[Plus: New Too: Eleven more recent openings, including Epic, Lockdown Bar & Grill, Life on Mars, and more]
House-made charcuterie is becoming the chicken breast of new restaurants. But cured meats actually make a lot of sense in a brewpub—just not Revolution’s mushy sausages, pale fatty hams, and cured pork belly inexplicably drizzled with truffle oil, or for that matter the hilarious vegan rye bread they’re served with. On paper a bowl of bacon-fat popcorn sounds like a perfect beer companion, but in practice it’s a top-heavy mass with chunks of bacon and clods of shredded Parmesan—the antithesis of finger food. Petrie has a tendency to gild the lily like this: see also his 16-ounce cold-smoked-and-grilled rib eye, slathered in a thick oxtail “sauce” that contains a nearly comparable portion of braised oxtails.
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Whether all of these ought to be braved regardless of your disposition toward adventure is another matter. The brat-size house-made sausage on a bun is dry and underseasoned, but the wild boar sloppy joe is a scarfable Tuscan ragu sandwich topped with crunchy frazzled onions and, more questionably, a whole fat fuck-you of a pickled jalapeño. A sunny-side up duck egg layered on a beef tongue hash is a satisfying late-night breakfast, and might even inoculate you against the dozens of whiskeys behind the bar. The sprinkling of perfect crispy-fried Ipswich clams on an oversize block of toasted brioche, though, is sure to provoke frustration in anyone who’s ever dropped a few bucks at an actual clam shack. Even on a single plate execution can diverge to extremes—beautiful braised rolled veal breast is a meaty paragon, but its partner, a short rib stuffed in undercooked manicotti, just looks embarrassed for itself. That and a huge undercooked candied apple in a pool of bourbon anglaise with a squibble of pureed butternut squash say to me that sometimes things are coming out of the weeds before they’re ready.
To be fair, it’s possible that the unrelenting crowds have affected both places’ ability to execute. They may need even more than the customary breaking-in period before they’re worth the wait. —Mike Sula
It is, of course: that chorizo and the chicken are all soy and wheat protein. Yet while cheese is called out on the menu as vegan, and other items are marked as raw or gluten free, there’s no indication that the meat is faux. Just as we were trying to figure out how to broach the question without sounding like utter fools, a gallant server swept to our aid, and from then on, dinner at Karyn’s on Green was one of the most graceful, pleasant meals I’ve had in a long time.
1050 N. Milwaukee | 773-489-8888
1252 N. Damen | 773-772-2243
Longman & Eagle 2657 N. Kedzie, 773-276-7110, longmanandeagle.com
Prairie Fire 218 N. Clinton, 312-382-8300, prairiefirechicago.com
Karyn’s on Green
130 S. Green, 312-226-6155, karynraw.com
