Graze - Who's been?

Graze
35 W. Ontario St.
312-255-1234

Going there this weekend. It's gotten fairly decent reviews on Metromix:
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/search/118081,0,7116055.venue

Has anyone been there? Any thoughts?

Thanks.

So has nobody been here? Small plates aren't my thing so I didn't type up a review. I thought it was awful though. I would guess they won't last long. Anyone else been?

what was so bad about it?

Awful is a pretty tough word. I was there in April, and my meal was not very memorable. Not worth writing up. Although it had a tapas feel, most of the dishes lacked a strong taste profile. As I recall, the service was quite congenial. I felt that Graze would be a reasonable choice for conventioners, but not a destination restaurant for Chicagoans. An Ameritapas restaurant.

In general, I don't think Metromix is a great way to pick places to eat, except when the set of reviews as a whole are somehow extraordinary (such as when I recently found that EVERY review of a restaurant was four stars). You're much better off asking here. =)

I haven't eaten a lot of things here, but the breadbasket is one of the better I've had in the city (Viand is up there too)...the mussels were pretty good...

The one thing I can vouch for indisputably is that the drinks, especially the Citrine and the Moscow Mule are incredibly well crafted.

Graze closed on friday....

Anyone know what happened?

I was never in Graze, so don't have an opinion about the substance of the place, but as far as the presentation of the place...driving past it, I always thought its signage looked like that of a mid-market chain. Why a place that had culinary ambitions would choose graphics that made it look like a Buca di Beppo I don't know, but I think there was a real mismatch there, and it might have been partly responsible for doing the place in by sending confusing signals to its intended public. Or maybe the ill thought out graphics were a symptom, not a cause--i.e., were indicative of confusion/dissension within management about what the place wanted to be, which had fatal consequences. In any case, symbolism matters, and I thought Graze's signage sent bad signals.

Graze closed on friday....

Anyone know what happened?

my wife and I just happened to try graze a month or so ago. my impressions were that the owners sunk a ton of money into the remodel/design. it was a very hip, design-heavy place.

but i noticed a lot of unprofessional touches, like cheesy signage printed off the office computer and scotch-taped to the front windows, the fact that the valet was only accessible on the dearborn side and there was no signage to indicate this on ontario (a way more busy street), and the service was noticeably poor.

we thought the food rocked! but we were there on a friday or saturday night (can't remember) at around 8pm and the place was almost empty. it was clear something was up.

the small plates concept is always a bit risky, especially in tourist-heavy area such as this. savvy diners love it. people in town from oklahoma and kansas don't get it.

the servers really lacked polish and seemed almost untrained. we figured that if the place had been open a while and business was poor, they may have gone through a lot of servers and what they ended up with was the 'D' team. our server was this near-teenager who seemed fresh off the greyhound from indiana or something.

servers didn't explain dishes, didn't tell us ice cream flavors, didn't offer coffee, and plopped down dishes without telling us what they were. (not that big a deal, although there were a couple freebies we got from the chef where we honestly didn't know, since we didn't order them)

we noticed a couple manager/owner types on the floor and they didn't seem to care much. this might be attributable to the fact that the restaurant was dead on what should've been a busy night, or that they already knew the place was on its way to the graveyard. hard to tell--chicken/egg.

my guess would be that graze was undercapitalized, the staff wasn't ever adequately prepared/trained, and that the owners didn't have a firm grasp of the task they were taking on by opening a hip downtown spot in an area with so much competition.

too bad. the place had potential and might've fared much better had it been located in a neighborhood like lincoln square or wrigleyville.

Graze just seemed like such a weird location to me - like it should have been an accounting office or something.

Yep, didn't last long. They're closed.