By the time you read about what I ate at Allison and Rob Levitt’s minimalist new Wicker Park restaurant, you may have to wait until next year to try some of it. That’s because much of the menu at Mado, in the space formerly housing Barcello’s, reads like a shopping list for the week’s Green City Market. Preparations are simple, with all due reverence given to the superior quality of the ingredients, raised by an A-list of regional agrarian rock stars. The porchetta, a riff on the central Italian boneless roast pig, was presented as a slab of luscious pork with amagalmated crispy bits, dressed with a light salsa verde and some arugula. Raw sunchokes, sliced into small coins and tossed with lemon and parsley, were every bit as memorable—and so uncomplicated it’s a wonder you don’t see this dish everywhere. Nearly everything I ate tasted like early spring, from the thick, deep, dark green wild nettle soup to the trout with walnuts, deftly grilled over wood to yield perfectly lush pink flesh under delicate crispy skin. Desserts were also excellent in their restraint, particularly a rhubarb fool, layers of lightly tart fruit and lightly sweet whipped cream. Don’t overlook the fragile, buttery shortbread, which crumbles at a touch—it’s listed modestly on the menu but it’ll be the last thing I forget about this place. About the only off-key item—tellingly one of the few that couldn’t have had a local provenance—was octopus braised with chiles on crostini. If this is a previously undiscovered Lake Michigan species, I’d say throw it back next time. Valuewise, a few thing are hard to swallow—a $4 side of baby greens works out to about a buck a leaf—but overall the Levitts are doing regional and sustainable sourcing as affordably and accessibly as anyone outside a home kitchen. This neighborhood has already rejected one great restaurant built on this model in John Bubala’s late Baccala—I hope Wicker Park gets it this time. —Mike Sula
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