David's - save this restaurant, Naperville edition

I have some pictures that I will post, but I am crazy busy and that is taking longer than expected. And I am worried about its survival at the moment.

David's on Jefferson Hill is David Oland, formerly of Montparnasse (he followed Suzy Crofton) and a few other places, and then seems to have taken some time off, and now is back in the former Masala Yangu location.

Went on a Friday evening and the place was consistently empty, between two and three tables occupied. This made me a little worried about the meal, but the quality and execution were top notch in everything we ate. Just excellent, and while the entrees were not inexpensive, mostly between $15 and $25, the meal was as good as anything I have enjoyed in Naperville for some time. The food is decidedly haute in ingredients and preparation, beautiful squash soup, rack of lamb, shrimp pasta, massive pork belly appetizer, and more.

Will get pictures and a detailed review added to this thread as time permits, but meanwhile I cannot recommend strongly enough that you go and try this place. My new bestest place in N'ville, and IMHO it is not even close.

David's On Jefferson Hill
43 E Jefferson Ave
Naperville, IL 60540
P. (630) 548-9393

David - thanks for the post. I was at two restaurants out your way just before our family addition that I never wrote up, and I'm glad to see this.

David's was excellent (reminiscent of a Cafe le Coq menu and intimacy in a Meson Sabika space), with lamb and pork belly being the standouts on our table for two. It's on the Rewards Network, so value-added gift certificates are a good way to get in if you're on the network, and there is a good writeup here:

http://www.rewardsnetwork.com/details.h ... ntId=93539

Suzette's Creperie in Wheaton played host to a shower for my wife, and knocked it out of the park. Sandwiches on all manner of breads baked on premise, with generous fresh herbs on everything, very tasty crepes with mushrooms and one with a lemony Moroccan chicken preparation, little Croque Monsieurs and Madames, imported sodas, friendly staff, bright room, impressive depth and variety in tea service.

http://www.suzettescreperie.com/aboutus.html

211 West Front Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
630.462.0898

Have you been back to Macarena Tapas?

A good friend has also spoken well of Suzette's though I have not been. I do like a good crepe at times, thanks for the reminder.

No, I have not gone back to Macarena's. It was exciting the first time, a lot less so the second time and I was not inspired to go back. More like a magic show than a delicious meal and the tricks lose their interest with familiarity. I suppose I should go and see if the menu has changed, but I doubt I will.

Thanks for the recommendation Dicksond. I go down that street all the time and had no idea it was there. Sounds like they need to so a better marketing job.

Did you happen to note if they allow BYOB?

John Danza wrote:Thanks for the recommendation Dicksond. I go down that street all the time and had no idea it was there. Sounds like they need to so a better marketing job.

Did you happen to note if they allow BYOB?

They have a fairly inexpensive but interesting wine list (pretty obscure stuff at reasonable prices, nothing much that I recognized which is usually a definite plus in an inexpensive list) but they did permit me to bring my own bottle. We had a brief discussion (David and I) about wine on the phone when I reserved (unnecessarily as it turned out) and I got there before the Bride arrived and was half intending to buy a bottle of bubbly at a great price - like $28. But she arrived with the bottle and gave it to the waiter to open before sitting down so we drank our wine. It was an SB Syrah so I went with more meaty selections.

I do not believe they charged us corkage, but of course they should. At almost any corkage price one would be better off to buy their wine since almost everything was less than $35.

It is a tough location, off the street and aside from a mention in Dish and the Rewards Network blurb I have not heard anything about it. But it is an ambitious menu, which scared me in an empty place, and at the risk of repeating myself, the ingredients, execution and conception of the dishes were top notch. If you remember Elaine's - this place is what Elaine's should have been. Now that I think of it, I believe Oland had a place in the same building as Elaine's before Elaine's, but I can't remember the name of that one or whether I ever went there. I did like his work at Montparnasse, if not quite as much as Suzy Crofton's. But that was soooo long ago...

They've only been open for about a month, from what I can tell, so don't worry too much yet. We stumbled in there via rewards points without realizing they hadn't been around for a while (a rare lapse in research on my part, but we were going to be out there and took a stab in the dark).

I'm excited about trying them. It pains me to live in a town that can't seem to hold a haute cuisine restaurant. I spend a lot of my weekend time on the Eisenhower going downtown to dinner.

I will definitely give them a try. I'm happy to support a Naperville restaurant that is not the usual chain that prevails here. Thanks for the report! I also have never heard of the Rewards Network and I'm going to take advantage of that.

The place before Elaine was called David's Bistro.

The man obviously has a lot of talent, but during his time at Montparnasse there were many complaints of excessive saltiness in his dishes, and from talking to Jean-Paul it was a factor in his departure. The same complaint cropped up at David's Bistro as well, and I wonder if it was a factor in the restaurant's demise. One wonders if this is a reason why his new venture is not yet crowded...locals would be the first to patronize it, and the locals probably remember his two previous stints in Naperville.

Having said this, I will make it a point to dine there in the very near future. If he cut back on the salt, this could be an amazing place...

Thanks for the memory check Mark. I remember only going to David's Bistro once. I don't recall the food being salty, but I do remember the server. This girl (probably no more than 18) probably should have been working at a Denny's. She was silly and didn't understand the food at all. If you're going to serve interesting dishes, you should hire staff that can adequately represent you place. I'm definitely going to try David's.

Thanks for the tip; having a Montparnasse quality restaurant would be so helpful. I used to be able to entertain very successfully NYC magazine people there without having to take them to Chicago. But that was even before Suzy Crofton. Who were the principals then?

Unfortunately David's website isn't working-never a good sign.

Montparnasse was started by Jean-Paul Eskenazi and Suzy Crofton. Both were at Le Francais in Wheeling prior to opening Montparnasse...

"Props" to Suzy then. Is Eskenazi still in the business?

Last I heard Jean-Paul was selling real estate in Naperville...

Yeah, he was a manager at Mon Ami Gabi in Oakbrook for a while after Montparnasse, some of the wait staff landed there, too, and then moved on to sell real estate. Have not seen his name on any for sale signs for a while, so I don't know if he is still around.

I did not find the food to be salty on the one visit to the current edition of David's. I did find the server to be a touch amateur, but I also found that to be the case in the early days of Vie, so I would not hold that against him. At this point, the place does not compare at all in ambience with Montparnasse, between the grandeur of that room and the front room team that came from Le Francais.

But the food was good. Hope you like it. Pix and details still to come.

MLS wrote:Unfortunately David's website isn't working-never a good sign.

Can you share the URL? I haven't been able to find a website, other than the Rewards Network site.

Thanks.

http://www.davidsonjeffersonhill.com from Metromix

I missed this thread the first time around, but saw David's mentioned in the new edition of Chicago Magazine (as being one of the latest "hot" spots, FWIW). Seems strange that it would be a hot spot, given its off-the-beaten path location and dickson's comments above, but it may be. In any event, we haven't gotten out to try many new hot spots lately (with a six month-old at home), but I'd like to try to get here. Anyone have any recent experiences that they'd like to share?

BTW, the link posted above no longer works.

We tried to go back last Friday night and they were closed for a private party (at least they did seem busy). My visit was not that long ago, and I still have pictures to add, so it should still apply.

Congratulations, Papa Ron.

dicksond wrote:Congratulations, Papa Ron.

Thanks Dickson. Please post pictures from David's if you have a chance.

Best,

Ron

Late but not forgotten, here are the pictures from my first visit to David's, as well as a review of both that visit and a subsequent one. The pictures are not my best, unfortunately, and since my best is not that great...

The duo of butternut squash and roasted kohlrabi soups is beautiful to behold and a treat on the palate, even if that is not at all clear from this photo.



Crispy Pork Belly with puree of figs, grain mustard and golden potatoes is good. The portion is gigantic - combined with a salad this would make a meal. The pork belly was quite nice that night, but not terribly crispy. The use of mustard appeared in other dishes on our second visit, and I like it. Very good over all.



The Bride opted for the pasta special, something with cream, shrimp, a touch of tomato, all quite pleasant, fresh good ingredients, but not too exciting for me. She was quite pleased.



My rack of lamb with eggplant/tomato couscous was just about perfect for me, and quite lovely to behold. Another serving that was far more than I wanted to eat and so I ended up with about three meals from this one (the pork belly made the third meal).



Dessert was a witty presentation of a chocolate mousse, no bacon actually involved, with garnishes that I no longer recall having taken this long to post. But it was well done and fun.



Anyway, that was the meal that prompted this thread.

We have since been back twice, sort of. The first time they were closed for some event on a Friday evening, so we only gazed longingly into the window. Sigh.

But we made it back a couple of weeks later, with decidedly mixed results. The Bride started with the appetizer special - Mussels in an herbed broth. The Mussels were great, but David's love for salt overwhelmed the broth when it was sopped up with bread, which is certainly a major attraction in such a dish for us, so we were a bit disappointed. I opted for the Salmon tartare, a high quality salmon in a terrine-like preparation (uncooked, but formed) with capers and truffle oil, with the lightest of touch so as not to overwhelm the fish. Delicate and delicious.

For the main I had the mustard crust pork loin (the mustard crust was reminiscent of the grain mustard with the pork belly, which is a fine thing) with olive polenta, primarily to match a glass of wine I chose. The waiter warned me about the olive polenta and it was as intense as noted - salty and full of olives. The Bride had the filet with pommes puree and wine and mushroom sauce. Excellent beef, nice potatoes, but the sauce was (again) oversalted. We also ordered a side of oven roasted root vegies - parsnips, carrots, beets roasted to an intense concentration with a bit of seasoning, possibly some vinegar? Quite nice and, if a bit salty, nowhere near as over the top as the steak or mussels.

We took a bottle with us once again and engaged in one of those funny dances that can happen when one brings wine. First I was informed that they did not permit outside wine. Okay, I said, though you let me do it last time. I brought the bottle as a standby, since my primary plan is to sample your interesting wine list. A few moments later the waiter came back to inform me that since I had been allowed to bring a bottle before, they would open this one, too, but with a corkage charge. I had already checked the small but interesting list, almost all available by the glass, and determined I liked their wine better than mine for that evening, particularly since the Bride and I could partake of different glasses of wine for each of our dishes, so this concession made no difference to me. I appreciated the gesture in any case.

Interesting and well-priced wines by the glasses, and what seems to be an evolving corkage policy.

The concern voiced upthread about David's use of salt was borne out in this meal. His salt usage seemed binary - it is either impossible to notice, as in the pasta, lamb and salmon, or overbearing as in the mussels, steak, and olive polenta (though that last is an unfair criticism to a degree, since it was meant to be an intense olive experience).

A good meal, and a good value, and we will be back, but it is not worth a special trip. When I go back I will ask them to cool the salt usage and try to order things that have a minimal use of salt. And I can always hope that a talented chef sees the light about using salt in a more restrained manner.

Did David's close? Their phone number isn't working so I assume that's the case.