Fixture

My husband and I went to Fixture last night for their 5 course foie gras tasting. I never stopped by Burgundy Inn while it was open, so I don't know what the space was like before. Now it is modern and kind of minimalist. Nothing fancy, but not overly stark either. The bathroom had the smallest sink I've ever seen!

Anyway, on to the food.
First course - foie gras and mushroom terrine w/ greens and an "ice grape" dressing. Delicious! Big pieces of mushroom in the terrine, which tasted like pure foie gras. The dressing was very good - spicy, a little sweet. My husband ate every drop.
Second course - a piece of seared foie gras over a decadent ragout of spring rabbit with strawberries. Unbelievably rich. The rabbit was so tender it was falling apart. I am not usually a fan of strawberries in food, but they added a nice touch of fruit and acidity that cut through the richness of the rest of the dish.
Third course - sauteed lobster and fingerling potatoes in a foie gras butter sauce. Adding foie gras to butter is like bringing coals to Newcastle. Now, I'm not sure what it means, but I've always wanted to use the phrase in writing. There were also some baby asparagus in this dish. There was a good number of small pieces of lobster in the dish, and the fingerling potatoes soaked up the foie gras butter sauce quite nicely.
Fourth course - buffalo slider w/ maytag blue cheese, caramelized onions, and a foie gras mayonnaise. This was the one course I was not a fan of. First, why slather lean buffalo meat with so much fat? It defeats the purpose of having buffalo. Or maybe the point is that regular hamburger would make the dish too rich. Not that richness was a concern in the prior three courses... Anyway, the bakery bun was too hard for a burger, the onions were browned rather than caramelized, and the whole thing was a drippy mess. I only ate a third of it.
Fifth course - dessert - a peach cobbler w/ a vanilla peach mousseline and a slice of seared foie gras on top. The cobbler crust was nicely caramelized, the peach flavor was very clear, and melded with the richness of the foie gras nicely. I'm glad this dish was served with a mousseline rather than ice cream.

Five courses for $35. A wine pairing w/ each course was an additional $20. We decided against the wine pairing, but I did get a Pierce Brosnan flight, which I liked very much. The service was friendly, and well-paced.

We will definitely be back, for food or to sample some of the multitude of wines by the glass. Their menu is online at: http://www.fixturechicago.com

Fixture
2706 N. Ashland Ave.
Chicago, IL

Adding foie gras to butter is like bringing coals to Newcastle. Now, I'm not sure what it means, but I've always wanted to use the phrase in writing.

As a former Newcastle resident (that's Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England), I can explain! Tyne and Wear was a major coal mining region...hence the phrase. Or you could always say "it's like bringing corn to Illinois"

bah!

beat me to the post... which i was gonna name something to the effect of "foie gras farewell @ fixture". totally my fault as i had the menu over a week ago.

couse 1. found the dressing in the salad paired w/ the terrine to be bland and lacking in any flavor. salad tasted grass.

course 4. the currently-fashionable white castle sized burger had to be eaten w/ utensils. this is part of their regular menu w/ the exception of the foie gras mayo addition. i loved the pungent blue cheese w/ the buffalo meat, wanted more mayo.

course 5. too much, too late, too rich. i wish a sorbet could have been served along side if for nothing but to cleanse my taste buds after the red meat.

also enjoyed the spicy "flatbread" they served. it had head that went extremely well w/ the gamey rabbit.

great bargain, great meal, restaurant was dead due to my un chic earliness, everyone was pleasant, pacing was quick. edited pix later.

Mrs. Johnny and I have visited twice - once for dinner and another time for drinks.
Our dinner consisted of a number of shared dishes - elk carpaccio, scallop mac n' cheese, miniature buffalo "sliders", moulard duck and the short ribs.
With the exception of the mac n' cheese (which my wife is not a big fan of) all dishes were quite nice.
We also discovered a new wine, a 2004 heinrich zweigelt, that we really enjoyed.
As previously mentioned, the space is minimalist - think dark woods and candlelite.
Overall, this is a great addition for us folks in nearby Roscoe Village. I'm sure we'll visit again soon.

When you enter Fixture, you can’t miss the DJ in the very front of the restaurant spinning records. So be warned, if you go on a weekend, it will be loud (although much less so at the tables in back). Last night, which happened to be pretty warm, the lack of air conditioning was also a problem. We also noticed that there were no busboys. I’m not sure if this was intended, but the lack of busboys, combined with a generally surly waitress, led to a very bad service experience, but more of that later.

After you get past the fact that the menu is laminated (which always strikes me as cheap), you’ll notice what I consider to be one of the more “user friendly” menus that you’ll find. Both the wine list and food menu give very detailed descriptions of the food/wine that seem designed for a younger, hipper crowd that may not be as food savvy. At times, there is an information overload and not typeset in a way that lends to quick, easy reading. But I applaud them in their attempts to demystify gourmet dining, and especially, the wines.

With respect to the food, there were some real winners. The Bulgogi syle short ribs with kim chee and scallion emulsion were very good. The ribs (2) were boneless and extremely tasty and tender; the kim chee quite spicy -- a real nice pairing. Although I’m not sure I really found the scallion emulsion.

The roast suckling pig consisted of a few generous pieces of very tender pork with just the right amount of fat, served with a fantastic Habanera bbq sauce and some pineapple marmalade that did a great job of cooling the heat of the dish. This was my favorite dish.

The tribute to steak frites was a grilled hangar steak, which was cooked perfectly between rare and medium rare, served with a pretty good yuzu aioli, and frites spiced with Togarashi (good, although the frites a little limp).

Most elements of the buffalo sliders tasted good (e.g., the caramelized onions, blue cheese and black pepper and truffle mayonnaise) but the burgers were a little overcooked.

The elk carpaccio did not really work for me. The chestnut honey overwhelmed the elk, although it paired beautifully with the perfect, room temperature, Humboldt Fog goat cheese.

The macaroni with cheese (with bay scallops and applewood smoked bacon) was unimpressive. It was too thin and lacking any discernible flavor (not to mention ridiculously overpriced at $10). I also tasted a friend’s wild mushroom risotto cake with watercress sauce, but I found that the cake was a tad dry and lacking in real mushroom flavor.

But it’s clear to me that there’s someone in the kitchen who really knows what she’s doing. That being said, desserts were not so impressive. While the peanut butter ice cream sandwiched within the profiteroles was quite good, the profiteroles themselves were stale.
The churros were not entirely cooked through, thus doughy in the inside, and there was way too much sugar -- really just poured on top, all over, and then some more. The ancho chile-chocolate ganache served with the churros lacked meaningful ancho flavor.

All in all, some very good food, but the service was terrible. Getting water was a real chore, one that our waitress seemed annoyed at having to perform. In any event, it would have taken a real effort to get her to crack a smile. We would certainly have appreciated her asking us at least once if we liked the food.

We were also specifically forbidden from specifying the order in which dishes should be brought out, and dishes were not brought out in any meaningful order. Given that the menu consists of both cold and hot dishes, and spicy and non-spicy dishes, you would hope that the restaurant would pay attention to the order in which dishes are brought out, but they did not. I don’t know if this was a kitchen issue or a server issue, but it was a big negative.

One other issue that really annoyed me: each time our waitress removed a plate from the table, she asked us to first remove and keep our silverware. Does Fixture not have enough silverware? Given the very different spices and flavors at work here, this was simply stupid. Who wants the spices from the Korean ribs with kim chee touching the chestnut honey and Humboldt Fog goat cheese! When I asked the waitress for new silverware, she seemed quite annoyed and waited minutes after bringing out additional food items before bringing me new silverware.

Although perhaps we should have brought these issues to the attention of the host to find out if these are restaurant issues or server issues, we were exhausted by the service issues (including the 15 minutes to bring the check) and really just wanted to escape. Perhaps others’ comments concerning future visits will shed light on these issues.

To sum it up, some real good food, but horrible service, but nonetheless a happy birthday for one of my friends.

BR wrote:We were also specifically forbidden from specifying the order in which dishes should be brought out, and dishes were not brought out in any meaningful order. Given that the menu consists of both cold and hot dishes, and spicy and non-spicy dishes, you would hope that the restaurant would pay attention to the order in which dishes are brought out, but they did not. I don’t know if this was a kitchen issue or a server issue, but it was a big negative.

Forbidden? Yikes! Well, the way around that is just to order the dishes you want first, and when they come order the next ones, and so on. I often do that in tapas bars when I don't know how big the portions are actually going to be.

BR wrote:One other issue that really annoyed me: each time our waitress removed a plate from the table, she asked us to first remove and keep our silverware.

I really hate that. No place better than a diner should do it.

LAZ wrote:

BR wrote:We were also specifically forbidden from specifying the order in which dishes should be brought out, and dishes were not brought out in any meaningful order. Given that the menu consists of both cold and hot dishes, and spicy and non-spicy dishes, you would hope that the restaurant would pay attention to the order in which dishes are brought out, but they did not. I don’t know if this was a kitchen issue or a server issue, but it was a big negative.

Forbidden? Yikes! Well, the way around that is just to order the dishes you want first, and when they come order the next ones, and so on. I often do that in tapas bars when I don't know how big the portions are actually going to be.

Admittedly, we did not try that, and I think it's a great idea . . . but as hard as it was to get the waitress to return to the table, this might not have worked so well at Fixture.

I went as part of a group of four to Fixture Saturday night. The place was mostly empty. A couple tables were full in the front and a couple were full in the back. We were seated at a table in the very back of the restaurant. As mentioned before they don’t have air conditioning, and stepping in from the street on a cool night made it seem like it might be a problem. After a few minutes though, we became acclimated to the temperature, and it was quite pleasant, especially with a nice glass of white wine.

We sampled much of they had to offer, and were generally impressed with the food. The wine list was nice, too. I very much appreciated the long descriptions of the wines. I didn’t need the long description of the food, but it didn’t bother me like in some reviews I’ve read elsewhere. The service was very attentive. Overall, a fun night and for the most part good food.

Here’s what we sampled and my impressions:

Wild mushroom risotto cake - We all thought this was delicious. Maybe a little lacking in mushroomy-ness, but very nice nonetheless

Smoked salmon salad – this was excellent. I’m not a smoked salmon expert, but I found the salmon buttery and delicious, and paired nicely with crunchy romaine.

Suckling pig – this reminded me of a very well done pulled pork. If only there’d been a bun and some coleslaw 

Short ribs w/ kimchee – Probably the highlight of the meal. The soft, sweet ribs really paired well with the tangy, spicy, crunchy kimchee. I guess Korean restaurants already knew that.

Spinach salad – Fine. Due to the spinach scare, this was replaced with field greens. Good, nothing to mention, though.

Mac n cheese – As noted previously, this was a miss. The dish was a little thin, and the bay scallops were mostly absent.

Artichoke w/ crab – The crab filling was wonderful, they should find something else to stuff it in as the artichoke was tough.

lobster ceviche – As the most expensive thing on the menu, this was disappointing. In the poor lighting, I couldn’t quite tell where the lobster was. And there just wasn’t enough zip to the ceviche to counteract the dullness of the jicama it was placed on top of.

MJ

has anyone tried the "bacon and beer" tasting that they're offering?

We went for dinner on Wed last week, I think we were aiming at 8 pm. We had made a reservation (or left a message on their machine asking - never got a confirmation) but it wasn't necessary. It was nearly empty.

The guy who greeted us (manager?) was friendly and warm. It was very cold out, and my feet were freezing, so when he asked where we wanted to sit I said "wherever it is warm" and he sat us in the back. Unfortunately there was some sort of freezing draft along the floor (we were in a corner) and my feet never did warm up.

Our waitress was very nice. We asked about how small these dishes were, since it said "small plates." She said most people get 2-3 each. We decided to get two each, share, and order more if needed. We also each got one glass of wine.

I had a truffled grilled cheese sandwich with smoked tomato puree and the hangar steak, DH had wild mushroom risotto (cake?) and the short ribs. They were about to change the menu, so they were out of quite a few things, and the short ribs came with some other garnish, not kimchee.

The food was very good, no complaints about the service at all, but we really could have done with 2 or maybe 3 dishes, not 4. They were very rich dishes, the grilled cheese was an entire sandwich, and the puree was really a soup - creamy and good, but filling. And yes, the fries were tasty but cold and limp. You can hold the steak for the fries, you can't hold the fries for the steak.

We thought the wines were over priced, especially since I got the bottom of the bottle and all the sediment it contained in my glass. We ended up spending $80 for the two of us, and I don't think it was worth that.

If it were around the corner, I'd probably go on a more regular basis, and just get one dish. I definitely liked the menu and wine list better than Meritage, their other place (not that there's anything wrong with Meritage, I just prefer a more eclectic wine list that isn't so focused on only American wines). We had no trouble parking.