On a recent trip to Chicago I was able, in one day, to take in four restaurants, burp. The day started off well indeed with excellent food at XOCO the latest from chef Rick Bayless. Located around the corner from Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, XOCO presents bold flavored food which pays homage to the outdoor food carts and markets of Mexico. XOCO is described as a quick service cafe. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. I arrived on a Saturday afternoon in November and met a friend who was already in line. My friend owns a well known restaurant in New York and I must say we were both baffled by the ordering system at XOCO and the more than one hour wait that ensued before we actually got any food! We were told by an employee who was tending the line that we would have about 45 minutes to wait for a table. We inquired to see if we could get our food to go and eat it outside as it was a beautiful day. The answer in short was no. We must wait on the line and when we get to the front of the line we must not try to order without being given a number. While we wait we cannot order anything to drink or eat, tough luck buddy! There are not many seats at XOCO, and the idea is that you wait and wait and wait and then you wait for your number and then you are given the privilege of ordering and paying. Only after ordering do you get shown to your seat, which may be at a counter or a table. Then you have the privilege of waiting again for your food to show up, which in this case was about another 15 minutes.
Having said all that, I would actually subject myself to this moronic system again because the food was fantastic! Next time I would be prepared with a book, or magazine. Next time I would order a drink, which apparently is allowed even though we were told no. We ordered two tortas from the wood burning oven. A blackboard special featured barbacoa torta which contained red chile goat barbacoa (think the perfect texas bbq brisket), black beans, avocado, oaxacan passila chili and tomatillo salsa. From the menu, the Pepito consisted of tender braised short ribs, caramelized onion, jack cheese, black beans and pickled jalapenos. Each sandwich came with its own exceptional salsa and were served warm and fresh from the wood oven on crispy crunchy bread. The textures and flavors really stood out and married perfectly with each other. I was not amused by the service, the wait or the ordering system but the food really was exceptional. The ordering system is even more of a surprise since Rick and Deann Bayless and their staff have been dealing very well with big crowds at Frontera and Topolobampo. I hope they somehow work out the kinks.
The menu is a bit hard to figure out but it lists serving breakfast until 10, then tortas (both from the wood burning oven and from the panini press) from 11:00 and caldos (soups) starting at 3:00 until closing. What is not at all clear is whether they stop serving tortas when they start serving caldos. Your guess is as good as anyones!
Later in the afternoon our first stop in a trio of dinners was Big Star, a brand new taco/drinks venture from the boys at Blackbird , Avec and Publican . I am huge fan of Avec and I like Blackbird, but unless you are looking to get boozed up in a hip atmosphere, skip Big Star. We sampled all the tacos, al pastor (spicy pork), tacos de chivo (braised goat), tacos de panza (pork belly) and tacos de rajas de poblano. All were pedestrian in flavor and texture.
Next stop was The Bristol, a hot new restaurant on Damen Avenue. They describe themselves as offering a locally sourced and seasonal menu with Mediterranean roots. As much as I applaud restaurants who are sourcing locally, there is not a lot to source from in Chicago in the dead of winter. I also do not see much that is "mediterranean" about the menu. The food was mostly sub standard. Duck fat fries were fairly tasteless and stiff aioli was uninviting. The raviolo was soaked in brown butter, completely overwhelming the actual pasta and filling. In the shaved pumpkin salad, endive, yogurt, pine nuts the pumpkin was "shaved" thick and the ingredients did not work together at all, making somewhat of a mess, rather like aleatoric music. Ditto the rest of the food we tried.
Thankfully we ended the evening at Avec. The wait was about an hour, but once seated, the food was superb as always. Avec's food is flavorful, the staff efficient and the wine list excellent, providing many interesting options at reasonable price points. Luckily you wont find many pinot grigio or chardonnays on the list. Rather you will find pecorino, gaglioppo and baga, along with other little known grapes from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. Here the menu leans much further toward the Mediterranean than anything the Bristol could imagine. We devoured wood oven braised pork shoulder with prince edward island mussels, braised tripe, tomato and savory strusel, the wood fired pizza with house made pheasant sausage, pumpkin and pumpkin seed salad, the roasted delicata squash with arugula pistachio pesto, shaved apples, podda (a sardinian cheese) and cider, and an order of the chorizo stuffed medjool dates wrapped in bacon and served in a piquillo pepper-tomato sauce. All the dishes were perfectly cooked, full of life and full of flavor. Over the last 7 years I have found Avec to have the most interesting and fairly priced wine list, and serve the most flavorful and consistent food in Chicago.
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