Editor’s note: Chef Christian Gosselin left the restaurant in April 2013.
The Boarding House, for which she teamed with the owners of the tranquil Gold Coast French spot Bistronomic, presents that same sort of inclusiveness for wine drinkers. The space is comprised of a late-night basement bar that also houses the wine cellar, a rollicking ground-floor bar overshadowed by an extraordinary ceiling fixture built with nearly 10,000 inverted stem glasses (imagine God dumping an ocean of pinot noir on your head), and a third-floor main dining room with a mezzanine, a towering western-skyline view, and a discreet scattering of personal details, such as framed silhouettes of the proprietress turning up a glass or walking her pug.
Are they trying to tell us to get drunk? Gosselin, who came lately from the Sofitel’s Cafe des Architectes and Bistronomic, additionally offers a poutine pizza, and in the upstairs dining room there’s yet another version of the Canadian atrocity, this one with chunks of tender lobster that start to toughen from the radiant heat of the fries just as the cheese curds begin to congeal. Oh well. If Gosselin, a native Quebecois, can’t convince me that poutine isn’t a crime against frites, then I suppose no one can.
The Boarding House is, simply, a large-format wine bar on a grand scale. Singh’s populist approach to the wine—and the inclusive environment in which to drink it—comes across easy. Finding something good to eat with it is a little more intimidating.
720 N. Wells 312-280-0720boardinghousechicago.com
