Sous Rising - Underground Dining

Just back from an amazing underground dining experience at Sous Rising. My only prior underground dining experience was with Iliana Regan's One Sister (which has since shuttered due to her opening her own restaurant - Elizabeth). I dined with a group of seven people who I had met through Facebook - namely Next Restaurant's page (I had only met one of the other six people face-to-face in the past, serendipitously at Elizabeth). All seven of us consider dining out to be a hobby and despite having frequented Chicago's top establishments we were all very impressed with the quality of the food and the experience tonight.

Sous Rising commenced this spring and is operated by a married couple, Jake and Alexa. Jake is the chef and spent time working at Alinea, Charlies Trotters and Schwa; more recently he has returned to school and is aspiring to eventually open his own restaurant; while in school he operates underground dinners out of his Uptown apartment. Alexa is his wife and does front of house duties; while she does not have a restaurant background she is an excellent hostess and server. Dinner is served literally inside Jake and Alexa's dining room just a couple feet from the kitchen (so you can observe all the action). While the neighborhood is a tad sketchy (I arrived a bit early and decided to hang outside for a bit prior to coming inside - and while waiting outside a passerby inquired if I would like to purchase some antique knifes and had a few choice words for me when I declined). Nevertheless, once inside the apartment is extremely nice, comfortable and pleasantly decorated. Jake and Alexa are good people and very friendly and down to Earth. The dining room table comfortably seats eight and Chef Jake typically serves dinner about four times per month and prefers a group of six to eight (either private groups or small groups served as part of a communal table).

Sous Rising has a Facebook page and a blog (http://sousrising.blogspot.com/2012/04/about-us.html); you can sign up for e-mail updates about reservations via a link on their Facebook page. Meals are approximately twelve courses and cost $120 (including tip the meal must be prepaid via Pay Pal or a credit card); Sous Rising is BYOB. The exact location is secret and you will be e-mailed the details the day before your dinner; a couple of days in advance you will receive a tentative menu to assist in your quest of choosing wines or beers to pair with the cuisine. Jake is also open to operating a pop up restaurant at a venue of your choosing (even your own residence) depending on the logistics. Due to Sous Rising being such a small entity, they are not generally able to make substitutions or accommodate dietary restrictions. The food is gourmet and you can see the influence of the fine dining establishments Jake has worked at, but he is quite creative and a whimsical, playful aspect permeates each dish without sacrificing the quality of the ingredients or the technical precision with which each dish is prepared. Just about every course is not only fun, but delicious. Pacing of the meal is pleasant; neither rushed nor too long a gap between courses (our meal lasted a bit over three hours). Portions are typical for a tasting menu; a combination of bite size courses and more substantial portions that add up to a decent sized meal - expect to leave satisfied but not stuffed. The following is a photographic summary of my experience:

As we arrived we were greeted with a nice glass of champagne and had a reception on Jake and Alex'a balcony which was a comfortable space and a great way to kick off the festivities:


The dining room:


Course #1 - Shrimp Pop: This involved shrimp with flavors of lime, cilantro, ginger and yuzu. You were instructed to mix it together and enjoy it as a single bite; the "pop" element came from pop rocks which added a playful component as well as texture to the amuse. A great start to the evening and everybody seemed to really enjoy this dish:


Course #2 - Soup n' Salad: The soup featured homemade bacon (which was heavenly), potato, bay leaf suds and celery root chips. The deconstructed salad had an icy consistency that was a great contrast to the warm soup (it was like a salad granita):


Course #3 - Gin n' Shellfish - Mussels and scallop with a hodge podge of fun and tasty purees. This was also served with a wonderful Hendrick's gin based cocktail; I am usually a whiskey person, but this cocktail was so good:


Course #4 - Pork Belly - A large chunk of perfectly cooked pork belly served with some grapefruit segments, sage pudding, caramelized fennel and raw honey. Another awesome course - after this course we started joking with the chef if we could spend the night and have him cook us up a bacon centric breakfast:


Course #5 - Trout Roe - One of the most fun courses. It was served inside a brown paper bag and consisted of a miniature cupcake with roe sitting atop the icing and a piece of white chocolate with pink peppercorns. Great balance of sweet and savory. All of us would have easily consumed a several of these they were so good:


Course #6 - Risotto - Featuring chicken liver, crispy chicken skin, roasted shallot, pomegranate puree, truffle oil and red wine. While I enjoyed this course, it was one of just two savory courses that did not wow me. The risotto did not have the most pleasant consistency and the flavors did not gel as well with one another as with just about every other course:


Course #7 - Duck - Featuring oyster mushrooms, butternut squash, banana puree, pumpkin seed and peanut curry and yuzu. This was my favorite course of the night and seemed very popular with my friends as well. The duck was cooked three ways, rillette, breast and liver:


Course #8 - Lamb - Two small pieces of lamb with pine nut and date puree, sprouts, yogurt and rosemary. Like the risotto this course was good, but nothing special. It could have used a more generous portion of lamb and the other components were just O.K. with me:


Course #9 - Ice Chew - A nice intermezzo before switching over to desserts - The chew was flavored with hibiscus and lemon and was like a pleasant tasting gummy textured cough drop:


Course #10 - Flavors of Root Beer & Orange Dream - This was right up there with the duck course as one of my favorites on the night. Such a fun, complex dessert with so many different flavors that gelled harmoniously. Even though it was a decent sized portion, it was so damn good I was craving more. Components included shortbread, root beer, prune, orange cream, ginger, malt and vanilla (the three balls on the right were filled with liquid and you were instructed to punch them open with your spoon and mix everything together):


Course #11 - "Coffee" - A bite of coffee flavored gel with cardamom and cream serving as mignardises. Not nearly as tasty as the prior dessert course, but good:


Some other shots taken during the dinner:
The Stove being put to use:


The decor in Jake's and Alexa's apartment was so nice and pleasant, even the bathroom was nicely appointed:


Chef Jake plating:



Jake and Alexa served all the food and would take turns presenting the course:



Posing with Chef Jake after the meal:


Sous Rising so far has really flown under the radar; I entered the meal with low expectations as I was not able to dig up too much information prior to our meal and I had had such an amazing time at One Sister that I did not think any other underground dining establishment would compare. Sous Rising far exceeded my expectations and this was such a wonderful experience. All of us greatly enjoyed our meal and I certainly plan to return once the menu has changed over. Sous Rising definitely has a different vibe than One Sister, but while the styles are dissimilar I would say the food and overall experience were on par. I am so glad my friend organized this get together and Sous Rising is well worth checking out. Chef Jake is hoping to move back to Austin, TX once he finishes school to open his own restaurant, but I for one hope he changes his mind and opts to stay in Chicago - he is extremely talented and when he does open his own restaurant it will be a great addition to whatever city he chooses.

Thanks for the post. I've been to 3 Sous Rising dinners, including the first dinner in the spring. Jake is a thoughtful chef and thoughtfully strikes the balance between comfortable deliciousness and culinary innovation. I'm so glad you enjoyed your dinner!

Gonzo70 wrote:Chef Jake is hoping to move back to Austin, TX once he finishes school to open his own restaurant, but I for one hope he changes his mind and opts to stay in Chicago - he is extremely talented and when he does open his own restaurant it will be a great addition to whatever city he chooses.

Looks like he is indeed planning on staying in Chicago. Jake Bickelhaupt now has a kickstarter campaign going to open up a 36-seat byo spot in Chicago, named Dyne. Here's the info.

Good to hear - thanks for the link!

Last night I had my second meal at Sous Rising and was totally blown away; while the first meal was amazing Chef Jake's talent and confidence has already grown noticeably since the fall. They have made a few tweaks since the fall; the price has been increased to $135 (includes gratuity and covers approximately a dozen courses - beverages are still BYOB and is well worth the price tag). They have also added two seats (maximum of ten, you can book the entire table or sign up in smaller numbers) and added Friday service (they are typically operating three weekends per month now). They have also added a second server. The seating is just a tad tight with the two added seats, but still comfortable and pleasant.

I dined with a group of ten friends and we were all awed by Chef Jake's talent. One of my friends summed up my thoughts perfectly when he informed Chef Jake that "What you do in your apartment kitchen matches anything I've had in the finest restaurants in Chicago and elsewhere." For both my wife and I this was one of our top ten all time meals; every single bite of food was outstanding and portioning was perfect (I left quite full, but comfortable).

You can see some of the influence from Chef Jake's days as a sous chef at Schwa in his food and a lot of his techniques remind me of Alinea. The great thing about Sous Rising is the wildly creative techniques are not merely for a "wow" factor, but enhance the taste of the food. Chef Jake is quite the master at melding exotic and contrasting flavors into perfect harmony. Alexa and her assistant provide outstanding service and really have the space nicely appointed creating an upscale but extremely comfortable, relaxed and intimate vibe. Alexa and Jake are so friendly and their passion is contagious. Also impressive was the ease with which they accommodated a couple people in our party's dietary restrictions. Chef Jake is hoping to open his own restaurant in the not too distant future and I for one cannot wait for this to happen!

The meal started with an edible gin cocktail with horned melon and rose water flavors (not pictured). Next up was one of my favorites on the night, a dish featuring trout roe with carob bubbles, white chocolate and pineapple. What sounded like it would be a sweet dish actually had a strong salty component from the roe and bitter components from the carob. Extremely pleasant textures and taste profile:


This was followed by a soup featuring potato, peas, milk and tomato. The soup base had a strong cheese flavor despite there not being any cheese in the dish; the dehydrated tomato was an awesome bite:


The salad course (not pictured) had some of the most tender octopus I have ever consumed with blood orange, avocado and coconut noodles and almonds. The next course was titled corn and was phenomenal; a sous vide yolk served to the side (to be used as a sauce), the best tasting popcorn imaginable and a wonderful corn custard:


A fun course titled Beer followed (not pictured); no actual beer but the ingredients were prepared and combined in a manner to proffer flavors and aromas reminiscent of beer (and Chef Jake had recommended pairing the course with an Estrella Damm beer; shortly before your meal he e-mails the menu as well as suggested pairings and Alexa does a wonderful job serving the wines and beers throughout the feast). This dish featured mushrooms, wheat, black garlic, bitter melon and kumquat.

Chef Jake served our party a bonus course here (not pictured); about half of us had dined with him in the fall and loved the dessert course (it tasted like a combination of a root beer float and a creamsicle). He served a small sized version of this as a palate cleanser before the heart of the menu so that the newcomers could try this; it was so good and greatly appreciated by everyone.

The first of the protein courses dubbed Black Pig and was essentially a tender, flavorful piece of pork belly with a well crisped exterior served with kurobuta, purple sweet potato, celery, and tamarind. Chef Jake came tableside and shaved pig heart onto this course:


Chef Jake Plating (the kitchen is in full view of the dining area):


The second protein course (not pictured) was my favorite of the three; Duck with hedgehog mushroom, black truffle, parsnip, hearts on fire, malt, lime. I loved the flavors of this course. The final protein was titled Char and was accompanied by beet, port, walnut, watermelon radish, flower, and hay. The really crispy skin (like eating an intensely flavored potato chip) was my favorite component of this dish:


A nice palate cleanser titled Tart followed with calamansi and buzzed tongue (not pictured).

The dessert course was another of my favorites; one of the most complex courses where there were some many different components that every bite tasted different - but somehow everything went together so well it did not matter what combinations you consumed together. It was titled Sweet and featured white chocolate, lemon, chamomile, carrot, galangal, and pistachio:


The final bite was dubbed Caffeine and contained espuma and cardamon. Very nice finish to an extremely satisfying, pleasant and memorable dining experience:
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Our party split the pairing assignments and each were responsible for a couple of courses; everybody chose well and we had some really enjoyable wines, beers and a cider:


My pictures were just shot with my Iphone and do not do the food justice (every dish looked stunning in person), but provide a glimpse of the type of courses to expect. One of my friends brought a very nice camera to the dinner, so if I have the chance I will post some better pictures. Also, Sous Rising recently did a photo shoot with Huge Galdones and they have a lot of his work accessible on their blog: http://sousrising.blogspot.com/

Sous Rising is really well worth checking out before Chef Jake eventually procures his own restaurant. Such a special evening with great people and amazing food.

Just wanted to say my thanks to Gonzo70 and others for calling my attention to Sous Rising (Alexa mentioned that they first got the word out through the LTH Forum).

This was seriously one of the best meals I've had in recent memory—and I had been at Alinea just the night before. I still can't believe that Jake and Mike were able to turn out 19 courses that were almost all amazing. The couple that were merely good just weren't my tastes, but I can see how others loved them.

Many of my fellow guests that night were lucky enough to have eaten at some very good restaurants, and we all agreed that Sous Rising ranked right up with if not above them. We all thought the dinner was a steal even at $155/person. The suppliers Jake is sourcing from are incredible—Veta La Palma via Browne trading, artic char caught by Inuits in the Artic Circle (I think from CleanFish)—I can't believe an underground place has access to this kind of product.

I expect great things when they open their restaurant, probably in Uptown. A couple of ladies at the dinner said to Jake, "we'll always tell others: we knew you back when...."

Thank you for the very kind post. We hope to see you in the fall!

Jake