I have never eaten at Trotter's (I am way too cheap). Long ago, I did go to a celebration event there for an employee, which was obviously not a typical CT experience. Anyhow, the agrument about being "frozen in time" intrigues me. I understand what an important role Trotter's played in the evolution of fine dining in Chicago (and elsewhere). If it did not exist, there would literally be a missing link. So the question is, does preserving such landmark establishments as they once were, both in decor and product, provide an important historical reference point? If I wanted to understand the progress of Chicago dining from Le Francais to Alinea, wouldn't Trotter's be the record of a transitional era essential to fully comprehending the historical and cultural timeline? When Lucas decided to "update" Star Wars, everybody was up in arms because it amounted to rewriting history. Sure the CGI was pretty crappy back then, but it was what it was, and everbody understands those limitations. Nobody would think of "updating" Forbidden Planet, which is now considered a classic (visible wires and all). Is it because Forbidden planet is 20 years older than Star Wars, that protects it from being "updated"? Usually the approach to such classics has been to do an updated "remake" using the same storyline, but with newer techniques Many of those attempts, however, were unsuccessful, because of the desire to turn a campy but serious classic into a comedy (a la Dragnet, or more recently 21 Jump Street). At any rate, I am strectching the metaphor way too thin, but doesn't the same continuity of a cultural timeline apply to restaurants? Would we really want a Trotter's that was not "pickled"in 1990, but was instead indistinguishable from a myriad of more contemporary restaurants? At what point does it become an iconic "classic", representing an important point in culinary history?

Bourbon wrote:Sitting here today 1 month later the most exciting bite I can remember was an Eel terrine and what excited me was that it made me think of the flawless version I has day's earlier at Yusho. The one I was offered at Trotters was a poor comp to such a well made dish and at a much higher margin and I couldn’t help but keep going back to that.

I find this particularly interesting because key members of the Yusho team used to be at Trotter's. Owner/executive chef Matthias Merges is the former chef de cuisine at Trotter's, chef de cuisine Jennifer Petrusky is a former sous there and bar manager Alex Bachman was also there. I think there were others, too. Was this dish one of their vestiges, adopted by the team at Trotter's that took over when they left? In any event, it's an interesting dish over which to draw a comparison.

=R=

Server Amy Cordell and sommelier Conrad Reddick are also Trotter alums

d4v3 wrote: At any rate, I am strectching the metaphor way too thin, but doesn't the same continuity of a cultural timeline apply to restaurants? Would we really want a Trotter's that was not "pickled"in 1990, but was instead indistinguishable from a myriad of more contemporary restaurants? At what point does it become an iconic "classic", representing an important point in culinary history?

It's certainly different with restaurants because they keep performing, as opposed to movies because those are frozen in time (Star Wars notwithstanding). While I continue to think the negativity around supposedly dated dishes is not pertinent, I do believe that is different than continuing to execute at the highest level. Based on my last visit to CT about one year ago, I have to say that CT does not, and they should take a hit because of that. IMHO, I don't think CT's business downturn was a result of his supposedly dated menu as much as it was a steady stream of mediocre executions over the years that lead people to decide to spend their high-end dining dollars elsewhere.

Al Jazeera television also reported on Trotter's closing:



The local restaurant critic is Scott Warner of Culinary Historians of Chicago, who is surprisingly identified as Scott Walker.

Regards,

Sad news, Charlie Trotter dead at age 54.

incite wrote:Sad news, Charlie Trotter dead at age 54.

Indeed. Also see the thread Charlie Trotter RIP