Entries associated with the tag "Schwa":

Apart from new featured reviews of Schwa and Sixteen in this week's Food & Drink we have nine others in the listings and a bonus in the Reader Restaurant Finder. Kate Schmidt would take the bus to the Peterson Park tapas restaurant Cafe Marbella, though an easier CTA trip would let her relax among throngs of Evanstonians at Union Pizzeria. David Hammond barely stayed awake at La Cocina de Frida, and Anne Spiselman thought the eats at the Libertine far outclassed the cheesy faux-Victorian vibe. Martha Bayne says Natalino's is good enough for her parents--but not for her--and the food at Nxxt isn't good for anyone. I was surprised how good Nia was despite its wide-ranging menu, and I'm holding out hope for Troy Graves's Tallulah. Finally, there's no surprise at the stupidity of Rockstar Dogs, and I recommend holding your nose at Con Sabor Cubano. Better yet, take out.

Next time: Mercat a la Planxa, Take Me Out, Jack Rabbit, The Fifty/50, and more.

Last week Martha Bayne and I reprised an early 2006 visit to Schwa. Since its reopening the day before Valentine's Day, we'd been trying to land a reservation for a mid-March, midweek seating, but had some difficulty. First she couldn't get a call back, and then the answering machine was full. When I got through I didn't have a dummy credit card handy to secure the date, and when I called back the machine said they were booked until early April. When I finally reached a human on the phone again--Chef Michael Carlson himself--it turned out we got the exact date and time we wanted originally. Persistence pays.

While Bayne is taking on the critical duties and weighing in next week, I'm just going say the whole interactive experience at Schwa is enriched by a modicum of curiosity. Carlson and his reinforced kitchen crew all serve the dining room, and each seems more than willing to talk about the backstory, creation, and technique of any given dish. It's a necessarily hurried perspective--they have work to do, and on our night the room was less than half full--but it's a willing one, and certainly more enlightening, colorful, and honest than anything you'd hear from a server.

Strangely, though, we got the idea that they don't get many questions from diners. One chef asked if we were in "the industry," simply because we were asking about the dishes that came to the table ("No, we're just nerds."). Most people just eat, he indicated. But when someone offers you a plate and says "Dude, here's a shot of gelatin-clarified rutabaga juice," how can you not be curious?

For me, what's most fun about Carlson and his restaurant is not eating in the glare of his colorful (and unwanted, it seems) press--the catapult to national prominence, the mysterious disappearance, the redemptive comeback--it's the opportunity to experience such furious creativity through the unfiltered, unpretentious perspective of the people responsible for it.

Or more simply, as Carlson replied, when we complimented his soon-to-be-famous sous vide antelope, "It's cool. It's tasty."

The alleged recession shows no sign of slowing the tide of new restaurant openings. In addition to this week's featured analyses of Crisp, Takashi, and Rustik in Food & Drink, we have a half dozen more new reviews in the listings.

I suffered through the barbecue-in-name-only at Risque Cafe and Smoke Shack. Gary Wiviott and I tag teamed Tony Hu's two new Chinese regional restaurants Lao Beijing and Lao Shanghai. Kate Schmidt found something to eat besides pizza at Evanston's Omaggio, and Rater Lisa K. Coburn was flummoxed by the 135 varieties of tea at Suzi's Tea and Cafe--she'll stick to coffee, thanks.

Next time: Schwa, Con Sabor Cubano, Sixteen, La Cocina de Frida, The Libertine Gastropub & Lounge, Nxxt Restaurant & Bar, Cafe Marbella, and more.

We got an e-mail from a reader this morning saying she'd gotten a call from Aaron McKay at Schwa. She thought he was calling to confirm her reservation, but in fact he had to tell her that the restaurant was closed indefinitely.

A quick call to the restaurant confirms this. McKay didn't want to go into details, but did say that Friday was their last service. They had planned to open for dinner on Saturday but "were unable to do that." Yesterday the decision was made to close while some unspecified personal problems were worked out. (According to Heather Shouse over at Time Out, it's permanent, but McKay wouldn't go that far.) Chef Michael Carlson wasn't available--McKay was the only one there, left with the depressing task of answering phone calls like mine.

I haven't been to Schwa in more than a year, but the meals I had there in 2006 were hands-down among the best of my life. Burnout's a fact of restaurant life, and obviously whatever's going on is serious enough to warrant such drastic action, but still, it's sad to see them go. 

The answering machine at Schwa confirms a rumor from a few days ago: the teeny Ashland storefront is closed for the month of July and will reopen August 3 with a new menu. Per the message they're now taking reservations through August (and they've added a corkage fee of $2.50 per person).

While Chef Carlson and company are off figuring out what could possibly top the quail-egg ravioli, could someone please copyedit the Web site? Restaurant-generated printed matter is a notorious breeding ground for dangling modifiers and egregious Capitalization, but c'mon dudes, it's p-a-l-a-t-e, not palette.

ETA: Also, quotation marks.