Brittney's Birthday Dinner - Re:Think

Contemporary American
Lakeview - Brittney's Place

Deleece

Contemporary American
Lakeview - 4004 North Southport

With Remy in town, we decided to visit another A la Card restaurant nearby, Deleece. We'd heard mixed reviews but more positive than negative. The experience turned out to be an extremely negative one. In one word, the food was awful.

Remy and I both ordered the stuffed squash.

Not only was the squash too charred on the outside, but the contents were insanely oily. It was stuffed with cheese and spinach, but more than either ingredient, we tasted the oil. The puree beneath had little to no flavor. In short, the dish was nearly inedible.

Jim ordered the oven roasted Amish chicken with broccolini.

I had a little more success with my dish than the girls did with theirs, but it was nothing special. The chicken had some sort of sweet/savory glaze on it and it was actually cooked quite well (the skin was very cripsy while the meat wasn't dry at all). Broccolini is a great side item and not served nearly enough in my opinion; it's almost like a combination of broccoli and swiss chard so it's got a crunchy texture with a little bit of a bitter taste. As for the puree, well, I'm almost positive it was the exact same thing that came with the squash. Lame.

Although we forgot to take a photo of it, we also ordered blueberry cake. It was almost as disappointing as the squash. The cake was dry, the sauce seemed like it was poured over it days before it was served, and we could have gotten a fresher, more flavorful dessert down the street at Dairy Queen.

Although the reviews for brunch at Deleece seem promising, we will never visit the restaurant again, and we would never recommend it to a friend or out-of-towner.

Sola

Contemporary American
Lakeview - 3868 North Lincoln

It's our first Valentine's Day, and we're spending it at another Á la Card establishment! Sola was ready for the big day, with gorgeous table tops and a printed specials menu. We opted for a mix of the aphrodisiacs on the list and some items from their everyday menu.

We started with two wines, the Duval-Leroy Brut Champagne (France) and the Brooks Amycas (Oregon). With the wine came our first special, the oysters two ways - kumamotos on the half shell with Meyer lemon emulsion, and Thai basil... and malpecs tempura with avocado wasabi puree, basil cucumber salad, and American sturgeon caviar.

The kumamotos were extremely fresh for the Midwest. We both commented that they "tasted like the sea." We had never had fried oysters before, but they were surprisingly light, and the avocado wasabi puree was delicious. A very successful aphrodisiac, from what we could tell.

We then shared the crispy mushroom salad, which was baby arugula, Asian pear, shallots, pleasant ridge, cider truffle vinaigrette, and of course, crispy mushrooms!

This salad could do no wrong. The mushrooms were like nothing we'd ever tasted, the pears added a delightful sweetness, and how on earth could cider truffle vinaigrette not be amazing?! It was a great salad, and it was unique enough to be memorable.

For her entree, Brittney had the scallops with green apple crab risotto, green beans, and apple curry butter.

The description made this dish sound perfect for me, but it turned out to be pretty disappointing. Though the scallops were cooked well and the apple curry flavor was nice when I could taste it, the risotto was extremely fishy and didn't taste at all like apples or crab. I ate most of the scallops and the green beans, but I left the risotto, which I thought would be the highlight of the dish, mostly untouched.

For his entree, Jim ordered a special, Carol's Colorado lamb chops with cambozola cheese, cauliflower puree, wilted spinach, shallots, and shaved fennel.

This dish was good but not amazing. I think I had high expectations based on the previous dishes and the fact that this was the special for the night, but it ended up being a bit mediocre. The lamb was slightly underdone and there was a TON of cheese in the lamb so it kind of masked the flavor of the meat. Cambozola is like a gorgonzola cheese so it has a very distinct and strong taste. The puree was a nice contrast to the rest of the dish but the fennel sort of got lost. Like I said, I think I was expecting something really great and it ended up being tasty but disappointing.

For our final course, we ordered a sweet dish and a savory one. To satisfy Brittney's ever-growing desire for sugar, we got caramel apple bread pudding with Roxbury russet, Szechwan peppercorn-cider sauce, and sweet soy vanilla ice cream.

Yes, it was definitely as good as it looks and sounds. This was quite possibly the best bread pudding we've had, and that's saying a lot. We always gravitate towards it on any menu, mostly because it tends to come with interesting pairings. This was no exception, and it was a perfect Valentine's Day treat. However, next year they should find a way to make it pink.

To satisfy our (constant) cravings for cheese, we got a really nice cheese plate, which included housemade fruit preserves, nuts humboldt fog (California, goats milk), gouda aged 4 yr. (Holland, cows milk), and manchego (Spain, sheeps milk).

Each new cheese was better than the last, and we literally scraped the plate clean. A perfect ending to an almost perfect Valentine's Day meal (company was perfect, risotto was troubling).

The ambiance of the place was pretty lively and friendly, and we even struck up a conversation about whisky with a nearby table. However, we told them ahead of time that we wanted a slow meal, and we instead got the feeling that they wanted to turn over our table three times before V-Day was over. Overall, the food only missed the mark once, but frankly, we're not likely to go back any time soon. If you're in the area and want to stop in for salads and dessert, then we say, "Bon appétit!"

Hot Doug's

Encased Meat Emporium
Avondale - 3324 North California


Still on our quest to make our way through the Á la Card list, we decided to take an afternoon off for Jim to experience some serious sausage. Even though it was 1pm on a February weekday, the line still wrapped around the building, as usual. But we weren't swayed.


The first time Brittney went to Hot Doug's, she was still eating meat. And visions of ostrich sausage and duck fat fries danced in her head. This was going to be interesting...

When we finally reached the counter after 45 minutes of taking turns to be in the sunlight and rubbing our denim-clad jeans with our hands, I approached Doug with a plea. "It's great to see you again, Doug. Kate says hi. So... well... um, last time I visited, I still ate meat, but now I don't. Is there any way I can order one of the special sausages but get a veggie dog instead? I'll pay the price for the special!" Without hesitation, the ever-friendly Doug replied, "Why would you do that? You can pay the price of a veggie dog. What would you like?" The Pete Shelley (AKA veggie) is only $2.75. Doug is a saint!

After some friendly hassling from Doug about "when I'd be coming back over from the dark side," I ordered the Pete Shelley with apple chutney and manchego cheese.

Although I did miss the heartiness of a real-meat sausage, these ingredients could make anything taste like heaven. Whether this was meant to be boar, rabbit, or dinosaur, it likely would've been a little juicier with some animal fat, but the cheese and chutney were really tasty.

I also ordered the Pete Shelley with Chipotle Dijonnaise and Burning Nettles Smoked Gouda Cheese.


Again, a veggie dog is a little slight for such a big bun, but I paid under $3 for some awesome ingredients. Good show, old chap.

...and of course, cheese fries (minus the duck fat). These chips are cooked in, um, regular fat?

My heart might have stopped momentarily after ingesting maybe half of these, but that didn't stop them from being delicious.

Jim, being the meat fanatic that he is, was like a kid in a candy store... Or like a man in a sausage store. He ordered the Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Moutarde, Foie Gras Mousse and Sel Gris.

This thing was nuts. Anthony Bourdain ordered this on his Chicago episode of “No Reservations” and I couldn’t resist. I love duck and I’ve always wanted to try foie gras. The sausage was smaller than I expected but if it had been any larger I may have had a heart attack at the resturaunt.

As I said, this was my first experience with foie gras. It was more of a foie gras mousse (kind of smooth and fluffy) and I know it’s usually prepared differently than the stuff on the sausage. I tried the foie gras just so I knew what to expect; it was very very rich and reminded me of pate. The truffle moutarde was extremely intense. It initially had a distinct mustard flavor but it soon morphed into a very smooth truffle flavor. The duck sausage itself was pretty mild and almost overpowered by the other items. However, I would worry that any other type of sausage would not be as good a vessel for the amazing toppings.
Additionally, in honor of this great city I ordered a traditional Chicago dog.
Basically it was your typical Chicago Dog. I had my dog grilled (you can have it boiled too) with all the usual toppings: Mustard, Neon Green Relish, Pickle, Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, and Celery Salt. I also added sport peppers since I can't say no to anything spicy.

It was good, but certainly nothing special. I would have wanted more celery salt, and the tomatoes were kind of dull (granted, it is February). It was only $1.75 so I guess I shouldn’t have expected too much. I would skip the Dog next time and just get two sausages.
Finally, how could I resist the duck fat fries?
These were just unnecessary. They were super rich and I could really taste the duck flavor when I ate a few at a time. Probably best when shared with a group (I couldn’t finish them).

Hot Doug's is a serious must for all that call themselves Chicagoans. It's not in the most convenient location in the city, and there will definitely be a wait, but it's well worth it. Hot Doug's never disappoints.