Overheard while exiting the kitchen: they had 10 cancellations last night (Wednesday) and 10 for tonight (Thursday); I'm not sure the "sketching out" is solely related to the weather. But if you want to try to sneak into Schwa at the last minute, today may be the day...

We had the same menu last night as the ones written about here since at least 2/26, with the tortellini/cocoa nib broth substituted for the pad thai and the liver for the pork belly. I found the meal fascinating in an academic sense but not mindblowing in a gustatory sense, though the ravioli and sweetbread/parsnip custard dishes were revelatory.

Does anyone have an idea of when they're likely to start taking June reservations? We live in Boston now but are going to get a couple of days in Chicago then, so I'm very keen to go to Schwa again if at all possible

My feeling is about six weeks out, eg. mid-April, but you could try calling them and asking. I know the reputation is that calling them is hopeless, but it hasn't proven to be in my case.

Ok, here's a Schwa question. I have 9pm reservations for this Saturday and I am debating between the 3 course and the 9 course. I was somewhat of a regular at Lovitt (the previous restaurant in the space) but this will be my first visit to Schwa. I have to admit right up front that I'm not the most adventurous eater - organ meats and most game are pretty much a no-go for me and for my husband as well. I looked at the menus online (not sure how current they are). Should I just go for the safe 3 course option where I have some choice and can try to avoid ingredients I am uncomfortable with or am I going to kick myself if I don't go whole hog and order the 9 course and just TRY everything? I'm also thinking that 9pm is a little later than I usually eat my evening meal and I don't want to be grossly uncomfortable after dinner if I feel stuffed.

For what it's worth about thier reservations, I called about 4-5 weeks ago mid-afternoon and got someone on the phone the first try. I asked for the 21st and was completely flexible about the reservation time and was accomodated with no problem.

Most of the really outstanding Schwa dishes are ruled out if you exclude organ meats and game. If you'd asked when you were making the reservation I probably would have suggested just telling chef carlson about your dislikes, or that you didn't want any mammals, which would get rid of most of the weird stuff.

But even with that there'll still probably be jellyfish and maybe sea urchin roe and surely some other fish roe. If you're very nervous about it, go with the 3 course and choose carefully, but realize you might be missing out on some of the most exceptional dishes.. antelope, lambs brains, crispy sweetbreads at dessert..

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your meal.

It sounds like it's not unheard of for them to make game-time changes to their 9-course menu...for example, when one of the courses was planned to be chicken liver, a few folks got pork belly in its place (yum! lucky). I would imagine that the reverse could just as easily happen.

That said, the current 9-course menu looks pretty tame, except for the natto and the pickled beef tongue. Personally, I would recommend just going with it, and taking a nibble of anything you find questionable. If you don't like it, you can always eat around the offending ingredient or push the whole plate aside.

The worst-case scenario is that you'll eat 7-8 of the 10 courses you'll be served (they snuck a bonus dish into the middle of our 9-course, the dreamy, highly-acclaimed quail egg ravioli...I could've eaten a whole bowl of those things), and you'll leave there plenty full.

The best-case scenario is that, since you won't recognize half of the stuff on the plate anyway, you'll get to taste things without any preconceived notions or established prejudices, which isn't something people often get an opportunity to do...usually, you see caviar, you know you don't like caviar, so you don't eat the caviar. But here, you and your husband could take a nibble of the mysterious-looking, green-hued little pile on the corner of your plate, and find it to be delicious...whaddaya know, you just ate & loved caviar!

But if you aren't willing to nibble at the often-unidentifiable morsels on your plate for fear of accidentally eating something gnarly, or if you think getting a taste of something you really don't like might put a damper on your mood, then the 3-course might be a better fit (plus the options look pretty tasty, especially the Chimay-based beer-cheese soup).

If your reservation is at 9pm, you won't get out of there before 11 (midnight is more likely). So if that's too late for you, then maybe the 3-course would be the way to go.

Whichever you choose, it'll be a very memorable experience! I hope you both have a blast!

Yeah, you could always just ask the crew to not tell you what you're about to eat. Then you don't have to worry about getting queasy. Unless not knowing is just as bad.

Tobermory-

When Mr. X and I went to Schwa last year, I knew we were going to push our comfort levels. There were a number of items we consumed that night that we had never eaten and may not again. I don't regret anything that passed my lips that night. I wouldn't seek out lamb brains (as an example), but I put myself in the hands of Schwa and knew that I would be challenged. It was completely worth it and something we might do again this year.

I will say that I'm not sure if I could do a nine-course starting at 9:00 PM. That's knocking on my bedtime.

or am I going to kick myself if I don't go whole hog and order the 9 course and just TRY everything?

Only you know for sure, but the fact that you're willing to ask the question suggests that the answer is yes. It's only one meal, one night of your life, the worst that can happen is you'll come out saying "Hmm, interesting, I'll never do that again."

9 is a bit on the late side, but things move quickly at Schwa, you'll be there for two hours but unless you can't stay up that late period, I don't think you'll find it slow or tiring.

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. I can certainly hack getting out of there at 11-11:30pm (I'm less worried about sleepiness than I am of feeling overstuffed right before I go to bed, but fancy multi-couse meals tend to be smaller plates and although filling, not stuffing) so I may try the 9 course and ask them not to tell me what I'm getting. The only thing that really gave me a bit of the gacks was the pickled beef tongue, and I think that's mostly mental. I'll certainly post on whatever choice I make - I'm really looking forward to my meal!

Beef tongue is very benign, as organ meats go. As long as you don't let your brain get in the way, your tastebuds will be fine.

gleam wrote:Beef tongue is very benign, as organ meats go. As long as you don't let your brain get in the way, your tastebuds will be fine.

Yeah, if you can't deal with where tongue comes from, don't think about eggs either.

gleam wrote:Beef tongue is very benign, as organ meats go. As long as you don't let your brain get in the way, your tastebuds will be fine.

Yep. I wouldn't even classify it as an organ meat. It's a muscle just like a steak is.

Khaopaat wrote:...usually, you see caviar, you know you don't like caviar, so you don't eat the caviar. But here, you and your husband could take a nibble of the mysterious-looking, green-hued little pile on the corner of your plate, and find it to be delicious...whaddaya know, you just ate & loved caviar!

And perhaps snail caviar at that! I for one hadn't even considered the existence of snail caviar until it was served to me at Schwa.

Frankly, the only thing I've had in my two meals at Schwa that I would not eat again is the quail egg ravioli - one of the most universally renowned dishes they serve. Yuck - I just can't see how people can eat those, let alone *love* them.

-Dan

p.s. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not in to really rich/buttery/creamy things, which those ravioli are the epitome of - they weren't yucky because they were poorly prepared or ill-conceived, just very much not to my taste.

I just couldn't deal with the jellyfish pad thai. The texture destroyed me. I ate it all, but I still wasn't enjoying it by the last bite.

Neither the tongue nor the jellyfish was served to me last week; chicken liver was as "freaky" as it got.

And they are very accommodating: Michael talked to a couple that sat next to me, and when she blanched at the liver and other items, he said, "Well, what would you like?" and proceeded to name what was in the back that they could whip up (including the aforementioned pork belly). He was very amenable, perhaps overly so...

Oh, and the three-course menu had a kona kampachi dish--I don't remember its contents, as I went with the 9--that I'm sure could be substituted.

chezbrad wrote:Neither the tongue nor the jellyfish was served to me last week; chicken liver was as "freaky" as it got.

From what I can tell, Schwa hasn't updated the online menu in ages - - and that may be the source of some of the confusion. The current online menu is EXACTLY what we were served in December. It sounds like they're doing something pretty different now.

And, yes, Michael is very accommodating. Two of us didn't want to eat poor Thumper for dinner, and Michael was happy to substitute an alternative.

Ronna

So we went with the three course on Saturday. I might have gone with the nine, but when I asked about subbing out a course for something in the 3 course I was told, "We don't do that." Granted that wasn't Michael so I might have tried pleading to a higher authority but I figured it was easier to just go small and be able to have some choice/control. That said, I don't think Schwa is the restaurant for me. Much like the line told to countless dates, it's not you, it's me. The amuse was lovely - grapefruit cells topped with a small scoop of (I think) honey ice cream served on a faux ice cube to be eaten in one bite. Yummy. My second course was very nice - risotto colored red with beet juice/puree and some outstanding pickled beets on the side with a foam and small dollops of something lusciously creamy - sorry - I'm not enough of a foodie to take notes and the wine got the better of my memory. My husband had a sunchoke soup with citrus hints that was really, really lovely, but I only got a little taste so I can't adequately describe it. We each had the pork tenderloin with braised pork belly for dinner. I loved the pork belly, but the pork was much too underdone for me and the thought of sending it back made me a little uncomfortable (because I'm a wimp) so I tried it and then wound up giving most of it to my husband who likes his meats rare and he was nice enough to trade me his delicious pork belly. There were tiny balls of roasted root veggie (rutabega? turnip?) that were very tasty. Dessert was sort of a disaster. There was a pudding-y part that was nice, and a lavender foam, but the other part was carmelized sweetbreads. Hubby and I each ate one and didn't find them to our liking - we're just not organ meat people and even the sticky carmelized sugar wasn't enough of a disguise. I have to admit stopping by White Castle on my way home for a double cheeseburger. I enjoyed parts of the meal, but I felt a lilttle out of my comfort zone with other parts. It just wasn't a good fit for me, but I can see how people with a more varied adventurous palate would be overjoyed at the experience.

Been trying to get through on the phone, on and off for a couple of weeks now, no dice.

tropics wrote:Been trying to get through on the phone, on and off for a couple of weeks now, no dice.

Try weekdays at about 3 or 4pm and you might get a real human. As of a few days ago they had a 4 week backlog on the voicemail system.

gleam wrote:

tropics wrote:Been trying to get through on the phone, on and off for a couple of weeks now, no dice.

Try weekdays at about 3 or 4pm and you might get a real human.

or an ulcer.

gleam wrote:

tropics wrote:Been trying to get through on the phone, on and off for a couple of weeks now, no dice.

Try weekdays at about 3 or 4pm and you might get a real human. As of a few days ago they had a 4 week backlog on the voicemail system.

i'll keep that in mind, thanks

Radical idea: call between 5:30 and 6:30. I know what you're thinking, but I just got a call from Michael at 6:10, which is about the same time he called me to confirm my rez when I ate there two weeks ago. Now, granted, today's phone call was a return call from a message left on the second day of March when I had hoped to change the reservation--see above: when he didn't call back, we just kept the original--but when I was at the restaurant, I also saw Michael take care of reservation work as the first people (e.g., my friend and I) were situated. Given that the prep work is done and service has not begun, this window seems to be a "calm before the storm" moment where the staff is not only available to communicate but willing to do so.

Just a thought.

I just got a call back after a few weeks and made a reservation for Tuesday before I leave for California, bonus!

I'm going with a few friends tomorrow who want to go with the 9 course tasting menu. I'm a bit short of funds these days, so is it possible for me to order the 3 course menu while my friends splurge on 9 courses?

I don't believe so, no.

Mike G wrote:I don't believe so, no.

Shoot really? Can anyone confirm this?

thomasec wrote:

Mike G wrote:I don't believe so, no.

Shoot really? Can anyone confirm this?

The big issue here will be the timing. The 9-course easily takes 3-4 hours, but the 3-course generally takes 2ish. I suppose they could stretch the 3-course out by bringing you one of your dishes for each of their three, but I could imagine that causing some logistical confusion both for firing the dishes & for service.

I believe this is why many other restaurants I've been to ask that, if prix fixe is desired, the whole party/table get it, rather than two folks getting the 10-course, one getting a 3-course, and one ordering a la carte.

All peanut gallery comments aside, you could always try calling Schwa to ask them...refer to chezbrad's post above about calling between 5:30 and 6:30

thomasec wrote:

Mike G wrote:I don't believe so, no.

Shoot really? Can anyone confirm this?

They say very clearly upon seating you that everyone at the table must order the same menu. I do not know if they make exceptions. You'll want to call or drop in to confirm. No one will know the answer better than the chefs.

Remember, this is a place where about half the staff of a comparably-sized restaurant delivers the food with clockwork precision in between cooking it themselves. So having to time a table for two different meals (one substantially longer than the other) is really messing with their finely honed system.

I think instead of talking to the restaurant, you need to talk to your friends. Personally, I'd eat peanut butter sandwiches (or free KFC) the rest of the month and go for the 9-course, if you're going at all.