ML - Michigan Avenue

2013 - Issue 5 - September

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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THIS MONTH: POWER PLAYS CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: Chef Carrie Nahabedian serves refined French fare like the turbot with porcini mushrooms from Brindille's stylish Clark Street space. Branching Out WITH BRINDILLE, CHEF CARRIE NAHABEDIAN BETS ON SOPHISTICATION AND WINS. BY ARI BENDERSKY PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATHAN KIRKMAN O n a warm night in early June, Carrie Nahabedian stood out on the of dumbed-down food. It's about getting back to civility." In this seemingly postrecession era, a comment like that from a chef and sidewalk on Clark Street telling a story about a group of women who seemed to simply fall in love with the rustic elegance of her restaurateur comes as a surprising and welcome reprieve from the numernewest restaurant, Brindille. "We just want a place to go where we can look ous small-plate-sharing communal-table-dining eateries of the past few pretty... on a Wednesday night," Nahabedian recounted the ladies saying. years. People seem to have returned to a place where they simply want to This sentiment seems to be echoed by the crowds who flock to the French go out to dinner, splurge on a bottle of Burgundy, and have a glamorous yet restaurant, Nahabedian's long-in-the-works follow-up to her award-win- unpretentious night out. And at Brindille, with its gorgeous Michael Aram–designed plates, paisley-embossed linens, and sleek white porcening restaurant, Naha, which sits just a block south. lain water pitchers, you get that. People settle in as if At Brindille, named for the French word for a branch they've been before. with new growth, Nahabedian (who owns the restaurant "The space, the details, the service, the bar, the food, with her cousin Michael Nahabedian) unapologetically the entire experience all are reminiscent of something angled for a more upscale, more refined dining experiyou've enjoyed in the past, only now everything is more ence. With entrées averaging in the low $40 range, some modern, more ethereal, and hopefully much better," says may raise an eyebrow, but once you enter the subtly modTom Nahabedian, Michael's brother and principal of ern room and taste the exquisite dishes, you realize Nahabedian may have a point when she says, "I am tired continued on page 86 —CARRIE NAHABEDIAN "There are people who eat, and there are others who dine." 84 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 084-086_MA_SC_SoManyDinners_Sept_13.indd 84 8/7/13 1:36 PM

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