I went to 2nd Street Bistro last night in Highland Park, Il. I had made a reservation and read the review through Open Table and Yelp.  I love using both those sites to find new places and Open Table to make reservations. Parking in downtown Highland Park is tricky.  We got lucky.  If you are going, make sure to get to this area a bit early to account for this possible problem.

Few interesting things about this restaurant.  This is a BYOB restaurant with no corkage fee.  Almost every table had brought with their own bottle - or bottles. The clientele was "older"....Let's just put it this way, we were the youngest in are part pf the restaurant by about 15-20 years. Their chef is young....28 years old, but he is SO impressive.  I liked his food A LOT.  Different, but in a very good, comfortable way.

Ok...let's start with the things that bothered me - to get it out of the way.

The choice of music is bizarre!  George Thorogood "Bad to the Bone", Ozzy Osbourne....very weird to hear that music with that type of food and clientele.  It got quite loud in there (not so enjoyable), so you can't hear the music very well, but we did, and were shocked!  This music with the heavy beats and rythms  may have even caused the volume of the conversation to rise....maybe if there was classic it would have been a quieter restaurant, which I would have preferred.

The tables are way too low.  Here is a picture my husband took of my legs when I tried to sit with my legs crossed. As you can see, I couldn't sit straight, facing my husband, with my legs crossed. I am not that tall either....just 5'6".  My husband is 6'3", so it was even more uncomfortable for him.  And the chairs aren't comfortable either.

This empty water glass was a common sight at our table - not good.

Now onto the food.....

This is on the table.  These thin crackers are delicious and different.  As you can see, there are different "flavors".  I didn't have a favorite, which says a lot about the choices they served. One bad thing...when we finished them all - they didn't ask if we wanted more. I am sure we could have asked for more, but it would have been nice if they asked.

Crispy Pesto Marinated Windsor Bay Calamari, Baby Organic Greens, Spicy Tomato Ragout
This was yummy.  Light batter and slight pesto taste.  The tomato wasn't very spicy.  I think that is part of the challenge when you  have people bringing their own wines.  You never know what they are going to drink since no pairings can be suggested.  We had a late harvest Riesling, so it tempered this dish  - almost dulling.

 I had two "minors" (appetizers) for my meal.  Almost like my own tasting menu.

This was not on the menu online, but it was on our menu last night.  It was a spring green lettuce mix with roasted squash with fresh cranberries. There might have even been some goat cheese in the salad. I have never eaten a fresh cranberry.  It was delicious in the squash.  A nice sourness with a firm texture, nice contrast to the mashed, roasted squash. Not sure what the reddish sauce was at the bottom, but was sweet, which was a great contrast with this salad.  A bite of everything together and it was a great dish.

Roasted Corn and Gulf Shrimp Fritters, 3 Sauces - Sour, Sweet, Spicy
The three sauces (left to right) was a chipolte mayo (spicy), blood orange sweet (sweet) and myer lemon  cream (sour).  These were more corn than shrimp in these fritters.  These were nice and crunchy with a smooth inside, but shrimp did get lost.

This was our dessert.  Our waitress, Carla, suggested this carrot cake - she correctly said it was large enough for 2.  One of the other dessert options she mentioned included salted caramel, which my husband asked for some on the side.  They did this with no issues - you can see it in the small bowl on the top left of this picture. The dessert choices all sounded great, but I don't like when restaurants tell you the desserts and not tell you the prices.  It is awkward to ask the prices and I feel like they count on that. This was $12....more than either of my "minors".  Of course, we didn't know the price until the bill came.

All in all, a great dinner at a decent price.  We will go back, but I hope they can fix these few problems to make it an even better experience.

By the way...they had braised short ribs on their menu.  Our "neighbors" were very kind and were talking with us (I gave her one of my cards with my blog info on it!!).  She had ordered the braised short ribs.  I told her my adventures in braised short ribs and asked to take a picture so that I can compare mine with "professional" braised short ribs.  Mine looked similar....oh well.  I tried.