The phrase “Dutch courage” supposedly refers to the bracing shots of genever (aka Holland gin) soldiers threw back before heading into battle in the Anglo-Dutch wars. You have to wonder how many of those opening chef Joncarl Lachman downed before mustering the guts to list something called zaansemosterdsoep as the second item on his menu at Vincent—right after the maatjesharing shot.
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It’s not that a Dutch restaurant in the middle of historically Swedish Andersonville seems strange. It’s that a Dutch restaurant anywhere outside of the Netherlands does. After rijsttafel, gingerbread, and space cakes, the Netherlands are best known for ample but not exactly titillating plates of sausages, cabbage, and root vegetables. All of these make their way onto the menu, and into a three-course $25 prix fixe: pork belly, brown bread, and snert (not some creature hunted out of Seuss, but a thick, Shrek-green split pea soup), smoked sausage and mashed roots, and a cheese course of aged Gouda.
A fat fillet of beer-battered haddock comes on a mound of snert studded with coins of smoked sausage, while half portions of plump, fresh mussels in one of five preparations (beer and garlic butter, sambal, saffron marinara, apple and garlic, or white wine with tomatoes, capers, garlic, anchovy, and olive) are enough for two eaters to share. A towering pyramid of crispy suckling pig carved off the daily beast (perhaps with some stray bristles remaining) is mounted atop roasted potatoes and apple-cabbage kraut and served with a slab of pork belly that stretches clear across the plate.
The homiest dessert was budino di farro, a warm baked pudding topped with a thick jam of red-wine-soaked dates and thin yogurt; my favorite was the torta bacio, dense and silky chocolate-hazelnut mousse on a crunchy base. House-infused vodkas are on tap, along with beers, but the wine program is the big deal: besides ordering by the glass, quartino, or bottle from a list taped to a giant wine bottle plunked on the table, you can have any wine from the retail list ($13-$85) with dinner for a $7 corkage fee, which is waived on Sundays. —Anne Spiselman
Davanti Enoteca 1359 W. Taylor, 312-226-5550davantichicago.com
Chicago Q 1160 N. Dearborn, 312-642-1160chicagoqrestaurant.com
