The Century Public House (Morse Theatre)

Anyone been? A Rogers Park friend has invited us to get together for dinner there tonight, but it will be his first visit as well. Any food recs? Thanks, Lynn

I guess this is a fairly early report - I didn't realize the restaurant portion of the business had only been open for two weeks. Given that fact, we were impressed. The space itself is amazing. There was clearly a lot of care and attention to detail put into restoring it. The woodwork throughout is gorgeous and includes a back bar carved out of a single tree. The restaurant space is warm and inviting with stained glass accents, sturdy and comfortable booths, dark walls, and brass fixtures. In addition to being a LEED certified "green" business, their emphasis is on local and organic food/beer. The current Autumn menu is relatively small, but definately reflects their philosophy. All meat, produce, and fish is sourced locally (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan.) The three fish options were a smoked trout cake appetizer, a trout fillet entree, and from the "pub grub" portion of the menu - cornmeal breaded perch. The three of us all started with the soup of day, which was butternut squash. Certainly not the best version I've ever had, but it was creamy, rich and satifying. Portion was generous as well. It did need to be hotter. I suspect the hot soup was ladled into a room temp bowl. In addition to the soup and trout cakes, there were 3-4 seasonal salad appetizer offerings. Husband had the housemade sausage entree which came with a mustard mousse, and some crostini w/ greens, Friend had the trout entree, and I went with the perch. I was informed that the perch were fresh, never frozen. I don't recall the details of the trout preparation, but Friend seemed pleased and cleaned his plate. The perch came in a gratin-style dish - 5 filets that were moist on the inside and crispy outside. I thought the cornmeal batter was a tad heavy for the delicate fish. These were served with an average coleslaw, good homemade tarter sauce, 4 hand-cut crispy potato wedges, and fresh lemon wedges. For $12, I thought it was a good value. We washed down our meals with Great Lakes Dortmunder Lager drafts. Among their 10 or so other drafts were two different Bells brews and Point Lager. There was an extensive wine and spirits list as well which I did not peruse last night. After dining, we stepped up to the comfortable bar to continue our conversation and have a couple more beers. Over the course of our time there, both owners ( a father and son,) checked in on us and asked for feedback. I mentioned both the cold plates and the lack of a vegetarian entree option. They seemed genuinely interested and receptive. We were also invited to check out the theatre space on our way out. The show was over, so I can't vouch for the sound, but the space itself was impressive. We are anxious to return for a concert. Bathrooms were spotless and spacious. This venture is obviously a labor of love for these guys and I hope the neighborhood and the city embrace it. While not destination dining, yet anyway, it is a good option pre/post concert, and if I lived in Rogers Park I would definately put it in my regular rotation.

The Morse Theatre/Century Public House
1328 Morse Avenue
http://www.themorse.com/cms/

A neighbor and I dined at the Century Public House the other night. We're very happy to have it in the neighborhood. I was delighted at the draught beer options. In addition to what Lynn mentioned, I recall seeing a couple of Two Brothers beers.

I was slightly concerned at what kind of business they might get on a cold, Wednesday night. I needn't have worried. A neighborhood group was there, 20-something strong, complete with name tags. It took us a few minutes to get menus, but service did not suffer after that even though there was only one server for the room.

My friend had the bacon/potato chowder and the smoked trout cakes for her meal. I went for the pork chop, which was served with a mustard sauce over a fall vegetable ragout (squash and baby brussel sprouts were apparent -- maybe turnip or parsnip too?) and some sort of dumplings. (I forgot to take notes so I'm working from an imperfect memory.) I tried a bite of her soup and it was fantastic. Not a chowder in my book -- I think chowders are chunky -- but really a good soup. She reportedly liked her trout cakes. I did not get to sample. I really wanted to like the pork chop. After it was served to me, I commented to my friend that it could have used a sprig of parsley or something because the color was kind of blah. The pork had decent flavor, but was tough to cut. Their steak knives are not in yet, so I was left to manage with a butter knife. The chop could have used a little less time on the grill. The mustard sauce wasn't all that interesting and it was over everything.

I'll definitely go back. The Century Public House has a great beer selection and what looked to be some interesting wines and whiskeys if you're into that sort of thing. It is still very new and needs some time to find its food identity. Rogers Park, especially Morse Street, needs this sort of place.

This place does not appear to have its own phone number (I looked on both the Morse Theater web site and on InfoSpace.com) and there was no human answering at the Morse Theater number. Frankly, I don't see how you can run a restaurant this way.