We hit Vera for a pre-Bulls dinner last night. I was especially happy to see how easy it was to get there from my new office as it will make return visits after work that much easier. For our dinner, we had:

* Garlic shrimp
* Baked goat cheese, marinated beets, pistachio vinaigrette
* Winter pisto manchego, roasted squash, turnips, carrots, fried egg
* Meatballs, tomato and piquillo pepper, manchego cheese
* Half order of bread

The shrimp were a touch over-cooked, but had great flavor. Mr. X and I are big fans of beets and that combo did not disappoint. The meatballs weren't especially noteworthy. My favorite dish of the night was the winter pisto manchego. Roasted winter vegetables, a creamy manchego sauce on the bottom with the added bonus of egg yolk melting over it all. I was also really impressed with the bread last night. I don't remember it from my previous visits, but it was great. Service was very good, although there were longer gaps between dishes than expected or wanted. I've enjoyed all my visits to Vera and was happy to be back.

I haven't seen much on Vera for a while, but they're still hitting on all cylinders, I went last night with Boudreaulicious and had a stellar meal. We started with the Boquerones, white anchovies, extra virgin olive oil, parsley, chile flake and an order of the tomato bread. The tomato bread is such a simple dish, but so satisfying, the glory of the last tomato's paired with good bread is one of lives great pleasures and we sopped up the leftover olive oil from the anchovies with the bread.

We also had the crispy eggplant with za'atar breadcrumbs, whipped ricotta, honey. We thought this might be too sweet, but it wasn't, the use of honey was very subtle and the crispy homemade breadcrumbs with za'atar coating the eggplant were incredible. At first I thought this might be a cornmeal coating because of the crunch and piece size, but it was breadcrumbs, they just weren't ground fine. We also had the Cocido Madrilene, which is usually a chickpea stew with pork. Mark used lamb shoulder sourced from Elysian Fields, the flavor was really rich and meltingly tender.

We sat at the Otro bar observing the room and chatting with both Liz and the bartender, which made for an enjoyable evening. Vera continues to be one of my favorite places in Chicago.

The Spanish wine bar under the "L" tracks at 1023 W. Lake St. owned by husband-and-wife team Mark and Liz Mendez, chef and sommelier respectively, will now be open 7 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays, offering pourover coffee and espresso drinks ground to order, loose leaf teas and pastries.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141110 ... a-pastries

Any idea if Vera is still hosting wine classes/events, as seen here? http://www.verachicago.com/classes

We had an excellent dinner last night at Vera. Five stars for the people, who were friendly and helpful. I think it was Liz that helped us not only with wine pairings, but also my bags as I was coming straight from the airport.

The kale salad, salt cod croquettes, and cauliflower with pine nuts and golden raisins were all excellent, and went well with suggested wines (white carignan and fino sherry). The chorizo and chicken paella was good, though it needed salt, and took a bit of time to come out from the kitchen. The meal ended up being about two hours, which we didn't expect, but found it was a nice opportunity to unwind.

I completely forgot to ask if they'll be having any wine classes. But based on service alone, I think I'll be back.

2015 passed and not a single post on Vera? How is that possible? As restaurants open and close, Vera is closing in on its fifth anniversary and the food and wine are blowing me away every bit as much as ever.

I stopped in the other night for a pre-Bulls game meal, and as usual, nothing but excellent, beautifully executed food. The only thing that frustrates me about Vera is when they change the menu (frequently) and remove a dish I think I cannot live without.

But on this night, much like a good pop or rock concert, a mixture of old and new hits:

Not pictured, but tomato bread. This is always one of my favorite items, simple as it is: good quality grated tomatoes, a little garlic, olive oil and nice, crusty bread.

The always gorgeous and delicious anchovies.


Anchovies




They were running a special this night, lamb ribs with almonds (and a glaze I can't recall). The ribs were beautifully roasted, a gentle tug all that was required, and they were fantastic, as good as I've had.


Lamb ribs




The sea bass with lemon, vegetable escabeche and herb oil was one of the best pieces of fish I've had in a long time. Sensational flavors and the fish was seared perfectly, leading to a gently crisp skin and moist fish. This might have been my favorite dish of the night.


Sea bass




I also loved the sliced roasted mushrooms (trumpet I believe), served around a soft egg yolk. The mushrooms were just the slightest bit crisp around the edges and meaty. The yolk paired beautifully with the earthy mushrooms and herbs.


Mushrooms




For dessert, I thought the salted (caramel?) pudding was good, but I much preferred the chocolate dessert, which was chocolate mousse that leaned slightly to the milky side of semisweet, with olive oil and salt atop crispy bread. I'm pretty sure I've had this dish or something very much like it at Vera, but I'll never tire of it.




Pudding top; chocolate bottom



Some wine, some sherry too, of course. And great service as always. Vera continues to be one of my very favorite restaurants in this city.

BR wrote:2015 passed and not a single post on Vera? How is that possible?

I don't usually post about restaurants that are just okay, so I didn't feel the need to post about my dinner there at the time. I ate at Vera a few weeks ago before a show at City Winery, and I was not impressed. It wasn't dreadful, but several of the dishes I had were too oily, and the flavors were bland rather than bold. For example, the beef tongue appetizer didn't have much tongue taste to it. The shishito pepper appetizer, the octopus, the kale salad... all were okay - not great, not awful. The best dish of the night was their crema catalana, a creme brulee with a subtle orange flavor; it was quite good, but not exactly memorable either. Service was okay, the decor was fine, the prices were fair. So it was okay, not terrible, but I don't have a burning desire to return.

We also did pre-Bulls at Vera recently. Had some of the greatest hits: Bacon-wrapped dates, olives, patatas bravas, garlic shrimp. The dressing on the kale salad was excellent, if a bit garlicky. We also had the sea bass pictured above in BR's post. I agree that it had a starring role in our meal. The paella of the day was also stellar, although I can't remember what it was. We split the salted caramel pudding and the chocolate mousse on bread. The pudding wasn't set enough, but the chocolate mousse was excellent.

We enjoyed a meal with another couple at Vera last night. The standouts for us were the roasted mushrooms, Serrano ham, grilled octopus, and potatoes. Bacon-wrapped dates were delicious but tiny. The chocolate mousse described above was excellent. The paella with langoustines was good but not amazing, as were the anchovies. I was disappointed by the shishito peppers, which are favorites of ours--they were surprisingly bland. We had excellent service (we had theater tickets and were out on time) and drank a delicious albarino. Parking was a bit challenging on the Saturday night before St. Patrick's Day. Our server told us they are going to be adding valet parking.

Vera continues to treat ingredients very simply and showcase some of the best olive oil out there, which is evocative of favorite bodegas to me. You're often just getting salt, oil, and seasoning from the grill, occasionally with garlic and paprika and sherry, and so there is a sameness that can creep in to a longer or bigger meal, but I appreciate that's not the point by design, though it's taken me some visits over some years to get there, in part because the space itself might not be dressed down enough.

One totally (in my experience) non-traditional item I like there is the tortilla española, which is substantial in an unexpected way - rather than a generous wedge of room-temperature sliced potato omelet to sponge up the sherry vapors, this is a whole thin frittata with halved tiny potatoes served hot in its little pan, swimming in olive oil. They list it with morcilla for an extra buck (as with the serrano ham for the tomato bread), but will also make it with chorizo, and these are nice additions if you're not salted-meat-heavy in the rest of your order. The "while you decide" wine pours, house olives, and sherry flights add a hospitable touch wanting elsewhere in this district.

We had a great, great meal at Vera last night. It was a perfect place to catch up with my spouse's old friend who was in town for work. Highlights were the tortilla espanola, the octopus (which nicely constituted my paprika intake for the month), and the halloumi, which we ordered last, and functioned as a sort of postmodern dessert cheese course. I wish our server were able to talk to us a bit more about the sherries, as I'm trying to learn more about them, but perhaps I should have asked for Liz on that count.

In the West loop, it is a real luxury to feel like you have time to sit back, converse with your tablemates over the menu, order excellent food and wine, and then rinse and repeat. That's exactly what Vera offers. Many thanks to them.

Closing next week...which obviously suuuuuuuucks.

harpua wrote:Closing next week...which obviously suuuuuuuucks.

Vacation or for good? That would really suck.

Looks like for good:

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017071 ... -west-loop

Their web site is still accepting reservations for August.

From Facebook (and the same sent via email):

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
~ A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Friends, the day has come to say goodbye. Vera will be closing and our last day of service will be Saturday, July 29th. Six years have flown by, we remember sitting in our restaurant for the first time so eager, so excited, so anxious to see who would come to our little wine bar. We would never have guessed how many wonderful people would come to eat, drink good wine, and celebrate with us. We've seen anniversaries, birthdays, rehearsal dinners, first dates, family get togethers, and met so many people that have become like family. To our regulars who kept us open these six years, there are no words to express our gratitude for dining with us. We will miss the hugs, the smiles, the laughter, which gave Vera its soul. But quite simply we want to move on, to paraphrase another restaurateur, we want to sleep when we are tired and we want to eat when we are hungry. Sometimes living a rich, full life means letting go of something you love. Our quality of life has become more important to us over the years, so we have made this difficult decision to close Vera. We hope many of you can come by to say hi ... and goodbye, have a last glass of wine or two, maybe even get a hug. Thank you all for sharing a part of your life with us, it has been an amazing ride.
~ Liz & Mark

This one hurts

zoid wrote:This one hurts

I totally agree.

We went for a last meal at Vera yesterday. It has been one of more frequented spots that's not in our neighborhood. Sad to see it go.

Mr. X and I arrived early and sat at the bar. The excellent bartender, who is moving out to Santa Monica to work with Dave Beran, formerly of Next, informed us that the liquor supply was diminished. Mr. X's Perfect Manhattan ended up being something different due to a lack of vermouth. Still delicious. The wine list is very limited. Fortunately, they still had a bottle of the Clos Cibonne Cotes de Provence Tibouren Cuvee Speciale des Vignettes Rose. Sold.

After our friends got there, we moved to a table and started ordering. We started with manchego and Serrano ham to take the edge off. We then shared the crispy eggplant with spicy tomato sauce and goat cheese, tortilla Espanola, steak with chimichurri and fries, bacon wrapped dates, boquerones, pork meatballs and indian spiced lamb chops. The steak was the star of the night -- perfectly cooked medium rare.

If you go on one of the remaining nights, you might want to bring a bottle or two of special occasion wine. With their limited supply, we weren't allowed to order another bottle with dinner and had to order by the glass. We understood, but we imagine the rest of the week will be more interesting.

I'll miss Vera.

The GP wrote:We went for a last meal at Vera yesterday. It has been one of more frequented spots that's not in our neighborhood. Sad to see it go.

Mr. X and I arrived early and sat at the bar. The excellent bartender, who is moving out to Santa Monica to work with Dave Beran, formerly of Next, informed us that the liquor supply was diminished. Mr. X's Perfect Manhattan ended up being something different due to a lack of vermouth. Still delicious. The wine list is very limited. Fortunately, they still had a bottle of the Clos Cibonne Cotes de Provence Tibouren Cuvee Speciale des Vignettes Rose. Sold.

After our friends got there, we moved to a table and started ordering. We started with manchego and Serrano ham to take the edge off. We then shared the crispy eggplant with spicy tomato sauce and goat cheese, tortilla Espanola, steak with chimichurri and fries, bacon wrapped dates, boquerones, pork meatballs and indian spiced lamb chops. The steak was the star of the night -- perfectly cooked medium rare.

If you go on one of the remaining nights, you might want to bring a bottle or two of special occasion wine. With their limited supply, we weren't allowed to order another bottle with dinner and had to order by the glass. We understood, but we imagine the rest of the week will be more interesting.

I'll miss Vera.

Thanks for the heads up on this Mary--we're going Friday. Probably worth checking in with Liz M to see what she suggests.