Mike G wrote:Where are they going to hold that 12-hour Robert Wilson spectacle dinner?

Set it to Wagner, and I'd happily pay $200/head for that.

Mike G wrote:Where's the Oobleck of Chicago dining?

Well, occasionally it's Oobleck. The dinner they did for their production of Babette's Feast was awesome.

LAZ,

I followed your link to find there are recipes used in this production. At their price point of $17, there was no caviar and truffles, though I liked how they improvised. I'm sorry I wasn't aware of the production, because I would have attended.

In one of my many pipe dreams, I hope to visit the restaurant in Carbondale area whose chef cooked for the film Babette's Feast. He will occasionally reproduce this meal. The last time I was aware of an event, it was a fundraiser costing around $150.

I still kick myself for not attending any one of the several Babette's Feast replication meals by various restaurants when the film came out years ago. I remember at the time it cost around $85.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:In one of my many pipe dreams, I hope to visit the restaurant in Carbondale area whose chef cooked for the film Babette's Feast.

If you can't make it that far south, I recommend the French Embassy in Arcola. (Yes, the French restaurant that shares a building with a bowling alley.) I don't know if it's still the case but it used to be rated the best French restaurant in Illinois outside of the Chicago area. I ate there only once, to celebrate graduation and getting a good-paying job after many years toiling in the grad school sweat shop. The next day the credit card company called to make sure my card hadn't been stolen.

Hi,

I stopped once at French Embassy in Arcola. I didn't eat there, though I met the Chef and his family. Of course, I had to see the bowling alley.

It is my understanding this unique French restaurant is long gone. However a little searching finds Chef Jean-Louis Ledent teaching at the University of Illinois.

Regards,

Small world - the Davoodas became engaged to be married after enjoying a fine Chateaubriand at The French Embassy on January 25, 1998.

Alas, Chef and Mrs. Jean-Louis closed the bowling alley venue 1-2 years later, moving to a storefront in Urbana where the Davoodas enjoyed many more fine meals before Chef went to work for the University of Illinois.

Jean-Louis' escargots in cream sauce (with a dollop of Pernod to finish) still haunt us in our dreams - they were to die for...

Davooda

Sounds like a lovely memory, Davooda, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one here with fond memories of the French Embassy.

I followed Cathy2's link and was delighted to see that Chef Jean-Louis is teaching and supervising at the Bevier Cafe on campus. When I went to school there I lived just a block or two away, but never ate there (never knew about it, or was living on ramen and such). I'm definitely eating at the Cafe next time I'm in Urbana.

That time I ate at the Embassy Cafe ... I remember we were told it was one of the then-Governor's (Thompson or Edgar, not sure) favorite places to take distinguished visitors, and we were lucky not to have stopped by without a reservation the night before, because the Governor had just been there and whenever he came they closed the restaurant to anyone else.

I'm down with that theater analogy, since I've seen some really cheap, really crap stuff (like an opera about a guy with a twin sister growing out of his head, who he killed, at some San Francisco fringe festival - and we had to wait in line for that)

I am taken with Mike G's point regarding the lack of "undergroundness," defined as something more experimental or daring, in the current crop of underground dinners (or perhaps only in the current crop that are well-known enough to be publicized). I agree with that, and wish there were a venue for the kind of dinners he references (maybe XmarX gets closer? I don't know right now, but if I find out, I'll let you know).

That said, I attended a Rabbithole dinner on Saturday, and was very pleased by the dinner as a whole, and excited by some of the courses. It started out with a gin-based mojito-like beverage, with fresh herbs (pineapple mint + others). The theme was cheese, so every course had a cheese element (far better than the nightmare I had earlier in the day, where it was five courses of beef). Courses also had wine pairings - since I didn't take a menu, I only remember some of the wines.

The first course was a fiddlehead soup with a burrata puff and oven-dried tomatoes. In our group, we all liked the flavor of the soup, but disagreed on the texture. I thought that the puree still had some unpleasant asparagus-like fibrousness (I was in the minority). The fiddlehead perched atop the puff had a nice crunch and fresh taste. This was paired with a verdicchio - don't know what maker.

Second was mussels in a broth with pecorino and fennel (possibly other things as well). They were tasty but unremarkable.

Things really started looking up at the third course - a ricotta tortellini with green olive tapenade and guanciale dust. This, paired with a riesling, was delicious. It hit all the right notes with the salty and tart toppings and the creamy cheese and slightly sweet wine.

The fourth course was excellent. It was a nicely-cooked venison roulade with blue cheese (forgot the maker, sorry). It was served with a morel poutine (with a seriously giant stack of morels). It was paired with a Jumilla, which was most people's favorite pairing of the evening. While I thought it was delicious, I thought the polarizing dessert was even better.

Dessert was a black truffle sweet roll, a dessert cousin to the savory truffle roll Mike Voltaggio made on Top Chef for the pork challenge, and serves as part of the bread service at his restaurant. It was served with roasted strawberries and goat cheese? ice cream (the ice cream may have also had creme fraiche - sorry for the spotty recollection). The strawberry-ness of the strawberries didn't contribute a ton to the dish; they were more just a sweet and fruity foil for the savory truffle and ice cream. While at the time, I said that it could have been any fruit, I'm not sure in retrospect that that's true. I think the strawberries, with their more subtle flavor, did a better job than any stronger fruit would have.

It also paired excellently with the dessert wine. Unfortunately, due to some kitchen accident (a broken bottle, it was said), some people in my party didn't get the dessert wine, and were instead poured some of the riesling from earlier, and offered a beer or a gin drink. They turned down the extra drinks and found the riesling to be a decidedly poor pairing (as did I). This may have affected their enjoyment of the dessert.

Our dinner cost $100 a person, not including gratuity. They told us this on the phone (and confirmed when we were confused at the table), but the envelopes for payment said $85 minimum, and unfortunately, it seemed that everyone else at the table went with the $85+tip.

All in all, while it may not have been groundbreaking, the food and atmosphere was quite enjoyable, and fun to meet other people who seek out such experiences (the chances are better for good conversation than at a random communal table, where some people don't want to talk to their neighbors). LTH events, obviously, fill much the same niche - headed over to the events board to see what's on tap....

How do you say “Over”?

In other news, McDonald's launches it's new "underground drive-thru" where you can stop under Wacker hidden from the south side of the Chicago river and order your McFlurry, relatively free of shame...

I do them but I cannot tell you where ! They are very simple, book out very quickly as we cater them on a farm and challenge ourselves to use only local ingredients (40-45 is our absolute max unless we do a hog roast or 1/4 side of beef). We do them family style and it is BYOB. The typical "donation" is around $25-35 depending on the entree which has ranged from roasted lamb, berkshire pork, chicken roast, turkey, and Piedmonte beef. The only time we do step out is when a local mushroom supplier carries truffles as I am a sucker for truffle honey and white truffle cream (YUM!!!!!!!). Our next one will not be until August as we run farmers markets during the summer but August is such a perfect time to cook with the abundant ingredients in the markets. Our goal is to make a little money but we do it because we love to cook, support local farms/ers, and not make it more than what it needs to be...wholesome country cooking that is alot of fun and laid back.

In my opinion, the underground restaurant is nothing more than a private party with a catchy name.......

Mhays wrote:In other news, McDonald's launches it's new "underground drive-thru" where you can stop under Wacker hidden from the south side of the Chicago river and order your McFlurry, relatively free of shame...

Thats funny! I am sure there could be some interesting additions to it there also!

David Hammond wrote: How do you say “Over”?

Wow, you can almost hear the last nails being pounded in, can't you? I notice from the Time Out piece the dinners will take place at 5419 N Sheridan. That's the onetime location of Jonathan Livingston Seafood, the height of trendiness when it opened in 1975. For what it's worth, Steve Stone and Bobby Douglass were partners in the operation. I wonder if Lettuce Entertain You will make their underground diners wait in the lounge for an hour or two, buying expensive drinks while grazing at the flavored butter and cheese spread bar.

I would totally go to a Lettuce underground dinner if it perfectly replicated the state of the art of 70s dining.

There's an underground club here in KC (and the woman who runs it just expanded to Tulsa, or maybe Oklahoma City) which is a little different than the usual, that is, people without restaurants trying to do restaurant food.

Her deal is to recruit the best chefs in town to put on a meal they might want to serve but is supposedly edgier or more true to their creative spirit than what they're allowed to serve in their restaurant. In a best case scenario, I imagine this as something like what Moto or Spoon Thai puts out for a special LTHer dinner, rather than their usual fare. They are in different locations--event spaces, private residences, art galleries, wherever. They're not cheap, generally at least $100pp. Still, an intriguing concept. I haven't been to one, but I've heard good things, and the line-up of participant chefs is quite good.

http://www.testkitchenkc.com

Maybe they'll be allowed to serve proteins with bones in it! (gasp)

(this is one of my many pet peeves about high-end restaurants - I know it isn't the chef's fault...)