Lake Street Kitchen + Bar, Oak Park

Lake Street Kitchen + Bar, Oak Park

“Every day, we had the Windex out, cleaning off the windows. There were nose prints all over.”

That’s what Rachel Dennis, Oak Parker and owner of Lake Street Kitchen + Bar, told me about the weeks leading up to their opening. This curiosity reflects the same Oak Park phenomenon I’d noted at the recently opened Eyrie.

Biking past Lake Street Kitchen + Bar on the first two nights of operation, I was surprised that the place was filled with people. It was jammed, and Dennis told me she’d been able to pull that kind of traffic with no advertising whatsoever. Clearly there’s a lot of pent-up demand for restaurants like this in the People's Republic.



Dennis told us that she doesn’t use any prepackaged food (making her place unique on a street that features Five Guys and her old employer, Bar Louis). She's also not putting in a fryer because, she said, “We’re not going to be serving burgers and fries. I mean really, does Lake Street need another hamburger place?”

As it turned out, we had actually been thinking of getting a hamburger that night (The Wife has been sick and felt she needed animal flesh to gain strength). Instead, we enjoyed Grape Flatbread ($8.50), which was freshly baked and studded with green grapes, blue cheese and rosemary. Baking – and everything else in the kitchen – is under the watch of Chef Jason Kurosaki, formerly of Avec.



The Hanger Steak ($19.50) was a flavorful piece of meat, with a caramelized crust, accented by kale and cannellini beans, nothing fancy but well executed. You can kind of tell that they’re still working out the seasonings on some dishes, and though I really liked the piquant pepperiness of the sauce on the kale, there seemed to be a similar flavor profile on the house-made pickles.





As of Day 2, it looks like Oak Parkers are hungry for places like Lake Street Kitchen + Bar, and that seems a very good thing for anyone in this village who likes to eat.

Lake Street Kitchen + Bar
1101 Lake Street
708-383-LAKE

Hopefully you Oak Parkers can handle eating without driving - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 3632.story

Dave148 wrote:Hopefully you Oak Parkers can handle eating without driving - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 3632.story

Well, I bike, so I have no exposure to this new ordinance, which I'd actually extend to address nitwit pedestrians who cross streets while texting, oblivious to oncoming traffic (including me). Into the stocks with them (and I don't mean veal or chicken)!

David Hammond wrote:

Dave148 wrote:Hopefully you Oak Parkers can handle eating without driving - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 3632.story

Well, I bike, so I have no exposure to this new ordinance, which I'd actually extend to address nitwit pedestrians who cross streets while texting, oblivious to oncoming traffic (including me). Into the stocks with them (and I don't mean veal or chicken)!

Watch out - Chicago's considering a ban on texting for bikers.

We went to LSK+B last night. Food was OK, not great. Good beer selection. Nice televisions. Marion Street Cheese Market, down the block, is much better.

I agree that Marion street is much better. I did enjoy my meal. Some of the dishes could have used more seasoning. It seemed like Avec with some of the flavor missing.

dradeli wrote:I agree that Marion street is much better. I did enjoy my meal. Some of the dishes could have used more seasoning. It seemed like Avec with some of the flavor missing.

I agree that the seasoning on dishes is still a work in progress, and Marion Street remains my favorite place in the area, but I'm thankful that Oak Park has one more restaurant that's trying to be serious.

Lake Street Kitchen has been consistently busy on my passes-by and visits, nice to see. Like Marion Street, I think the beer list is stronger than the food, but they're both much needed in the neighborhood. We did have a fantastic chocolate hazelnut torte with toffee and espresso foam and a big bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream after a showing of "The Artist" this week (also recommendable). Pleasant servers, conversation-friendly setting and quite cozy (better'n Cosi).

Has anyone been here recently? Looking for a pre/post-movie spot tonight and while I don't usually rely on Yelp, the reviews are pretty terrible and it has me second guessing my decision...

I was there Monday, ate outside. Tortilla soup was not great, charcuterie at $15 for four tiny selections savory but dear. Beer offerings are excellent, though, and the few large entrees I've had have been better and worth it, especially the pork shank with greens. Good vibe, hope they succeed.

TCK wrote:Has anyone been here recently? Looking for a pre/post-movie spot tonight and while I don't usually rely on Yelp, the reviews are pretty terrible and it has me second guessing my decision...

The number of bad reviews on Yelp that revolve around the grilled cheese there is beyond absurd. I think that was the last straw for my willingness to use Yelp for anything beyond address/number/hours.

ucjames wrote:

TCK wrote:Has anyone been here recently? Looking for a pre/post-movie spot tonight and while I don't usually rely on Yelp, the reviews are pretty terrible and it has me second guessing my decision...

The number of bad reviews on Yelp that revolve around the grilled cheese there is beyond absurd. I think that was the last straw for my willingness to use Yelp for anything beyond address/number/hours.

Agreed - the grilled cheese conspiracy. Can't speak to that particular sandwich, but they have a peanut butter, nutella, and banana panino that is pretty tasty (but then, how do you screw that up).

I had to read yelp again to notice the grilled cheese conspiracy... holy shit, you were right. Don't know how I missed that.

We decided not to go and opted for Autre Monde instead, but I can report that they looked very full both pre and post movie so they must be doing something right. Hopefully we'll make it there in the next couple weeks...

Lake Street Kitchen hosted the opening night reception for Oak Park Shakespeare at which they provided many of their flatbreads. I liked them a lot. Crust had both surface crackle and sub-surface chew, toppings were tasty and well distributed.
I've since had the eggplant panini and liked it very much as well. Perfectly golden, crunchy, with good filling. The current trend for "Asian" slaw is not my favorite treatment, but they do a good job with theirs. Very fresh and crunchy, nice earthy-nutty note from a bit of sesame oil (I'm assuming) and enough acid.

Last night, went in post-show and they were doing a nice bit of business. We were seated immediately and then immediately attended by a very nice waitress I've had before, who does a good job laying out various specials incl. the seasonal and revolving beers; never has to go check for an answer.

I had the chorizo-olive-cipollini flatbread and really, really liked it. It was salty, savory, greasy, chewy in all the very best ways and totally balanced in terms of flavors and topping-to-bread ratio.

Mrs. B's arugula-mushroom panini seemed a bit bland to me, but that may be just in comparison to the flavor blast of my flatbread. She was a very pleased with it.

There was a minor service glitch wherein they really showed their professionalism and service mettle: our waitress took the beer order and then disappeared for quite a while without returning with beer or to take the food order. This was rectified with total suavity and assurance. A manager saw me looking around---she had, for whatever reason, not just left our table, but vanished completely from sight---and came over, asked what we were waiting for and delivered it himself. She reappeared, apologized succinctly but sincerely to us and to the manager and took up where she left off. Then they comped the beer. And all of this without us even voicing a complaint; they just paid enough attention to notice what was happening and got out in front of it.

So far, I really like this place.