I kicked off a seven-day Thanksgiving binge with my second visit to Vera, the highly anticipated Spanish wine bar from former Carnivale husband-and-wife team Mark (chef) and Elizabeth (sommelier) Mendez. It was a prelude in stark contrast with the subsequent digestive tsunami of chili dogs, french fries, pepperoni bread, tater tots, beef jerky, cheese popcorn, deep-fried stuffing balls, sour-cream mashed potatoes, chocolate-pecan pie, bourbon, rye, more bourbon, Bloody Marys, and, of course, turkey. The only greenery I ingested was a chopped salad dressed with a bacon vinaigrette that my twisted sister spiked with a half g’s worth of Splenda.
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Vera is likely to have a similar effect on lots of diners. Mark Mendez recently told the Reader, “I don’t do subtle food.” And even before leaving Jerry Kleiner’s Carnivale, he made much of his desire to cook simply, from scratch, with premium, local-if-possible products, something he struggled with but still accomplished with impressive regularity at the 600-seat juggernaut.
A whole meal could indeed be made simply from a few glasses of leathery Black Slate garnacha Porrera and the chef’s tripe, morcilla, and garbanzos, an offal plate so textured and soulful I had to order it on two separate visits. It’s a dish whose disparate elements are harmonized perfectly—crispy iron-fortified sausage coins spread across nutty legumes that mingle with the silky, funky flavor sponge of the honeycomb reticulum absorbing the tomatoey sofrito.
There’s no dessert menu at Vera, which, intentionally or not, places the focus on the cheese selection, with a healthy midwestern representation served at the proper ambient temperature. It’s best to save these for last anyway, if only to start with bread and butter: a dense boule accompanied by three luscious compound butters—roasted garlic, duck cracklings, and goat—along with a pool of outstanding peppery Spanish Castillo de Canena olive oil. Charging for bread service still tends to spark an instinctive annoyance in me, particularly when there are so many precious sauces to sop up. But for $6 it’s a steal.
1023 W. Lake 312-243-9770verachicago.com
