We went out for such a special dinner last night to celebrate our friends' 40th birthday (Dave and Susan's birthdays are 3 days apart). We went to Sprout on Fullerton in Chicago....the executive chef is Dale Levitski from Top Chef.
Here is a picture of him to remind you which one he is -
And he was always around - popping in and out of the kitchen. I even talked with him about the idea of trying to get onto Next Food Network Star.....he talked about the isolation and extreme monitoring. He said the only way he would go back for a third time to Top Chef is if it was only for 1-2 days....not the 5 weeks that he was away before. What a nice guy!
We had a great server as well. Christopher. I love when the folks that work at restaurants of this caliber know their stuff - and he does. About the wines, about the ingredients, about the restaurant in general. VERY impressive. And not in a snobby way either....but in a way that he wants to share it all with you so you enjoy your time there even more.
And our room was AMAZING! Dave reserved it - I don't know how he knew about it....but he did and it was so special. It made us feel like the whole place was just for us. It was isolated and quiet. Just the 6 of us and Christopher when he stopped in.
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| Here was our room....see the porthole into the kitchen? Very cool!! And a gorgeous chandelier you can just see the bottom of in the picture. It had a high ceiling, which also added to the specialness of this room. |
We decided to do the tasting menu....since there were 6 choices on the first course of the meal, we just ordered one of each and passed it around the table for everyone to taste everything.
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| Lolla Rosa (did you know it is a kind of lettuce?? We didn't. Cheryl had to look it up to find out what it was.) See that sweet potato looking piece right there? It is red kuri. A kind of squash (Christopher told us that). And you can also see the slices of apple. Yum |
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| Foie gras....know what that is?? Fatty duck liver. And it is not a very kind way it is generated. In fact for while in Chicago, it was banned. I liked this though. The disc on the right was smooth, almost like a butter. The canoli stuffed with foie was good. I always like food with contrasting textures and this was that for sure! |
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| I liked this shrimp dish. There are black eyed peas on this plate and those were great. I like the way they hold their firmness when cooked. |
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| This was SO yummy. I could have a huge bowl of this on a cold day and been very happy. It has mussels, salmon, and sirloin. I loved the broth. Very comforting. |
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| Veal dish....tasty. |
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| This was the surprise dish for me. This was served with a peppermint vinaigrette. Yes...peppermint. And it also has fresh licorice root grated over it. I think it was served with butter lettuce. Very soft lettuce. You can see thin slices of pear and goat cheese on the salad too. Very yummy. I liked the plate just to taste the dressing again. I have no shame when it comes to food....and I openly admit it!!! |
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| This was a surprise small course. This was a chantrell mushroll and apple creamed soup. It was ok. I didn't even finish this little bit. Too rich for me and very mild flavors. |
For our entrees, we had 7 choices. We decided to to this course individually, instead of bite and pass like we did with the first course. So we each chose our own which came to 3 of the main courses. But we all tasted each others.
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| This was the venison dish. I liked this one the best. Which surprised me that I still chose this dish over the others, since the first time I had venison was in Toronto only about 1 month ago. This venison was from New Zealand and was so tender. It was served with a chestnut and turnip puree (see it poking out on the top left of the meat?) and with a huckleberry reduction. |
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| Short ribs here....melts in your mouth. |
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| Christopher called this Pork-a-polooza.....and it was just that. There is pork bread pudding and celery root puree. Also slices of pork rubbed with a mixture I don't remember, but loved. See the flat white thing on top....ricotta. Not sure why it was there. All the men liked this the best. |
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| Surprise course here of grilled cheese and cherry mustard. In the cheese was sliced apples. And see how the cheese oozed out of the top and got hard (you can see when the bread stops, but the cheese kept going). Dale said this is one of the biggest crowd pleasers, but one of the simplest things he makes. |
Time for the dessert course. There were 4 choices, but the six of us only ordered 2 of the choices.....but we all got a small glass of hard apple cider. Now that was DELICIOUS. So much so that we ordered a bottle of it (22 oz bottle) for the table. J.K. Scrumpy's Hard Apple Cider. OMG.....
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In writing, this one sounded the best. Chocolate with peanuts, maple cream and bananas. The maple cream was a bit too rich and it was served with banana bread and I think the pieces of banana were cooked in maple syrup. It was ok.
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| This was the table winner of desserts. This was a root beer crepe (yes, root beer) with apples and bacon inside. And see that toffee. We loved it so much, that Christopher brought us another ramekin of it just to snack on. Put a piece of this toffee with swig of the hard apple cider in your mouth and the result is pure joy. Favorite quote of the night "My mouth is happy" - Cheryl. And I could not agree more!!!! |
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