First bite: Table Fifty-Two
It is a humid Sunday night, and two joggers pass a restaurant at 52 W. Elm St. in the Gold Coast. They stare at the menu display outside, when the door open and a man in a chef jacket appears. Where have they seen this guy before?
“Come on in,” bellows Art Smith (as seen on TV!).
“We’re pretty drenched in sweat,” one jogger replies.
“No, come on in!” Smith says. “You can sit at the bar.”
These are not words of a desperate restaurateur trying to lure in customers; if anything, Smith’s Table Fifty-Two (312-573-4000) is one of the most anticipated recent openings. Yet there’s something compelling about its “Ya hungry? Come on in, there’s a table waitin’ for ya” motif from a James Beard award winner who’s better known as Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef. The world is Art Smith’s dining room, and we’re just stopping by for dinner.
The vibrant interior, with 13 tables and 5 counter seats, glows with a warmness emanating from its pastel yellow walls and copper touches .
Sunday nights are what Smith calls Sunday Supper, serving a down-home, family-style menu with just four mains, three sides and three desserts. Deviled eggs arrive, then warm goat cheese biscuits. These are crazy good. There’s chef Smith again, this time personally serving house-pickled green tomatoes slices.
Two pieces of buttermilk fried chicken breast at $18 might seem exorbitant, until you remember this is Gold Coast dining (the restaurant is on the former site of Albert’s Cafe & Patisserie). More convincingly, this chicken is one fine bird: brined overnight so it’s astoundingly juicy, tender and snow white, fried to a light crunch and grease-free. Could the three-cheese macaroni (really penne) look more indulgent? It bubbles as it exits the wood-burning oven. For a dish using gouda, butterkase and aged Cheddar cheeses, it’s lighter than you’d think.
This being Smith’s first restaurant venture, and this meal taking place on the restaurant’s fifth night, I was thrilled and not surprised to see how hands-on Smith was with, well, everything. He cedar-planked the halibut, served the biscuits, conducted traffic and posed for photos. During a free moment, I asked Smith what his concept, intent and hope was for his Sunday Suppers.
He replied succinctly, and left it at that. “Home.”
— Kevin Pang
First bite: Otom
After much hype and a little chef shuffling, Otom (951 W. Fulton Market; 312-491-5804), the more casual loungy sister restaurant to Moto, finally opened its doors last month. But the sleek, ultra-modern eatery with long clean lines and colorful stripes helmed by former Moto sous chef Daryl Nash could still use some fine-tuning.
After being given the option of dining at a table, the bar or lounge, we chose the low, cushy seats in the lounge with its low cocktail tables. Techno tunes flowed at a volume that mercifully allowed for conversation. Our friendly server was happy to answer questions, even offering us a complimentary sip of the day’s soup ($6), a divine and creamy potato Cheddar.
We stuck with appetizers, including grilled cheese three ways ($12), French, Italian and American. The French version on a baguette with gruyere and Black Forest ham was our favorite with its crispy crust, rich cheese and meat. But the American (Virginia ham and Cheddar) and Italian (on squares of ciabatta with Taleggio and strangely Virginia ham-looking “prosciutto”) were not worth finishing. We expected the food to be, if not as innovative as Moto’s, at least consistently delicious. Next up was a brasiola salad over arugula, pine nuts and Granny Smith apples. While the lean slices of beef were fine and all the produce fresh, the salad was bland and under-dressed. Only after repeated attempts to catch a server’s eye in the uncrowded restaurant, we were able to get lemon wedges to perk things up. We finished our meal with one of Otom’s $9 desserts. The banana split — three chocolate-covered cubes of banana puree on skewers in a pool of caramel, with pineapple and maraschino cherries — is a cool concept but unexciting flavor combination.
With so much competition these days for high-end comfort food in a lounge atmosphere, Otom is going to have to up its game if it wants to play alongside its big sister next door.
— Monica Eng
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