Yeah, the noise was definitely toned down compared to my first time there.

The GP wrote:sola restaurant
3868 N. Lincoln Ave.
@ Byron
(773) 327-3868

For those who haven't been there, note that the restaurant entrance is on Byron, even though the street address is on Lincoln. It's easy to drive/ride right past it on Lincoln without even realizing that it's there.

It may be noteworthy that Sola has a new GM, Sean, who started about 6-8 weeks ago, so that may account for the boost in quality...

Hello all,

first time posting to this forum, though I have been using LTH as a resource since we moved out here from CA last year. I've found it really useful and am ready to de-lurk a bit! I wanted to tell the tale of our brunch at Sola, a meal filled with contrasts... bottom line, the food was pretty good, the service was frustrating at first, but they made up for it in the end:

My husband and I went here for the first time today at 12pm (had a restaurant.com gift certificate kicking around). I had one of those "uh oh, it's too trendy" vibes as we approached but over the course of the meal that went away. It has a pleasantly open interior, with nice warm colors in the decor, and the crowd was of all ages.

We'd made a reservation and so were seated right away even though there were several groups waiting both inside and outside. Since we were just a two-top, we were squeezed into a spot that really seemed more of an afterthought than a deliberate table, but once I was seated it didn't really feel cramped. Our water glasses were soon filled, and a couple of minutes after, the manager (I'm guessing), who was refilling coffee at the table next to ours, said "I might as well ask while I'm here, would you like coffee?" we said no, content with water for the moment, and he went away. For the next 10 minutes at least, we were left alone. No servers so much as glanced our way, and certainly none walked by our table. I finally flagged a water server down and asked him to please send a server our way. I watched as he went to the host stand and some major confusion ensued. We had apparently been forgotten, never picked up by any of the servers. Finally, a server that I hadn't seen before came over and apologized, took our order, and offered us cocktails on the house. My husband declined the cocktails quickly (a bit to my surprise - I would have liked an orange juice! But we eventually realized that he hadn't heard the part where she said they would be "on us") and we placed our order.

While we waited I looked around - it seemed like food was taking a bit long to arrive at tables, and a few of the servers seemed really harried. I overheard one telling that table next to us that he also had tables outside, which struck me as odd, not sure why they don't organize their sections more logically? The one we ended up with came from another part of the restaurant, which was why I hadn't seen her yet.

Our food arrived in due time; we began with the malasadas which were lovely. Light and crispy but with a nice substantial interior. The mango and raspberry coulis sauces they came with were ok; the mango sauce tasted a bit fridge-weary but the raspberry was fine. At $7 for 4 (about the size of a baseball),we agreed they were too pricey for fried dough, but they were tasty enough to make up for it. For our mains I had the egg sandwich (with arugula, their housemade bacon and boursin), which was fine. It got better after a liberal salting of the eggs, and it got even better when I added some butter to the bread (it came with some, but not enough). The bacon was cooked too well for my tastes, which added a pleasant crunch to the sandwich but denied me that satisfying chew that bacon can impart. Husband ordered the huevos benedictos, a poached egg atop cornbread with chorizo and salsa hollandaise. He thought it was just ok, and mentioned several times that he would have preferred some other sort of corn vehicle underneath instead of cornbread - a sope, arepa or huarache might have fared better than the slightly too-sweet and crumbly cornbread. Both dishes came with hashbrowns, which were very unimpressive. I admit, I like my potato products pretty "well done" and these didn't have any sort of sear on them, they were just sort of wet and limp.

When we went to pay the bill, the server informed us that they'd taken care of the whole meal. We were pretty surprised, as we had not complained any further after asking for service the first time. It was a very nice gesture and so we left feeling better than I had thought we would at the beginning of the meal. Looks like we'll be going back (since we still have that gift certificate), though I'm not sure we would really be rushing back otherwise (for brunch, at least). Hopefully the next go will be a bit more seamless. (And hopefully my next post will be a bit less verbose!)

Had a very similar experience around the same time (11:45 reservation) this Sunday as you did. There were 4 of us seated outside and it took a very long time to get our food. The waiter asked any of us if we'd like our coffee refilled - 3 out of the 4 said yes and then we didnt see him again until we were all finished and he presented the check.

That said, I thought the "Huevos Benedictos" was one of the best brunch meals I've had in Chicago. Granted, I'm a sucker for pretty much anything that includes corn bread and chorizo, but I thought the dish was extremely well done and cooked perfectly.

The only other complaint was that one of us ordered the matzoh brei and we were all disheartened to find not a single piece of matzah included in it. It was more like an omelet.

First meal at Sola last weekend.

Party of 3 for brunch and we opted to sit outside.

As others gave noted the service did seem a little unorganized. There were mostly open tables yet it took a few minutes before we met a server. After getting water our server showed up without menus. And when the drinks arrived Ms TCF's cappuccino was barely warm.

The minor service issues aside we ordered the

wasabi bloody marys - sola bloody mary with 'shorty' 8 oz. beer chaser
MALASADAS - portuguese style donuts, mango curd and raspberry coulis
pineapple upside down french - toast mango curd, tropical fruits, creme anglaise
huevos benedictos - chorizo, corn bread, salsa hollandaise
matzo brei - onions, fennel, spinach, matzo, boursin


The Marys were not great though they did have the distinct flavor of fresh horseradish and the 7oz miller chaser was fun.

The masaladas as an app were ok. My standard for this dish is the Depot Diner who I think does a little better job despite sola having the very tasty coulis.

Ms TCF and our companion found the french toast far too over the top sweet and fruity. The upside down is an apt description because these things tasted like a sweet desert.

Huevos benedictos were cooked perfectly with a very good chorizo. I can plausibly see how some would argue against the cornbread in this dish or that the ratio to chorizo should be reduced, but we all found this to be a solid dish at a very reasonable 10bucks.

the matzo brei was very interesting. Personally I enjoyed the hearty savory quality of the dish and the girth of the serving without many of the creams, cheeses, or greases which often accompany heavy brunch dishes. The incorporation of the brei also lent a very appreciable textural quality to the dish. Of the three present i most enjoyed this one, yet despite how much I liked the concept it was not especially palatable if that makes sense. For me the brei was a well worth eating and a lot of food for the 9 dollars but I am on the fence as far as calling it a success.

We also ordered a side of the togarashi potatoes and found them to be indistinguishable from (ie just as terrible as) the rest of the hash browns. All of the potatoes were flavorless mushy masses of with no brown or flavor to speak of.

With the exception of the potatoes, and to some degree including the potatoes since I usually order them extra crispy with onion, I chalk most of the negatives with our brunch up to our menu choices as well as my belief that brunch is generally going to be a losing proposition.

I will certainly be heading back to sola to try the prix fix menu

We had our second meal at sola tonight. As with our first experience, dinner was great, service was nice but quite slow, and dessert was not so hot.

My husband had cambazola-stuffed lamb chops with farmers' market vegetables, which he loved. I had the greens and grain, which tonight was barley, tofu, and farmers' market veggies (in my case, green beans, asparagus, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers) with a miso-based sauce. It was absolutely delicious. We had an order of the truffle parmesan fries, which was my favorite part of our last visit. My pregnant palate has to agree with my husband, they are QUITE salty, but we both still loved them.

Dessert was strawberry-rhubarb compote on goat cheese biscuits with vanilla goat cheese ice cream. Neither of us particularly enjoyed it, as it was dry and not very flavorful. I did not like dessert last time either, so I think at this point we'll be skipping dessert on future visits.

Our waitress was very nice, but not very attentive at all. There was a longer-than-average wait for the first visit/drink orders (I didn't time it, but it was awhile), and like another poster, we noted she had several tables outside, as well as ours inside. We just didn't see much of her. The man who appeared to be a front-of-house manager noticed and got my husband a drink refill, and busboys were attentive and extremely nice. However, this is our second visit with not-such-great service, so I am starting to wonder if it's just an issue with how tables are assigned (esp. in light of other comments). It's hard to say service is a problem (although I guess I have, haven't I?) when staff is as pleasant, and front-of-house staff who aren't waiters are so responsive, but overall, it's not what I expect at the price point.

We love the food and we'll be back, but we'll be skipping dessert and going in expecting slower service.

sweetsalty wrote:...we'll be skipping dessert...

You'll be missing out, then. Sola makes perfect ice cream in interesting flavors served with delicious homemade cones. The sesame brittle is unbelievably good, and the red wine caramel has some highly addictive properties. One spoonful and you're hooked. Skip the fancier desserts if you want, but do not deprive yourself of Sola's ice cream. Classic vanilla is loaded with vanilla bean specks and is lusciously custardy. It has no room for improvement.

Curses, I almost got the ice cream! I will give it a shot before I give up on their dessert entirely, thanks for the tip.

I totally agree on the ice cream. The salted caramel ice cream I had there was one of the highlights of the meal.

We had a good meal at Sola last night. Thursday is the Burger, Bacon and Beer night. Somehow I thought this was some sort of package, but everything is a la carte. We each started with a cocktail (Manhattan for me, a vodka concoction for Mr. X) while we perused the menu. Please excuse my poor memory regarding dish descriptions. Mr. X started with the butternut squash soup that came with an apple compote and a maple drizzle. He then had the burger, which is a Wagyu “Kobe” Burger sandwiched between a chewy pretzel roll with house-made bacon, caramelized onions, fresh arugula and melted cambazola cheese. I had the red grouper special, served over a sweet potato lobster hash, brussel sprouts, baby root vegetables (carrots and possibly turnips), with lobster butter. There was a lot going on in my dish and it mostly worked. Mr. X's burger was fantastic -- not a light meal for sure. We skipped dessert, opting to have a night cap at In Fine Spirits.

I thought service was very good and I like the room. Sola is not an inexpensive night out though. We didn't go crazy ordering and we were still around $100 for dinner (two entrees, one appetizer, four drinks (cocktails & wine/beer.)) At Sola's price point, there should not be butcher block paper on the tables. It bugged me all night because it was curling up. Otherwise, Sola is a nice treat.

The GP wrote:...baby root vegetables (carrots and possibly turnips)...

A notoriously difficult vegetable to positively identify.

Thanks for the bump on the thread. Sola has been on my list since I moved here, and for some reason I haven't yet been - I need to remedy that.

-Dan

For whatever reason, Sola is one of those places I seem to gravitate toward in warm-weather months & forget in the winter. Not sure why, since I don't necessarily sit outside, but of the meals I eat there, 90% are in the summer and 10 percent in the winter.

I ate there tonight for the first time since they were going to close-didn't close-decided to stay open at a lower price point. Honestly, if I didn't know that they were supposed to be more casual/less expensive, I probably wouldn't have noticed a difference except that tablecloths have disappeared.

That said, Sola is one of those restaurants I love, but don't eat at often enough. I could happily eat there every week, but I don't.

Tonight's hits and misses:
Hit -- Crispy Brussels spouts leaves: Delicious, salty, buttery goodness. If people only at these (and the Brussels sprouts at Purple Pig) no one in the world would hate Brussels sprouts
Hit -- carrot, ginger & miso soup: Tasted like spring. Nice, light & delicious.
Hit -- hanger (or skirt?) steak: Served medium rare with spinach & fingerling potatoes. I only had a bite, but it was fabulous. My friend said the potatoes were a bit salty, but still great.
Hit -- scallops with english peas & mushrooms: Another delicious, flavorful dish.

Misses -- none, really, though we got the crispy mushroom salad & once I started eating it, I remembered that I've ordered it before and it's just OK.

FWIW, the bread basket is still fantastic & the mixed drink list still as interesting as ever.

Oh, they're also serving a great Hitachino espresso stout, which was a terrific dessert beer. Our waiter told me that Hitachino[url] was damaged in the earthquake, so we should drink it now because supplies will diminish in coming months. I've fallen in love with Hitachino, so I'll definitely stock up next time I'm at TJs or other places that sell Hitachino.

My wife and I had been meaning to get back to Sola for a long time. They seemed to be booked whenever we thought of going. But we were in luck last Friday and got a table. We both agreed that the meal was very good, but quite overpriced for what it was. Coupons seem fairly easy to find for Sola (we had a Groupon and I believe they are also on restaurant.com). We would definitely go back with a coupon.

The Sola chefs put together a great carry-out catering meal for my office's Hawaii-themed holiday party. They loaded the order into a large thermal case to keep the food warm for my drive to Wilmette. Kalua pork and grilled fish in a sauce made with fresh herbs were tasty, but the veggie sides were even better. Not only did they meet our requirements for a vegan side and a side that addressed multiple food allergies, but the dishes were very well executed, particularly a cauliflower with ginger preparation. And the pastry chef threw in some free banana bread that was quite good.

That's the third year in a row I've come up a holiday-party winner from LTH research: first Casa de Isaac, then Psistaria, and now Sola.
Thanks Chef Carol!

We had another good dinner at Sola last week. As is my pattern in this thread, I have poor details. What strikes me is that I had some minor quibbles (halibut special could have been more assertive with the curry as per the description; soba noodle entree well-prepared but boring), the overall experience was very good and made me wonder why we don't go more often. Well, one reason is that it's not an inexpensive night out, even with a coupon. Still, I feel like Sola should get more love than it seems to here.

Trying to get LTHers thoughts on Sola's "closing" kerfuffle, which was described over on Opening/Closings. Considered posting there, but fairly certain mods would prefer it on the dedicated thread.

Anyways, news dropped that Sola would be closing back in February — originally announced on Facebook, reported on by a number of reputable outlets (Eater, Crains, etc), and was discussed here on LTH, again in the comings & goings thread. Long story short, it seemed pretty certain that Sola in its current form would be gone come April.

Fast forward to end of last week, and apparently someone got cold feet:

Sola wrote:We're NOT Closing!

Greetings loyal Sola guest,

Recently some misinformation was printed about our restaurant closing down in April of this year - this is factually incorrect.

At some point the restaurant will shut down for a re-concept, but this will not be until the fall of 2015 or possibly even early 2016 - the specific timeline is simply impossible to predict at this point. When that timeline becomes clearer we will be sure to let you know...

Does the timing of all this seem a bit odd to anyone else? Popular, but aging restaurant sold to new ownership announces a close (days before V-day, no less) with a month farewell tour so regulars can come say goodbye. Then, just before you'd actually have to pull the trigger, all of a sudden it was just factual inaccuracies?

That explanation would make sense if the closing announcement was miscommunicated as part of the news about the sale, but new ownership didn't think to correct reports from Eater or Crains? Heck, most of their own PR indicated that they wanted to have the reconcept open by Fall, which makes an April closing seem about right.

Sola wrote: Until then we would like everyone to know that the same service and kitchen staff that have made Sola the phenomenal restaurant it is today are all still here (emphasis mine).

What? Is a founding/head chef not a key part of what makes a restaurant as "phenomenal [as] it is today"? It's great that the new ownership agreed to keep the staff and others on as part of the transition, but Chef Wallack was a big part of the whole deal.

So what do LTHers think? Has anyone been recently? I really wanted to try Sola when we thought they were going to close, but all this hand waving has me skeptical.

Definitely a situation I am avoiding. I had 2-3 great dinners and another 2-3 great brunches at Sola prior to this odd transition to new ownership, but completely agree with you - the chef/owner was an integral part of Sola and without her it is not the "same" restaurant. I also am skeptical that at least some of the front & back of house staff did not depart with her (or soon afterwards). Not sure why the new owners decided to put off the recocept; could be funding, waiting for a time of year restaurants are typically slower, lack of clear vision of what changes to make or a number of other issues. Regardless too many great restaurants in Chicago to risk a subpar experience at a place in flux and possibly chaos. I do not want to mar my previously positive memories of Sola. Personally I think the new owners would be better off changing the name sooner rather than later. I am curious how busy they are now versus before Chef Wallack's departure.

I know Sola is being re-concepted, but I wanted to try a long shot here. Any chance anyone has contact info for the owners (via PM please). They had a piece of art in Sola I've been wanting since I first dined there years ago and would like to see if they'd sell it to me now.

Thanks,

J