Farmerie 58

Something is wrong at Farmerie 58, but it's hard to tell exactly what it is. The talent of the well-pedigreed chef shines through on some dishes; the servers appear dedicated and work with a smile; the owners walk around the room and clearly care. Somehow, all of that added up to a pretty disappointing dinner last night.

None of my companions had read Monica Eng's piece in The Stew, yet three of them - completely unprompted by me - complained that their food had been served luke warm at best. It's unclear whether this is a kitchen or a front-of-house problem. Much as it's unclear exactly why our server repeatedly took drink orders, said "I'll be right back with this," and then apologized about 20 minutes later, still without delivering said drinks. Or why she asked for and confirmed specific instructions about how we'd like our order paced, and then the busboy delivered things completely out of the order we had requested. Again, everyone here seemed to have a positive attitude and appeared to be busting their butt. Were they short staffed? Is it the restaurant's configuration, which does seem to be quite a mess? There is a huge upstairs dining room, parts of which seem to be a football field away from the bar and kitchen. There's a sushi bar making lots of dishes, and that's nowhere near the kitchen, where everything else comes out. The space problems definitely seemed to contribute to the chaotic and inefficient service.

Service gaffes would have been more forgivable had the food been better. Butternut squash soup with toasted garlic would have been better named "Cream soup with pale orange color, with burnt garlic." I've been cooking lots of butternut squash at home lately. This year's crop has had bright orange flesh and full squashy flavor. It was almost hard to believe that this soup contained the ingredient at all, as there was absolutely no discernable squash taste. The smooth, thick puree had a nice texture for a few spoonfuls, but then it became overwhelmingly rich. The black, charred garlic slivers floating atop added nothing but a very unpleasant, bitter taste. A black cod entree was well-prepared, but the delicate fish was served on a bed of smoked cheddar grits which completely overwhelmed it, and a pesto crust that just didn't belong.

Some dinner items fared much better. A big short rib was slow-cooked tender and full of meaty flavor, served with a nice cauliflower puree and some excellent, simple roasted carrots. The potato-andouille rösti on the plate was a mostly-forgettable mess of shoestring potatoes with no discernable sausage taste. A sweet potato appetizer had perfectly roasted, 1/2-inch thick, sweet slices served atop a beautifully-textured parsnip risotto and perfectly ripe, fresh figs. Bread service was excellent as well - very fresh dark rye, white, and wheat breads served with a house made truffle-honey butter that was addictive.

Farmerie 58 is a nice place with dedicated personnel and interesting dinner offerings. With the huge, ambitious menu, I fear they've just taken on too much. Here's hoping that they prove me wrong and turn the place around very soon.


Farmerie 58
58 E. Ontario St
312-440-1818

Anyone been? We have reservations with friends for this Saturday night. I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyone been? We have reservations with friends for this Saturday night. I'll let you know how it goes.

How was it? Their head chef has been replaced since Kenny's post so perhaps if the gaffes were boh related they've been fixed.

It was fine. It's not a place I'll go back to anytime soon because of location (we're in the burbs), but it was ok. As stated before, the bread and butter were good. They didn't balk at re-filling the basket. Our meal started with the house salad for me, arugula salad for my friend, and the calamari for my husband. The calamari had a little hot pepper kick to it, but my husband enjoyed it. The arugula salad was good with a nice peppery bite. My house salad was a little under tossed, so there were some pockets of salt. When I did a little tossing myself, it was fine. The main courses were the tenderloin with a risotto base, a few versions of sushi (side note: the sushi bar seemed a little odd. It was definitely a hold-over from the previous space) the bistro burger, and I had two appetizers for dinner -- the roasted sweet potato over risotto, and pork belly ravioli. The tenderloin was cooked to specifications. When asked what kind of risotto my husband ate, he couldn't quite remember the flavor. The sushi was fresh and well made. The friend enjoyed it. The burger was cooked correctly and came with a mountain of crispy frites. My sweet potato over risotto was very good. It also had figs and creme fraiche. Like my husband, I couldn't quite put my finger on the type of risotto. (Just re-read the other review. Apparently, it was parsnip risotto) The potatoes were very tasty with the figs and creme. I couldn't help but compare the pork belly ravioli to the kreplach that I made for Rosh Hashana. There were three of them served in an incredibly salty broth with spinach. I don't know if I have a sensitive salt palate, or if my dishes were just oversalted that night. No other dishes seemed to have that problem. The desserts were good. Two of us had apple tarts with caramel ice cream and peanut brittle. The apples were well cooked, but the crust was a little soggy. My husband had a pear cake with pineapple ice cream that he really enjoyed.

The temperature problems that others mentioned were no where to be found. The food was hot when it was supposed to be hot. The service was very good. There were a few quirks. They didn't have port for our friend, but our waiter suggested a good dessert wine. My husband asked for a double espresso. When our bill came, he had been charged for two espressos. We paid $12 to valet our car. It never moved from in front of the restaurant. We joked that we were ransoming our keys for that $12.

Again, it was good, better than I was expecting. However, it wasn't very memorable. I think that there are other places that would be preferable the next time we venture into the city. We did break our 90 day rule by going there. Usually, we wait for a restaurant to be up and running for 90 days before we try it out. This new version has only been open about a month. Perhaps they are still working out some bugs.

My wife and I ate there on Sunday for Brunch. The Trader Joes next store has free 90 minute parking with purchase. So my wife and I parked there, ate at Farmerie, and then bought some stuff from TJ's and got our parking validated. When we were checking out the lady said you aren't supposed to eat out and then shop(she still validated our parking) to get the free parking so you probably want to keep it a secret if you eat out.

Anyways, about the food. There were a total of 3 tables occupied including us around 12:30. We ordered the quiche and sour cherry french toast for entrees and then got a pear upsidedown cake for dessert. The food was great but the service/chef was pretty bad. The quiche and french toast arrived at the same time but the french toast was missing the potatoe side AND crushed hazelnuts which were both on the menu. We pointed it out to our waitress and she had to go check the menu, then she went to the kitchen. She eventually brought them out but that shouldn't happen. We didn't order anything special, just two basic dishes. The only other issue is the food was luke warm but that didn't distract us too much. On the plus side our waters/coffee were refilled often and as I mentioned above the food was tasty.

Hopefully they can clear up their service issues and

My significant other and I had Valentine's Day dinner at Farmerie 58 and it was a mixed experience.

First, we had to wait 30 minutes for our table to be ready even though we had confimred our reservation by telephone in response to a call from the restaurant.

Second, the service was at best indifferent. The waitress was obviously inexperienced, did not explain any of the menu items very well and came to our table infrequently.

However, the food was excellent (for the most part). I can't recall our appetizers, but I had melt-in-your mouth pork belly and my girlfriend had lake trout (if I recall correctly). The upside-down pear cake (shaped like a miniature bundt cake) was dry and mediocre.

Something is wrong at Farmerie 58, but it's hard to tell exactly what it is.

My co-worker went to Farmerie 58 this past Valentine's Day and these were her thoughts exactly! She didn't know if they were so overwhelmed by Valentine's Day crowds or what but the food was not up to the par she was expecting. I haven't been there myself though.

Kraft Paper on the windows,
small sign -
look for another "slickdesign" concept,
to open soon.
Seen yesterday.

Yesterday's Dish:
Two Floors of Japan
After a year of business, Farmerie 58 (58 E. Ontario St.), a massive Gold Coast space with an identity crisis (farm-oriented bistro? Raw bar? Pub?), has closed. The current plan calls for the ground level to reopen later this fall as a sushi bar with Ming San (formerly of Rise) as the sushi chef. If all goes as expected, the upstairs will eventually unveil as a casual izakaya, i.e., Japanese small plates. “Members of the family have gone to Japan to hunt down new dishes,” says Sandy Yu, an owner, whose family also owns Rise and Shine. “And I think this will be really different.” As for Farmerie 58, it’s sayonara. “We tried very hard the whole year,” says Yu. “Even got a lot of customers, but we could not survive. So we decided to do something new.”

first an Asian-fusion place with a sushi bar. Then an American farm-to-table place with a sushi bar. Now a Japanese restaurant with a sushi bar. A comical evolution.

Mexican sandwich place with sushi bar next

Mike G wrote:Mexican sandwich place with sushi bar next

Secret Mexican sandwich place with sushi bar next

/fixed