Sustainable fine dining in Lakeview: Browntrout, Labor Day Weekend Part I

Cuisine: Contemporary American/ Seafood

Location: 4111 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL

Price: $$ - $$$

Food: ****

Service: 3.5*

Overall: ****

Website: http://www.browntroutchicago.com

The father was in town recently to help me move into my new digs in Lakeview (conveniently located within walking distance of DMK Burger Bar!), and as per the norm I was given the task of planning all our meals for the weekend. The full weekend lineup was as follows:

Friday Dinner: Browntrout in Lakeview

Saturday Dinner: Fogo de Chao in River North (Brazilian steakhouse for my inner glutton)

Sunday Brunch: Publican in Fulton Market (Paul Kahan’s casual-dining locale known best for its pork, shellfish, and beer selection)

Sunday Dinner: Riccardo Trattoria in Lincoln Park (Italian, a must for my dad’s Chicago visits every time)

Let’s just say I finished the weekend very full and sated, with a promise to myself to eat a steady diet of greens for the next few weeks to compensate for the gastronomic whirlwind I had just been through.

Onwards to my review of Browntrout:

Firstly, apologies for the poor photo quality. Using the iPhone as your camera does not work so well in poor lighting, especially when you don’t use flash (a huge no-no in food photography in restaurants, since it pisses off everyone within a fifty foot radius of you). The pictures at Riccardo Trattoria are similarly blemished, but I’ll post them anyway since most of you are here to look at photos of food and ooh and aah over them, as opposed to coming here to read my eloquently written prose (I kid. It’s more like garbled ramblings).

When I dine out with my dad, we always do our best to sample a little of everything without trying to stuff our faces silly¹. So we settle on splitting two appetizers and two entrees, with the idea being that we would ask the waitress for some suggestions ordering. As enthusiastic as she was about the offerings of Browntrout, she also turned out to be completely unhelpful in offering suggestions as she listed a few suggestions… then a few more… and a few more until she had managed to cover the entire list of appetizers they had. Maybe she just truly loved everything coming out of the kitchen here, which I suppose would be a good thing.

Armed with no help from the waitstaff, we settle on the Bouchot Blue Hill Mussels and the Wheatberry & Corn Risotto to start. It being corn season, they had a corn five-course tasting menu up, and it wasn’t surprising to see that corn was a listed component in almost all the dishes.

Bouchot Blue Hill Mussels: corn, rooftop green chili butter, lime, corn broth, cilantro, grilled crostini

The mussels make their way to our table first, stacked in a bowl waiting to be plucked and eaten, sitting in a corn broth that gives the dish a wonderful aroma before we’ve even dug in. The mussels are fresh and tender – on their own, they would have been very enjoyable, but topped with the chili butter, the corn broth (which I can’t stop slurping down), and the bite from the cilantro, the dish is absolutely delectable. The crostini turns out to be the perfect utensil to soak up all the goodness that the broth offers, and the crunch of the bread offers a great textural contrast to the mussels.

Wheatberry & Corn Risotto: Braised pork bacon, sherry vinegar, fine herbs, parmesan, pickled scapes

That’s followed by the risotto, which intrigues me to no end – having never had wheatberry as the primary component of a dish before (it’s a grain often added to breads etc. for crunch and texture), it surprises me how well it holds up to the risotto-style cooking. The grains become plump and tasty while still giving an unmistakable al dente bite to it – perhaps a little more than Arborio rice would have. The subdued taste of the wheatberry is accented by some fantastic salty braised pork bacon, which gives it the punch that the dish needs. Altogether, it’s not a very complicated dish, but all the individual components are highlights and allowed to stand out without being dressed up with a variety of different garnishes and sauces.

On to the main course – we opt for the steelhead fish and quail, swapping halfway so that we can each taste two main courses.

Stuffed Texas Quail: wild mushroom stuffing, almonds, green beans, caramelized onions, almond yogurt

 I start with the quail, which comes with a mushroom stuffing and green beans on the side, as well as some almond yogurt. I suppose it makes sense to have almond yogurt accent the almond on the plate already – but I’m not quite sure how best to incorporate it into the bites I take, and end up taking a few bites of it and letting it be. Aside from that, the quail is deliciously tender, coming right off the bone when tugged at with my fork to reveal a mushroom stuffing that makes the dish a rather hearty one. Even without anything else, the quail would have been enough for me on its own.

Powell River Organic Steelhead: eggplant caponata, confit yellow currant tomatoes, salsa verde, pea sprouts

 The steelhead doesn’t fail to impress, either – the fish has a beautiful crispy exterior, but the flesh is soft and tender and pairs well with the slightly spicy, pungent  eggplant caponata it’s served with. The tomato confit adds an element of acidity to it that helps round out the dish well. As a whole bite, the freshness of the fish comes through first, and the garnishes manage to accentuate without overpowering.

Duly stuffed at this point (in fact, we had earlier inquired about the possibility of tacking on a third main course after our appetizers, so enthralled were we by the quality of food – only to realize after eating the steelhead fish and quail that we were in no position to eat more), we obviously opt to look at the dessert menu, and like always, end up getting dessert to share². The allure of carrot-pecan cake is too much to turn down.

Carrot-pecan cake, garnished with candied ginger

The carrot cake is great – carrot cake is, by definition, always great, because it has that awesome cream cheese frosting that comes with it. The pecans in the cake give it a nice nutty flavor, and the candied ginger on top works well as an edible garnish that I can pick at while I debate having yet another bite of the monstrous slice of cake. A great finish to a great meal.

Final thoughts: My dad can’t stop mentioning how affordable this place is (probably because last he was here, for my graduation, we ate at L2O and Spiaggia) and how amazing the food is despite the cheaper prices. There’s something good about eating sustainably – like you’re doing your part to help the environment, even if really you’re just sitting there shoveling food into your mouth. But most importantly, the food here is excellent, the place is small enough to feel cozy, and the ambience is laid back and not stuffy at all. If you want to go somewhere that will stand out amidst the many restaurants dotting the Lakeview area, you can’t go wrong with Browntrout.

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^{1. Something we, obviously, would fail to do the very next day at Fogo de Chao, when we combined to eat approximately 4 Colly Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.↩}

^{2. As any sensible child can tell you, humans are outfitted with two separate stomachs, one for real food and one for dessert. I think they proved this on an episode of Mythbusters once. SCIENCE!↩}