skylark -- my new favorite bar

Last Friday, my wife and I need to eat something cheap. She is fairly newly pregnant and has developed a troubling aversion to Chinese food (doubly troubling since we just moved within spitting distance of Chinatown --my fantasies of nightly takeout from Triple Crown, Springworld, Lao, LTH, Ed's, etc, have been dashed). We decided to try the food at Skylark, a newer bar at the corner of Cermak and Halsted. I had been there a couple three times before and had been favorably impressed but the food sealed the deal. Generally the menu is southern influenced bar food. I had the fried chicken dinner -- perfectly crispy skin on a half chicken cut into 4 pieces. Very well done. The white meat wasn't too dry and actually had flavor and the dark meat tasted as it should -- juicy, not greasy, chickeny, not overly salty. I also had the collard greens -- nicely smoke -- and mac + cheese -- fairly dense with a nice crust. My wife had the pulled pork sandwich; it was ok but not very smoky -- juniper seemed to be the dominant flavor. The star was the mound of homemade tater tots. Like the ones you get from Orida but a crispier less chemical outside and fluffier inside. It was like they took a guilty pleasure and, at once, made it more pleasurable and less guilty. Not life changing food but really very good.

Now, of course I am posting this in the "drink" section for a reason. This is a great bar. I am from Milwaukee and I feel that qualifies me to judge bars and I have nothing but good things to say about this place. the room is large and decorated with a variety of ephemera -- most notably some old Oddfellows banners from somewhere in Wisconsin. There are several comfortable boothes and perhaps 8 or so tables and a beautiful old dark wood bar. I've always found a seat. The music has not been overly loud on any of my visits and has been standard issue hipster -- Alejandro Escevedo, Elvis Costello -- to a bit more aggressively angry but not obnoxious (obviously, to each his own). The crowd seems to tend toward late youth / early middle age, some local some not. And the drinks are really reasonably priced. Most importantly -- this place feels comfortable, uncrowded, unhurried. In short, I want enough people to go to this place to keep it afloat -- but not so many that it would be ruined. Check it out.

Never tried the food at this place, but I did enjoy the bar. It's good to see a decent bar open up anywhere these days, but particularly south of Roosevelt.

i love skylark - i haven't yet tried the food, but like it mostly because my favorite bartender - dan o - works there. i've known him thru his past few bar jobs over the years. he makes an excellent margarita! i believe he works there tuesdays and fridays/saturdays. if you enjoy a good marg - ask him for a "sharon special"!

sharon

EDK,

Bar recommendation from a fellow former Milwaukeean, fried chicken and homemade tater tots, sounds like a little slice of heaven at Halsted and Cermak.

I tried to go for lunch today, but Skylark was locked up tight, ended up having a light lunch at 'Little' Three Happiness, which is one of my favorites.

Actually, I had to stop at LTH anyway as I had left my camera there Saturday evening. We stopped at LTH around midnight with a small group after the Slow Food Feast of the Senses, which was a spectacular event.

I am very much looking forward to trying the Skylark and will be sure to post on the glories of their tater tots. By the way, my current favorite place for tater tots in the area is Davis Street Fish Market. Nothing beats the combo of a dozen oysters and an order of crisp tater tots.



Enjoy,
Gary

Southernish food served in a bar that plays Alejandro Escovedo? I will put this high on my list of places to check out.

Bar recommendation from a fellow former Milwaukeean, fried chicken and homemade tater tots, sounds like a little slice of heaven at Halsted and Cermak.

Sir Wiv,

Do you really think you're fooling anyone?

As if there could possibly be a second person in Chicago publishing opinions on restaurant tater tots.

Regards,

Harry V.

Harry V. wrote:

As if there could possibly be a second person in Chicago publishing opinions on restaurant tater tots.

Mr. V,

As implausible as it may be, there seems to be two tater tot loving fools in Chicago. Myself and EDK. Coincidentally, when EDK described the tater tot as homemade, I though of both you and RevrendAndy.

After experiencing the delights of oysters and tater tots at Davis Street you both, within a few days of each other, called me up and expressed surprise that Davis Street's tater tots were, well, simply tater tots.

It seemed as if my glowing description led you, and Andy, to believe the tots were going to be a masterpiece of hand-formed purple Peruvian potatoes, studded with fresh shaved Umbrian truffles and lovingly fried in garlic scented goose fat.

To paraphrase Groucho, sometimes a tater tot's just a tater tot.

The homemade beauties EDK describes do sound wonderful, care to make a pilgrimage to the Skylark next week for tater tots, fried chicken and drinks? EDK, you available, anyone else? The more the merrier, all are welcome.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:The homemade beauties EDK describes do sound wonderful, care to make a pilgrimage to the Skylark next week for tater tots, fried chicken and drinks? EDK, you available, anyone else? The more the merrier, all are welcome.

Consider me penciled in!

G Wiv wrote: It seemed as if my glowing description led you, and Andy, to believe the tots were going to be a masterpiece of hand-formed purple Peruvian potatoes, studded with fresh shaved Umbrian truffles and lovingly fried in garlic scented goose fat.

Ah yes, the famous croccanti di patate maltagliate al profumo di tartufo allo stile di Spoleto. I believe I had them once on the boardwalk in Asbury Park.
(The version using Peruvian potatoes arose through misinterpretation of the term 'Perugian', 'alla Perugina', I would surmise, which itself allows for the addition of squid ink, giving the croccanti a purplish hue.)
( )

More seriously, I have a vague recollection of having heard that the tater tot was a by-product of the industrial production of french fries, as a means to use the odd bits left over from the cutting process. Any truth to that? In any event, the tater tot involves little pieces of potato rather than mashed potatoes, no? Or is that the odd left-over cuts are then pureed and fried? (As you can see, I've never had a real tater tot.)

Mashed potato croquettes, rolled in (flour and egg and) breadcrumbs and fried, are wonderful things that are rarely seen (unless, of course, that's what tater tots are, I guess) in the States. They're much beloved in Belgium, where they are offered in most simple restaurants as a starch option alongside fritten and puree; my Napolitana/Salernitana grandmother would make them (crocch

Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.