The GP wrote:

stevez wrote:

The GP wrote:Fall Mushrooms (roasted chanterelles, chicken fried maitakes, creamy butterbeans, crispy Laurel Aged Charleston gold rice cake, pickled peppers)

Man, does that sound good. Chicken fried maitakes are now on my must try list.

It was a great dish. I cleaned my plate and I usually don't.

Agreed!

Hey peeps, Paul Fehribach just posted on FB about a monumental f***up that happened to his Open Table account regarding valentines day reservations.

Unbelievable, monumental "technical glitch" on opentable caused a mirror of our entire floor plan on the system for valentine's day so even after we blocked reservations they still kept coming in until we had almost 300 reservations when capacity is 180. Apparently we even appeared on "last minute" reservation guides when we had nothing available, and opentable just kept taking reservations on this mirror floor plan. Now angry people think it's our fault. Is Tock available yet?

If you read the thread you'll see that when they tried to fix it they basically blamed Big Jones, according to Paul here's what they wrote " actually they threw us under the bus, sending a mass email stating that they were writing on behalf of big jones and big jones was canceling their reservation"

I'll leave it to Paul to deal with this, but I thought I'd help get word out if you have a reservation that night.

I do not. But it has been too long so I think I am booking for the following week.

I had a pretty disappointing dinner at Big Jones on Friday. I'm obsessed with southern food, came here with pretty high expectations, and was let down all around.

The crab cakes were ok, the sesame seeds kind of distracted from the crab meat flavor, but the sauce was good.

Skillet corn bread was too dry for my taste

Pork duet, it was cooked well, but was hardly warm. Was also lacking some flavor, IMO

The shrimp and grits also lacked flavor and needed something more. Also the grits werent creamy, seems that they may have been sitting for a while and started to collect that 'film'.

Very nice piece on Big Jones from Eater's Bill Addison:

http://www.eater.com/2015/5/27/8654567/ ... ern-review

A nice recipe reprint from the new, Big Jones cookbook from Sula over at The Reader's site . . .

Paul Fehribach shares a recipe from The Big Jones Cookbook: gumbo z'herbes

I've made a few nice things from the book, but the most successful and interesting so far has been the gumbo z'herbes, essentially a vegan gumbo made from an assortment of field greens. I initially assumed that this was in the Cajun tradition of throwing whatever you had on hand in the pot, but Fehribach states in his introduction that it's actually a Lenten dish he offered for his Catholic guests at Big Jones. Counterintuitively, many recipes incorporate ham hocks, so I took that as permission to use chicken broth and smoked pork necks. It was terrific: brick colored from the smoked paprika, meaty tasting from a preponderance of vegetal, umami-loaded ingredients, and as thick and substantial as any gumbo you'll find. Don't be worried about the seeming paucity of stock for this recipe. The greens contribute their own liquid and as Fehribach told me, you can always add more if you need it later—but if it's too thin up front you're stuck with it.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:A nice recipe reprint from the new, Big Jones cookbook from Sula over at The Reader's site . . .

Paul Fehribach shares a recipe from The Big Jones Cookbook: gumbo z'herbes

I've made a few nice things from the book, but the most successful and interesting so far has been the gumbo z'herbes, essentially a vegan gumbo made from an assortment of field greens. I initially assumed that this was in the Cajun tradition of throwing whatever you had on hand in the pot, but Fehribach states in his introduction that it's actually a Lenten dish he offered for his Catholic guests at Big Jones. Counterintuitively, many recipes incorporate ham hocks, so I took that as permission to use chicken broth and smoked pork necks. It was terrific: brick colored from the smoked paprika, meaty tasting from a preponderance of vegetal, umami-loaded ingredients, and as thick and substantial as any gumbo you'll find. Don't be worried about the seeming paucity of stock for this recipe. The greens contribute their own liquid and as Fehribach told me, you can always add more if you need it later—but if it's too thin up front you're stuck with it.

=R=

I have always wanted to make this during the season. This year I had it at Big Jones and really enjoyed it. Had I not had a conversation with our server I would have sworn there was meat in it. And the "green" taste is unmissable despite the smoke and thickness. I wished they kept this on the menu year round.

Last minute decision to dine at Big Jones last night. Started with the asparagus bisque, which was fantastic. I had the current iteration of the roasted mushroom dish since I loved the "Fall Mushrooms" mentioned up-thread. Apologies, but I didn't note the ingredients. The current dish was good, but not as amazing as I'd hoped. It did make for excellent leftovers today. My friends had the crawfish etouffee and the Copper River salmon special. I didn't get to sample their dishes, but they looked good and my friends enjoyed them. The Sazerac I had hit the spot.

Big Jones is still cruising along and putting out some excellent food. The restaurant is currently holding it's first annual Crawfish Festival. On Thursdays, if you preorder, there's all you can eat crawfish. But every night the menu is loaded with various crawfish goodies in addition to much of the regular items. Tonight we had crawfish cheddar fritters; crawfish pie (creamy crawfish filling inside an excellent butter pie crust shaped like a pasty); crawfish etouffee; and Crawfish Andouille Po’ Boys. All were outstanding, though the andouille didn't have a noticeable crawfish taste. I always recommend Big Jones, but I do so with extra emphasis before the Crawfish Festival ends on April 15.

Yes, Big Jones is putting out some excellent food. But as has always been my problem there, they're also putting out some bizarrely bad food at the very same time. Last night was a perfect example. I started with some outstanding crab cakes - great crab flavor, very little filling, perfectly fried, butter lettuce, and a delicious remoulade. Crab cakes do not get much better than this.

My friend's shrimp & grits were delicious. I've never had a problem with how Big Jones cooks their shrimp & grits, but I've found the flavor to vary significantly, sometimes being too bland. This was not a problem last night - delicious.

The big problem though was my main course, market noodles. They were supposed to have contained house-made noodles, seasonal vegetables (can't recall which ones), some vegetable puree and a fried egg. What I got was a massive bowl of overcooked noodles, topped with a sunny side up egg with a hardened yolk, 3 tiny roasted broccoli florets off to the side and not incorporated in the dish, perhaps a single mushroom finely sliced, maybe a teaspoon of a green vegetable puree at the bottom of the dish, and 2 sauteed (not charred) scallions (not sliced) which I couldn't cut with the butter knife I was given (not that a steak knife would have improved the dish). It was as if they sent me out the child's buttered noodle dish and mistakenly dropped a couple of vegetables in it. That a paid chef sent this dish out is so baffling to me. My dining companion couldn't help but laugh, but upon realizing my frustration, stopped. We were both amazed.

We also ordered the cornbread, served in a skillet. It was okay but it was extraordinarily light and fluffy. I personally think there was too high a ratio of flour to cornmeal, and perhaps a bit too much leavening.

Overall, an odd meal, with a couple of standout dishes, one bizarrely awful dish, and then the average cornbread. But since I've experienced this inconsistency on most of my visits to Big Jones, perhaps I should not be surprised. Obviously there's some strong talent in the kitchen. But are they short-staffed such that these problems occur, or is there always one person screwing things up? Service staff itself seemed light as it took us quite a bit of time to order and our waiter seemed to be serving half of the restaurant, so perhaps it's a staffing issue. In any event, the market noodle dish was so disappointing that it will probably be a long time before my next visit.

Big Jones is closed for a few weeks for renovations:
http://www.chicagomag.com/dining-drinki ... Big-Jones/

University of Chicago is offering the Big Jones cookbook free this month (December 2018)
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

(note that the UoC site suggests reading it on Android with an ancient app -- instead, install Adobe Digital Editions. Necessary because of DRM)

JoelF wrote:University of Chicago is offering the Big Jones cookbook free this month (December 2018)
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

If you want the actual book rather than the Ebook, check the sale catalog. It's available for $10.

The GP wrote:

JoelF wrote:University of Chicago is offering the Big Jones cookbook free this month (December 2018)
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

If you want the actual book rather than the Ebook, check the sale catalog. It's available for $10.

this is awesome. thanks. i also signed up to receive monthly notifications about other free ebooks.

Soul Food Week 2019 has begun at Big Jones. It's actually two weeks, culminating in a special family supper on 1/24. Both menus look great. The Soul Food Week menu has some regular Big Jones favorites and bunch of really good-looking new items. Family supper is, as is tradition, from recipes from a cookbook from an out of town chef who comes in for the event.

We went to Big Jones last night for restaurant week. The place was hopping, which is good to see. $36 for three courses plus bread service is a great way to experience Big Jones. Once we added drinks and wine, we ended up around $100 each.

For the first course, Mr. X had the Cochon de Lait while I had the Gumbo z'Herbes. I loved the gumbo. So much flavor. I liked the bite of cochon I had but preferred the gumbo by a wide margin. Jalapeno cheese cornbread followed. It was a touch dry but still tasty. My entree was the Gumbo Fat Fried Chicken with red beans and rice and turnip greens. Mr. X had the Alligator & Andouille Sauce Piquant. In all the times I've been to Big Jones, this was my first time having the chicken. It did not disappoint. Perfectly fried with good flavor. Mr. X thought his dish was okay. Most of the flavor seemed to come from the excellent andouille. The sauce piquant was pretty mild. Mr. X won the dessert course with the Boca Negra - a dark chocolate chili cake, salted butter almonds, dulce de leche, horchata sorbet. I had the Winter Bread Pudding - brandy and orange peel bread pudding, spice apple butter, salter sorghum ice cream, toasted oat streusel. I really enjoyed the bread pudding but the Boca Negra was fantastic. Service was efficient.

It was fun to share the deliciousness of Big Jones with friends. We might go back during Andersonville Restaurant Week (Feb 21 - Mar 1.)