign. For our shared appetizer, we ordered the Charcuterie plate with duck sausage and mortadella with almond yogurt, fennel, smoked almonds and lobster roe vinaigrette. While the mortadella tasted fine, the real star was the duck sausage. The sausage had a nice kick and a grind that still had distinguishable chunks of duck. The fatty richness of the meats was tamed by the combination with the cool and creamy almond yogurt, fennel, and lobster roe vinaigrette. This was my first experience ordering a Charcuterie plate, and I have to say I was not disappointed in the least.

Around 15 minutes after our appetizer plates were removed our entrees were delivered. I had heard many positive reviews on Blackbird’s preparation of pork belly and was dead set on making that my choice. However, the belly was replaced only a few days prior with a pork tenderloin. Though it threw me for a loop, I found a quick substitution: Aged pekin duck breast with porcinis, fava beans, and brown butter Worcestershire sauce. Did I mention I love duck? Too often, refined places such as Blackbird get a bad rap for serving stingy serving sizes at high prices. Therefore, it was to my delight when four large pieces of duck breast – cooked perfectly tender with crispy rendered fat – arrived atop a succotash of sorts of bright green fava beans and sautéed, earthy porcinis. Far too often I have had duck that had more fat than meat, and the fat was inedible because of its chewiness. Blackbird’s duck, while I wasn’t sure if I could make out the “aged” qualities of it, was one of the best preparations I’ve had. The fava beans were more al dente than I was used to, but offered a nice crunch and color contrast. Overall, this was a very successful dish, and one to which I will be comparing all future duck preparations. My dad went with the roasted Colorado lamb saddle (loin) with white asparagus, vermouth, fromge blanc, and spring pea falafel. He loved this dish. The lamb was cooked rare and had a nice sear on the outside. Strangely enough, I did try one component of the dish, and it was not the lamb, but rather a sample of the spring pea falafel. The falafel, more oval shaped than circular, had a very bright green color (sort of a color theme of our whole meal) and strong pea taste. It had a crunchy exterior and tender, crumbly interior.

Feeling that I was almost at my bursting point, knew that I had to march onward and try dessert, if not for me, than for those who will read about it. OK, so it wasn’t that heroic of a situation, but I was surprised by how full I was up to that point (eating a huge burger for lunch probably didn’t help matters, either). I ordered the Criollo chocolate with cupuacu, milk meringue, and tonka bean ice cream. To be honest, I had no idea what most of those ingredients were, but if it was chocolate, how could it be bad? After some Wikipedia research, I discovered that Criollo chocolate is sourced from the northern coastal range of Venezuala. It is also one of the most expensive and difficult kinds of chocolate to grow in South America. Cupuacu is a tropical rainforest tree similar to the cacao. In my dessert, the flavor of the pulp was extracted and used to flavor the chocolate that was spread across the plate. Tonka beans come from a species of flowering tree from the pea family. The bean itself was used in my dessert to flavor ice cream that was encapsulated within a hard chocolate shell. The flavor was very similar to vanilla but had some extra spice in there (Wikipedia says “almond, cinnamon, and cloves.”) Now that we have some of the terms defined, I’ll try and describe what exactly I ate. A long, rectangular plate was smeared with a bottom layer of the dark criollo chocolate. Nestled atop the smear was a row 3 chocolate balls. The farthest left was a solid chocolate ball flavored with the cupuacu dusted with a fruity powder (I want to say raspberry). In the middle was a hollow chocolate ball filled with the tonka bean ice cream. And, finally, the farthest right ball was filled with melted criollo chocolate. The milk meringue was ethereal light and melted in my mouth. It was drier than I expected and crumbled over the entire dish. After I finally figured out what was going on in my dessert, I really loved it. It was a sort of taste journey through the sensationally complex and rich criollo chocolate, and I really appreciated the way the chefs were able to highlight the chocolate and pair it with other flavors without masking it. My dad ordered the fried polenta with Klug Farms blueberries, lemon verbena, and smoked brown sugar ice cream. Again, I was only able to snatch a bite from this dish, but I really loved what I tasted. The polenta was marinated (I don’t know if this is the right word. Dipped?) in maple syrup, and the blueberries were plump and fresh. What I loved most, though, was the smoked brown sugar ice cream. It tasted exactly as it sounds, but even then it surprised me. It had that sort of sweet, smoky flavor of a good dry rub on ribs, and it was definitely a combination I had never thought of putting in ice cream form.

Blackbird was a fantastic dining experience. While it certainly didn’t change the way I thought about food, it does what it does better than any restaurant I have been to in some time. Each flavor was well executed, the service was very attentive and helpful, and the ambiance was lively and fun. I would love to go to this restaurant in each season just to taste what they can come up with next. So, we left Blackbird full and pleased, and we headed towards the theater for Inception. On a non-food related note, if you haven’t seen that movie, please do yourself the favor and do so!-COLLAPSE / REPLY (31 Replies) (by pastry634, created July 21, 2010)