One of the biggest problems I have dining in Chicago are the opera curtain times, which this week are at 630pm since both operas I am seeing are 4 hours (normal curtains are at 730pm for 3-3-1/2 hour operas). Well, you can't really eat at fine dining sports at 430pm, and 11pm isn't much better.
Since I am staying at one of Chicago's newest boutique luxury hotels The James, I was thrilled to return here at 11pm and find the hotel's restaurant open until midnight on Friday and Saturday (I might just have to return again tonight).
Restauranteur David Burke has many spots all over the USA, but PRIMEHOUSE DAVID BURKE was recently rated the best steakhouse in Chicago (no small feat) and offers a varied and exciting menu and wine list that is great for steak or anything. At midnight on my body clock, I was not in the mood for a 20-30 ounce steak, even if it did come from a specially bred organic-siring bull and was aged in-house using Himalayan rock salt (maybe tonight!). I figured a meat dish was in order and asked my server about the KOBE BEEF SASHIMI. She said the carpaccio style dish included about 2 ounces of superb meat, and then recommended the table-side prepared CAESAR SALAD as one of the larger appetizer/salad options.
The wine list is superb and varied and rather than glasses offers small carafes of about a glass and a half. I asked about the Petite Syrah 2005 from TEN MILES in California and she immediately suggested the SIERRA CANTABRIA 2005 Tempranillo from Rioja in Spain instead and proffered two small tasting glasses for me to choose. Natasha was spot on with this suggestion, as the Petite Syrah was nice but not exciting. With temperatures outside near 20, and wind chills much worse, the Tempranillo was warm, full-bodied and a bit racy, simply tantalizing to the tongue.
I sipped and looked around the almost empty quiet room, which I am sure was heaving earlier on, with its low lighting, brown leather tables and chairs and huge roomy booths (they offered me one for six and I opted for the smaller table for four). My KOBE BEEF SASHIMI arrived in round circles gorgeously layered on a huge 6 inch by 3 inch by 2 inch high block of Himalayan Rock Salt and scattered with MUSHROOM CHIPS and a superb TRUFFLE MAYO dip on the side. The meat was about the best carpaccio ever and the chips made for fun, taste and a bit of crunch (think bacon bits made of mushroom). The CEASAR Salad (the opera I see tonight is Julius Caesar!) was professionally prepared in front of me and I chose to have it topped with FRESH MARIANTED WHITE ANCHOVIES that were clearly and deliciously lemon-infused, the salad itself very traditional and just the right dish for just before midnight and bed.
A yummy popover came as well right from the oven with a pat of tasty butter sprinkled with that super Himalayan Rock Salt (I just might have to indulge in the steak tonight, no matter how late it is!).
I was off to bed in my wonderful and luckily quiet room and today am looking forward to more fun dining and opera in the snow/sleet and ice that is expected soon!
