During the first weeks at NANA, a busted computer made for Homeric wait times. Then city workers cracked a gas pipe, forcing a lunchtime evacuation. Such mishaps were exacerbated by slowish service. Fortunately, waits are decreasing, due in part to whip-cracking servers like ours, who was heard querying the cooks sarcastically, “You want me to come over there and help you out?” Cafe 28 pastry chef Maria Solis (aka Nana) and her sons, Omar and Christian, preside over this genuinely friendly, slightly crunchy upscale diner, which generally adheres to the standards set by the USDA’s National Organic Program.Menu selections include a breakfast burger crowned with a runny egg and smeared with aioli and the “Nanadict,” two cheese-stuffed pupusas topped with poached eggs and house-made chorizo in poblano sauce, a colorful and creative take on the standard. Banana-hemp buckwheat pancakes (see “crunchy”) were remarkably light and airy. Soyrizo is a surprisingly successful vegetarian alternative to the real thing, and we also enjoyed the mascarpone-stuffed French toast, though the accompanying sweet agave sauce is as close as you’ll get to tequila here: alcohol is prohibited. Instead there are fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juices—we dug the carrot-Granny Smith apple combo. The inventive chow and positive energy outweigh the service bumps that remain—and when you think about it, really, if you’re in a rush you probably shouldn’t be doing brunch. Lunch brings sandwiches, more burgers, a house-made soup of the day, and salads including a wheatberry side salad with carrots, scallions, cilantro, red onion, and cilantro-lime vinaigrette. —David Hammond
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They’re plying a streamlined menu of shareable plates closer in style to Spiros’s work at Lincoln Square’s late Block 44 than the Asian-inspired Mantou, and it’s equal parts hit and misses. French fries, which seemed to come out of the kitchen more than anything else, were overseasoned and a bit limp, but probably better than they needed to be. A few times on a quiet Monday night the kitchen displayed an unjustifiable inattention to certain plates given the relative calm that had settled over the place. “Sushi grade” scallops were overcooked and rubbery atop a rich spread of goat cheese-red pepper grits. A poached egg topping pulled short ribs on a toasted baguette was also overdone, and a clutter of mussels provided a labor-intensive distraction from an affectless, soupy jambalaya. The simplest things (excluding the fries) came out best: a crock of crispy, crumb-topped cheesy penne with bacon, a pair of gooey ham and cheese croquettes with a bracing jalapeño-mint emulsion, and a minimalist (and minuscule) lobster roll with bacon and avocado, the priciest item on the menu at $16. But despite the uneven execution, I still think Spiros is a chef worthy of attention—and a better environment in which to receive it. —Mike Sula
33 Club 1419 N. Wells, 312-664-1419
The Red Canary 695 N. Milwaukee, 312-846-1475
