Isabella's Esiatorio in Geneva

Under sad circumstances (a funeral), Thor's Personal Assistant and I had to travel to St. Charles on Tuesday evening. As the trip there and back would be too long to go without a meal, we decided to check out a place we had recently good things about: Isabella's Estiatorio in Geneva. Maybe there is a reason for us urbanites to travel voluntarily to the suburbs.

Isabella's is a relatively new restaurant: open only about a year. It's a pleasant room with dark wood, yellow walls, and oriental rugs on the floor. I've seen it described as Mediterranean-American, probably accurate. It seems to pull its influences from Greece, southern France, Spain and the Middle East.

I started with the crab cakes. Now I have to say, I typically prefer crab cakes with some chunks as opposed to ones with a smoother texture. This was an exception and an exceptional dish. Smooth in texture, rich in flavor with a bit of a crunch on the exterior. They were served on a spicy aioli and paired with a salad of red endive, fennel, roasted peppers and pristine baby arugula. Thor's Personal Assistant had the mussels in a tomato-pernod broth. The broth was good and put the Red Hen bread to good use. The mussels, on the other hand, were not the best.

For entrees, I had the braised rabbit and TPA the olive brined pork. Both were wonderful. The rabbit was tender, falling off the bone. It was paired with a goat cheese polenta, ragout of pearl onions, Portobello mushrooms and perfectly crisp sugar snaps, a triumph of good produce and good cooking. The brined pork had a sweet potato gratin, white asparagus and a pear-ginger chutney. TPA seemed to enjoy it.

Now, while the appetizers and entrees were excellent, they had not quite prepared us for the brilliance of the desserts. I had the white peach granita paired with a lemon yogurt sorbet with tuile as its base. TPA had the pistachio crrme brulee on top of a wheatabix-like wafer. Absolutely fantastic. Each involved fresh ingredients/flavors, texture combinations (crisp, soft, cold, warm).

We had a chance to meet with the chef/partner, British born Sean Eastwood. He and his staff arrived in Illinois via San Francisco, where he had been involved in the Slow Food movement. Committed to organics and sustainable practices, he travels to both the Green City Market and to the Wheaton farmer's market . He talked with us about the challenges of sourcing organically in the western suburbs. Let's hope he keeps meeting those challenges, because the rewards are great.

I'm glad to hear a good report. I was there a month or so after they opened. In our group of 6, only one had a meal that rated above average in taste and that was the lamb. They service was excellant, everyone was very nice but we just didn't think it special. We were encouraged to come back because the menu will change frequently but we just haven't thought about it. I see that they have a 3pm cocktail and appetizer seating, I may give that a try.

I forgot to mention the excellent wine list, which includes a number of hard to find bottles. We had the Turley, but I did notice the Landmark Grand Detour Pinot Noir, a personal favorite.

I ate at Isabella's once and would gladly go back. All the food was excellent.

I had an appetizer of some kind of flat bread with carmelized onions, cheese and olives. It was incredibly good.

I can't exactly remember what I had for the entree, but it was great. Dessert was terrific too.

The wine list had really perplexed me. I'd suggest looking at those prices carefully - the markup is very inconsistant. I couldn't believe how much they wanted for A-Mano Primitivo.

I had a very hard time picking a wine, I probably should've asked for a recommendation, as I just didn't recognize much of anything, but the Storybrook Mountain Zin I ended up ordering.

Not cheap though...

I hate to comment on coming out from the city for this, I live in the NW burbs, my husband works in Saint Charles and his mother lives in Geneva, so we always end up going out to eat around there a few times a year anyway.

Nancy

Nancy

It seemed as though the wine list included a lot of cult wines, which may not be that familiar as they are only occasionally available on a list or in a wine store. I can't really speak to a disparity in the mark-up as I didn't study the list as we zeroed in on the Turley. I will say that the Landmark was extrememly reasonably priced, not that much more than the price it was offered for at Sam's. I will say that I find it interesting that the two places I have seen offering the Turley have been in the suburbs.

Were the wines all the big California style mentioned so far (Landmark, Chardonnay I bet, and Storybrook Zin)?

I suppose these make sense given the roots of the chef, but they would not be my preference or expectation for the kind of cuisine you describe. Big, heavy and more expensive than spanish, italian or greek wines of similar quality - until wine prices catch up with the value of the dollar, I suppose.

Next time you go, tell Sean to add some Greek, Croatian and Sicilian wines, if he does not have them already.

Landmark, Chardonnay I bet

Nope, the Grand Detour Pinot Noir.

I suppose these make sense given the roots of the chef

That would likely be true given his experience in San Francisco.

Next time you go, tell Sean to add some Greek, Croatian and Sicilian wines, if he does not have them already.

Next time I would be back would likely be with friends who live in the western suburbs who have a penchant that kind of wine (and pick up the tab when we dine out), so I don't think I would have much chance.

Hey Melissa - the comment to tell Sean what wines to have was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek way of asking if he had any mediterannean wines, but it did not come across that way. The two reds mentioned are actually pretty decent, I think, just strange matches for the cuisine if one is not in California. Did the Pinot work for your meal?

One of these days I will check it out. Thanks for the post.

We had the Turley Zinfandel, which did go well with what I had, in that the flavors of the rabbit were quite assertive. My meal was really more Southern France/Italy inspired comparatively to the more Greek/Middle Eastern inspired selections. And honestly, I couldn't tell you about his options from the latter regions as we got to the Turley and stopped. We were pretty singleminded on the subject of wine after that point.