Hearty Restaurant

Had an amazing dinner at Hearty last night. (disclosure - I've done some charity work with the owners, Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh) There were six of us for dinner. The restaurant itself is cozy. We were fairly close to the table next to us, but not rubbing elbows. Drinks came quickly. My husband the basil julep being that it was Derby Day. He enjoyed it quite a lot. The rest of us were not drinking cocktails, but I've heard that Hearty does a great job with those.

I can't remember all the details of the meal, but I'll share what I can recall. White rolls with an herb butter were brought out to start the meal. Each of us ordered a different starter - grilled Caesar salad, Hearty salad, potato chips with onion dip, shrimp and grits, mac and cheese squares, and the gazpacho special. I had the gazpacho, which was very fresh and bright. It came with a dollop of spicy whipped cream. My husband had the shrimp and grits. It's four plump shrimp wrapped in bacon on a bed of cheese grits. He really liked that one. I tasted a chip with the onion dip. I could have eaten a vat of the stuff. I didn't taste the other three, but they all disappeared.

For our main courses we had Southern fried chicken, beefaroni, soft shell crab, tuna noodle casserole, a lamb burger, and a chickpea cake. I've had the friend chicken before. It's damn good. It's served with bourbon mashed sweet potatoes and creamy collard greens with bacon. The beefaroni is braised short ribs in a merlot sauce. It's served over elbow macaroni. The friend that ordered that one requested more bread to soak up the sauce. I had the lamb burger. It was done perfectly. It's served on a foccia roll with feta cheese and an onion jam. I'll have to try to recreate the jam at home. Sweet potato fries came with my burger, and I was thrilled with them. They were fresh and crunchy. I tasted the vegetarian offering, which was the chickpea cake. It was tasty and substantial enough to be a meal. I didn't taste the crab, which was the special for the night or the tuna noodle casserole, but each friend assured me that it was very good.

We ordered five desserts for the six of us. In hindsight, perhaps it was a bit much, but we really couldn't decide. Our desserts were strawberry rhubarb cobbler with vanilla ice cream, truffled chocolate brownie with a vanilla malted, s'mores, the dessert special of mini chocolate cake, and PB & J bread pudding. The mini chocolate cake and the s'mores had a bit of spice to them, and it made for an interesting twist. I loved the cobbler. The stand out dessert by far was the bread pudding.

Our service was excellent. Alex knew his stuff. He was present but not overly solicitous. The prices were very reasonable. One person in each couple had an alcoholic drink, and all of us ordered at least two courses. The total with tip was about $110 per couple. (side note - three of our desserts were comped) The only drawback for us was the parking situation. I drove around for about 10 minutes until something opened up. Maybe someone else knows a secret spot...

I would, and will, absolutely return.

Hearty Restaurant
3819 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60613
773-868-9866

i've had three meals there since becoming hearty, one excellent and two were slightly amiss. the service seems schizophrenic depending on who you get. prior to the newest reincarnation as hearty, i really enjoyed going to their sunday brunch while still HBTV. I think their popular brunch items may have remained on the new menu last i had seen (the shepherd's pie is a favorite of mine)

the pork and beans is quite amazing and something I'd go back for... homemade with various pork including smoked pork hock, etc. very delicious stuff.

has anyone ever tried the dessert wine on their menu? It's from Georgia. As in southern US. we were with a fellow canuck so we thought we'd celebrate with something they pull off really well. for 3 glasses at $18 a pop it was a risky gamble and we were all quite disappointed. they couldn't place it, but i put my finger on it tasting like an electrical fire... (in other words, it tasted like ozone to me). we did tell the server and he said they had just opened it. their wine list is US themed, which is kitschy, but the arguably world's best ice-wine region of Niagara-on-the-Lake is only an 8.5 hour drive from here in Canada. why diss them in favor of somewhere that's not even known for it? The kitsch alone failed us on this one to the tune of $60. the thing that really set us off (besides the awkward service) was we were given our check while we still had dessert on our table and we were basically asked to give up our table. he told us they needed our table and could offer us a drink in their basement (not even at the real bar upstairs?), and we hadn't been there for any unnecessarily long period of time.

reservations seem to be...required. they're on opentable now though

secret spot for parking... i think they just rezoned the cubs LV2 zones in that area to just be residential 383 6pm onward daily, so the blocks surrounding are permit, and then the main streets are metered. i think sheridan is an exception perhaps though with no permit and no meters east of broadway.. and two blocks north on irving park is a free for all and not metered east of broadway. but competition for parking is fierce in that area. even with the right permits in that area you can easily drive around for 30 minutes if you're there at the wrong time/place

Had an exceptionally average dinner at Hearty last night. The food across the board was unremarkable with the only discernible flavor on a few of the entrees being salt.

The service was terrible to boot. The waiter seemed to have substantial short term memory problems. While I realize memorizing the 5 second description of a banal special is tough and might require reading verbatim from notes, it shouldn't be that hard to remember what drink someone asks for 10 seconds after they ask for it. Needing to come back with a "sorry, I forgot what you ordered" no less than three times to the people at your table should be a trigger to either take better notes or try some ginkgo. I supposed it shouldn't have been a surprise that the prepared drink order sat at the bar for 10 minutes before we had to flag the hostess down to retrieve it on behalf of the absent and forgetful waiter.

The one bright spot would be a fairly interesting cocktail menu and a talented bartender.

Not in a hurry to return.

I have to report on a not-so-great experience too. Went for brunch yesterday, with no reservation (didn't realize they took them), waited about 20 mins to be seated. The waiter seemed nervous: he asked us about every 5 minutes whether we were OK (interrupting conversation every time to do so, and there was only two of us..). When asked what kind of herbal tea they had, he said "a mix." When pressed he reported that they had just one kind, a "mix of everything." Seemed a bit unlikely to me (was it the ever popular chamomile-peppermint-raspberry-apple cinnamon-hibiscus blend?).

The food was a little disappointing! I got the spinach omelette, which had a very paltry amount of sauteed spinach (in a lump in the middle) and a triple cream cheese (can't remember what exactly, and it was hard to even find it in there because there was so little). Potatoes were good and flavorful, biscuit was nice. My EP had the biscuits and gravy and pronounced them "just OK."

I think I'll be back to try something else (the blueberry bacon corn cakes sounded delicious, for example), but was surprised by the inexperienced service and the poor execution on something so simple as an omelette..

ak934 wrote:My EP ..

Internet shorthand experts... translation please?

Kennyz wrote:

ak934 wrote:My EP ..

Internet shorthand experts... translation please?

My guess would be "eating partner"

Haha, that or electrophysiologist, no?

Yes, eating partner it is!

Stopped into Hearty for a late dinner after a seeing a play at nearby Strawdog Theater. The restaurant was still lively at 10:40ish.

As mentioned above, the cocktail list was interesting and ambitious. I had a ginger negroni that nicely balanced the bitter Campari and spicy ginger liqueur. The bartender and the rest of the staff were friendly and accommodating.

For dinner, I had the ultimate mac-n-cheese. Baked with a crusty top and a blend of cheddar, parmesan and blue cheeses with roasted tomato, this dish hit the right tangy, sharp notes that I enjoy in mac-n-cheese. The texture of the cheese sauce was very creamy and satisfying. My DC had the beefaroni and particularly enjoyed the merlot reduction sauce in this dish.

Overall, the food was good, solid comforting food with great flavors When I am in the neighborhood, I will be back.

I've had a few good brunches at Hearty, but last night was my first time there for dinner. Dinner was not so good, but perhaps not a total disaster.

First the good: Service was very good from the minute we entered the restaurant: FOH, bar service and wait staff. And they had a very interesting cocktail menu.

As for the food, they start you out with a basked of house-made parker house rolls and herb butter. I really liked the rolls a lot. They were buttery and light and hardly needed the butter, but the herb butter was tasty.

The menu said that the Hearty Salad came with baby field greens. While the salad was tasty (due to a very good tarragon vinaigrette), I found it be comprised of mostly bland iceberg lettuce.

According to the menu, the rabbit corn dog was to be encased in a honey mustard corn batter. To me, it seemed like a pretty ordinary batter - not a big deal really. The real problem here was that the coating was really soft and flimsy - not crisp and no crunch. Flavor was decent, but most of the flavor punch was due to the accompanying dogfish ale syrup which was excellent.

Cioppino was a train wreck and I would strongly recommend avoiding this dish if you visit Hearty. First, the menu indicated that there was lobster in the Cioppino - I found one small chunk. There were a number of shrimp. However, the shrimp were so overcooked and so firm and chewy. Before this incident, I would have thought only embalming fluid could cause shrimp to be this firm. As for the tomato broth, non-existent. I don't know whether it had been reduced to non-existence or whether they simply did not spoon any into the bowl, but all I had was crushed, seasoned tomatoes with no liquid . . . I didn't even use the spoon given to me for the dish.

The raviolios, short-rib filled ravioli with an heirloom tomato concasse, was hit and miss. The hit was the short-rib filling and tomato concasse - delicious and rich. The miss was the obviously house-made ravioli dough which was so tough and overworked, making it a bit of a workout to get to the wonderful ravioli filling.

I might give Hearty one more try for dinner because I've had much better luck at brunch, but dinner was less than impressive and the cioppino was nothing short of a disaster.

Last night's dinner at Hearty Boys was another disappointment for me, which is too bad because I really like the vibe of the place and I think the service is just excellent. The parker house rolls are very well made and still a great way to start dinner, but from there, keep your fingers crossed. Last night's bacon and egg salad suffered from overly chewy bacon and an egg poached for too long and then allowed to cool for too long.

Lobster pot pie featured a lattice crust which I pray was not Pillsbury crescent dough rolled out (but I fear the answer based upon the flavor and appearance - it was not puff pastry). Worse were the crisp and totally undercooked vegetables (potatoes and carrots), and although promised tarragon-fennel cream, I tasted the tarragon and fennel, but was delivered a pot pie filled with an inch of melted butter and no sign of cream. An evening special of short rib was delivered almost as tender as it should have been, but featured little beyond the natural flavor of the meat.

Dessert of baked alaska suffered from overly hard cake (thus dried out too) and ice cream, making it difficult to cut into the mass.

I'm not quite sure what's going on in the kitchen, because this is two meals in a row (albeit spanning several months) where there have been really major food issues, but until someone else tells me that this place can consistently deliver quality food, I'll shop elsewhere.

My wife and I had a very enjoyable pre-theatre dinner at Hearty this evening. We started with the Old Bay crab dip with house-made potato chips (addictive), and my wife had a very generous (and tasty) portion of cider-glazed roasted pork shank while I had the goat stroganoff with goat sour cream (!) and house-made papparadelle pasta and pumpkin spaezle. Both entrees had terrific flavors and were well-executed. We shared a wonderful dessert - two pear fritters with a meyer lemon pot de creme. Altogether a great meal.

With all the fried chicken being discussed elsewhere, we had to order that this past Sunday at Hearty. Sadly, it was not good. The room is pleasant, the servers were lovely, but the chicken dinner was not so good.

Collards and bacon in gravy were sodden and pasty, the meat was OK, but the skin was wet and flabby and seemed as though it had been steamed, or maybe it was boiled before fried, while the outer crust was overdone, and it was all sitting in a huge pool of oil. The sweet potatoes had what seemed like large chunks of lemon peel in them. Everything was quite salty, too. I was disappointed.

The beet salad we shared was bland. The beets must have been huge, and had no flavor - like they had been sliced and steamed, or had the life boiled out of them.

Our first time at Hearty last night was the result of a limited Groupon they did as a promotion for the newly released cocktail book by the Hearty owners, Steve and Dan. It was a prix fixe menu that included an appetizer, entree and dessert, along with half-pours of selected cocktails. A copy of the book was included as part of the deal. We arrived about 5 minutes early for our 7:00 reservation and the room was 1/4 full. Within the hour, all tables were filled and the bar seats taken.

We decided to start with a cocktail before the pairings. I went with a glass of sparkling wine (Gruet, Blanc de Noir NV), Mr. X had the Deshler (Wathens Bourbon, Cherry Heering, Ginger Beer, Orange Juice.) We thought we would have some time to enjoy the drinks before our food arrived, but the kitchen had other ideas. Mr. X had the tomato bisque while I had the Green Goddess salad (spicy greens, shaved vegetables, seasoned almonds, green goddess dressing). It was an excellent version of tomato bisque. I thought my salad was a bit over-dressed. The seasoned almonds elevated the salad and added a pleasant crunch. The cocktail choices for the appetizer round were the Aviation (Citadelle Gin, Luxardo Maraschino, Fresh Lemon) and Lauchlin’s Loss (Tito’s Vodka, Fresh Cucumber, Mint Syrup, Bitters). Both were good -- Lauchlin's Loss would be great on a hot, summer day.

For entrees, I had the Chicken & Porridge (oven roasted amish chicken breast, herbed porridge, shallot tomato buerre blanc) while Mr. X had the Yankee Potroast (celery seed demi glace, root vegetable and red potato gravy) after both our waiter and owner Steve McDonagh raved about it. Our conclusion is that I won the entree selection. The pot roast wasn't as fork tender as we thought it should be and the gravy was really salty. The chicken dish was better balanced and the porridge was really like a polenta. The cocktails for the course were the Mamie Taylor (Isle of Skye 8 year Scotch, Barritt’s Ginger Beer, Fresh Lime) and the Barrel Aged Manhattan (Rittenhouse Rye, Dolin Rouge, Charred US Oak.) I'm not much of a scotch fan and the Mamie Taylor was a nice showcase for the scotch. We asked about the ingredient description of the Manhattan -- how was the oak a component of the drink? Not surprisingly, the rye had spent time in oak barrels. It was just an odd way to write the description.

For dessert, we tried Ginger Snap S’more (ginger snap shortbread, salted chocolate ganache) and the Caramelized Apple & Pear Cobbler (warm clotted cream). The final drink was a Justin Obtuse ‘08 ruby port. Mr. X won the dessert round with the cobbler. I liked the idea of the ginger snap s'more, not the execution as much. The cookie was too cakey to be a shortbread and the whole thing was too big. (It's not often I say that about desserts!)

Service was earnest, but off on timing. We didn't ask our server to hold the start of our food until we got through our first round, but we should have. We had barely had a sip of our drinks before the food started. We didn't get the first course drinks until after we had finished our appetizers. Other tables doing the same menu received better timed drinks/food. We weren't done with our first course when the entrees came out. (That course's drink round was better timed.) Our dessert round was delayed at our request, but it took a long time to finally get the coffee Mr. X ordered and to get our check at the end.

I like what they are trying to do at Hearty, although not everything hit the mark for us last night. The feel of the room was nice, the staff was pleasant, some of our food was very good. It's not too far from us, so I can see us trying it again.