As a wintry chill descends on Chicagoland, those looking to warm up with a tasty tipple have three new high-profile options in the center of the city.
Whether the next-door extension to one of Chicago’s top restaurants, or a winery with an Alinea alum in the kitchen, these three spots offer guests an array of options from expertly fried chicken to an intriguing quartet of Old-Fashioneds.
After
Word play aside, there’s intentional synergy between Ever restaurant — a Michelin two-starred spot among the city’s most expensive — and its new adjacent bar, After.
“Because it lives next to Ever, it is an amenity for Ever, (and so) the design had to match,” said Michael Muser, who opened Ever with chef Curtis Duffy in 2020 after the pair’s lauded Michelin three-star restaurant, Grace, closed in 2017.
The cocktail lounge, which opened in late October, touts a sleek list of classic drinks such as Old-Fashioneds, a Toki highball and a Sipsmith dry negroni, most for around $20. Beneath a cascading installation evoking rainfall against an inky night sky, the bar stocks an impressive range of fine spirits, with an emphasis on whiskey, agave spirits and wine.
Toothsome small plates, from a pair of black garlic lamb ribs ($14) to steam buns with maitake or pork belly ($8 each), complement a selection of skewers made with the likes of wagyu ($40), chicken satay ($12) or tuna belly ($40).
While certainly still a splurge for some, After provides a way for diners to get the Ever treatment without the $285 price tag of the restaurant’s 8- to 10-course tasting menu, Muser said. And unlike Ever, which is largely booked through the end of the year, it’s much easier to get a seat at After.
“We want our Michelin-starred service that exists at Ever to transfer over to our cocktail experience,” Muser said in an email.
But it’s also a way for diners at Ever to keep the night going.
“Ever is often for special occasions,” Muser said. “It’s less about the expense and more about extending the experience on a magical and special night.”
1338 W. Fulton St., after-lounge.com
Chicago Winery
The thought of wineries tends to evoke visions of sweeping valleys and sun-warmed vines in far-off places.
Instead, Chicago Winery scoops up the best grapes from the likes of California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys and brings them to be crushed, fermented and bottled in its 2,000-square-foot winery and barrel room in Chicago’s River North neighborhood.
It’s not the first urban winery in Chicago — the similarly named City Winery has been crushing grapes at Randolph Street and Racine Avenue in the West Loop since 2012 — but Chicago Winery looks to distinguish itself with an adjoining restaurant, Liva, fronted by an alum of Alinea, The Promontory and Dusek’s Tavern.
Currently sourced from its sibling wineries in New York City and Washington, D.C., until Chicago bottles age, the wine list features a considerable range of options, from a sparkling pear-scented blanc de blanc ($18 for a glass,; to a jasmine-laced riesling ($14) and a $60 bottle of verdejo, its mellowed orange hue matching notes of quince and grapefruit. Brambly zinfandel ($14) deepens into baking spices and caramel, while a $64 bottle of petite sirah is kissed with a hint of cocoa.
Chef Andrew Graves’ menu of shareable plates is meant to enhance each sip with an ideal dish to accompany it. Mussels ($22) in a sizzling cast iron draw spice from shishito peppers nestled alongside the harissa-rubbed mollusks. Braised short rib ($27) is dusted with cumin and paprika, then punched up with sweet acidity of bread-and-butter pickles and pungent black garlic sauce.
Potato croquettes ($15) get a Midwestern spin, the deep-fried bechamel-potato dumpling showered with sour cream, scallions and bacon bits for a luxurious take on a loaded baked potato.
“It’s like taking something a little exotic and unfamiliar to a lot of people and making it very local or homegrown, (something) that you’d find at a steakhouse,” Graves said. “That’s one of our bestselling dishes.”
Chicago Winery is the third of First Batch Hospitality’s city-based wineries, starting with Brooklyn Winery and District Winery in Washington, D.C. Wines made on-site will age for several years, with the Chicago winery looking to process produce 50 tons of grapes and bottle 3,500 cases of wine in its first year, a smaller but not insignificant yield typical for smaller, independent wineries.
Some Chicago bottles could be ready for pouring in a matter of months, while others will age for a few years. The tasting room will open Dec. 14, with wine tours beginning in 2023.
“You can get a great bottle of wine that you can only get here,” Graves said. “It feels like an exclusive thing.”
739 N. Clark St., 312-763-3674, livachicago.com
Yardbird
From classic buttermilk biscuits made fresh every 20 minutes to nuanced whiskey-focused spirits like a bacon-washed Jim Beam, everything at Yardbird is made from scratch.
And it seems it’s a recipe for success, as the Miami Beach-launched concept has taken flight to five more cities before coming to roost in River North at the end of October.
Still, each location offers something a little different, with dishes paying tribute to local palates and ingredients, said Patrick Rebholz, an executive chef at Yardbird’s restaurant group, 50 Eggs Hospitality. In Chicago, whose name is derived from an Indigenous word for a wild, stinky onionlike plant, there’s Ode to Onion soup ($16) — glimmering with the subtle sweetness of shallots, leeks, cipollini onions and vidalias — and beefed-up steak options in a 32-ounce porterhouse and a 14-ounce rib-eye.
There’s also a tender porchetta ($40), cured for two days and braised over a luxurious 10 hours, then served with slow-braised white beans dusted with Parmesan and a pickled peach mustard.
Brush it with your fork, “and it just falls apart,” Rebholz said. “Porchetta is probably one of our best dishes.”
Yardbird is arguably most famous for Llewellyn’s Fine Fried Chicken. The dish ($33 for a half-chicken) is named after the grandmother of 50 Eggs’ owner John Kunkel. The chicken is brined for 27 hours and goes into a Henny Penny fryer at a low temperature in pork lard.
“At the very end, the last minute and a half or so, we blast off all the pressure and get all the humidity out of the cooking apparatus, and then spike that temperature way up so it crisps the outside,” Rebholz said. “What you’re doing is creating a very tender inside and a very crispy outside.”
Rebholz said he was drawn to creating menu items like Sweet Tea Braised Short Ribs ($42) that are simple yet have some unique element.
“Instead of solely veal or beef stock to braise it down, we use a ratio that uses sweet tea in it,” Rebholz said. “It made sense because short ribs are lacking sugar content, which helps offset the fat content.”
Perched above the restaurant like a birdcage, The Bourbon Room will offer a niche selection of cocktails, including four Old-Fashioneds, ranging from $18 for a classic take, to $40 for one made with Don Julio 1942 Tequila, and featuring one with a pour of bacon-washed Jim Beam made in-house. They join a list of house creations and four classic whiskey cocktails, allowing visitors to sip and compare under the warm light of a custom chandelier, surrounded by an impressive display of bourbon bottles.
Nonalcoholic cocktails like the cucumber fizz are meant to offer a “sophisticated” spirit-free option, Rebholz said. The drink has club soda with citrus and spices including anise, cinnamon and coriander.
The Winter Citrus Tonic, infused with flavors like lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit and elderflower, is an alcoholic beverage that Rebholz said can be made into a spirit-free drink by omitting the vodka.
“I think we put a lot of effort into putting together something (Chicagoans) would be proud of having in their city,” said Rebholz.
530 N. Wabash Ave., 312-999-9760, runchickenrun.com/chicago
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