My friend who was there Thursday also got the sniping-antelopes-from-helicopter story, and the point was to keep the meat tender and flavorful, since the antelopes don't get scared and run off.

Carlson also said (and again this is hearsay) that there's a refrigerated truck moving around after the helicopter picking up the carcasses and processing just after the kill.

gleam wrote:My friend who was there Thursday also got the sniping-antelopes-from-helicopter story, and the point was to keep the meat tender and flavorful, since the antelopes don't get scared and run off.

Hmm. I must say I find the "them suckers can run--how else you gonna kill 'em if you don't pick 'em off from a helicopter?" rationale more plausible.

Well, remember that the way slaughterhouses kill steer is specifically designed so they don't know it's coming and don't get scared, as that fear ruins the taste of the meat. So I think they're both plausible. I do wonder how far away the helicopter has to be for the whirring of the rotors to not scare the antelope, though.

gleam wrote:I do wonder how far away the helicopter has to be for the whirring of the rotors to not scare the antelope, though.

The rifles must have powerful scopes.

riddlemay wrote:

gleam wrote:I do wonder how far away the helicopter has to be for the whirring of the rotors to not scare the antelope, though.

The rifles must have powerful scopes.

And those 'copters must be darned quiet, too

=R=

gleam wrote: I do wonder how far away the helicopter has to be for the whirring of the rotors to not scare the antelope, though.

According to the press release from the NDOW (which I linked here), the helicopters actually herded the antelope together. So it might actually facilitate hunting them, rather than scare them. . . perhaps because they don't understand helicopters (as they understand predatory lions), and their instinct is to herd in response to a helicopter, rather than to run away.

Just another thought on this subject.

Huh, very cool, thanks for the info!

Stupid antelope.

You've got to run like an antelope out of control?

set the gear shift to the high gear of your soul....

i'm curious how often Carlson will be changing the menu now...i'd gladly eat the same menu again, but wonder what other creations he has been dreaming up lately too

Mr. X and I had the delightful company of Gypsy Boy and the Lovely Dining Companion last night at Schwa. We came well armed with five bottles of wine plus some gifts for the staff. (Gypsy Boy had read about Michael Carlson's affection for gummy bears.) We had the nine-course tasting (with a vegetarian tasting for the LDC) which ended up being eleven not including the amuse.

Holy cow, this was a fantastic meal! GAF and makisupa12 and others have written about the food more eloquently than I ever could. Our two “bonus” courses were the pine cone and the quail egg ravioli. Now I understand the adoration for that ravioli! A woman at the table next to us did not want her ravioli and I was not below expressing my willingness to take it off her hands. One of her tablemates wisely stepped up and ate it.

Different parts of the meal resonate for me: the amuse, the rutabaga consommé, the last bite of the antelope dish where I had a bit of everything, the cheese, and of course, the ravioli. Although not everything worked for me, I was impressed with the creativity and boldness. It was a fabulous way to end my month-long birthday celebration.

One additional note: the reservation process was not as off-putting as has been described. Mr. X was able to get through to leave a message (twice actually) and he got a call back for each message. Granted, the return call was not immediate, but we were able to get a reservation in May and that was our goal. I was glad to have experienced Schwa and tip my hat to Chef Carlson and his team.

Ditto.

It's going to take me a while to settle back down to earth after last evening's extravaganza. As The GP (aka Mary) noted, some things worked, some didn't. But my brief take on the experience is that I find it nearly inconceivable that one could have a more extraordinary dining experience at the price ($105).

I won't describe the dishes--others have done so in far more detail and better than I expect I could. The photographs have been helpful as well.

Until my wits return and permit me to say something more useful, I will note only two things:

1) I needed to call to make a special request. I called three times. Time #1: no answer. Time #2: machine full. Time #3: live person.

2) Special request was to see if the kitchen would make the Lovely Dining Companion's nine-course dinner a vegetarian one. Not only were they extremely happy to agree, in the event, the thought and care that went into it was as impressive as the thought and care that goes into the "regular" menu. Contrary to some thoughts expressed above, I do not believe that requesting a vegetarian "option" diminished the experience at all and Michael Carlson delivered most of LDC's dishes himself and seemed pleased to have the opportunity to riff on what the rest of us were eating.

In the meantime, I'll limit my reaction to: GOLLY!

OMG you guys have me hyped.

Cathy2 wrote:

Snark wrote:

I had a 5 course lunch with wine pairings for $125. at Trotters.

If it was a private party why are you being chargerged individual settings?

Just curious? I am familiar w/ Trotter's offerings...and am surprised you were even charged for lunch but am sure this is something you planned in advance...

ChicaGourmet's 10th Anniversary Luncheon, which if you wanted to attend, then you paid.

All by itself, it was a fine lunch. However when you begin comparing it to Schwa, then it felt not quite as creative and rather pricey. All value is relative and this didn't do it for me.
Regards,

Please don't assume that the $125 you paid went to Trotter's. The ChicaGourmet events have a profit built in for ChicaGourmets, and you paid the $125 to them, not to Trotter's.

I'll be going to Schwa in a couple of weeks, so I want to make sure I understand the stemware situation. It sounds like the stemware for still wines is fine, but I probably should bring flutes for the champagne I'll be taking there. Is that about right?

Also, it sounds like the chef and the kitchen crew are into Belgian beer, so I should bring some of that as well.

All the best,
John

John Danza wrote:I'll be going to Schwa in a couple of weeks, so I want to make sure I understand the stemware situation. It sounds like the stemware for still wines is fine, but I probably should bring flutes for the champagne I'll be taking there. Is that about right?

Also, it sounds like the chef and the kitchen crew are into Belgian beer, so I should bring some of that as well.

All the best,
John

Well, they've apparently upgraded their "stem"ware--which is, actually, stemless. But in any event, it's fine. You can bring flutes--I did, but they're only "necessary" to the extent you're uncomfortable using their glasses for champagne.

As to what their preferences are, I brought two things: I'd seen from an old interview that Michael Carlson likes gummy bears. So I got a couple packages and wrapped them up. And I brought a split of good PX (Pedro Ximenez) that I thought might be a little different from what they ordinarily get. Carlson seemed to appreciate both and I suspect it's the thought as much (or more than, perhaps) the exact nature of what you bring. I'm certainly sure that many don't necessarily bring anything extra.

We brought a 6-pack of Belgian Fruit beers for them when we went, they seemed to appreciate it

They have those stemless wine glasses, which are fine. I like them. You don't really need flutes for champagne, but if you prefer it, I don't think they'll be offended if you bring them.

Anyone know what dates Schwa is currently taking reservations for? I haven't been able to get through and am on a mission to get reservations for my sister's 30th b-day/parent's 40th anniversary.

Thanks,
E

efood wrote:Anyone know what dates Schwa is currently taking reservations for? I haven't been able to get through and am on a mission to get reservations for my sister's 30th b-day/parent's 40th anniversary.

Thanks,
E

efood:

I recommend you have patience and just keep trying to get hold of the Schwa team. I'm not sure how far out they are taking reservations -- we wanted something in May to celebrate my birthday (having started calling in mid-April) and ended up with a date one day after my birthday.

-mary

I posted my very preliminary initial impressions above. I've had a bit of time to come back to earth and wanted to add just a little in the way of comments on the specific dishes. (My parenthetical descriptions draw heavily on the wonderful accounts from GAF and makisupa12, above.)

Amuse (red grapefruit with honey sorbet and chamomile agar atop a cold glass "ice cube") -- wonderful taste, excellent starter. The acid of the grapefruit and the sweetness of the sorbet were perfectly matched. Loved it; a great combination of clean flavors, refreshing and palate-readying.

Jonah Crab (Crab, both “straight” and pickled, accompanied by a slice of dehydrated banana, batons of celery, celery root and a celery root puree. cube of brioche injected with hot banana liquor) An unexpected combination of tastes and textures; worked well together. Overall, I found it very interesting and good, but not a knock-out.

Beer Cheese Soup (exactly as it sounds, from cheese and beer made by a Belgian monastery, accompanied by a tiny pretzel ball and dill pickle puree and a dehydrated mustard chip)
Extraordinarily concentrated and unfortunately, a bit too salty. The concept and the flavor were obviously excellent and had the saltiness not been at the fore, I would have probably named this as one of my top dishes. The tiny pretzel “hole” was wonderful but I didn’t really get much flavor from the dill pickle puree painted on the plate. The dehydrated mustard chip was a terrific accompaniment but overall, I was disappointed because of the saltiness.

Pad Thai (Traditional noodle dish with a peanut puree and jellyfish as the "noodles")
A disappointment. I found the pad thai flavors just didn’t really remind me of pad thai. Had I not know what the noodles really were, I would never have guessed jellyfish. I didn’t find them a revelation; heck, I didn’t even think that they made much difference. The dish simply didn’t work for me.

Arctic Char Roe (Tiny slices of pumpernickel, candied mustard seeds, and miniature balls of rutabaga with the roe on a Meyer lemon puree, all accompanied by a rutabaga juice shooter)
The shooter was extremely concentrated rutabaga: too much so for me. Since the miniature rutabaga balls were already on the plate, I thought the dish would have been fine without the shooter. As it was, it was far too strong for me. Even so, I enjoyed the rest of the composition, though fish roe of most kinds aren’t exactly my cup of tea.

Quail Egg Ravioli (off menu: ravioli with cheese and brown butter with a quail egg yolk in the middle)
Exquisite. Stupendous dish. Others have waxed philosophical and ultimately, I agree with them: simple perfection.

Pine Cone (sea urchin ice cream on a maple syrup flavored tuile with some pine essence)
Intriguing combination yet again. I didn’t get much sea urchin flavor (which is probably for the best). I enjoyed it but overall, it wasn’t one of the top dishes for me.

Kona Kampachi (three slices of kampachi accompanied by lime gelee, a galangal crisp, and a maple foam, batons of salsify, and tiny slices of (pickled?) daikon sprinkled with cayenne)
Absolutely wonderful. The flavors combined in a way I would never have suspected. Lime and galangal matched, a reasonable expectation, but when added to the daikon and the fish, the whole exceeded the sum of the parts.

Lamb brains and morels Small cubes of lamb brains accompanied by morels and a mushroom foam (if memory serves).
Once again, a fascinating dish that suffered from too much salt. The “crispy lamb brains” were rich, with a very delicate flavor. They were accompanied by some too-salty morels with nasturtium and a poached quail egg. I wasn’t eager to try this one but found it much more to my liking than I expected. Had salt not been the issue, it would have ranked high on my list.

Antelope (a rectangle of butternut squash separated antelope prepared two different ways: tenderloin sous vide and a stewed ragout. Accompanied by white chocolate mousse and macadamia puree)
Fabulous dish. Antelope and white chocolate?? Yup. Astonishing combinations that worked perfectly. A dish of genius. The sous vide antelope looked beautiful and tasted even better. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth…. I don’t know that the rectangle of squash was the best way to incorporate it and would be the one thing I might change, but the flavors—especially the two presentations of antelope—were excellent. And the white chocolate turned out to be a perfect foil for the meat.

Cheese (A tiny slice of savory cheesecake made from Humboldt fog blue cheese with black truffle ash atop a graham cracker crust).
Not sure I’m gonna run right out and look to replicate this one. For what it was/is, I thought it was excellent. Just not to my taste, I guess. I love the cheese, although I think that it was a little less fully flavored than I expected. I’ve pondered this for a while and can’t quite figure out why it was less successful than I expect. For some reason, I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around this one. Nothing I’d have changed in the execution or ingredients...

Dessert (Parsnip custard, maple syrup and lavender foam. Dabs of passionfruit and candied sweetbreads)
Who’d a thunk? Parsnip custard? Wow! Astonishing, amazing, delicious, scrumptious, and just plain remarkable. Or if you prefer, as was said above, positively ethereal. Truth be told, although I enjoyed the other components of the dish, they paled in comparison.

We brought a number of bottles and my take was that the champagne (we started with a Bollinger brut) was an excellent match. I was surprised when the kitchen opened a bottle of txacoli, a light, bright, slightly effervescent wine from the Basque region in Spain. It was thoroughly enjoyable but just didn’t have the body needed to stand up to the food. A great summer wine but the wrong one for this food. My sense is that a good sauvignon blanc/pouilly fume/gruner veltliner would have been a much better choice. We had two reds and let the kitchen choose. Although we eventually opened and tasted both, their choice was wrong, in that the second bottle would have clearly been a much better choice for the last couple courses—especially the antelope.

What am I saying? Be careful. These guys know a lot about wine but they can’t know everything a sommelier would. They’re chefs and they’re top-notch performers in that arena. It may be too much to expect them to know every conceivable bottle that a party might bring into the restaurant. In our case, I think they chose the wrong bottle twice. Horrible mistake? No. Just that the right bottle in each case would have added much more to the overall experience. If need be, take the menu from the website and go into a liquor store where you have confidence in the people there and ask for their help matching.

All in all, for the price—$105—this has got to be one of the greatest deals in the city, if not the country. I won’t rhapsodize about the room, the staff, or experience. Others have done so far more successfully than I could. But, the several dishes that I was less than pleased with don’t diminish my pleasure from this meal. My criticisms about the wines, while significant in its way, are almost beside the point. Dining at Schwa (or any other place like it) is about the entire experience and, all taken together, it was really a tour de force. Each of us enjoyed the meal tremendously, as much for the experience as for the food. It was a wonderful evening and I can’t imagine one quite like it anywhere else.

Gypsy Boy wrote: We brought a number of bottles and my take was that the champagne (we started with a Bollinger brut) was an excellent match. I was surprised when the kitchen opened a bottle of txacoli, a light, bright, slightly effervescent wine from the Basque region in Spain. It was thoroughly enjoyable but just didn’t have the body needed to stand up to the food. A great summer wine but the wrong one for this food. My sense is that a good sauvignon blanc/pouilly fume/gruner veltliner would have been a much better choice. We had two reds and let the kitchen choose. Although we eventually opened and tasted both, their choice was wrong, in that the second bottle would have clearly been a much better choice for the last couple courses—especially the antelope.

What am I saying? Be careful. These guys know a lot about wine but they can’t know everything a sommelier would. They’re chefs and they’re top-notch performers in that arena. It may be too much to expect them to know every conceivable bottle that a party might bring into the restaurant. In our case, I think they chose the wrong bottle twice. Horrible mistake? No. Just that the right bottle in each case would have added much more to the overall experience. If need be, take the menu from the website and go into a liquor store where you have confidence in the people there and ask for their help matching.

Gypsy Boy-

In the defense of the chefs, the red we started with was chosen by me. Given that I didn't know tons about the reds I brought (my bad!), we were flying somewhat blind. I agree that the champagne was an excellent match. As others have said before, champagne could accompany the entire meal. I rather enjoyed our journey through the various bottles we brought.

-Mary

I wanted to thank everyone for posting detailed descriptions and impressions of their meals at Schwa. Since I've gotten the "full voice mail box" the dozen or so times I've tried to make a reservation, it's looking like I won't be able to go there in my upcoming trip the first week of June. Even so, I've thoroughly enjoyed the glimpse of Carlson's cooking offered by the collective LTHForum wisdom.

Scott

I have a reservation for tomorrow night, but have yet to receive a call confirming it and their voice mail is full - how worried should I be? Those who have been - when do you get the reconfirmation call?

You may get a call sometime today. But if they know their voice mail is full, maybe they've stopped calling to confirm. After all, they do take a credit card, which is a pretty good incentive for you to show up

In case anyone missed it, there's a story by Allecia Vermillion in today's Sun Times about Schwa and it being the most difficult reservation to get in the entire city:

Chicago's Most Wanted

Three months after chef Michael Carlson, 33, reopened his unorthodox fine dining spot at 1466 N. Ashland, it remains almost as difficult to get a table as during the restaurant's abrupt four-month hiatus this winter.

Carlson and his three-chef staff seat only 30 people a night. But the small space is half the story.

"We can't answer the phone," Carlson explains over the din of the kitchen. "We try to stay up on it, but right now we've got a hundred messages. We're buried."

I wonder if Ms. Vermillion may be a reader of LTHForum . . .

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:In case anyone missed it, there's a story by Allecia Vermillion in today's Sun Times about Schwa and it being the most difficult reservation to get in the entire city:

Chicago's Most Wanted

Three months after chef Michael Carlson, 33, reopened his unorthodox fine dining spot at 1466 N. Ashland, it remains almost as difficult to get a table as during the restaurant's abrupt four-month hiatus this winter.

Carlson and his three-chef staff seat only 30 people a night. But the small space is half the story.

"We can't answer the phone," Carlson explains over the din of the kitchen. "We try to stay up on it, but right now we've got a hundred messages. We're buried."

I wonder if Ms. Vermillion may be a reader of LTHForum . . .

=R=

I can at tell you that I happen to know that she went to an outstanding mid-sized midwestern University.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I wonder if Ms. Vermillion may be a reader of LTHForum . . .

=R=

I can tell you that for sure she is, as she asked me to provide quotes for the article. I declined, as I've been misquoted in articles before and didn't want to take the chance.

John Danza wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:I wonder if Ms. Vermillion may be a reader of LTHForum . . .

=R=

I can tell you that for sure she is, as she asked me to provide quotes for the article. I declined, as I've been misquoted in articles before and didn't want to take the chance.

If the story was generated by her reading these forums, it's truly unfortunate that the piece included no attribution for LTHForum.com.

It almost felt as if the entire piece was mined here. Now, after learning that she contacted you for quotes, it's hard to believe that wasn't the case.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

John Danza wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:I wonder if Ms. Vermillion may be a reader of LTHForum . . .

=R=

I can tell you that for sure she is, as she asked me to provide quotes for the article. I declined, as I've been misquoted in articles before and didn't want to take the chance.

If the story was generated by her reading these forums, it's truly unfortunate that the piece included no attribution for LTHForum.com.

It almost felt as if the entire piece was mined here. Now, after learning that she contacted you for quotes, it's hard to believe that wasn't the case.

=R=

She must have been perusing the now-closed thread about how to get a reservation at Schwa, because she wanted to use one or more of my posts in that thread in the article. She contacted me via a PM on LTH.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I wonder if Ms. Vermillion may be a reader of LTHForum . . .

She is...I know she contacted me (and others) when writing the story via pm on this board.