ML - Michigan Avenue

Michigan Avenue - 2015 - Issue 7 - November - Duncan Keith

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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96  michiganavemag.com restaurant the partners envisioned after a 2012 research trip to Italy. The rustic tavern in Siena, outside Florence, that so captivated them with its mismatched tableware and fea-market furniture didn't fully ft glossy River North. In the more industrial West Loop, it did. "This whole concept is a nod to the original inspiration for Siena Tavern," says Stoioff. Loud and loose, Bar Siena is the everyday Siena. Stools picket the center- piece bar. An iron tree sculpture branches into the open second story, each limb wrapped in hundreds of white lights that romance the outback upstairs. Back downstairs, the main foor bustles with runners rushing from the exposed kitchen in the rear where Bella, the affectionately named pizza oven, presides. "She goes to 850 degrees and cooks pizza in 90 seconds to two minutes," says Viviani. Joking, he adds, "That makes Bella the hottest girl in town." Italian-made, the Ferrari-red Bella, its name inlaid in black tile, can handle 12 pizzas at a time. The pies are smaller and rounder than the free-form versions at the Tavern, but the crust is remarkably light, a bread-lover's pizza topped at its best with wild mushrooms and fontina. Beyond pizza, servers in skinny black jeans describe the menu as "cicchetti," using the Venetian term for snacks. Small plates include chile-dusted octopus with blistered shishito peppers. Pastas skew indulgent with truffe-buttered sweet corn ravioli. A handful of curious additions—Scotch eggs, potato skins, and pork ribs slicked in balsamic glaze—would seem to ft better at a sports bar. But Americans, Viviani insists, don't own bar food: "We have plenty of baby back ribs in Italy. We call it 'rosticceria,' and it's cooked the same way." Bar Siena is grown-up enough for date night, dressed-down enough for mate night. "We walk the line between casual and high-end," says Stoioff. Down-to-earth desserts, including sugar donuts injected with salted caramel, are avail- able at Bombobar, a to-go window modeled on Italian dives. Try one with the spicy bour- bon-ginger No. 8 on the numerical cocktail list devised by Revae Schneider. "Italian favors are the most prevalent," says Schneider, who favors green favors: sage, basil, and arugula. "I think it makes it easier to pair with food." That you can bet on, safely. 832 W. Randolph St., 312-492-7775; barsiena.com MA photography by neil burger (drink, viviani); monica kass rogers (el che bar) A spread of dry-rubbed rib-eye with all the trimmings at El Che Bar. Old Flames In some of ChICago's buzzIest kItChens, Chefs are turnIng off the stove and turnIng baCk to CookIng wIth wood. by monica kass rogers Pull up anywhere within, say, 100 feet of the new Loews Chicago Hotel, where Jose Garces's Rural Society (455 N. Park Dr., 312-840-6605; chicago. ruralsocietyrestaurant.com) is situated, and the aroma grabs you. Mouthwateringly familiar, it's the smell of wood smoke, meat, and those gorgeous fat drip- pings that merge the two on your plate. "Amazing, right?" says chef de cuisine Cory Morris, grinning. "There's a lot of chef envy going on about what we have here." Pointing to the foor-to-ceiling stacks of hickory and white oak and then to the oven and the three parilla grills that the woods fuel, Morris explains that he has worked with Garces for seven years, "but this is the frst time the line is completely fred by wood." Smoking hot and fantastically favorful, wood-fred cooking is moving into more Chicago res- taurant kitchens and trending in recent openings like Oak + Char (217 W. Huron St., 312-643-2427; oakandchar.com) and Maple & Ash (8 W. Maple St., 312-944- 8888; mapleandash.com). "The same reasons the industry got away from wood-fre cook- ing—it's messy, it's primitive, it's demanding—are the very reasons we're excited to get back to it," says chef John Manion, standing in the soon-to-open El Che Bar (845 W. Washington Blvd.; elche barchicago.com), his wood-fred Midwest-meets-South America restaurant. "It's so naked and such a pure way of cooking, the results need no adornment." Cooking purely with wood, "there's a lot to learn," says Morris. "And there are more wood- cooking methods, like asador (hanging the meat near the fre for long stretches to slowly cook and smoke), that we have yet to add." For fall fxes of wood-grilled favor, look for dishes like Oak + Char's applewood-grilled, bone-in rib-eye with charred scallion salsa verde and peanut romesco; El Che Bar's dry-rubbed rib-eye with chimichurri, charred artichokes, and charred chile aioli; and Rural Society's starter of burrata with fre-charred cherry tomatoes, prosciutto, aged balsamic, petite arugula, and grilled sardo crackers. Drink Me Mixologist Revae Schneider cites the ingredients of Bar Siena's signature breads in the balanced elixir named No. 3. "My favorite dish is the focaccia with arugula and honey," she says of its inspiration. "It's to die for." No. 3 Recipe 1½ oz. Hangar 1 Vodka ¾ oz. Lemon juice ¾ oz. Ginger zest ½ oz. Fragoli Strawberry ½ oz. Luxardo Bitter Good pinch of arugula Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass with an arugula garnish. PriMe SeatS The best seat in the house? That depends on the occasion. Romantic? Around the lighted tree upstairs. Sporty? A high-top near the bar. Foodie? Tables 41 and 42, next to the kitchen. Says chef Fabio Viviani, "It's crowded, loud, and runners are chasing by, but for me it's the best because I enjoy the chaos of the kitchen." // trend alert // Bar Siena's chef, Fabio Viviani taste

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