Contemporary American in Lincoln Park: Perennial Virant

Om Nom Gastronomy is back! After a seven month hiatus I am attempting to resurrect this blog, which has, to date, been my outlet for random ramblings about food and an excuse to practice semi-creative writing.

I was doing so well before I took my long, long break, too - I had even pre-written some posts that I just never got around to publishing. Below is a restaurant review for Perennial Virant - a restaurant which I dined at in January, 2012 (likely none of the dishes I ate there are on the menu anymore and thus this review will be wholesomely useless to all readers who are still here after the blog went into polar bear hibernation mode).

Well, here goes nothing - it's good to be writing again, even if it's just a small re-intro!

Perennial Virant

Cuisine: Contemporary American
Location: 1800 North Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL
Price: $$$ 
Food: **** 
Service: **** 
Overall: **** 

The menu:

Bar snacks (soft pretzel, Dijon mustard, dill pickles, spicy corn nuts, deviled farm eggs)

Crispy parisienne gnocchi (river valley mushrooms, roasted roots, truffle butter, aged provolone)

Tasmanian ocean trout rilette (fried bread, grilled city farm green onions, arugula, meyer lemon)

Hunter style howling hound pheasant (braised and roasted pheasant, tomato, mushrooms, onions, red kuri squash puree)

Slagel family farm pork loin au poivre (roasted celery root, roasted mushrooms, pickled asparagus, brandy cream sauce)

Pan-roasted ocean trout (preserved sweet pepper puree, chow chow, house made bacon)

Bar snacks (soft pretzel, Dijon mustard, dill pickles, spicy corn nuts, deviled farm eggs)

The review:

The problem with being an unapologetic foodie when you’re 23 years old and fresh out of college is that your budget isn’t built to support lavish meals and dining out on a regular basis. Between the incessant binge drinking, insatiable appetite for drunk food, and the nights of “sure, let’s put that round of six patron shots on my tab”, a solid portion of my disposable income needs to be set aside for alcohol and related entertainment purposes. When the most common unit of measure for money is the number of Bud Light Platinums you can purchase, it becomes harder to justify spending $70 on a meal (that’s 70 BLPs you could buy instead of having ONE dinner!)

The good news is, if you plop down that much money on a meal, chances are good that not only will you enjoy a dining experience unlike the vast majority of meals you eat, you’ll also receive food that is worth the money you’re paying. Armed with that knowledge, I finally told myself it was time to go restaurant exploring after a long dry spell and, on a whim, dragged two of my friends out to Perennial Virant with me for dinner on a weeknight.

The first thing we notice about the restaurant décor after being seated is that the wall nearest to us is lined with a multitude of shelves, dedicated solely to housing jar upon jars of preserved fruits and vegetables. According to our server, they have a basement storage area with about two thousand more jars – and all of these pickled foodstuffs are actually used in kitchen prep and will be ingredients in future dishes down the road.

After being wowed by that little factoid, our meal begins with cocktails and bar snacks – an assortment of small bites to nosh on.

Everything here is delicious, but the star of this plate is definitely the homemade spicy corn nuts – we spend the rest of our meal munching on the corn nuts between courses, using that little kick from the paprika and other spices to jolt our taste buds. It’s not until our waiter brings out dessert that we finally relent and allow him to take the corn nut crumbs from our table.

Bar snacks are followed by  small plates, shared dishes for the table. We opt for the crispy parisienne gnocchi and the ocean trout rilette, a lighter seafood dish to balance the more heavy-handed gnocchi.

The gnocchi beats the rillete to the table, and thus, to the forks and our gaping maws. The gnocchi is, true to name, crispy on the outside, pillowy soft on the inside. The crunchy, salty protein is mixed in with the earthy flavor of both mushrooms and truffle butter, causing each bite to be dripping in flavor. The roots and provolone give it a sharp kick, which proves to be exquisite in balance for the first few bites. Sadly, the ratio of accoutrements to gnocchi skews towards the vegetables over the protein – though, to be fair, that may have been a self-created issue as the three of us plucked the delicious, expertly fried bites out of the plates while neglecting everything else..

The rilette follows, seafood so fresh it serves almost as a palate cleanser – mixed in with crisp, bitter arugula and the tang of meyer lemon, it works as a tasty side salad with a flavor punch from the trout rilette. The fried bread allows us to continue to nosh on something as we eagerly await our main dishes, providing textural balance and complementing everything perfectly.

Main dishes follow shortly thereafter - I sneak in a bite or two of each of our entrée choices as we trade plates liberally – the pan-roasted ocean trout is everything one might expect from high-class seafood, pairing a beautiful, tender cut of trout with a little kick (the sweet pepper puree), a touch of smokiness (house-made bacon), and acid to top it off (the preserved corn, or chow-chow).

The pork loin au poivre is blanketed in peppercorns, creating an almost gritty texture from the crushed peppercorn that I personally find fantastic. That peppery kick is chased by a silky smooth brandy cream sauce that mellows out the other components, creating an entrée so delicious I was saddened that I didn’t order it myself.

Myself, I opt for the Hunter style howling hound pheasant. Roasted pheasant breast and braised pheasant legs, all bathing in a tomato-based puree – the legs are delectable, braised to the point where the means pulls off with the flick of my fork, juicy and tender. The breast I find just a little bit on the dry side – I know white meat tends to be drier than its dark counterpart, but it still seems that each bite could be just a liiiiiitle bit juicier and meatier. I will, however, permit that this difference was very slight – the meat wasn’t decidedly tough or anything like that. The puree gives a nice sour note to the dish, and the puree-drenched vegetables are delicious and pair well with the heavier taste of pheasant. The dish is, overall, good, but I can’t help but feel that one or two tiny adjustments would make it phenomenal.

Sitting back stuffed and content, we’re ready to call it a night until our server drops a dessert menu off, encouraging us to take a glance and see if anything catches our eye. I usually have no problem saying no to sweets, but a quick peek reveals that they are serving their famed chevre fritters, which I had completely forgotten about. So we add that to our growing bill, and wait for this dessert that has had so much praise heaped upon it.

Soon enough, balls of fried dough appear at our table, replete with apricot preserves and honey as dipping sauces of sorts. Dusted with powdered sugar, these resemble doughnut holes – but one bite tells me that the resemblance ends there. Instead of a sweet, sugary taste, there is a creamy, subtly sweet taste. The melted chevre (goat cheese) that makes up the filling manages to have not just a hint of sweetness, but also a slightly savory taste without being salty as a whole. The fried dough and powdered sugar sell it as a definite dessert item, and adding the honey and preserves only helps accentuate that point. However, through it all the brilliant taste of goat cheese cuts through all of it – not too sweet, not too salty, striking a note of perfection, covering my taste buds and causing me to forget everything else I’ve eaten to this point.

The final verdict? A very good meal, accentuated by an amazing final note – the chevre fritters not only meet their lofty standards, they exceed it in my book. As someone not often blown away by dessert, I found myself wanting more of those puffed balls of dough, filled to the brim with such deliciousness that biting into them seemed almost like destroying a work of art – though that certainly didn’t stop be from demolishing the fritters on our table at a record pace. For the fritters alone, Perennial Virant deserves a spot on your restaurant list if you’re looking for a nice place to go – but the small plates, entrees, and even their cocktails will stand out as unique, delicious creations, as well. I’ll certainly remember my meal here, and excitedly look forward to trying their brunch as well someday.