What does it take? [Bistro Maisonette]

First of all - hello the room! I have LURKED long enough and just got back from dinner. So here I go... don't hurt me too bad!

I have a story of a restaurant in the Twilight Zone.

If I told you I know of a place where the food was unfailingly far above the average every time out of the box; where the service never failed to be attentive and personable; where the wine list varied enough to treat any pairing you could think of; and where every last published review you could find anywhere praises the place to high heaven - you could be excused in thinking that I was maybe talking about a place where it was probably impossible to get a table, and was so well known by now that the bloom was off the rose. Ho hum, here's RW telling us what we already know.

But Je suis désolé mon petit potiron, you'd be wrong, wrong, wrong;

Take a look at this review, and this review, and what about this one as well.

Oh. Wait. Here's another one. Who is unhappy? Where are the problems?

But where is everybody??

Tonite my wife and I returned from our third visit since Bistro Maisonette opened, and we were one of maybe three tables going in the place. Granted it is a Sunday night in the suburbs, and so most people in Bloomingdale are anywhere but out. But given the traits of a good restaurant which Maisonette exhibits (and has always exhibited), you would think something has to give. So... what gives?

Tonite I started with the Bistro Salad of mixed greens, sliced apples, bleu cheese and walnuts with the (secret) house vinagrette, followed by the Duck Breast & Leg (medium rare) with sweet and sour red cabbage and a dash of bacon. And because I am a berserker fanatic barbarian I topped it all off with a Zinfandel from the Sierra foothills. My wife took the mushroom soup and then the Pork Tenderloin with the sweet potatoes and ligonberry sauce. We are not slaves to the white wine / red wine mantra, and she accompanied this with a pleasant little Cosentino Sangiovese.

If there were technical problems with the meal my wife felt her plate was a bit oversauced, and I could have even gone more rare on the duck. Minor issues, really. My highest compliment (an empty plate) spoke my opinion.

And so, over dessert (a particular area where Bistro Maisonette gets an A+ if only because they leave the coffee pots at the table!) Lynne and I engaged in the same conversation we had the last time we were in the place. Namely: where is everybody?

I only remember one item among the entrees over $25. You can pump your tab up with drinks and desserts but if you're a light spender you get a very full plate for a reasonable $16-17. So it can't be the price. I wonder about the location - the Old Towne section of Bloomingdale is a renovated cluster of boutiques and buildings that is quaint enough to walk around in but they've always seemed to be reaching for atmosphere here. The buildings are Old West / up-and-coming 1880-90's style whatevers and pastel to abstraction. Still it is considered a valuable place to have your business. I can't recall going there for anything but restaurants. You couldn't get a safer place to be, I suppose.

We settled on a few ideas. They need to pipe the sound system into the first floor lounge. We felt a little detached from the music - but then there was dead air. From one minute to the next it felt very isolated and silent. Even if there were only six other people in the place this is a bistro after all.

We longed for some Damia, Frehel, Mistinguet, Suzy Solidor, Yvette Guilbert, Lucienne Boyer or - for heaven's sake - Edith Piaf (you'd think!). In season, fruit and cheese boards, or anytime "nosh plates". Something to hold onto the concept. Better art on the walls? I don't know. But something. Do any of the great reviews linked above talk to you about the bistro atmosphere, really? They do not.

Bistro Maisonette seems to want to live on the reputation of the food - not a terrible idea for a restraurant after all; but in this industry there needs another level.

It's a bistro. It should act like one. Or else it can continue to be one of my favorite unspoiled dining secret gems few people know about. I should probably shut up about it. But the choice is theirs. In that the place is five minutes from my house - I hope it stays here forever.

But go. You should go. That which will be placed before you will not disappoint.

Bistro Maisonette
109 Franklin St.
Bloomingdale, IL 60108-2956
630-924-0930

Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Tuesday-Friday Dinner: 5-9 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; 5-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday; 4-8 p.m., Sunday until 8:30. Closed Monday.

Wasn't this place featured on Check Please at one point? You would think the the CP induced influx of Trixies and Chads would at least be happeining at some level. It's probably the fact that it's way the hell out there in Bloomingdale. Not many people (unless you live in the area) would probably want to make the trek out that far.

Also, the fact that they are in Bloomingdale, a town that has rigid ordinances about signs (neon is banned, signs can only be a certain size, etc.), means they have limited ways even to let the locals and passersby know they are there.

Where is Bloomingdale (as opposed to Bloomingdale's), anyway?

That's one issue...

Incidentally, apropos of your Eleanor Roosevelt quote, a relation of hers had rather different ideas:

"If you haven't got anything good to say about anyone, come and sit by me." --Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Mike G wrote:Where is Bloomingdale (as opposed to Bloomingdale's), anyway?

Bloomingdale is at the Lake St. exit of I-355, very close to Medinah Country Club.

I'll bet if you asked 100 Wheaton and Glen Ellyn residents where Bloomingdale was, less than half would know, which isn't good news for Bistro Maisonette. Wheaton and Glen Ellyn are the two communites the restaurant must draw from to have any chance of succeeding. I also think the opening of Bistro Margot in downtown Naperville has hurt their business.

And besides, they were really snotty to me on the phone when I called and inquired about their corkage policy. I politely thanked them for the information, made a dinner reservation elsewhere, and haven't thought about going there since...

Mark

Interesting observations - almost reaffirms my belief that people in the city are a bit less adventurous - travelwise - than folks in the burbs. I'd travel good distances to go for the "food as theatre" aspect alone. But then I do tend to get a little blind to practicalities when it comes to restaurants.

Seems to me, though, that if you plunked Maisonette in the middle of Geneva or St Charles it would flourish like Isabella's or 302 (Jeremy Lycan has hit his stride - by the way - and I'd say that place is back). I think maybe Bloomingdale is a bit more Outback and Chili's than they are for a little independent.

But I truly think Maisonette needs something else to recommend it. Like I said - never been disappointed in the food. But it doesn't exactly embrace you in the idea.

(Not surprised about the response to the byo question. I sort of get the notion that this place is simply an incomplete idea sometimes.)

RW wrote:Interesting observations - almost reaffirms my belief that people in the city are a bit less adventurous - travelwise - than folks in the burbs. I'd travel good distances to go for the "food as theatre" aspect alone. But then I do tend to get a little blind to practicalities when it comes to restaurants.

It's really more a matter of practicality rather than an issue of being less adventurous. While many of us on this board travel great distances for something unique and above average (Amanacer Tapatio in Joliet, for example). Most of us city dwellers can get better-than-suburban food in town without making the drive. That also explains why suburbanites tend to travel to the city. It's the same logic used by Willie Sutton (to paraphrase) "Because that's where the good food is."

Let me chime in on a couple of things:

Steve, you are so darned provincial sometimes. Sure, it is a matter of practicality, yup. But we all have comfort zones we travel, and it does take something extraordinary to get us to travel outside of them. And for some city-dwellers, the comfort zone is defined as the city limits and excludes the suburbs as a matter of course or maybe pride, even if parts of the city are much farther than the suburbs.

And I suffer from this, too. I have read good things about Maisonette numerous times. Living in N'ville, I both know where Bloomingdale is (I admit, I have also lived in Medinah, Schaumburg and Hanover Park, and have had a few friends and acquaintances who actually lived in Bloomingdale). It is, I suspect, not as far from my house as Geneva, where I go to eat at times, just north of Wheaton, where I go more often, and certainly closer than the city where I can be found frequently. But I never go.

One reason is that I truly dislike the NW suburbs. Tony G, aka Electric Mullet and others have regaled me with tales of tasty meals around Schaumburg, but I find it hard to go there. During my tenure up in the land beyond O'Hare, I fondly referred to Schaumburg and Hanover Park as the twin cities of brain death and taste death. It seemed that anything of interest was systematically razed and replaced with an identical tract home or a Long John Silver's. But that was the 70's and 80's and while I object to Woodfield and parts of Irving Park, they are hardly unique or trend setting any more, and I am older and more mellow. Still, that feeling persists, if unfairly.

Particularly unfair in this case, because Bloomongdale really is not much like those other towns so this is just guilt by proximity.

There are other points about the food and concept not being that unique, but if it is really good and reasonable, what difference does that make? But I do think people from N'ville just do not go to Bloomingdale, and are mostly unaware of even where the heck it is. Funny thing, but true.

Thanks, RW, consider Maisonette added to my list of places I need to go, soon.

Dickson,

I think for many of us, places like Schaumburg have given suburbia a bad name. Guilt by association, as it were. You call it provincialism. I call it why waste my time unless it's for something truly exceptional. Unfortuantely, the truly exceptional is hard to come by (but not completely impossible to find) in the burbs. As you know, I have ventured out to your neck of the woods for good corned beef.

no criticism intended steve, nor any offense taken either. I grew up near Armitage & Damen before it got to be a place to go (still remember the sirens of 1959), and I guess for me I really don't equate location with cuisine or veracity or worthwhileness or whatever it is we're talking about I love the whole region and am willing to give every part of it a shot. I live in Roselle - which has a kinda winery but is mostly dull. They roll the streets up at 9 I think. But there are a couple good taverns where the pizza is out of this world. Depends what mode you're in, I guess.

I should also say I'm probably meant to be the world's worse judge of restaurants. My wife says I'm too generous (she had more negatives to Maisonette than I did - but not about the food). And that's probably so.

But I've tried everything from fish and chips grease pots in London to Russian restaurants up on Peterson, to tofu cult houses inn the People's Republic of California.

I'm probably too willing to see the upside of things. A character flaw, no doubt.

Man of my word, this once anyway, I made it to Bistro Maisonette this evening before the snow closed in completely.

Good News:

The place had one full seating. The wine list was interesting and fairly well priced. The food was generally pretty well done, and a couple of dishes, the son's as it happened, were quite interesting. Nothing was oversalted and the wait people were uniformly quite nice. A full meal - appetizer, main course, dessert, some drinks, ran $50 ppm and represented decent value at that.

Overall, it was just a little reminescent of a recent meal I had at Sweets & Savories - it is a personal restaurant, run by the chef/owner (this is a guess, admittedly for Maisonette, but it felt that way).

Half the menu is very traditional Bistro, Roast Chicken, Roast Pork, Steak (Strip, tho, and no frites), and the other half was pan-European, with the specials having a surprisingly Italian touch.

Overall, the food was well done, seasoned deftly with a nice touch of herbs, and a lighter touch of garlic and salt - defying the excesses of many places these days.

The son started with a lobster/crab cake - a short, fat cylinder of meat bound with a touch of crumbs and egg, sitting on a bed of spinach and mushrooms. Quite well done. His main course was more of the same - big fat capelacci, filled with crab meat in a tomato cream sauce finished with truffle oil. The whole thing was surprising - the pasta was either overcooked or cooked longer of necessity because of its size so the noodle was soft and silky, not at all al dente, and the sauce had a rich earthiness, redolent of truffles, and not at all tomatoey or even creamy. Wonderful.

The rest of the meal was serviceable. A few things had some flaws - a heavy, almost bready chocolate souffle, which took some time to get, but clearly was not prepared to order, a rack of lamb, tiny chops with a light herb crust in a red wine sauce - nice, but uninspired and a bit overcooked - no red, no squeal as I bit into them.

The service was fun, and funny, comic in its amateur aspect. Someone took a drink order, and delivered the drinks quite promptly, then our waitress arrived, and quizzed us on what drinks we had ordered. 30 seconds after we ordered she tried to deliver the daughter's salad, only it was the wrong salad. Then she zipped around the room speculatively for a few moments, finally settling at a table where she found the proper home for the salad. Service was prompt, pleasant, generally accurate, just unpolished and a bit disorganized. So I suppose if things went wrong they could get terribly out of control, but that was not the case.

The little second floor room was quite cozy with the snow swirling outside. And everyone thanked us for coming and cheerfully wished us to return soon. Doted on us.

Good - yes. Pleasant - definitely. If it was a couple of miles from home, I would love having Bistro Maisonette nearby. But it is pretty unlikely I would drive the 15 miles to go there again soon. To be fair, the Bride liked it very much, so I may go back sooner than I think. She liked it specifically because of the intimacy of the place, the lack of pretension, and the way we were doted on.

Critical guy that I am - I would rather take a heaping serving of pretension with my food at Bistro Banlieue, tho Maisonette is better in every way than Bistro Margot in N'ville.

Glad you took us up on that & that you enjoyed it.

If the waitress you had had a Russian accent then I know exactly which one you mean. She's a character.