On the elevator ride to the seventh floor of the Four Seasons, there’s just enough time to react to the framed advertisement for Allium, the profound casualization of the hotel’s erstwhile Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant: a close-up on a pair of pretty lips and set of straight white teeth about to chomp into a raw red onion. Allium is the genus to which onions and other perennial bulbous plants belong. “Chicago” is derived from the Miami-Illinois Indian word for “stinking onion.” Even if it goes over your head, you want to reach into the frame and stop her; snatch it away and gently guide her to the onion tart on chef Kevin Hickey‘s menu, where the pungent properties of the bulb metamorphose in a 24-hour sous vide bath, lending sweetness to savory goat cheese and nutty apricot kernels.
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That impression will be delayed if you first stop in the bar, where certain institutional practices haven’t evolved: shaken martinis and manhattans with neon-red, fake maraschino cherries; bartenders who don’t measure but pour straight from the bottle; a short, vodka-dominant cocktail list. It’s puzzling that these qualities still get a pass in this age of spiritous enlightenment, though a healthy selection of bourbons and local brews is more current.
There’s a tip of the hat to our friends to the north as Hickey melts cheese curds in a classic, buttery French aligot, the mashed spuds lending a likable elasticity you can practically bite through. And then there’s the puffy bacon buns, a tribute to the highly coveted original version at the Lithuanian Bridgeport Bakery.
There’s an equally broad and varied scope of desserts from pastry chef Scott Gerken, ranging from formally plated expressions of painterly ambition—say, black walnut carrot cake with geometric strips of two-dimensional carrot film—to dense scoops of inventively flavored house-made ice cream (pea shoot, caramelized parsnip), to a collection of malts and milkshakes such as a salty-sweet miso butterscotch concoction (thanks, David Chang) and a peanut butter ice cream and grape soda PB&J. There are also inexpensive smaller sweets ranging from lemon bars and doughnut holes to wonderfully moist house-made Oreos. Most of these will leave a good lasting impression.
Allium
The Four Seasons 120 E. Delaware 312-799-4900alliumchicago.com
