Over the past decade or so, while the butter-slicked perniciousness of Paula Deen was undermining mainstream perceptions of southern food, there was a quieter, nonparodic revolution ramping up to take it back to its preindustrial agrarian past. That was when the sheer variety of local crops allowed a diverse family of differing regional cuisines to develop—as opposed to the monocultural set of foods the rest of the country has long held the south to possess. The standard-bearer for this resurrection is the Charleston, South Carolina, chef Sean Brock, whose two restaurants serve as ground zero for this movement. Here in Chicago it’s chef Paul Fehribach, whose scholarship at Big Jones has led to many different menus faithful to a number of discrete southern traditions that might as well be brand-new for most eaters.
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This neo “old south” movement is also responsible for the resurgence of a bounty of heirloom foods such as Carolina gold rice and purple cape beans, which both appear on Steuer’s menu. But the chef is not orthodox, and Carriage House is less reverential and exacting than Big Jones. On Steuer’s menu a dozen shareable dishes are divided into “traditional” and “reimagined” columns, distinctions that in some cases are meaningless. I’m not sure how often chefs in Old Dixie prepared sous vide chicken thighs—pressing them in a cylindrical galantine before deep-frying and honey glazing their skin—but it’s an interesting preparation, served with a vinegary sweet potato hot sauce and candy-sweet bread-and-butter pickles. The dish would be terrific if it had some balance, but as is it belongs on the dessert menu more than anywhere else.
Steuer strikes these perfect balances across his menu, particularly in a pair of dishes each served in a rectangular cast-iron pan—one a crispy slice of panfried ham hock terrine set in a succotash of field peas and corn, tarted up with a mustard vinaigrette, and enriched by an oozing soft-boiled egg. The same egg serves the same purpose with cheesy grits and oyster mushrooms buoyed by truffled vinaigrette. These are both extravagant little dishes that could easily get bogged down in their own richness but for equally judicious application of acidic flavors. Those grits, incidentally, show up all over the menu, as a side, with shrimp, and anchoring one of the four larger entrées on the menu, a towering chunk of quivering braised pork shoulder topped with pickled banana peppers and smoked plums. In fact, corn takes many forms here, including a small skillet of light, spongy corn bread topped with sweet onion jam and foie gras compound butter.
I complained that the Bedford was sort of boring when I reviewed it, but I don’t find that to be the case at all here. Carriage House is, at the moment, loud and boisterous in the best way, soundtracked by a range of southern-tinged classic-rock deep cuts (Dylan, Skynyrd, the Byrds, etc), and despite the menu’s misfires shows a lot of potential.
1700 W. Division 773-384-9700carriagehousechicago.com
