Chicago Restaurant Week 2013: Part 3

Some might now chef Rick Bayless from his series on PBS.  In order to conjure up that memory you would have to reach way back to 1979, six years before my birth.  You also may know him as the brother of ESPN announcer Skip Bayless.  Others might know him as the very first winner of Top Chef Masters, also how I remember him.  He went into that season and is portrayed as an underdog that rallies in order to win with his pedestrian Mexican dishes.  We all want that which is comforting.    I must admit it is hard for me to think of Mexican cuisine as something to be bought to a fine dining level.  Once you taste the food here, you will be a believer.

It was my first time at Topolobampo since Restaurant Week a year earlier, and I wish I would have went more often.  In the meantime, my fix for Bayless dishes has been satisfied by eating at Tortas Frontera in the Chicago O’Hare airport.  If you ever fly through O’Hare, it is a good place to stop in for a quick bite before your flight leaves.   I often stop there if I have bags to claim on the way back as it gives just enough time for the bags to start at the baggage claim carousel.

Guacamole at Topalobampo

Dinner at Topolobampo is definitely a classy white tablecloth fine dining experience.  The octagonal brown floor tiles break through any since of pompousness that may be present and bring things back down to earth.  Combine that with the beautiful low hanging blue lights and comfortable booths and you feel as comforted as some of the amazing dishes you will eat.

You would be remised to come all this way and not enjoy one of the signature Margaritas.  I went for the Blood Orange Margarita.  They are shaken for you tableside.  These drinks are dangerous as you taste the sweetness of the blood orange with a little tanginess from the lime juice and subtle floral notes from the tequila.  All in all a pretty awesome drink.

Guacamole and chips, take the place of the bread and butter here.  Their Guacamole (Capital G used on purpose because Bayless’ guac is so good that should be referred to as a proper noun) is the best I’ve ever tasted.  If a place like Topolobampo seems a little out of your price range, you can also try this dish at Tortra Frontera, or at the neighboring (and much cheaper) restaurant Xoco.

Soupa Azteca at Topalobampo

The restaurant week menu started off with Beet Salad.  It was pretty tasty, and you had the yummy bit of peanut oil.  To be honest though the beet salad at Aria was a little bit better, but not by much.  I also found the orange in the salad slightly too bitter.  I added in the Soupa Azteca between the appetizer and main course.  It is essentially a Chicken tortilla soup so good that in the middle of a Michelin star restaurant, you have to use tons of restraint in order to prevent yourself from picking up the bowl and licking up the tasty broth.  The elegantly plated thin strips of crispy tortilla along with tender chicken get the wonderful earthy broth poured over them tableside from a beautiful copper saucepan.  One stir and you can scoop up a  bit gooey melted cheese at the bottom with each bite.  (A similar soup is also served at Tortas Frontera, but I’ve had it and it is great but not quite as good)

Pork Shoulder at Topolobampo

The main course was pork shoulder.  It was served with this tasty earthy black bean sauce.  The dish also had corn tortillas.  I’m not a fan of corn tortillas at all to be honest, but Rick Bayless is kind of like the Godfather of Mexican cooking, constantly making you offers that you can’t refuse.  The tortillas are light and don’t have that heavy, overpoweringly strong corn taste to them.  For dessert you get these very rich and buttery crepes, served with a nice sweet cinnamon ice cream.

I got checked into my second hotel the Hilton Chicago. A little known fact about the place is the roof of the Hilton Chicago was where the helicopter scene in ET was shot.  Yeah, not at a hospital.  Anyhow, I do have one complaint of the hotel.  There are twelve elevators, and on the bottom floor there is a  button on each side where there are four elevators, at my floor however, there was only one call button.  There was also this ridiculous couch that you had to walk around once you realized that there was no button on that side (and back around if an elevator opened on the opposite side).  That being said the elevators were incredibly quick.  

Room at Hilton Chicago

The hotel had recently undergone a multi-million dollar renovation, and the floor I was on having been recently renovated, had these new keys that you only had to touch the door rather than swiping them.  I was even able to just keep my key in my wallet and touch the wallet to the door which was very convenient.  The room also had this new computer screen thing that I found to be painfully slow and useless.  Would probably come in handy if I forgot my laptop, but I wouldn’t go through the trouble of paying to use that thing.  How is the internet free, but yet costs money on their crappy device. 

Mushroom Soup at Boka

Dinner would be at the dimly lit Boka. It’s old-school design style is brought into this century via black tablecloths, and bright silver tablemats.  The mostly candlelit restaurant gives off a romantic vibe, but that doesn’t stop the many hipster and business types I saw from dining there.  It is a place that you would dress nice too but isn’t one of those stuffy jacket required type of places that I abhor.

Pork Cheeks at Boka

After ordering my meal I was brought out a rosemary focaccia, with a perfect connel of room temperature butter.  I am sort of picky about my bread and butter at restaurants.  I like warm bread and room temp butter because it is easy to spread.  Sadly both were room temp.  Not to say that the bread wasn’t quite tasty though.  The first course was this very earthy mushroom soup.  Hidden in the bottom of the bowl was a nice tangy shallot marmalade that added acidity and brightened everything up.   You got additional meatiness from a confit chicken thigh that was beautifully tender.  The creamy soup was great for this winter night.

Next up was pork cheeks.  The pork cheeks was almost like a grown up version of pork chops and apple sauce that works so well.  You get this good blend of sweetness and saltiness with the perfectly tender pork.  It was well complimented by the shredded brussel sprouts and that tangy sauce pulled the entire dish together and made you want to go back for bite after bite.

When the carrot cake arrived at the table in it's deconstructed glory.  I thought I would be totally put off by the little pieces of fresh carrot.  They actually ended up being my favorite part of the dish next to the five spice peanuts which also add complexity and crunch to the dish.  A bit of levity is added by the orange sorbet so that brings everything together in this not too sweet carrot cake.