ML - Michigan Avenue

2015 - Issue 4 - Summer - Art of the City - Hebru Brantley

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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photography by derek richmond (maple & ash) Old Is New Again ClassiCs get a Contemporary twist this summer with three buzzed-about dining debuts. by nicole schnitzler When it comes to Chicago's dining scene, steak and Italian are always in style— especially this season, with three new arrivals offering innovative takes on classic cuisine. Rural Society (455 N. Park Dr., 312-840-6605; chicago.ruralsociety restaurant.com) , chef Jose Garces' new concept in the Loews Hotel, gives the traditional steakhouse exciting South American fair. Chef de cuisine Cory Morris calls upon his experience at Garces' Mercat a la Planxa to inform the menu here, which is focused on wood-fred meats and fsh prepared desde la parrilla —on grills with charcoal and quebracho, an Argentine hardwood. Still, worldwide infuences are abundant on the menu, and Italy is particularly celebrated through pasta and fugazzas—Argentine pizzas on focaccia bread. "The global infuence of Argentine food has surprised me, from Italian to Spanish to even a local cuisine," says Morris of the concept. "We have a lot of fexibility to be authentic with regional infuences." Carnivores can also look forward to Gold Coast new- comer Maple & Ash (8 W. Maple St.; mapleandash.com), set to land later this summer, where chef David Ochs— who most recently crafted plates at Girl & the Goat—is rethinking time-honored chophouse dishes in the most primitive of ways: by playing with fire. With the help of a 12-foot hearth, Ochs will employ live wood fire to interpret traditional power- lunch dishes like a stately pre-entrée display of grilled shellfish, an ice-free ode to the classic seafood tower. "It's the craftsmanship that we develop by cooking with the wood fire that distinguishes our food," explains Ochs. Still, the chef is set on staying true to Chicago's love affair with classic steakhouses. "They're easy to love," he says, "and the steakhouse represents some of the best American culinary traditions." Meanwhile, it's all about the Mediterranean at Dolce Italian (127 W. Huron St., 312-754-0700; dolceitalianrestaurant.com), the Godfrey Hotel's new restaurant from New York – based LDV Hospitality. The understated elegance of Fellini's Rome in the 1960s inspired both the name and the menu of this hot spot, whose original Miami A wood-fire-grilled steak from Maple & Ash. below: Dolce Italian tops its Primo Amore pizza with arugula and creamy Burrata. outpost recently won Bravo's "Best New Restaurant" competition and which features classics from chef Andrew Deuel, ranging from veal chop Milanese to Neapolitan pizzas. Regardless of the dish, one element reigns throughout the menu: simplicity, and the discipline to execute it. "There's a phrase in Italian that goes 'fatto con sole,' which means made with the sun," says LDV Hospitality founder John Meadow. "We're taking Mother Nature and allowing the ingredients to express themselves in their purest form." MA Rural Society at the Loews Hotel puts a South American spin on the traditional steakhouse concept. 92  michiganavemag.com taste Cuiscene

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