27 Live in Evanston - Very Good!

We ate dinner at 27 Live tonight, and enjoyed it a lot - surprisingly so, just because we had never heard any reviews or recommendations for (or against) it, here or elsewhere. So here's what we can tell you.

27 Live is located on Church Street in downtown Evanston, in the former Carmen's space between That Little Mexican Café and Thai Sookdee. It's only a block from the Davis Street stations for the CTA and Metra. On-street meter parking is often available (feed the meters when required as they are rigidly enforced in Evanston) and there's a large parking garage just across the tracks opposite the Century Theaters (free for the first hour, $2 for the second hour).

Like Space in Evanston and the Mayne Stage in Rogers Park, 27 Live consists of a restaurant in the front room, and a large venue for live music performances behind it. There's also a smaller music venue located upstairs. You can view their performance schedule on their website. The entrance for the music venue is under the awning/canopy; the restaurant entrance is the next doorway west.

We heard about 27 Live because they were offering a Groupon (which is still available for weekday dinners or for brunch - click here). We checked out the menus on their website, which sounded appealing, and sprang for the Groupon.

The dining room is very nice, with a mix of standalone tables, booths along the front windows, and booths along the back wall. We were seated and ordered beverages. The Groupon was for one appetizer (anything listed in the starter category), two entrees (any items on the menu), and one dessert. We started with the "Chestnut Gnocchi - Chestnut Flour, Bacon, Roasted Celery Root and Brown Sugar Brandy Glaze" (normally $8). These were excellent, although it's worth noting that it's quite sweet thanks to the glaze, so those who are less thrilled with sweet dishes before dessert may want to order something else. For entrees, my companion ordered the "NY Strip Steak - Gratin Potatoes, Green Beans, Mushroom Bordelaise Sauce, Peppercorn Crust" ($24, the most expensive item on the menu), which was prepared exactly as ordered (medium well) and which she deemed "a very good NY strip, better than many". I had the "Braised Shortrib - Slow Braised Beef Shortrib with Gremolata and Spicy Polenta" ($18), and this too was excellent, one of the better short ribs you'll find, very tender and without a lot of fat in it, and the spicy polenta was indeed spicy (and good). For dessert we had the butterscotch panna cotta ($7), which was also very good, albeit a bit sweeter than some other panna cottas (it seemed a bit more pudding-like and less panna cotta-like, in sweetness as well as consistency). So we liked all four of the dishes we ordered a lot. It's also worth noting that the portion sizes were quite generous; we're healthy eaters and we didn't have any need to order more dishes than the four covered by the Groupon. And our server was friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable.

To sum up - consistently excellent food, ample portions, and reasonable prices. We were sufficiently impressed that we intend to return in the near future, even without a Groupon subsidy. We'd like to try some of the other items on the menu, such as their salads (which we were told are all dinner sized) and sandwiches, and brunch too. We asked and they confirmed that their menu can be prepared for carry-out, which will work well for us too.

As an added bonus, our dinner receipt says "bring this receipt to our next show and get $5 off each ticket".

So that's what we can tell you about our dinner at 27 Live. We liked it!

27 Live
1012-1014 Church Street
Evanston IL 60201
855-927-LIVE
Restaurant Hours: Tues-Sat 5PM-10PM, Sunday Brunch 10AM-2PM
Lounge Hours: Friday and Saturday, 8:00PM until close

Today, Chicago Magazine has an article about Treble-Maker Grill, which is now the name of the restaurant at 27 Live. It claims that the restaurant is opening today. However, other than the restaurant name, I'm not sure that there's any difference from what they were doing when we ate there last month. The menu on their website is similar to the one presented to us, and I'm not sure whether there will be any changes.

We went there shortly after they opened, and were not impressed (confused staff, sub-standard mussels with nothing to sop up sauce, no mussel forks, lobster mac and cheese with no detectable lobster). I didn't write it up, because it was so new at the time. Good to know they've gotten their act (acts?) together. We may have to give them another try. The upstairs whiskey bar was worthwhile.