ELATE restaurant at the new Hotel Felix

ELATE is a new restaurant that recently opened in the also new Hotel Felix, at 111 West Huron Street in Chicago.







My wife and I spent two nights at the hotel the last weekend in August to do a few nights on the town, and celebrate our anniversary.



We only visited Elate for breakfast each morning. The first morning, I was absolutely blown away by the non-typical breakfast preparations from the menu (pdf file, entire menu) so much so that we had to return the next day so that I could take a few photos and share this with the LTH community. You simply have to go and try the entrees of Chef Randal Jacobs for yourself!







First, and most importantly, their coffee is excellent, being a special roast by Intelligencia. We began our meal with fresh squeezed orange juice, and a bowl of their house made granola, with fresh berries, shaved coconut and a vanilla bean specked yogurt. The yogurt had the right amout of sweetness, and the granola, a delicate crunch that will not loosen any fillings you might have.











On this morning, my wife ordered the Braised Pork and Egg Tostada. It consists of the fried tostada layered with refried black beans, carnitas, avovado, and then a second layer, topped with an egg, all accompanied by a tasty tomatillo salsa. The consruction of this dish reminded me of the Yucatecan dish, Huevos Moltulenos. If anything, go here for this entree alone. It is extraordinary!!











I ordered the Elate's Take on Steak and Eggs. It consists of a potato cake, topped with a beef short rib, followed with an awesome bearnaise sauce, and topped with an egg. The bearnaise sauce makes this dish, as it is such a perfect pairing with the oh-so-tender short rib. I also loved sopping up that extra sauce with the potato cake. Sigh....one of the saddest moments was when the meal was over!







I hope you can get the chance to take make a weekend breakfast at The Felix, and follow up with your thoughts here! It will be a memorable morning!

I recently had dinner at Elate. Full disclosure: a good friend is affiliated with the ownership of the Hotel Felix, of which the restaurant is a part.

On a chilly fall night, Elate’s space is very inviting. Sure, there are flat screens at the bar and the music is vaguely electronic, but, as bizarre as it sounds, the lighting and furniture actually made me think of a modern study or library. It was warm and cozy, and the volume of the space with probably half the tables occupied was surprisingly subdued. It’s a terrific space for a 1:1 meal, and I don’t say that of many places. I would go back to Elate for the space alone.

We opted to make a meal of small plates mainly because those were the dishes I was most curious about—none of the large plates sounded especially interesting to me—and because my dining companion was a vegetarian, and there were no meatless entrees.

“Ruffles” & Truffles



This was an OK snack. I didn’t mind the cute name (maybe would have if other things on the menu were similarly named), but "'Ruffles' & Truffles" was somewhat misleading. I think of Ruffles as a heartier chip, and these very light waffle chips basically weren’t sturdy enough to pick up even small amounts of the sour cream with truffle oil. Both my friend and I ate the sour cream—the truffle was very subtle—with forks.

Plum & Goat Cheese Tart – herb salad, walnut vinaigrette



I think this dish had a lot of potential, but too-large pieces of almost tasteless plum overwhelmed the plate. With exceptional or mediocre plums, I wish there had been more savory to this dish.

One of the things I was most looking forward to trying at Elate was the charcuterie. Therefore, I was disappointed when I asked the waitress if it was possible for me to get a tasting platter of all of the charcuterie and was told that they didn’t offer such a thing. Even after I settled on the pâté and started eating it, this didn’t make any sense to me.

Country Pâté – foie gras, farm egg



The pâté ended up being quite lovely, especially with the greens on which it was served. My only real criticism was that it was served a touch cold.

My companion and I ended up befriending the man and woman at the table next to ours, who—and this was clearly a you-know-you’re-an-LTHer moment—ended up not only allowing me to photograph their food but also to eat it. It was because of our new friends that I was able to try the rest of the charcuterie on offer and finally understood why a tasting platter didn’t make sense in the context of Elate’s menu.

The pâté aside, Elate incorporates their charcuterie into what are essentially larger appetizers—in other words, the charcuterie is made into something else. I wish our waitress would have explained this to me straight away.

Smoked Duck Breast – melon, mascarpone



This dish blew me away—the best single bite (maybe 3 bites) I’ve had recently in all of my eating. All of the components worked together seamlessly, with no one component lost and the duck front and center. This was perfectly seasoned, beautiful and delicious—my favorite dish of the evening.

Jamón Serrano – manchego, haricot verts, boquerones



This dish was also outstanding—kind of a mess to eat and messier to share (perhaps a reason not to eat off strangers’ plates!), seemingly very busy, maybe even chaotic but superb in the combination of flavors and the highlighting of the jamón serrano. Very good boquerones, too.

I am someone who typically likes my charcuterie undressed, but what Elate is doing (why the country pâté seems to be the exception, I don't know) really works.

Octopus Pastrami – rye consommé, mustard greens



The Octopus Pastrami was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit Elate.* My question going into dinner was, “What the hell is octopus pastrami?” Unfortunately, this is still my question, even after eating it. I asked Chef Randal directly about this dish. He kindly explained that one of the things he hopes to do with his cooking is get people to try food that they wouldn’t otherwise by preparing it like (or just naming it after?) something more familiar. I guess the logic was: people know and like pastrami, and therefore it’s a way to get diners to try octopus. I buy into the basic idea, but I still am completely baffled by the pastrami-octopus combination. The dish tasted like simple grilled octopus with almost too much char.

Heirloom Tomatoes – parmesan fondue, grilled baguette



My dining companion ordered this dish, and I forgot to taste it. She said it was very satisfying, but qualified her reaction by saying that it’s pretty difficult to mess up something so simple. I see simple food messed up all of the time, so I would guess that this dish was better than just good.

Pork Belly Pó Belly – lobster, vine ripe tomato, creole aioli



This was awesome. It actually ended up being very much about the big, luscious pieces of lobster and tomato—the pork belly was drowned out by the aioli which had no Creole character that I could discern—but that was perfectly fine with me.

Vegetable Pot Au Feu – white beans, pine nut froth



This was delicious and hearty with a rich, complex broth.

Flourless chocolate cake



Dessert was a major disappointment. So much of the food we had eaten up until this point was elegant and refined. Dessert was crude. Neither my friend nor I remembered banana being in the description the waitress gave us of this dish, but it was cake and banana layered in what seemed like equal parts, which muddled the flavors of both the chocolate (which actually wasn't very chocolatey) and the banana. The overwhelming nut garnish and maraschino cherry didn't help. I actually quite liked the pecan (?) ice cream on its own, but it clashed with the other flavors on the plate.

Overall, our meal at Elate really surprised me. I think I had pretty low expectations for what I thought was going to be just another flashy hotel restaurant in River North, but I’m intrigued by what Chef Randal is doing, and I think more people need to go in and try his food. Most of the meal really worked. The service could use some work as it was friendly but at times clumsy and uninformed. When we arrived at the restaurant, the place was practically empty, and it seemed to take 4 people to figure out where to seat us. Our waitress was very nice but didn’t know the food or the wine. I will be back though as it seems that it could be hard to go wrong with the current offerings. I will certainly return to try Hibachi chicken wings, about which our new friends at the table next to us raved. I might also try one or more large plates next time, though we were thoroughly satisfied with our meal of small plates. Elate is very worthy of a visit.

*The other lure was another small plate I had seen on the online menu, Ricotta & Raisin Agnolotti with pickled grapes and lamb tongue. Sadly, this dish was no longer available, according to Chef Randal, because no one was ordering it.

Elate Restaurant
111 W Huron St
Chicago IL 60654-8706
312-202-9900

$25 for $50 offer - http://wegivetoget.com/

Dave148 wrote:$25 for $50 offer - http://wegivetoget.com/

Thanks for the heads up on the coupon!

happy_stomach's intriguing review, $25 off, and the fact that it's just down the street from me means a visit is most definitely in order

Can I rely on Yelp to be accurate in that one person can have a decent meal for $60?

Pie Lady wrote:Can I rely on Yelp to be accurate in that one person can have a decent meal for $60?

I haven't been to Elate so I can't comment. However, if you're looking for really great upscale-ish restaurants in that reasonable price range, places I'd recommend in the city include Sable, GT Fish, Deleece (the one on Southport), and Han 202 (which is BYO Chinese-French). If the far northern suburbs is convenient for you, Inovasi also falls into that category. Sable, GT Fish, and Inovasi are "small plates" type places, but don't be fooled by that; you can have a complete, satisfying dinner for $50-60 inclusive, if you don't have much alcohol. (You can do the same at Deleece, but their menu is more along the conventional lines of appetizers, entrees, etc.)

Pie Lady wrote:Can I rely on Yelp to be accurate in that one person can have a decent meal for $60?

You can rely on Yelp to have the correct address and phone number (usually).

Actually, I have to eat here, and I wondered how much a meal was going to cost me.

The menu is available on-line so you can get an idea of costs.

http://www.elatechicago.com/menu.html

Well, I'm officially smitten.
The dining room is beautiful, romantic and a nice place for a date, but I didn't feel out of place by myself. Possibly because I had a nice leather couch to sit on next to a tall lamp, so I could chill out and read, just like when I'm at home. All I needed was a cat in my lap.

I was served by a knowledgable fella who was really helpful in guiding me through the menu. I thought flatbread was just that, a slice of bread like they offer at Sepia, but apparently they're 9" pizzas. I didn't know the Cauliflower Purée was a soup—I thought it was more like the side you make when you want to avoid potatoes—and it was preferable to the Roasted Sunchoke. Together we put together the following menu:
Salmon Tartare (they were out of tuna)
Spinach Skewer (I'm told this is a flagship dish)
Octopus Confit and
Cauliflower Purée

The Salmon Tartare is impossible to eat without making a complete mess. They ought to give out bibs. It's served in an adorable little hinged jar with sous vide egg yolks and capers tucked inside, and tapioca puffs on the side to spread it on. As soon as you take a bite, the puff cracks and flies everywhere. You have to catch it with your hands and stuff it in your mouth and you feel like someone forgot to strap you in your high chair. But it was delicious, so I didn't mind making an ass of myself.

Next was the Spinach Skewer. I'd say that gets 6 for breads and 8 for circuses. Spinach and another green...frisee? came impaled on a stick in a bowl of truffle cream and chicharrones with a molten egg in the center, which fascinated the hell out of me. It's a boiled egg that's deep fried, so you get a crispy outside, soft inside, and liquid center. Nifty. The whole thing is deskewered and chopped in front of you, and the yolk makes the dressing. I think it could have used some salt; something was missing. Everything else was much better so I'm not sure why else this was a flagship dish other than the presentation.

The Purée and 'Pus came out together, because the server said that the lemon in the cauliflower purée complimented the eggplant purée so nicely, and the yuzu dollops on the octopus added a nice citrusy zing. I was bowled over by the octopus, since all I've ever had was rubbery stuff in pastas or sushi. This was delicate, sweet and tasted slightly crab-like with a hint of—I hate to say it—chicken. This was probably my favorite dish, especially with the little hits of yuzu popping up unexpectedly. It didn't hurt to have chorizo chips in it, which also tasted mighty nice dipped in the cauliflower.

The Cauliflower Purée had browned butter-sautéed tortellini in the bottom of the dish. I wish I'd skipped the spinach and had a perfect 10 meal.

I tried to go on a dessert sabbatical—stop laughing—since I ate too many sweets at the last dessert exchange. But I had to go and look at the dessert menu anyway just for shits and gigs, and there was coconut staring me right in the face. The server assured me that Samoa Pot de Creme was the way to go, as opposed to a sweet cocktail I was eyeing. But when is coconut not the way to go? The creme itself was rich, smooth as silk, and such a light chocolate it reminded me of a malted milk ball, only better. In the center, if I understand correctly, were crumbled Samoa cookies—of the Girl Scout variety—which became mudlike in the custard. Some folks may eschew GS Cookies, but these are my favorites and this dessert was incredible.

I was informed that Elate is now closed. Their phone number now goes to another restaurant.

LM BISTRO , from the same husband and wife team (Stéphane Outrequin and Nicole Quaisser) who launched several other restaurants in Chicago since they closed LM on Lincoln, now occupies Elate's former space at 111 W. Huron St..