Michael in Winnetka?

Noticed there was no feedback on Michael Lachowicz's new place in Winnetka...any thoughts? Going there tomorrow night, wouldn't mind knowing what to look for (besides the foie gras, of course; Lachowicz owned it with his variations at Les Deux and Le Francais).

If anyone's been, how's the degustation? Word has it that he's only charging $36 for a 5 courser...

chezbrad wrote:Noticed there was no feedback on Michael Lachowicz's new place in Winnetka...any thoughts? Going there tomorrow night, wouldn't mind knowing what to look for (besides the foie gras, of course; Lachowicz owned it with his variations at Les Deux and Le Francais).

If anyone's been, how's the degustation? Word has it that he's only charging $36 for a 5 courser...

We dined there a few weeks ago. No one had the 5-courser simply because we thought we did not want desert and it would come out to be the same (the waiter concurred). Anyhow, I ordered escargot which was good and the venison which I thought was also good. The problem we had with the meal, may be only that night, was that it heavy with sauces....(both dishes were sitting on a layer of sauce). But, overall, a pleasant experience (we ended up ordering the cheese plate at the end which was great. I recommend that).
Elie

I'm going for lunch on Friday, as sot of a scout trip. I'll be working with Chef Lachowicz at his Botanic Garden demo on August 27th. I met him at a demo at the Foodstuffs in Glencoe about a year and a half ago or so, just before the Le Francais....um..."unpleasantness," shall we say? He's a hoot - sort of the Penn Gillette of Chicago chefs, IMO. I'm really looking forward to the demo, and to lunch.

They called me earlier today, BTW, and told me that the website is now up. Here's what's on the table.

Restaurant Michael

Went last night to Michael...room is rather ugly, sort of like my parents dining room in the 1980s, but this has never been a knockout space to begin with.

Food falls in between Les Deux and Le Francais; it's definitely well done and very good. I had the foie gras composition, which functioned as an elaborate egg roll of sorts-slivers of goose liver mixed with a shredded "foie gras strudel" inside a puff crust, nestled on top of a fig confit--and was perfectly fine; I liked my friend's crab cake/scallop combo, in a luscious curry sauce, better.

The sauces here are definitely exquisite and show a nimble touch in the kitchen. My friend had the venison, which was just excellent--the requisite fruit pairing was sharp, a really complex huckleberry sauce. I had the fish pairing, which was salmon and escolar--both perfectly cooked and surrounded by an inner ring of mushroom reduction and an outer of nouveau choron. A fine dish.

There is a "mashed potato" guy who comes around and slings a serving of what has the consistency of whipped cream--is it Robuchon that popularized that pure butter type of mashed potato?--but they weren't that memorable. I will say that Lachowicz has a great vegetable supplier, because the morels in my dish were excellent.

We skipped dessert but the usual suspects are there; they do bring out a housemade truffle to close.

Service was not as bad as I heard it was, though I think anytime you have to pull out a table to allow people to sit in a booth, you've designed your space--or furniture--poorly. We were seated next to a large dinner party which drew away, but we weren't in much of a hurry.

Of note is that Lachowicz is really working the room hard. This space is somewhat haunted--does anyone remember what was in here between Provence and Glass Onion? I can't remember--and a restaurant like Michael doesn't usually play well on the North Shore, so you can see that the chef is going out of his way to convince his early diners that his restaurant is more a "once a week" type place rather than a "special occasion" type of place. Besides being gregarious--he slapped me on the shoulder twice in 30 second conversation--he's not a dumb guy: he played to the older diners in the room, particularly two females behind me who described themselves as "new foodies." Overheard during their discussion: "It's old school and passe," says Lachowciz, "but my diners are mostly older and that's what they want."

And that, I can only presume, explains why the pre fixe was entirely disavowed last night. "Only a la care," I was told by the waiter, who acted as if it was that way from the start. Bummer.

It'll be interesting to see where this place goes from here.