Just how much pig can one city eat? It’s not an unreasonable question to ask these days, when you can get belly in your ramen and headcheese in your ravioli and the hottest new restaurant in town is a shrine to pork, oysters and beer. The latest venture from the dream team of chef Paul Kahan, sommelier Eduard Seitan, and restaurateurs Donnie Madia and Terry Alexander (the first three are the brain trust driving Blackbird and Avec, the latter two the scenemakers behind Sonotheque and the Violet Hour), in development for more than two years, the Publican finally opened in October and the buzz has been deafening. On a busy night diners can wait upwards of an hour to knock elbows with their neighbors at communal tables, attended to by (mostly) solicitous servers who deliver platters of creamy La Quercia ham, oddments of offal, and peasant classics like cassoulet and boudin blanc in occasionally haphazard fashion.
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On balance the food, under chef de cuisine Brian Huston, is pretty great. The menu changes weekly but stays relentlessly on its snout-to-tail message. On a recent visit, the rillettes were a rich jam of concentrated pork fat and flavor; dense, savory short ribs were brought into balance with a light, cheery dressing of watermelon and cherry tomatoes. Frites topped with a poached organic egg would’ve made a decadent breakfast. A briny Penn Cove oyster, one of six varieties on the menu, was silkenly sublime. And the pork rinds—gussied up bar bites—were revelatory, lighter than air yet still chewy, hit with an invigorating splash of malt vinegar.
Order a la carte, though, and it’s easy to get bogged down (tip: a side of pickles will help cut through all that meat). For all the simplicity of the cooking, the Publican feels a bit overdetermined. Eventually, inevitably, tide will turn and the foodist vanguard will start freaking out about something else—goat, say, or cauliflower. When that day comes, the Publican will have to venture out of its meticulously defined niche—and whatever they come up with, I’d hazard, will be a welcome curveball. —Martha Bayne
For more on food and drink, see our blog the Food Chain.
837 W. Fulton, 312-733-9555
161 N. Jefferson, 312-669-9900
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