Eve

So today I’m having lunch at Eve with my loyal, collie-like companion CG. He told me this was a fancy place and I should consider myself lucky for going. I told him to get off the furniture and go lay down. CG likes my opinion on food because I have no idea who chefs are, where they used to cook or any of that, so in theory, I can give him an unbiased, honest opinion. He's a food groupie.

As I mentioned, CG said this was a fancy place. I wouldn’t say fancy, I would say nice. Staff was in all black, and customers were dressed casually, but you know, loop casual. They still looked rich. If you can look rich while wearing a fleece zip up, you’re doing something right. Nice skin and haircuts. Luckily I was coming from my second interview at Chicago Academy of Art & Design and was wearing a tie. As we sat down, we were swarmed by waitstaff, picking up placesettings, pouring water and arranging the table for us. It felt a bit like the Chez Paul scene in Blues Brothers.

The prices were fair, less than I expected with all that ambiance. Most apps were around $10, there was a skirt steak on there for $15, and a $13 Po’Boy, the irony of which I hope is not lost. Also a $22 foie gras burger. Lots of interesting stuff on the menu, but this was lunch and I had to get back to the mailroom in an hour.

Duck Consommé: I’m not sure what Consommé means, but I believe it’s French for soup. A thin, heavily seasoned broth, with duck rilette potstickers, lemongrass essence and green papaya. There was something very spicy in that mix and I think it was the green papaya. In this context green meant “new” or “not ripe” because it wasn’t green. But it did make me cough because it was so strong. Raw onion strong. That could have been the lemongrass, but it seemed to only come from the shoestring like things and CG said those were papaya. The pot stickers were strong, meaty and seasoned nicely. Better once I cut one open and let the broth soak through.

Lobster Sausage: CG tells me seafood sausage is difficult, so I said why bother. He says that the trick is to not treat it like sausage, and many cooks/chefs do. I asked how are you supposed to treat it but he was on his cell phone again. It tasted like low fat sausage and if I didn’t know it was lobster, I would have never guessed. Maybe I associate lobster with a small pan of butter, but on it’s own, it was bland, a bit dry and the casing was noticeable because the inner meat was so soft. However, and this is a big however, it was served with some bacon (edit: Nueske’s) that made me realize I’ve never had real bacon before in my life. I held each piece of bacon in my mouth like a lifesaver (the candy, not the flotation device) until all the flavor was gone. At times my eyes were closed.

Nearby, an older gentleman dining alone started to make a ruckus. He ordered the chicken, but that wasn’t a chicken sandwich, and he really wanted a chicken sandwich. This was upsetting to him and he was forced to loudly comment on how much he missed the place that used to be in this spot…flapperjacks or flapjaws or something.

I couldn’t hear what the waitress said, but the old man said “If you don’t bring me a white zinfandel, you’ll never see me here again.” The bartender, overhearing this exchange, quickly threw a rag over the white zinfandel and in a few minutes the old man left. It felt like slow motion, partly because every one in the room was staring at him, but also because that “You Had a Bad Day” song from American Idol was on. Our eyes followed him out to the street. He didn’t get his White Zin, but he had his dignity.

Since we’re on the music…the need to change the station, or the pipes or however you get music into a restaurant. It was adult contemporary pop crap that flew in the face of the subtle, tasteful décor. Counting Crows, Rhianna, Coldplay, that American Idol Song…it was like being at Fantastic Sam’s. CG mentioned that he thought this guy is one of the best in Chicago and I told him that Seal wasn’t from Chicago, as Kiss from A Rose blared overhead. He clarified that he was talking about the chef. Speaking of chef…

Prawns: Two perfectly entwined prawns plopped on a pumpkin custard type thing. There was far too much custard for just two shrimps, but the leftover made a nice impromptu dessert. Like pumpkin pie, but lighter and not as sweet. There also was a spicy/sweet drizzle of some sort, which had a slight berry taste. A scoop of prawn, custard and drizzle reminded me of what autumn underwater would taste like, but *sigh* there are no seasons underwater.

Mussels: I don’t like mussels, so I’m not qualified to review these. There were a lot of them, and they were served in an ice wine broth with sliced grapes. That was wonderful. Sweet and light. I’m tempted to say crisp, but I say crisp too much. But it was. It was crisp.

Hamachi Tartare: Hamachi is French for tuna. The fish alone had a flawless, clean taste. There was a bit of cilantro, lime and maybe some wasabi? A ribbon of sweet pickled onion that added sweetness and texture.

I love coming to a place on the first day. Everyone is nervous, the staff bump into each other, and aren’t sure where things are. Sometimes they don’t have knives. But to borrow a phrase from my doorman, this place was on point. I guess the only thing that was off was they didn’t have any beer yet, so we had wine, which was probably better considering. Also the receipt said Tellulah.

In conclusion, I don’t know much about food. I don’t pretend to know this guy’s pedigree, I just go where CG takes me and this place was smooth. I wouldn’t have known it was their first day. The room is small but not cramped, the staff was attentive but not annoying and most of the food exceeded the expectations I didn’t have.

86 out of a possible Kiss From a Rose. I'd pay $25 for parking to eat here again.

Eve
840 N. Wabash
Chicago

lookjerk wrote:Hamachi Tartare: Hamachi is French for tuna.

not quite. hamachi is japanese amberjack (aka yellowtail or Seriola quinqueradiata, its frumpy latin name).

Tartare is french for the chef didn't feel like firing up the grill...

Lookjerk, keep 'em coming - but not too fast, I might just get too depressed about my own writing to post, myself.

hanse_coloursmay wrote:

lookjerk wrote:Hamachi Tartare: Hamachi is French for tuna.

not quite. hamachi is japanese amberjack (aka yellowtail or Seriola quinqueradiata, its frumpy latin name).

I always thought hamachi was yellowtail and aji was amberjack (or is it shima aji? I thought one is horse mackeral and the other is amberjack, can't remember which is which).

jesteinf wrote:

hanse_coloursmay wrote:

lookjerk wrote:Hamachi Tartare: Hamachi is French for tuna.

not quite. hamachi is japanese amberjack (aka yellowtail or Seriola quinqueradiata, its frumpy latin name).

I always thought hamachi was yellowtail and aji was amberjack (or is it shima aji? I thought one is horse mackeral and the other is amberjack, can't remember which is which).

i think hamachi is yellowtail (hamachi referring to farmed yellowtail...notthe very young ytail), kanpachi is amberjack, hiramasa is yellowtail amberjack, and aji is spanish mackeral. I forget which fish is shima aji, but i'll ask my friend shima later. I'm pretty sure she knows.

Fo Shizzle on most of the stuff my homie said. Let me add a few noodles to the fire.

The Lobster sausage was beautiful. Lookjerk is a jerk and misinterpreted what I forgot to tell him. I can't describe how much I hated seafood sausages until now. Every one I've had in the past had the texture of head cheese in a casing of burned parchment. This was a good smooth, but not too smooth texture. It was seasoned well but didn't overpower the Lobster. It was served with roasted Chanterelles, Nueski (Nuff said) and a maple bechemel. The casing had a nice snap to kina CISPNESS.I'll be holding all additional seafood sausages to this standard.

Duck Consomme, Duck Rillette Potsticker, Green Papaya, Lemongrass Essence. This potsticker was good! Lip smackin, punch a baby good. The rillette filling was smooth and ducky and the broth was nice and deep. It did have some creep up your rump spicyness to it. We were both coughing and laughing at the same time. I think the spicyness may have come from the lemongrass or possibly the jalepeno. I liked it and wasn't put off by the heat.

Spicy Pomegranate Glazed Prawns, Pumpkin Panna Cotta. These 2 mother prawns were placed on top of the panna cotta like a 69 scene in a midget porno. The panna cotta was a great contrast to both the texture and temperaure of the shrimp. I think the plate was dressed with the pomegranate glaze but i can't be certain.

Steamed PEI, Honey, Ice Wine, Radish, Concord Grapes. Dave, I mean lookjerk isn't a fan of mussels so these were mostly mine. I eat mussles like Rosy O'Donnell eats beaver. There were a ton of mussels in the bowl and the semi sweet ice wine broth was refreshing.

Hamachi Tartarrrghe, Roasted Poblano, Pickled Red Onion, Mint, Passionfruit Yogurt. Nice sized pieces of pepper were intermingled with the fresh clean tasting fish and the yogurt helped cool the slight heat.

I grabbed an Eve Burger to take home for Stink Foot's dinner tonight. The 10oz burger is as big as lookjerk's ego from reading all of the comments from his innaugreal posts. He's doing well.

A few more dishes we didn't have but worth noting. (I snaked a menu as we were leaving)
Terrine of Salsify and Butternut Squash, Brussel Sprouts, Candied Pecans.
Wild Boar Ribs, Plum BBQ, Mac n Cheese
Foie Gras Burger on a Bacon Cheddar Bun with Fries. I'm taking this one to my next PETA meeting.

All first day bugs aside, this place is prit - tay slick and is a great follow up to Tallulah. Prices are all under $20 with the exception of the Foie Burger. The front of the house people did a nice job of trying to calm the crazy old white zin lover Lookjerk and I had the pleasure of witnessing. It was like dinner theater. The food was exactly what I expected. L/J mentioned something in his post we talked about. I think Troy Graves is one of the best in the city. He's combining cool flavors, using interesting ingredients and doing both consistently well. I seriously wouldn't be surprised to se him in next years best new chefs issue of Gourmet.

They're opening for dinner next week and I'm sure L/J, 5 head and stinkfoot will be going back. Maybe L/j will pick up the bill for once. Holla Back!

(Tough word to search for... my apologies if I've created a redundant thread.)

(edit: interestingly enough, titling a thread something that's already been used appends your post. Cool, I guess.)

Ate here last night, and will definitely return.

I had an appetizer special of rabbit and bacon terrine w/ beet carpaccio. It was a bit dry, but was tied together with a *really* lovely lemon/garlic drizzle of some kind. It was so damn cold out I had to order the truffled risotto, which was quite good.

My wife had butternut squash ravioli (in a very nice apple-based jus of sorts) and a salmon with a beautiful (and large) piece of fish.

Beautiful room, excellent service. The wine list is a bit short, and (I never understand why places do this) doesn't have a (actual French) champagne by the glass. However, Sundays to Thursdays are $29 prix fixe (no idea on surcharges), and Sundays and Wednesdays are no corkage.

My biggest complaint? It's close enough to our house to be problematic.

Eve
840 N. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
312-266-3383

basis wrote:(edit: interestingly enough, titling a thread something that's already been used appends your post. Cool, I guess.)

Just checked the moderator logs, the ever on the ball Cathy2 moved your post to the existing thread.

Basis,

In your Inbox, there is a message advising this was merged plus tips on how I found the post. Almost all the time, I send the OP a note advising where the thread was merged into or moved to. Occasionally, I forget.

Regards,

Has anybody else been to this place? And as importantly, is this really in the old Flapjaws location? I noted the address, but I thought Flapjaws was on Pearson.
I will be there this weekend. Any recommendations are welcome.

DML wrote:Has anybody else been to this place? And as importantly, is this really in the old Flapjaws location? I noted the address, but I thought Flapjaws was on Pearson.
I will be there this weekend. Any recommendations are welcome.

Flapjaws was on Pearson until Loyola built their new building. Flapjaws reopened in a space on Wabash in the new Loyola building, but did not last very long in the new location. Too bad, because I really liked the tuna melts at Flapjaws. It also seemed a better fit for a college building than Eve. I've been to Eve once for lunch and found it unremarkable. I want to try again because I think we ordered poorly.

Ok, so I won't be back in the space where I consumed way too much beer in college. That's too bad. Would have added an interesting element.

We've been to Eve a few times, most recently on December 19th for a dinner in the small private dining room. Chef Troy prepared a tasting menu and Brian (our very favorite waitperson) paired each course with wines. Everything was fresh, beautifully prepared and presented and our group was so impressed that we are already talking about going there again next year.
One of my favorite appetizers is the lobster deviled eggs. They're perfect with a glass of sparkling wine. I can't remember everything we had, there were 7 courses and all were delicious. I do remember loving the pan seared Foie Gras paired with port, and the hangar steak.

My girlfriend and I ate here last week as a random draw from our a la card chicago deck. The place was pretty empty, but it was Martin Luther King Jr. Monday, so that may have been an anomaly.

We both had a good experience, but nothing was really outstanding and it didn't quite live up to the prices we were charging. I started with the butternut squash ravioli. There were just two ravioli, but it was quite good. My girlfriend had the field greens/blue cheese salad, which was excellent, and at $8 was the only thing we felt was a good value.

For my entree, I had the seared opah with purple sticky rice. I'd never had opah before and the dish was quite good. Again, it didn't blow me away and isn't something I've found myself craving since. My girlfriend had scallops in a grapefruit sauce. This was a very off flavor combination at first, but it really grew on us over time. We also had a side of Brussels sprouts, which were good, although I've had better.

For dessert, we had a giant s'more thing made with homemade marshmallow which was very good, but again pretty expensive and not outstanding.

All-in-all it was good, but given that the location is out of the way for us and the myriad other options in the city, I doubt we'll be back unless we happen to be in the area. If the prices were a little lower or the food a little better or more exciting, this would have been a real winner for us. The prix fixe looks like a really good deal, though. If you don't mind being limited in your menu choices and get there early enough, I'd recommend that.

Our experience last night was very positive. Our server was a pleasure and the food was very good.
As others have noted, the wine list needs work. We started with a bottle of the Gruet Rose. I believe we've had that wine a few times before. We noted that the champagne glasses emphasized style over quality. That was fine considering what we were drinking, but might have been an issue if we something more complex.
My wife started with the mushroom tart, which she enjoyed. I went with an Elk tartare. It was interesting and very good.
Next, we both went with the lobster bisque. I've had better, but still, I enjoyed it.
Next, we each had one of their deviled eggs. This was interesting with a nice kick to it.
For the main course, I ordered the chicken, while my wife ordered the opah. We each tried our own and then tasted each other's dish. At that point, my wife insisted that we trade since she absolutely loved the chicken. It was a beautiful dish of perfectly cooked and seasoned chicken. I was not unhappy to have the opah, since that also was perfectly done. I had ordered a glass of Pinot Noir to go with the chicken, and had it anyway even though my wife and I traded main courses.
For dessert, we shared the lemon basil cake. I did not like that as much as others have. I had a class of Gewurtz, while my wife went with coffee.
The menu had a great winter feel. It was not quite comfort food, but it still would work for people from people serious about food to people who are not so serious. We like Naha a lot and this seems like a decent alternative to Naha. We definitely will return.
Since I happen to have the receipt with me, the cost of the meal without tip was $191.78.

I have some friends wanting to meet us at Eve Restaurant on Wabash. I've never heard of this place. Anybody eaten there?

Eve
840 N. Wabash
Chicago IL 60611
312-266-3383

HI,

FYI - I used the search words 'Eve Wabash' to locate an existing thread.

Regards,