Thanks for responding here, Phillip, I appreciate it.

I wanted to share photos of the current menu at El Ideas. With two friends, I had an very enjoyable evening with Chef Andrew Brochu and Chef Phil Foss. One of the charms of El Ideas is that it has something of the feel of an informal dinner party. Diners are encouraged to wander back into the kitchen and meet other diners. It was all very pleasant. And as a BYOB restaurant, the bill was expensive, but not excessively so.

As for the food, I felt that the Chefs might be serving too many plates, rather than concentrating on fewer. A dinner of 8 brilliant dishes would be more appealing than a mixed bag of sixteen. Some of those 16 were really distinguished and a few rather dull. Perhaps the style is heavily influenced by the deconstruction model of placing ingredients in different forms on the plate, rather than conceptualizing new creations. Still, if not perfect in every detail, I certainly will return to see how these talented chefs develop.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Consomme, Lobster, Fruit Salad by garyalanfine, on Flickr

The dish could have benefited by a stronger lobster flavor.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Foie, Chestnut, Apples, Calvados by garyalanfine, on Flickr

A fairly typical, but successful deconstructed foie dish.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Eggs: Uni, Char, Scrambled by garyalanfine, on Flickr

An imaginative tribute to eggs in various forms: chicken, uni, and caviar. I believe the mushroom is a nice slice of matsutake.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Provence Fish Soup, Rouille, Crouton by garyalanfine, on Flickr

An exceptionally successful dish, particularly because of the strong, rich flavors of the fish soup. Beautiful soup with creative crouton.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Butterfish, Osetra, Artichoke, Crosnes by garyalanfine, on Flickr

The fish really didn't add much to this dish, just a lump of protein.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Broccoli, Cauliflower, Curry, Cheddar by garyalanfine, on Flickr

A pretty well-plated vegetarian dish.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Trout, Lentils, Sour Cream, Pomegranate by garyalanfine, on Flickr

A better use of fish, but still a collection of this and that.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Spanner Crab, Gnocchi, Eggplant, Oregano by garyalanfine, on Flickr

One of the better dishes of the evening. The crab and oregano worked well.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Fried Chicken, Potato, Biscuit, Hot Sauce by garyalanfine, on Flickr

The dish promised more than it delivered. Fried chicken, but why?


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Rabbit Involtini, Kohlrabi, Mustard by garyalanfine, on Flickr

A very flavorful soup; the rabbit was a smart addition.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Agnolotti, Sweetbread, Sweet Potato, Pancetta by garyalanfine, on Flickr

Somewhat sweet for my taste. It was pleasant enough but not really more than what one might expect at a modern Italian restaurant.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Banana with Bacon, Black Garlic, and Peanut Sauce by garyalanfine, on Flickr

This was the most distinguished dish of the evening. The combination of flavors was inspired, and the bacon-wrapped banana was a treat.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Steak Frites, Ribeye, Shank, Marrow by garyalanfine, on Flickr

Fine, but not so different from a micro-sized bistro dish.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Venison, Celery Root, Raisins, Granola by garyalanfine, on Flickr

Very nice piece of meat in a pretty, deconstructed presentation.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Rooibos Pudding with Raspberries with Smoke by garyalanfine, on Flickr

Off-the-menu Rooibos pudding with fruit. A very nice combination of flavors.


El Ideas - Chicago - November 2011 - Bourbon, Pecan, Coffee, Tobacco (Memories of an Adult Evening) by garyalanfine, on Flickr

A dish that captures the chef's memory of his family, but ultimately a lot of little things.

We should cheer that restaurants such as El Ideas are appearing, and if every dish was not a hit, enough were to make the evening satisfying. The fish soup was as potent as any soup that I have had in years.

I was back at El Ideas again on November 4 and had another terrific, memorable meal. This meal was on the day that Chef Foss officially announced the end of Meaty Balls and we arrived to see this amusing sketch on the ideas board . . .


RIP Meaty Balls, et al



T Minus 10 Minutes
Chef Brochu inspects the plates.



Smoke Collection
Chef Foss produces and collects applewood smoke for later.

Time for the meal to begin . . .


Vermillion | radish, olive, egg



Eggs | uni, char, scrambled



Trout | golden osetra, sour cream, pomegranate



Spanner Crab | gnocchi, eggplant, oregano



Broccoli | cauliflower, curry, cheddar



Valdeon | ham, root vegetables, kohlrabi



Valdeon | ham, root vegetables, kohlrabi



Kitchen
Preparation of the next course



Kitchen
Chef, am I bugging you yet?



Skate | parsnip, quince, capers



Preparation of the Chicken course



Preparation of the Chicken course



Preparation of the Chicken course



Chicken | potato, biscuit, hot sauce



Foie Gras | chestnut, apple, five spice



Banana | bacon, squab, peanut



Venison | celery root, raisins, granola



Beef Duo | loin and shank
Trial run of course for upcoming menu



Foundation for the upcoming dessert course
Hopefully, you can see the mist rising up from the foliage. It was produced when the contents of the carafes were poured in.



Rooibos | pumpkin, pear, pistachio



Bourbon | pecan, coffee, tobacco



Chef's Salty Balls



Chefs Conferring
Service ends but the advance work does not. Here the chefs do research for future courses.

I cannot praise enough the exceptional service, provided by Bill. Simply put, he's one of the absolute best servers I've ever had the pleasure to know and he's a huge reason why dining at El is so special. He runs the room with a natural competence, which he makes look easy even though it obviously isn't. He never appears stressed yet diners never want for anything. He's intuitive, kind and has a great humor. He's the rhythm section that keeps this band playing. He also has one of the best iPods in Chicagoland and the music that plays at El is a crucial element of the fun.

I think El Ideas is an incredibly special restaurant. The food here is distinctive, inventive, elevated and yet very approachable. Without getting bogged down in the minute details of each course, several of them -- spanner crab, broccoli, valdeon, chicken, beef duo, rooibos, bourbon -- were among the best things I've eaten this year. The dishes are personal and that's clear on the palate. Here, the imaginations of the chefs communicate meaningfully with the imaginations of the diners through the medium of food. These highly skilled chefs are fluent, so their message comes through clearly, course after course. A meal at El is not only a satisfying eating experience, it's also an emotional one...and there are woefully few places about which that can be said.

=R=

I fully agree about Bill, who was a very graceful server.

Given that R_S and I dined six days apart it is interesting to see the ongoing changes in the content and the design of dishes. I agree that the food was quite accessible, and that perhaps caused some pull-back on the creativity. I was impressed by the cuisine, but not so universally as Ronnie (I was especially disappointed by the Chicken, which R_S names as a favorite), but El Ideas is a restaurant that will captivate its diners. It might be that the limited number of cooks will prevent the culinary elaboration that one sees that the very finest restaurants (L20 in its current iteration or Alinea or Per Se), but El Ideas has a special, personal, communal charm.

GAF wrote:I fully agree about Bill, who was a very graceful server.

Given that R_S and I dined six days apart it is interesting to see the ongoing changes in the content and the design of dishes. I agree that the food was quite accessible, and that perhaps caused some pull-back on the creativity. I was impressed by the cuisine, but not so universally as Ronnie (I was especially disappointed by the Chicken, which R_S names as a favorite), but El Ideas is a restaurant that will captivate its diners. It might be that the limited number of cooks will prevent the culinary elaboration that one sees that the very finest restaurants (L20 in its current iteration or Alinea or Per Se), but El Ideas has a special, personal, communal charm.

As empirically delicious as I thought the chicken was, it was the context which really put it over the top for me. Yes, the flavors were great -- the biscuit was ethereal and and the hot sauce was bright and mildly fiery -- but together, the all components came together to emulate and elevate a fairly common dish. Was this more enjoyable than fried chicken from a fried chicken joint? In many ways, I think the answer is yes. I thought it was a very successful distillation of a classic.

=R=

I had dinner at El Ideas on 10/21, but I've been so busy at work and with other posts that I haven't gotten around to posting my pictures until now. I don't have much to add to what other people have been saying. El Ideas is a unique, intimate dining experience with interesting dishes that seem to morph based on the market's bounty on any given day. The structure of the dishes seems to remain somewhat the same, but the ingredients (and hence the names) change based on availability and the whims of the chefs. Some of the dishes were more successful than others, but overall my dinner at El Ideas was one of the better meals I've had in Chicago this year...and let me add yet another shout out to Bill and his playlist. Not only is Bill one of the finest servers in the business, his playlist is impeccable!

The menu we were served is slightly different than some of the other meals that have been posted about. Some of the dishes were the same, but nearly all had slight variations.

El Ideas Menu


Black Sea Bass - radish / olive / pastis


Eggs - uni / char / scrambled


Spanner Crab - consomme / potato / caviar


Cuttlefish - risotto / squash / saffron


Agnolotti - trout / leek / hollandaise


Rabbit - maitake / ricotta / tango


Pork Belly - clams / chorizo / salsa verde


Valdeon - ham / root vegetables / cauliflower


Skate - amandine / carrot / veal heart


Banana - bacon / squab / peanut


Venison - brussels / huckleberries / peanut


Rooibos - pumpkin / pear / pomegranate


Apple - caramel / pie / oaxalis


Ball - chocolate / salty

Great photos Steve, and everyone else. I really hope I can make it in soon!

Mike Sula has an informative feature about Chef Foss and El Ideas in this week's Reader . . .

at the Chicago Reader, Mike Sula wrote:One afternoon early last fall, I stopped by Phillip Foss's Meatyballs Mobile to sample a bull's balls sandwich. It was a warm Indian summer day, and the Le Cirque-trained fine-dining chef was doing what he'd done most days since getting fired from Lockwood a few months earlier—lobbing goofy testicular puns and hawking meatball sandwiches from the back of a lunch truck to giggling, eyeball-rolling customers.

Foss, in his new role as one of the city's first food truck operators, seemed like he was in his element, with a city's worth of hungry office workers waiting for him. But during a brief lull in the action he confided something: "Man, I really have to get back." By that he didn't mean he wanted to return to the stultifying work environment of the Palmer House restaurant, where he was caught helpless between a corporation and a labor union and fired for tweeting a bong joke. Rather, he wanted to get back to conceiving and executing the wildly creative and intricately presented dishes he'd served there and documented so lovingly on his blog.

Balls to that

=R=

Thanks Ronnie! Not sure if this is 'LTH illegal', but I've expanded on the topic of what happened with the food truck business and where we are with El & my personal life in general on the blog - http://thepickledtongue.com/?p=7730
Look forward to seeing you back at EL soon... far and away the wildest party we've had to date!!

We had a lovely dinner at ElIdeas last night. I won't add anything to the many discussions on the food which we liked. What my main impression was that, for me, this is the ideal ambiance for a fine dining restaurant. I like good service, nice plates and glasses (as opposed to Schwa), but a always find the service a bit formal at the high end places. Here, they seamlessly blend find dining service with complete access to the kitchen and a lovely, friendly, homey relationship with the chef and kitchen. I truly wish all fine dining restaurants worked on this model.

Jonah

A tantalizing recap of dishes from 2011...http://thepickledtongue.com/?p=7785

Can't wait til my next trip--can't think of a better way to start the year than El on 1/7/12!!

We dined at El last week. Everything we had was very good, but the most recent version of the cauliflower dish with curry, cheddar powder and popcorn ice cream was exquisite. Maybe the best thing I ate in 2011.

now that Brochu is leaving....what does this spell for El Ideas?

The departure of Chef Andrew Brochu from EL has officially been announced. We at EL wish him nothing but success & I personally am very grateful for our collaboration. Moving forward, our aspirations & focus will remain the same. For now we will run the show w/myself, and chefs Michael DeStefano and Kevin McMullen.
As a final note, I would put the creations from our kitchen over the last 6 mos against anyone anywhere. I am also confident I will still be saying this six months from now. I am very proud of what we've done & am excited for the future & wish the best for Chef Brochu. Be sure to check him out in February at graham elliot!!

Thank you Chef Foss for responding so quickly about Chef Brochu's departure. I have reservations early next month at El Ideas (will be my first time there) so was a bit alarmed when I had heard of the pending change earlier today. Your post has put my mind at ease. I am looking forward to have the pleasure of dining at El Ideas next month.

Look forward to hosting you!!

what does this spell for El Ideas?

LEaving Ideas?

Awesome dinner tonight at El Ideas; this was one of my favorite dinners I have had in Chicago. Great combination of outstanding cuisine, creative and interesting dishes, artistic plating, impeccable service but most of all El Ideas is such a fun place. I greatly enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen between courses watching the food being prepared and chatting with the chefs. This is a unique venue that has not yet receive the accolades it deserves. Only a very small handful of restaurants can deliver this wonderful combination of top notch food, polished but relaxed service and having the meal be not just a great dinner but an event.

Gonzo70 wrote:Awesome dinner tonight at El Ideas.

Were you at the 9:30 seating? Because I didn't detect any other LTHers at the 5:30 and don't recall anyone hanging in the kitchen between courses.

In short I thought it was an amazing dinner, lots of very creative flavors and composition. My only three negatives on the whole experience were
1) Bill the waiter is awesome, but he doesn't have enough to do, so he ends up pouring wine aggressively. OK it's my own wine, but at some point I needed to cut myself off in order to drive home. Didn't expect to hit that point.
2) We left still hungry. Like only one Big Star Taco-hungry each, but definitely not fully sated. So maybe two of those wonderful bone-marrow-filled raviolo per person instead of one, or (Chef will probably bristle at this) a bread service...would have done it.
3) Email from El Ideas last week explicitly said that Chef Andrew Brochu would still be around this week, with his last service being yesterday, but he was not. Did this affect dinner in any way? Probably not, but if anyone had come in because of the email expecting him, I suppose they would have been a little disappointed.

As for the dinner, we loved every course but a few highlights were -
First four courses - especially the "everything bagel" which was quail egg, cream cheese ice cream, bagel crumble - that was the perfect deconstruction. The black bass was delicious, the fish had so much flavor to it. A snail course - new to the menu last night - was delicious with absolutely none of the slime or chewiness expected, and the pearl onions had a surprisingly complementary taste to them. A few of the dishes, e.g. the pata negra, had one or two many ingredients on the plate (the root beer foam didn't quite work for me, though mrs. edb60035 loved it) but the brussels sprouts were great. The veal sweetbreads - not mentioned on the menu in the veal course - were delicious. I was prepared to dislike the macadamia dessert since it had banana and coconut, but it was tasty and not too sweet. I also liked a few bizarre-o touches like the freshly microplaned Buddah's Hand - I had never heard of this citrus before, and it's sure ugly, but the taste/aroma were nice; the smell of rose was front-and-center on the chocolate course, less-subtle than the Alinea pillow trick but not overbearingly like a grandma's perfume.

My other comment is that this isn't "underground" in the same way as, say, One Sister. It's a city-inspected premises with five tables, two bathrooms, exit signs, the whole nine yards. I know I've seen pictures of the whole setup but somehow in my head I was thinking it was a communal table. We were certainly fine by ourselves, but it would have been fun to have an easier way to engage with the other diners.

Now that I know the score, I would definitely go back and recommend the experience. It was certainly more unique than many of the other options I considered for Mrs. edb60035's birthday! In fact Mrs. edb60035 was infatuated with the soundtrack and swapped email addresses with Bill - his cover tracks often made us smile.

Yes, my wife and I attended the 9:30 seating; only eight guests at the late seating - us and a six top.

I agree with your comments; the portions definitely are small, but there were enough courses I left satisfied (though certainly not stuffed). I had changed my reservation from February 2nd to last night hoping to have the opportunity to experience chef Brochu, but the meal and service last night was so incredible I wound up not being upset chef Brochu had already left to start preparing for Graham Elliot. I also drove, but informed Bill to just do small pours for me and he was great with that; he was so friendly and attentive that we really enjoyed his service. There definitely were several phenomenal courses and overall we felt it was an amazing dinner.

I've had some really great meals in recent weeks (Goosefoot, Acadia, Next to name a few), but my first ever visit to El Ideas Friday (5:30) was as enjoyable as any dinner I can recall in recent memory. No, I did not love every single one of the items plated, but I enjoyed most everything I tasted, and I've never felt such genuine warmth from a restaurant's staff as I did at El.

We started with crab with sunchokes/grapefruit/fennel. I suppose this was an adequate starter, certainly light. I just would have preferred a stronger crab flavor.






Next up was chicken salad with gherkin/celery/mayo. The star of this dish was the chicken - a really flavorful chicken rillette - but everything worked together.






Everything bagel with cream cheese/quail egg/lemon was not only remarkably clever, but delicious too. In fact, it tasted just like an everything bagel, but what I really appreciated was the addition of the quail egg which added a nice richness to the dish.






Culinary techniques continued to shine through with our next course, charred char with smoked roe/katsuobushi/tapioca. The fish could not have been more perfectly cooked (and they used the blow torch so admirably on the char's exterior), and the smoked roe raised the dish to an even higher level.






Bay scallop with cauliflower/leeks/perigord truffle was a bigger hit with others at my table than with me. No, I didn't find any real trouble with the dish. I just hoped for a little more contrast in the sweetness of the bay scallops and the earthier components of the dish.






El Ideas quickly recovered with black bass served with salsify/onion/aged sherry. Perfectly cooked fish was certainly one of the themes of the evening (well, quite frankly everything I had this night was perfectly cooked), but the aged sherry was the icing on the cake.






Lamb with merguez/yogurt/pomegranate was just one of the many beautifully plated items this evening. This was a very rich dish and the lamb was beautifully cooked, though I'm not sure I can say I loved this dish (I might have preferred a different cut/presentation of lamb).




Now I'm a huge fan of pata negra, and this version with brussels sprouts/root beef/anise hyssop (squash or sweet potato too as you'll notice below, and cranberries too IIRC) featured a wonderful ham and some other outstanding ingredients, but I'm not quite sure it all came together well. Quite frankly, I would have preferred the pata negra on its own or with the sweet potato/squash, leaving the other components to fend for themselves. The brussels sprouts were beautifully roasted and converted even the biggest brussels sprouts-phobe at the table. And the root beer foam/cream delivered as good a root beer flavor as one could hope for. So while not everything on the plate came together well in my opinion, every component was delicious.






The next two courses were really terrific. First, marrow encased in ravioli with kohlrabi/chestnut/blood orange was terrific. The combination worked so well, with the chestnuts and kohlrabi adding some earthiness to cut into the richness, and just a couple dabs of blood orange to bring it all together.






As good as the ravioli was, the best dish of the night was the veal with parsnip/hedgehog/apple (and sweetbreads). This dish was Eastern Europe comfort food on steroids - think stuffed cabbage. I was starting to get just a little bit full, but I probably could have devoured plate after plate of this dish.






If I were food, I would hate to have been plated after the previous two dishes, and perhaps this is why the pork with corn bread/hot sauce/mustard greens just didn't wow me. Maybe I was ready to move on to sweets (or more veal). The pork was perfectly cooked (you can see this below), but the greens and hot sauce (to the right in the photo) just didn't bring it all together for me - not bad, but not quite my cup of tea.






There were then two dessert courses, both hits. The first was macadamia with pineapple/banana/coconut. There was a salty element of this dish that screamed Thailand to me (and many here will know my love and admiration for Thai food) and I just loved it. The chef who prepared this dish (sorry, can't remember who) explained he was aiming for Hawaii meets Thailand IIRC. I'd say he hit a home run.






The meal ended with perhaps the most stunning preparation, chocolate with forbidden rose/raspberry/aromas. The technique was above my head (boiling water? liquid nitrogen?) but something was poured atop roses sitting beneath the bowl of chocolate, raspberries and a lighty scented rose ice cream, causing a light bit of steam/smoke to rise from beneath the bowl. The chocolate was dense, rich and delicious. And the heavy raspberry and subtle rose flavor and essence worked harmoniously with the chocolate. I was so impressed with the light-handed use of the rose.





Overall, very good food with some great bites. There were a couple of dishes where we felt they were a little heavy with the salt - can't recall which ones - but this was not an overarching theme.

Service (from Bill) was outstanding, maybe better than I've had anywhere. El Ideas is byo and we brought three bottles of wine. What we appreciated was Bill's attention to not only pouring the wine, but knowing when to switch from white to red. His choices of music were fun, whimsical and came from the heart every bit as much as did the food from the kitchen.

To me, what differentiated El Ideas from most every place I've dined in recent memory is the labor of love that is so obvious in everything they're doing. These are guys who probably have many options of places they can work, but together they work so well and have so much fun. And from what I understand of Chef Foss' dealings at Lockwood (where I personally was underwhelmed), there were severe limitations beyond his control that worked against everything he was trying so hard to accomplish. Trust me, if these guys were not getting along, you'd hear the swearing from the open kitchen that sits just a few feet from the dining area. Here's another peak into the kitchen:






But their efforts are so obvious by just perusing this thread. I'm amazed just how many different ingredients they use (really high quality too), and the number of techniques and presentations shown. They go to great lengths to deliver a great dining experience in a very relaxed setting and I'd say they're on a path to excellence. I wish them continued success, and I look forward to returning.

On Saturday, I had my second dinner at EL Ideas (first time was back in September) and can definitively say that it's unlike any other dining experience in the city. Chef Foss is truly breaking new ground - not with the food, which is awesome, but with the concept for the restaurant, which is unique and brilliant.

EL Ideas fundamentally questions what a fine dining restaurant experience is. Some of my favorite restaurants are fine-dining BYOs (Schwa, Bonsoiree, most recently Goosefoot) and underground restaurants (One Sister, Sunday Dinner Club). EL Ideas has aspects of both, but Chef Foss has created a whole new genre.

While Michael Carlson works both back and front of house at Schwa, the atmosphere is still very much that of a restaurant - an incredibly cool restaurant with mind blowing food, but still one where you're a patron sitting at the table. At One Sister, Iliana Reagan is delivering high concept food from her apartment's tiny kitchen and she's constantly reminding you that you're in her home by serving dishes on patron's hands and having you share her bathroom, etc.

Foss blows this all up and turns the very idea of a "restaurant" on its head. He combines the high concept cuisine, playfulness, casual atmosphere, excitement and discovery of both types of restaurants above, but adds a conceptual element that just doesn't exist elsewhere. Eating at EL is like standing in front of Magritte's famous painting of a pipe with the caption "this is not a pipe" written underneath. Dining with Foss is entering a completely un-self conscious performance art piece where everyone (chefs, patrons, other staff) is participating in a grand expedition exploring the concept of a fine dining restaurant.

I don't have the answers and I'm pretty sure that Chef Foss doesn't yet either. What I do know is that it is a lot of fun exploring and that Foss is a great guide!


A few other comments:
Collaboration - One of the many things I like about how Chef Foss runs his restaurant, is how willing he is to step back and let others shine. Before each course, the chef who created the dish introduces it. Of the 13 courses, Chef Foss introduced 7 and his two young, incredibly capable, assistant chefs introduced 3 each.

The first, Chef Michael DeStefano, was at EL in September and may have been there since the restaurant opened. In September, he introduced a single dish and it was one of my favorites that night. This visit, his "Everything Bagel" course was a stand out.

The second, Chef Kevin McMullen, I think came in January. Like Chef DeStefano, he'd worked for Chef Brucho at Kith and Kin. Chef McMullen nearly got a standing ovation for his "Bay Scallop" dish with four different preparations of cauliflower.

Chef Foss appears to give both of these guys a lot of room. You could see him smiling to himself when one of their dishes really connected with the diners.

Chef Brucho's departure:
In September, Chef Andrew Brucho was still there and his presence is missed. That said the departure felt seamless when I was there three weeks after Brucho had left. The food was as spot on and creative as ever. Also, because Chef Foss seems so open to collaboration, the need to have another "credentialed" chef in the kitchen is mitigated. Chefs DeStefano and McMullen are bringing plenty of their own creativity.

Reservations:
When I made my first reservation back in September it was with Dina and there were a couple minor issues. When I started making my early February reservation, I was dealing with Shelley, who, to put it as nicely as possible, was difficult. I'd begun to wonder if Chef Foss was intentionally seeking out challenging people to deal with patrons to make the tiny restaurant even harder to get into/deal with than it already was.

In late January, Allison came on board and she is phenomenal!!! Pleasant to deal with, returns emails, well organized... She is a very welcome change and I'd encourage anyone who'd had a bad experience with reservations in the past to give EL another try.

New format:
EL has expanded since September, both number of covers and adding a seating (5:30 and 9:30 on the weekends). I'd worried about how this would impact the atmosphere and was pleasantly surprised. We'll need to go back for a 9:30 seating before issuing a final verdict, but this seems all upside to me - same atmosphere, they're just reaching more people.


As a proud Chicagoan, I wake up many mornings feeling lucky to live in a city filled with exceptional restaurants and creative chefs. In that context, Chef Foss is bringing something new to the table. He is a stand out among stand outs and we are lucky to have him re-imagining the dining experience here in our home town! Thank you Phillip/Josh.

ronnie_suburban wrote:
Eggs | uni, char, scrambled


=R=

Ok, I'm late to read this thread, mostly because I've been living under a rock and assumed that the thread was about restaurants easily accessed by Chicago's CTA rails. D'oh!

While the food looks great, and I plan on going one day, what I mostly need to know is how Ronnie gets these shots? How do you do the splash of light from the side? Do you bring a second flash and mount it to the side with all but a sliver blocked? I have a little photo background, and that must be it, right? How do the chefs/servers react to that type of setup?

It is absolutely beautiful. Thanks!

MelT wrote:
While the food looks great, and I plan on going one day, what I mostly need to know is how Ronnie gets these shots? How do you do the splash of light from the side? Do you bring a second flash and mount it to the side with all but a sliver blocked? I have a little photo background, and that must be it, right? How do the chefs/servers react to that type of setup?

It is absolutely beautiful. Thanks!

While Ronnie can confirm for sure, it looks to me like candlelight and water glass refraction.

stevez wrote:

MelT wrote:
While the food looks great, and I plan on going one day, what I mostly need to know is how Ronnie gets these shots? How do you do the splash of light from the side? Do you bring a second flash and mount it to the side with all but a sliver blocked? I have a little photo background, and that must be it, right? How do the chefs/servers react to that type of setup?

It is absolutely beautiful. Thanks!

While Ronnie can confirm for sure, it looks to me like candlelight and water glass refraction.

Thanks, Mel, for the kind comments.

Steve is correct and I never use flash in restaurants. All my shots are 'on the fly.' The best part of this particular effect is that it was actually shown to me by El Ideas' server extraordinaire Bill Talbott. He'd observed another diner who'd come in and used it, and generously passed it on to me, for which I'm very grateful. All my El Ideas images were captured with a Canon 20-D (at ISO 3200) with a 15-85, F3.5 lens.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:All my El Ideas images were captured with a Canon 20-D (at ISO 3200)

Holy cow!!

I don't think my Kodak digital goes to that level of ISO. That explains why they look so good without flash. Nice job!

Another successful meal at EL ideas. I was lucky to be invited by boudreaulicious, and enjoyed the company of mbh and petite_gourmande to boot.

The night began with a beautiful cocktail that boudreaulicious had mixed up.

Sweet and smoky. Thanks, Jen

Crab roe / grapefruit / lemongrass


We paired Prosecco for our next course


Tuna beans / anchovy / olive




Turnip cider / cinnamon / dijon




Turbot lobster / salsify / sherry vinegar


Chef Brochu plating our next dish










Truffle potato / popcorn / romaine

Salty, rich and delicious


Chef's plating our next course












Jidori Chicken sweetbreads / celeriac / raisins



A dish conceptualized by Chef Brochu, I was actually expecting some fried chicken.

Next course








Scallop cauliflower / black garlic / radish




Snail pine nut / brioche / garlic



Snail was a bit overpowered by the rest of the dish

Marrow chestnut / chard / blood orange

Very enjoyable. Wish I had a bigger bite.

Lamb couscous / harissa / cumin


Bill and his music

A masterful playlist during our meal

Venison sassafras / date / pecan


Explorateur grape / peanut / bubble gum



Tasted just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.


Chocolate forbidden rose / cookies / pomegranate


Another great meal at EL ideas. Shortly after our meal was complete, we had to scurry off before the next seating began which was a bit of a drag. This meal didn't seem as playful as my previous experience when we were the only seating (such as the communal shot in the kitchen), and I hope Chef is still enjoying himself - I want this to be his passion project rather than a monotonous job.

Thanks for posting the pics incite--beautiful as always. I would echo your observation that the mood seemed different. You can see the intense concentration on the faces of the chefs--which is, of course, admirable. But there was little interaction with the guests that night--even minimal eye contact. The atmosphere in the kitchen seemed a bit somber. No reason it needed to be otherwise--obviously, it didn't impact the food and I don't expect a meal like that to come with "entertainment" but it was noticeable. Still, it was another spectacular meal demonstrating the intersection of creativity and execution that makes El Ideas so special and I eagerly look forward to my next visit.

I was under the impression that Brochu isn't there anymore... is that not the case? Or was this a dinner enjoyed in the past?

claypoolfan wrote:I was under the impression that Brochu isn't there anymore... is that not the case? Or was this a dinner enjoyed in the past?

We were there on 1/7/12.