2nd Street Bistro - Highland Park

I just heard about this in the Highland Park Patch:

Stash's Owner Opens BYOB Bistro

Stashs owner Bobby Dubin has jumped on two foodie trends with his new restaurant, Second Street Bistro: organic, locally produced food and BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze).

The food, described as "upscale American with a twist," includes dishes like shaved organic brussels sprouts, slow cooked beef short rib, herb marinated amish chicken and gluten-free quinoa spaghetti. The food is made with local and organic ingredients, whenever possible, according to the restaurant's website.
becoming prohibitive."

Second Street Bistro
1825 Second St
Highland Park IL 60035
847-433-3400
Tuesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Hi,

Just to be clear, it will not share space with Stash's? It will be a separate storefront in the same building?

When I saw the title, I thought the other new restaurant had already reconcepted.

Regards,

Cathy,

It does share the same space as Stash's - it's in the raised area on the south side of the restaurant. Haven't been there yet but it's certainly creating more of a buzz than the other 2 new restaurants that have opened in HP recently.

HP Loves Food wrote:Cathy,

It does share the same space as Stash's - it's in the raised area on the south side of the restaurant. Haven't been there yet but it's certainly creating more of a buzz than the other 2 new restaurants that have opened in HP recently.

Hi Deborah!

I was thinking a more approachable concept, too. I might actually want to go!

Regards,

The fact that it's BYO gives it a leg up on the others in my book. I'm so over paying insulting markups on wine at restaurants and have stopped eating at most places that have them.

mattshafferHP wrote:The fact that it's BYO gives it a leg up on the others in my book. I'm so over paying insulting markups on wine at restaurants and have stopped eating at most places that have them.

Off topic a bit, but what places in particular (other than Benjamin or Michael) irritate you the most? Abigails in HP is very reasonable IMHO.

The wife and I plan on trying this place tonight...

milz50 wrote:

mattshafferHP wrote:The fact that it's BYO gives it a leg up on the others in my book. I'm so over paying insulting markups on wine at restaurants and have stopped eating at most places that have them.

Off topic a bit, but what places in particular (other than Benjamin or Michael) irritate you the most? Abigails in HP is very reasonable IMHO.

The wife and I plan on trying this place tonight...

Yes, it is off topic, and I'm not sure appropriate to start calling out individual restaurants. And yes, I think Abigails has a relatively fairly priced listand they are generally good with corkage, so no complaints. Also, Michael ispretty good in that regard. But there are certainly others who either charge too much for corkage and/or have a wine list with insulting markups.

Anyone that is 100% BYO, at least for me, gets an instant leg up when deciding where to eat, though obviously food is the primary factor. I'm certainly hoping 2nd St excels on the food side.

They have a website:

www.2ndstreetbistrohp.com

I ate dinner here last evening. In summary, the food was good to very good. At this point, the front of the house is not nearly as polished as the kitchen. I would recommend checking this place out if you're a fan of BYO places.

The food:

I started with the tomato infused Prince Edwards Island mussels with fresh garlic, white wine, grilled tucson bread ($13)

This was the best mussel dish I've had in a while. It seems that most places are serving mussels with a beer sauce, which I've found bland at times. This sauce was definitely bright and flavorful. The garlic was star of the dish and the bread was great to sop up the sauce after the mussels were gone.

Next, I had the crispy pesto marinated Windsor Bay calamari with baby organic greens over a spicy tomato ragout ($9)

This dish was also very good. The squid was delicate despite being fried and the tomato based sauce was a good complement. Those that don't like spice should not be discouraged. I didn't find it spicy; I'd like to try it spicier if possible though.

For an entree I had the herb marinated Amish half chicken with baby vegetables, roasted fingerlings over a Sherry Jus ($16)

This was not as successful as the other dishes. The chicken was cooked properly, but it was lacking seasoning. Dishes like this have caused me to carry packets of salt in my wallet (there was no salt on the table). Hopefully this was an oversight rather than common occurrence.


The Service:

The restaurant was quite busy. At this point, being only a week old, the kitchen is far more polished than the front of the house. There were some minor service gaffes such as spilled water on the table and lack of a bowl for mussel shells. These problems will go away with experience. The more disconcerting issue was that even though the food was coming out of the kitchen quickly, the food runners had no idea where to bring it. Food was frequently being brought to the wrong tables. The restaurant does not have a POS system - the tabs were all hand written, which I assume was the cause of the confusion. (I have never understood how D&J Bistro can operate this way, but they make it work). I was also presented with the wrong tab. The server was in the weeds - I would recommend that the restaurant pull about 25% of their tables off the floor for a couple of weeks until they are confident that their service team can handle the volume. I realize that the restaurant is new, and these problems won't at all prevent me from returning; I have low expectations for service when I go to a BYO place.

On the whole, I do not like BYO restaurants because the service is not nearly as good as the service I would experience at a comparable non-BYO restaurant. And how could I expect it to be? My tab at a BYO restaurant may be only 50% of what it would be at a full service restaurant. Thus, the server is only receiving half the tip. Even though servers at non-BYO restaurants have to tip out their bartender, I would guess that they would still make substantially more per table than servers at BYO places. If the BYO servers hope to make a similar rate, they need to service many more tables which (in my experience) makes it difficult for all of their tables to have a properly paced meal (especially without a POS system). Although it's not my preference, I can understand the appeal of BYO though. Those who like this style of dining should check out 2nd street Bistro. There aren't too many BYO places around; it should do well in the neighborhood.

Jan and I went to 2nd Street Bistro tonight. Overall, it's pretty good but, as Milz noted, there's some room for improvement.

We started with the local herb marinated olives. These were really good and not at all salty. It was also a nice portion for $5.



For our first courses, we ordered the truffled cauliflower soup with spicy croutons and the corn and shrimp fritters. The fritters were really good, crispy but with a soft center of whole kernel corn. They were served with three nice sauces - a sweet, raspberry flavored sauce, a creamy white sauce and a tomato-based looking spicy sauce.



The truffled cauliflower soup was a disappointment. Jan called it bland, but I found that the truffle overcame the cauliflower. I think they need to ratchet the truffle back and get the cauliflower popping more.



The maitre d'hotel told us that the chef, Michael Gottlieb, cooks many of the main course primary ingredients (salmon, steak, etc) by sous vide, including the steak dishes on the menu. I had the "Thick skirt steak", which is a skirt steak cut in thirds and then stacked and held together by a "protein binder", which wasn't further explained. It did make the steak come off as a single thick piece of meat, however it had an unusual consistency from the sous vide. The smashed garlic yukon potatoes and the shallot marmalade was very nice.



Jan had the special, the "bistro steak au poivre with frites". This was also a skirt steak, but a single thickness, served with a lightly peppered sauce and crispy frites that were about a quarter-inch thick. The steak was really good, as were the frites. The sauce had a slight barbeque flavor.



Overall, the food was pretty good and we would definitely go back. While there are things to improve on, they've got a good basis to work from.

A couple of other thoughts not related to the food. First, the "wine glasses" are pretty awful. I had called asking if I should bring stemware, which I do quite often with BYOBs. They told me that they had good general purpose glasses. The only purpose these have is for martinis. I brought my own flutes for the champagne, but next time I'll bring all my own glasses.



Lastly, this place is related to Stash's next door and is connected to them by an open doorway. Frankly, I think they should close that door off. It pulls this place down somewhat by having a clear opening to what looks like a super casual fast-food kind of place with kids running around making noise. I think they need the opening because the kitchen is in the other space, but it's detrimental to the look of the place.

I finally made it to 2nd Street Bistro, and I am sorry that I waited so long. The food was excellent, and the service has clearly improved since the previous posts. Our server was very friendly and knowledgeable, and despite being quite busy, everything was served in a timely manner. The mussels are still very good, and I used the spoon and bread to get every drop of the sauce. The calamari was a lighter version, with no breading but simply grilled and was cooked perfectly. My son liked the pork belly, which had a good combination of crispy fat and tender meat. My wife had the tempura soft-shell crab special, which was fantastic, crispy but not greasy. We had the arugula salad and the grilled peach and roasted beet salad, both of which were very good. The portions were generous, particularly for the price. Add in the BYO, and 2nd Street Bistro is a great value. The "wine" glasses are still not good, so if you bring a special wine, you should bring your own stemware. The same would apply to the sister restaurant, 2nd Street Enotica, which I plan to try soon.

-Will

So who bought the WeDeal for Stashs, 2nd Street Bistro and/or Enoteca? This is going to get interesting.

mattshafferHP wrote:So who bought the WeDeal for Stashs, 2nd Street Bistro and/or Enoteca? This is going to get interesting.

Stashs Closes After 44 Years in Highland Park
One of Highland Park's oldest restaurants abruptly closed on Tuesday, putting an end to a long history of multiple locations, attempts at reinvention and french fries.

http://highlandpark.patch.com/articles/stashs-closes-after-44-years-in-highland-park

mattshafferHP wrote:So who bought the WeDeal for Stashs, 2nd Street Bistro and/or Enoteca? This is going to get interesting.

It has.

Stashs' Sudden Closing Cost Local Coupon Co. $16,000

http://highlandpark.patch.com/articles/ ... tc00000003