Oliver's - New Fancy Eatin' In Berwyn

Oliver's Prime Cuts And Seafood
From the website:
"After 30 years of manning the kitchens of luxury hotels at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the Hilton in New Orleans and the Palmer House in Chicago, as well as exclusive private clubs such as the Women's Athletic Club and Green Acres Country Club, Chef Oliver Valenzuela decided to open his own American bistro in 2012. Oliver's Cafe was well received with great reviews by the local press, food bloggers, Yelp reviewers and Chicago's own Bridgeport neighborhood. His famous scallops landed Chef Oliver a special TV appearance on ABC's 190 North and several mentions in Chicago Magazine, RedEye Newspaper, Chicago Eater, Chicago Weekly to name a few."

I've read too many resumes, and listened to way too many people overstate what they have done, so I take this kind of stuff with a grain of salt. Went to Oliver's last weekend for Sunday Brunch, and I'm a believer.

The spot is formerly Robert (Nava's?) upscale spot, then transformed into a Wishbone. Bright, big front windows, wood tables, kind of matter of fact for brunch, not sure if they bust out the white tablecloths for dinner, my guess would be yes. The back of the room held much less light - maybe for the more "party the night before" patrons. I'm very rarely a part of that set now. Anyway, the food was textbook. TEXTbook. Didn't sample too much, but I can tell you that what we did try leads me to believe that Oliver knows how to make food. WELL. I'll be visiting this place often - I hope it stays around. It struck me as place that you don't have to worry about getting something "ho-hum," or not cooked correctly - like they don't give a damn. Too many of those places, imo. Our brunch dishes were schnazzy hotel quality, but in a good way - not in an overpriced, sterile quality room service kinda way. The kitchen at this place knows what they are doing. Buddy who went a few times for steak dinners said the steaks were fantastic. Fork tender each time. Didn't hear about other stuff from him, but I'll try other things, and soon.

Ersters with mignonette, and tomato chutney:

I'm not huge on raw, but we let Jr. try his first one here. Mistake. He is his father's son. He loved them - anything we get him to try that we think would be questionable, he loves. Ordered 3 - one for each, but he tried his, and then sweet talked the Mrs out of hers. I have no idea what variety they were. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of raw. These were obviously fresh, they were shucked just fine, very clean, no odd bits. The mignonette and tomato chutney were better saved for add ins for our meals. I got them both - they come with the oysters. I already knew full well that I wasn't gonna use them on the oysters (drop of tabasco or nothing, for me, please.)

Pancakes with real maple syrup.
Textbook texture, flavor, and appearance:

The only word I can use to describe is textbook, perfect. As good as they look. You know those times when you get them perfect at home? I bat about .250 with pancakes.
I'm talking about the PERFECT ones. Not the ones that are good, not the ones that might not look great, but are still ok. I'm talking about picture perfect, perfect chew, retaining the crispyness in those brown striations from the perfect grill temp? I hope you know what I'm talking about here. Listen, sorry. I like pancakes. I hate bad ones. I LUUURVE good ones. These were perfection.

Denver Panini with the chimichurri that I will order with every meal here.


The Panini was decent enough. The eggs were cooked very nicely. The breakfast potatoes might be different - the co-owner stopped by and asked for an opinion. Said they were "testing" these. I liked them. The Mrs was lukewarm. They were pretty big cuts, BUT, they were pretty unusual. Super crunchy outside, but light and flufffy inside. They grew on me a lot. Never had anything like them. Maybe double fried? Not greasy, either. Anyway, this made the panini pop:

The chimichurri wasn't like ethnic rustic, it was more refined, a little subtle, but it was fantastic, and I'm getting it every time I go. The co-owner asked if we liked it, because of course, he knows everyone will. I told him he should offer it as a side with every order of the potatoes. He agreed that he too, puts it on everything.

THE Coupe De Ville - (I know, I know) My Eggs Benedict (Florentine Style:)

Perfect, top to bottom. No overuse of lemon (which sometimes I like) This was perfect hollandaise. Eggs were perfectly poached. PERFECT. I might seriously go back just because I wrote about them. PERFECT.

Well Done, Chef Oliver! Hopefully this place sticks around.

6908 Windsor Ave
Berwyn, IL 60402
(708) 317-4640
Oliver's Website

Must hit this place next.

labmom53 and I had a pleasant Tuesday night dinner at Oliver's last night. It was nicely quiet and unexpectedly intimate, as the dining room was empty from 7:30 to after 8:30pm, except for one other couple.

We drank a house-special spicy watermelon martini constructed at the Olive or Twist bar, which is connected to the restaurant by a common doorway ("We do their food and they do our cocktails."), and a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.

We started with a well-prepared app of jumbo scallops along with a raspberry vinaigrette-dressed assorted greens salad with roasted beet, goat cheese, and candied walnuts. There was a warm bread plate with both an appropriately-spreadable butter and an (of course!) olive tapenade.

For mains, I had a done-to-spec (medium this time) house burger with swiss, avocado, and jalapeno; labmom53 had a skirt steak in bite-sized pieces with fried jalapino over a ricotta-filled egg pasta. Both were accompanied by julienned frites.

Nice presentations all around, decent level of service (admittedly, there wasn't much competition for the waitress' attention in the room), and reasonable pricing. Piped-in 60's & 70's rock music (Hendrix, Doors, Traffic, Pink Floyd) was at an unobtrusive sound level, so conversation was easy.

Based on this experience, we'd return.