The Publican, Chicago

The Publican is a meat-centric James Beard Award Winning establishment in the meatpacking district of Chicago. Not necessarily a great choice for vegetarians, but absolutely worth a metro ride out to this neighborhood that still clings to it’s meatpacking past of warehouses, wide streets, and the stench of fish from a  loading dock floor that maybe wasn’t hosed down too well with bleach the day before.

This is a place that takes itself very seriously, and their attention to detail was impressive. The interior design, service, sourcing of product- every single thing was well done in what I could tell from our hour or so experience sitting in a booth that resembles a hog’s pen, with a chest-high door shutting us in and all. Pig paintings decorate the walls, and they have their own butcher shop across the street: Publican Quality Meats. We definitely weren’t in Boulder…

Like all great places nowadays, local farms are highlighted on their menu so you know exactly where that Little Gem Salad is coming from.

We started off with beverages, of course. (Sean and I can be a couple of one trick ponies)

I tried a cider, and he went for a flight of rosé. When the flight arrived, I asked our server to please place it down for a photo before unstacking the unpretentious wine glasses. For me, this presentation was another nice touch. The Publican has beer glasses to match every beer, but wine, on the other hand, not so much. Rocks glasses for wine, totally rocks.

Not being incredibly hungry, we went with a cheese board and a Werp Farms Little Gem Salad. We had just eaten a Werp Farms Little Gem Salad at the Green Zebra the night before, so we decided to compare…

You can’t even compare the two salads. The Publican fills a plate with Little Gem lettuce, fennel, radish, buttermilk dressing, and fried pig ears (which we got on the side).  Green Zebra, unfortunately, skimped out on the little gem lettuce and essentially mis-labeled their dish. But anyway, back to this amazing salad. I had never had pig ears and he insisted I try them, so we got a pile of thinly sliced, fried ears on the side rather than in the salad.

I didn’t like them at all. Sean swore they were amazing, but the flavor wasn’t something I really wanted to linger in my mouth. I’m just not too adventurous about eating animals, that’s all.

But cheese, on the other hand… I could eat cheese all day. Especially when presented like this-

I really wasn’t on my game this particular day after my first night in a new city, where we were up before dawn to fly at 6 am, and learned they have a 4am last call at some bars, so I’ll admit to having no idea what cheeses and accouterments we enjoyed. But, it doesn’t really matter because The Publican is a place that frequently features different cheeses, etc., so whatever you enjoy on your cheese board will be completely different from my mid-July experience. Just know it will be good. Really good. Amazing, I dare say. Go now, Go often.

The Publican

837 W Fulton Market

312.733.9555

Green Zebra- Chicago, Vegetarian, and Pretty Good

Our first night in Chicago was the only night we had dinner reservations. In the weeks before our trip, all of the menus we looked at looked good, but it was clear vegetarian fare was an afterthought of almost every chef in town. I insisted that we dine somewhere Sean could order more than one or two things off of the menu, and he suggested Green Zebra, a restaurant he has a fond memory of visiting in the past with his sister.

Green Zebra is a vegetarian fine dining establishment that’s been open since 2004 and the chef/owner Shawn McClain won a James Beard award in 2006 for Best Chef Midwest. There’s a very calm, clean feel to the place, and we enjoyed a really nice, relaxing dinner.

We started with some drinks, of course. I ordered a Michigan cider, he ordered a glass of bubbly, and then a pint… par for the course.

I’m a huge fan of quality cider, and would LOVE to see even more of it on menus everywhere.  When done well, cider isn’t a sickly sweet slightly carbonated beverage. It can be a lower alcohol effervescent refreshing experience. Vander Mill Cider, on the menu at Green Zebra, is a nice, sessionable cider.

Our first dish was a Grilled Werp Farm Gem Salad with breakfast radishes, green almonds, and an onion vinaigrette.

It was delicious. But, we had one tiny little fourth of a head of gem lettuce on our plate, served over arugula, which essentially represented 75% of the greens on the plate. Disappointing at the time, it became a topic of conversation over our similarly priced, yet 100% true to its name, gem salad the following afternoon at The Publican.

Next in line came Hen of the Woods Mushroom Pâté served with rhubarb compote, bread and butter fennel pickles, and bread.

I’m not a fan of pate, so I wasn’t really interested in ordering this, but it turned out quite pleasing. He, on the other hand, really really liked this dish, so I feel comfortable saying this was a successful appetizer.

We decided to order a bottle of wine while enjoying the first two dishes. Then ordered the Burratta all Panna which was one of my favorite cheeses over freekeh tabbouleh, preserved lemon, Calabrian chilies, and grilled frisée. This was very nice.

Our fourth dish was a taste of Black Bean Potstickers with orange suprême and shoestring carrots in a peanut-tamarind sauce.

This was a good dish we enjoyed and almost didn’t want it to disappear from our table. I could have popped those little potstickers in my mouth all night.

Next came Creamy White Corn Polenta with garlic scapes, roasted cippolini onions, and kohlrabi salsa verde.

All I can say is: dangerously good. There was a substantial amount of cream or cheese or both in this polenta to make it so amazingly delectable. I had to leave some of it in the dish just to cut the guilt of so much travel-eating going on this weekend.

Our last “dinner” plate was the Culver Farm Duck Egg with smoked potato purée, parsley, and sourdough bread.

I must admit, I was disappointed with this dish. We both expected the duck egg to be a bit more runny, especially since the menu was clearly highlighting a local duck egg. The flavors were good and the parsley leaf pressed into paper-thin potato slices was a nice artistic touch, but for $12.50, I do expect the local duck egg to be treated like the royalty it is.

Our last dish was not just a disappointment- it was so memorable of a food experience I think we’ll refer to it for a while now. We ordered a cheese plate, which we almost always prefer to a sweet dessert. Our server was unsure which cheeses were on the plate, so she stumbled a bit before checking with the chef. When she returned with news of a goat, a cow, and an aged cheese, we said, yes, please.

The cheese platter was well presented, and the jams/chutney paired very well. But, our aged cheese was running like a river overflowing its banks out of the center. It was either too old, or too warm, both of which were disappointing for a place that should be on point from start to finish.

Overall, we had a pretty good dinner at Green Zebra. I’m glad to see a vegetarian restaurant in business so many years. It was full of guests when we were there, and I met a couple ladies in the restroom who weren’t vegetarians but were having a great time. So, they’re doing something right.

Green Zebra

1460 West Chicago Ave

312-243-7100

Piece- A Chicago Pizzeria and Brewery

The pizza renaissance or revolution that swept through Boulder and Denver a few years ago really sparked an interest in us to explore some of the original American pizza artisans (which brought us to The Original Frank Pepe Pizzeria, New Haven, CT) and some of our contemporary pizzaioli (Pizzicletta, Flagstaff, AZ). So, it only made sense that we’d end up in Chicago sooner rather than later.

Sean’s quite seasoned on Chicago dining, whereas I’d never been to The Windy City. He suggested we start off our long weekend at Piece for two reasons: #1- It’s a great pizzeria and brewery, winning many awards for its beer over the years. #2- He needed a new t-shirt as his old Piece shirt was stained.

I noticed as soon as we sat down that the menu says “New Haven Style Pizza,” so our September 2013 trip to Frank Pepe’s was clearly a good place to include in our pizza tasting journey.

We started off with a couple pints and then discussed the menu. We didn’t stick to our routine of trying the margherita pizza (or in this case, their “red” pizza). We went with a white pizza topped with roasted red peppers and basil.

Served on a sheet tray, this pizza is reminiscent of Frank Pepe’s and has a similar crackly thin crust, but, it’s less charred. I like that Piece acknowledges it’s east coast inspiration, and it’s clear that it’s doing something right as 2014 marks Piece’s thirteenth year in business.

Cheers to great pizza!

Pizzicletta- Quite possibly my favorite place ever…

It’s been well over a month since Sean and I visited Flagstaff, AZ, for a taste of Pizzicletta, and writing this article has been on the top of my “to do” list for weeks now. My paying jobs have kept me busy, so every day I look at my list and reminisce on quite possibly one of my favorite places I’ve ever dined.

Caleb Schiff, owner and pizzaiolo of Pizzicletta, came to Boulder in the fall of 2013 to be a guest chef at the original Pizzeria Locale. We got some great friends together in the caffe space (which has now been renovated into a private dining room), and had a private room to drink fun wines, enjoy one of the best meals of the year, and meet Caleb. You can read all about that fine meal on my business site, Local Table Tours.  As much as I’d love to relive that meal, I have another story to tell here… And so, we were so impressed by this chef and his food that Sean decided to surprise me for my birthday with a trip to Flagstaff to dine at Pizzicletta and ski the Arizona Snowbowl. Greatest birthday present ever! He’s a total keeper.

Pizzicletta is a really small, triangular shaped restaurant, in the same building as Mother Road Brewing, which we visited, of course. The Stefano Ferrara oven, a staple for chefs who are serious about wood-fired cooking, is the centerpiece of the kitchen.

We entered that evening to find more than one familiar face. Our server had also been our server earlier that day at Diablo Burger (a place Caleb suggested we experience), so it felt like walking into our neighborhood pizzeria on the first night we arrived in town.

Sean and I ordered the formaggi with focaccia to start the evening and a bottle of Verdicchio. The cheeses, as expected, were delightful. But, the green hue to the freshly pressed olive oil drizzled over the mozzarella was most impressive to me. Green-grass-fresh-pressed olive oil… You’ve got to love that!

Caleb is an artisan, and the featured olive oils from Casa Pau Hana Olive Farm in Paso Robles is just one of his carefully selected ingredients that help make Pizzicletta the finely put together casual dining establishment that it is. But more on our respect for this chef later. Back to our meal…

Our next plate was a salad of greens, toasted pine nuts, and chevre. And, here’s a fun fact: Pizzicletta only has itsy bitsy saucers or large pizza plates, so our salad was served on a rather substantial piece of ceramic. But, the veggie lover in me couldn’t resist something green, so I made sure to lick this platter clean (Jack Sprat, anyone? ), which was not challenging at all despite it’s large size.

We ordered two pizzas that evening- The SS145- a Bianca with roasted almonds, charred kale, gorgonzola, olive oil, and lemon juice, which, by the way, completely blew our minds! We also ordered a special of the evening that had Caleb’s special touch- Calabrian Chilis, and broccoli rabe, a personal favorite of mine in Italian cooking. Both pizzas, with their “leopard-spotted” crust of wild sour dough yeast were next to impossible to put down, despite our full bellies telling us otherwise. Caleb’s pizza, quite simply, is something you must try, as it’s incredibly difficult to explain perfection to someone who hasn’t tasted it before.

Despite the fact that we were literally stuffing ourselves at this point, we both thought Caleb’s house made gelatto was a good idea… and it WAS! There was no olive oil gelatto offered that evening as we had enjoyed at his guest event at Locale, but the chocolate and vanilla were, like all other dishes at Pizzicletta, perfect.

Talking to Caleb made it abundantly clear that he’s not just some guy who likes to cook, or likes pizza, so he opened a pizzeria. He is a man (geologist, actually), who rode a bike around Italy, found inspiration to open a pizzeria, and pays attention to every single detail. The olive oil is one example. Another is the wood he burns in his artisanal oven that comes from southern AZ and is dried for years before reaching Pizzicletta. This particularly dry wood allows his oven to reach a very high temperature that creates the well known leopard spots on his crust. Caleb’s dough, by the way, doesn’t even make it into the oven until the wild yeast sour dough ferments for days, sometimes upwards of a week. He hand crafts every pie to order topping them with very few ingredients.

And, I must admit the notice on the menu of “No Substitutions Please” was very much appreciated, coming from the substitution or ingredient exclusion capital of the world, Boulder CO.

So, if you’re on  a food quest of some kind, please add Pizzicletta to your list. And if you’re even just passing by Flagstaff, perhaps on Route 66, I suggest a brief detour to enjoy some of Americas best pizza.

Pizzicletta

203 W Phoenix Ave, Flagstaff, AZ

928.774.3242