Sable Kitchen and Bar (Gastro Lounge) - Heather Terhune's Vision in Chicago

Recently my favorite hotel the Hotel Sax was all booked up in Chicago for one of my business trips.  I love this hotel because of one and one reason only... BIN 36 :)  A great restaurant in Chicago I have come to frequent.   Their egg breakfast sandwich is definitely up there as one of my favorite restaurant egg sandwiches!  They also serve Grayson cheese which is stinky stinky goodness.

Instead of the Hotel Sax I booked my stay at the Hotel Palomar.  When I checked in I noticed a place called Sable Kitchen and Bar that described itself as a "gastro-lounge" on the first floor.   Now I usually don't really enjoy the term "gastro" being used to describe a bar or lounge.   It just seems weird to me and it is a carry over form England where the standard pub grub almost has a mandated pub fare menu.  I feel like most "gastro pubs" just need to call themselves a restaurant and bar.  Gastro this and gastro that is a recent trend.  To be quiet honest I feel like describing a place I eat as gastro is just trendy and not meaningful in any way shape of form.  I mean gastronomy means "the art and science of food eating."  No duh if I am in a restaurant.  Why is there a need to describe a place with it?!??

Anywho!   "Gastro Rant" done....

Sable listed themselves as a "Kitchen and Bar" so despite some mention of the "gastro lounge" term I decided to give it a shot for balancing truth with trend :)

Now I had heard nothing about Sable and just discovered it out of convenience but it was clear to me that this place was either popular or trendy.    The place had a good amount of people in it and by 7pm getting a table or seat at the Kitchen or the Bar was kinda tough.  Luckily the Hotel Klimpton was kind enough to ensure I got a table at Sable to sit and eat as a hotel guest.

When I was seated the waiter handed me the menu and described it as "American Fare with a twist" and sat me right next to the exposed and on display kitchen.  I LOVE when restaurants put the kitchen on display.   I love seeing kitchens put out food and watching all the deliciousness come together.

The waiter explained that almost everything on the menu can be enjoyed as a full or half serving.   This was first signal that I was going to enjoy my meal.    Any place that advocates for smaller portions so you can order more things has a special place in my heart.   I mean tapas and sushi have been tremendously successful for a reason!  

I picked up the menu and my excitement started to build.   The menu was clearly something that they update seasonally and almost every item on the menu looked like something delicious, and creative or thoughtful.   The key to a good menu!

My eyes settled on something I was 1000% going to have to order as my appetizer...

Wisconsin Fried Cheese Curds with Spicy Ketchup Glaze

Ummmm....YUM (!&@#

I friggin love when people put cheese curds on the menu and serve them in some melty form.  They are one of the perfect cheese vehicles for melting as they are all different shapes and sizes so each curd is a different level of melty.   I love when people serve them and Sable is serving them deep fried and with spicy ketchup.   I HAD TO HAVE THE CURDS! !*(@&#(

The Wisconsin Fried Cheese Curds (I really cant say that enough) showed up and I attacked it!   I slipped into a melty fried cheesy heaven and didn't look back.   This thing was so amazingly delicious.   I won't go into too much detail but will say the following six words about this dish:

WISCONSIN
FRIED
CHEESE
CURDS

SPICY
KETCHUP

I mean I think that about covers it.   Oh and if you have never eaten a cheese curd dont wonder about what it is or isn't   It's just a piece of fresh cheese in it's most simplistic form.  They are yum.

Here is a pic of this delicious dish as the presentation was also spot on.

It was served up in a little basket with parchment paper which reminded me that I fried em.   This is the perfect way for someone to serve up fried food.   REMIND ME you fried as that is was I ordered it.  Xoxo Sable.

I also order a half portion of the Moroccan Spiced Almonds.   A simple and delicious dish.   Almond slightly coated in what I think was Ras El Hamout.  A great spice and a great nut.   You simply can't go wrong.   If you haven't tried this spice mix I definitely recommend it.    Vibrant, earthy, spicy and delicious!   Put it on some crunchy nuts and you win my heart :)  Once again Sable I am impressed.

At this point in my meal I wanted to meat the Chef.   This is someone who clearly knows their food and someone who also clearly enjoys their food.    I learned that the Chef behind sable is someone named Heather Terhune who I discovered is now appearing on the latest version of "Top Chef."   This is going to be a good meal.  Not because she is on TV (as most celebrity chefs are proof to the opposite) but because she is recognized and based on my first two dishes she is someone with alot of talent.  Oh Heather Terhune you are making my belly smile.   What did you have in store for me as an entree?!???

I picked up the menu again and began looking for my entree selection.    Winter has started to roll in so I was definitely looking for something that screamed winter is coming winter is coming.    I eyed my options and one stuck out as the one for me:

Grilled Venison with sweet potato, bitter greens, and a cranberry gastrique.

Um Yes!

Venison is one of those meats that screams end of fall, beginning of winter, family feast meal option.   Venison has a very special place in my heart as one of the chefs in my family always serves it for the holidays and it makes me think of family.   It is amazing how much our perception of food is influenced by how we are introduced to it.

My venison came and it was quite a beautiful plate.    Brown, Green, Orange, and Red.   I felt like I was staring at a plate of fall goodness.    Once again the presentation was impecable.   I prepared my first bite with a little bit of everything and layered it onto my fork the same way the chef layered it onto my plate.    Sweet potatoes first on the fork, greens second, venison on top and a dip in the cranberry gastrique.

I took a bite and I can only describe it as "right".   You first get the sweetness of the gastrique followed up by the silky goodness of the sweet potato.  Then you get hit with the venison game yum and it finishes with the bitter greens breaking through and rounding it out.   This was absolutely and undeniably delicious.   This is one of the most balanced and delicious plates of foods I have had in recent times.   Perfection on a plate.   Oh Heather Terhune how I now am becoming a huge fan of your food.

I finished up my entree and began to now dream about dessert!  I was in the mood for fall so I was hoping that the menu Heather put together for dessert had also been modified to reflect the season.   Low and behold it was!

I ordered the pumpkin panna cotta with candied pumpkin seeds and ginger bread cookies as my dessert with an espresso with lemon.   When I got the dish I wasn't quite sure how the chef intended me to build the perfect bite based on the plate.   I first tried dipping the cookie in the panna cotta and put pumpkin seeds on top.  This was delicious but it wasn't as complex and amazing as my previous dish.  I had to be doing something wrong.   My next bite I took a spoonful of the panna cotta with pumpkin seeds and stuck it in my mouth.   I finished it with a bite of the ginger bread cookie and suddenly the dessert began to make alot more sense.   The panna cotta was delicious and had wonderful texture but as all panna cottas are it needed something to keep me interested.   When I took a bite of the ginger bread cookie after the bite of panna cotta the peppery deliciousness of the ginger really came through.  It cleansed my palette and made my tongue feel like it was having a party.   This kept me eating and made the dish so enjoyable.

All in all sable is an amazing restaurant that puts out an amazing product.   The Palomar hotel better understand what they have going for themselves with Sable being a part of it.  The hotel was nice but I will book myself there again for the simple fact that I will get to eat at Heather Terhune's Sable Kitchen and Bar.

Next time you are in Chicago make the effort and go to Sable.   You will not be disappointed!

Benton Park Cafe - Review

Today I flew into St Louis to attend some meetings.    I got here a bit early so I went down by the AB brewery and decided to go grab myself some breakfast.    I was looking for someplace close by and that was about my only criteria for a place to eat.  I checked google maps, found a spot and off I went!

I stumbled into a place across the highway from the brewery named Benton Park Cafe.    It looked like a cute spot so I started to get excited that it might just be great.    They had some outdoor tables and it seemed like a young but homey kind of spot.

When I first walked in I was greeted with the following sign:

Now being a NY Mets fan this made me laugh a little bit.    I had no idea until a few years ago but apparently the city of St Louis calls the NY Mets pond scum.   Pond scum was something from the 1986 series when the Mets took the world series.  Some local sports dude coined it and it stuck.   Of course this made me giggle.  We NY Mets fans are a proud bunch but this just makes me smile.    :)  Oh and St Louis....We might be pond scum but we still one the year you coined the phrase :) xoxo

Anywho I disgress.

The place looked awesome.   It was quiet cool and definitely seemed like a spot I want to start my morning with over breakfast and end my night with for a drink.   Spots like this are my fav.   The wait staff seemed cool so we sat on down and were ready to eat.   Based on the look of the place I began to have high expectations for the coffee and food.   It really looked like and smelled like this place was the real deal.  A place that cared about their ingredients, recuperation and recipes.   This is key for me.  Any creative force knows your idea is as strong as the thought and care you put into it.  This place looked cared for!

The staff was super friendly and all young and fun seeming.    Though I might of been dressed in a suit underneath is tons of ink and a sprinkle punk rawk.   My true me felt at home in this spot.

I ordered an iced latte and waited now with high expectations.   In the meantime I checked out the menu.   The menu looked amazing!   One thing on it really called out to me.  It was called the BP Slinger....

Here's the description:

Beer biscuits, cheese, bacon, over easy eggs smothered in their house made gravy.  

Um Yum.....So I ordered it.   When it came out it looked pretty amazing.   I posted a shot of it with the egg broken so all can see :)

I broke the egg and took my first bite.  So how was it you ask?   Allow me to summarize in a few key words:

*&!@# AMAZING

First off their gravy is just plane godly.   The gravy has a kick to it so it made my mouth tingle with joy.  It was the perfect flavor balance too.  The gravy was porky goodness without making me feel like i ate a bucket o'lard.  The consistency of the gravy was the best I have ever eaten.   This is quite possibly the best "breakfast" gravy I ever have tasted.  Thoughts of bathing in the gravy, living in the gravy and other such delusions entered my head as the gravy goodness bounced around in my mouth.

But wait....They needed to do more...Having quite possibly the best gravy I have ever eaten was simply not good enough for these guys so they chopped up crispy bacon and put it in the gravy.   (&!*@#   WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF DOING THAT?!??!??   Bacon chunks in gravy.  OMG YUM.

The put this 7th wonder of the world gravy on top of a perfectly cooked egg and a biscuit that was simply delicious.

After literally destroying my plate of food and having to hold myself back from ordering another plate I got the chance to talk to some of the wait staff.   They were social, friendly, and just plain chill.

So...What's the lesson here all?

IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE WITHIN 500 MILES OF ST LOUIS GO TO BENTON PARK CAFE.   Order anything with the biscuits and gravy.   I am seriously making Benton Park Cafe a regular go to spot when I come to the STL.

Benton Park Cafe = Awesome
Benton Park Cafe Biscuits and Gravy = A 100% MUST EAT...

YUM! 

Tasty Indian Delivery in Park Slope - Joy Indian Restaurant

At least once a week I crave the fragrant and delicious cuisine from India.  When I was a younger man Indian food was not my cup of tea.   But that changed one day and that day is one I absolutely remember.   I was travelling for work and was staying in the M hotel in Singapore.  On Sunday they have "The Sunday High Curry" brunch buffet.   It was pouring out that day and I decided I would eat at the buffet.    There was like 17 different types of curry from all over asia and I absolutely fell in love.   I feel in love with one specific curry the most.   FISH HEAD CURRY!   YUM  

Anyway I digress

We have been ordering our home delivery Indian food from a place called Joy Indian Restaurant.  We have tried all the other local Indian delivery spots and I must say I think this one is the best.   This place doesnt have the most gourmet of Indian but when it comes to stick to your gut delicious Indian food Joy Indian Restaurant is fantastic.

They have one type of curry that I think I want to order a few gallons of and live off of for a few years.   It is called Dildar Curry.    A mild yet spicy curry with pineapple that I order with chicken.   This is so friggin delicious.  

There mushroom shaag is also amazing.   Earthy and fragrantly delicious

I don't claim this place is the best indian food in the world but when it comes to super delicious, absolutely fragrant, yum yum yummy indian food in park slope, you simply can not go wrong with Joy Indian Restaurant.

Cheese Please - My First Encounter with Grayson Cheese

As my previous post The Love of Eggs had indicated I recently spent some time eating at BIN36 in chicago.

One of the best parts about BIN36 is their cheese selection.  If you are in Chicago and love cheese definitely hit up BIN36...

Wait a minute....Everyone likes cheese....

If you are in Chicago you must hit up BIN36!

Ok.  I digress.   I submitted to the restaurant experience and instructed my waiter to deliver me a selection of cheeses and wines that would ignite my palette with flavor in a playful and adventurous way.   Well let me be the first to say my waiter delivered!   He deliver me a range of cheese from Humbolt Fog  to something I have never tried before....Grayson.

This was the stinky addition to my plate.   I love stinky cheese.   For some reason the stinkier the cheese the more euphoric it makes me feel.   Grayson delivered on being a FANTASTICALLY stinky hunk of pure goodness.    The cheese was tangy and sweet.   They paired it with a half glass of BIN36's BIN 19 2009 Pecorino white wine.   The wine brought out the sweetness of the cheese fantastically!   What a great little treat.  

I highly recommend Grayson cheese.  It is a stinker but SO delicious!

The Love of Eggs

So recently I had to travel to Detroit and Chicago for work.    It had been 2 weeks since I had been up the air chasing RFPs.

One of the true pleasures of travel is getting to stay in hotel rooms.  Why do you ask???

Well thats simple!

ROOM SERVICE!!!!!

The notion of ordering from a menu and getting to eat it in your temporary bedroom that has a magic cleaning fairy who makes all of your messes go away is one of the most attractive ideas in my ever so simplistic brain.

I digress...

In chicago I was staying at the SAX hotel right across from the house of blues.   I love that hotel.    It has a very thoughtful and playful design to it and the rooms are amazing.   Any place that comes stocked with Raspberry Izzie, chocolate covered peanuts, gummy bears, and cheetos is pretty much heaven to me :)

The thing I love the most about The Sax is they have BIN36 as their restaurant.   This place is so friggin yummy.    Here is a simple survey that would determine if you would like BIN36

Do you like good wine?
Do you like good cheese?
Do you like salty goodness?
Do you like sausage?
Do you LOVE a good goopy egg?

If you answered yes to all of the above then you MUST go to BIN36.    It is fantastically delicious.   My adventure with BIN36 started with breakfast.  I looked at their menu and saw the following:



Breakfast Sandwich  $12.00
two eggs (chef suggests scrambled or over medium)
with ham steak, smoked gouda cheese, lettuce and garlic aioli
on sourdough bread, served with homefries

How could I resist?!??

I order the sandwich and got the eggs done over medium.    When it came I took my first bite and all of a sudden taste angels descended from the heavens and started playing harps.   Salty eggy pure deliciousness!  I took a pic of it and it is officially something I look at I instantly start drooling while thinking...Mmmm Egg!

GOODNESS

This sandwich kicked off what I only could describe as an egg BENDER.   Every meal I ate had an goopy delicious egg in for the next two days.    :)

Simple Joy of a Good Lunch Sandwich

Sometime in the high pace world of eating, cooking, and loving gourmet you forget the value of damn good lunch sandwich.   After my DISMAL experience at Whole Foods yesterday for lunch I decided to go for a good ole NYC basic.   TOASTIES!!!!

YUM YUM YUM

You can never go wrong here

Whole Foods Lunch Bar Curry Review

Today I had the "pleasure" of going to Whole Foods for lunch.   I walked around the "lunch bar" to see what goodies they had and found the Indian food section.    Being that I am an official curry head, I thought to myself that this was the section of the food court for me.    I served my self some rice with a nice chicken curry and some veg. 

Well....nice was what I thought until I got back to my desk and started eating it.   One of my favorite parts about curry is the moment the fork enters your mouth and the fragrance on the dish hits you right as your tongue is getting its very first taste.    Most people think curry is just this spicy dish but it is actually one of the most fragrant dishes out there.   The smells is what suckers me in every time with curry.  

So how did it go at my desk????    It smelled like chili at best.  It tasted like slightly indian spiced chili.  The rice had an uneven coating of spice and was chunky.  The curry was a total let down.    I saw whole curry leaves in it and thought to myself "well thats a good sign!"    Well it was not.    I would never order it again.  EVER.  

Whole Foods lunch curry is officially narsty.  Avoid avoid avoid.   I think I am going to have to make my own curry tonight just to honor the curry gods since I disgraced them with my lunch!

Shake Shack

While sitting in my office the day before a major holiday with only one other person I had an idea...

SHAKE
SHACK

YUM

Double Shack Burger
Fries
Vanilla Shake

Shake Shack just has good, tight, amazing burgers.   So tasty and amazing.   God Bless Danny for Shake Shack

Koh Samui - San Francisco

I arrived in San Francisco last night to work my new CEO at BuzzLogic.  It took me 14 damn hours to fly into San Francisco due to a cancelled connecting flight from LAX to SFO.   With that said you can imagine what a hungry hungry boy I was when I arrived.

As soon as I hit the cab my mind shifted to what do I want to eat for dinner.   I remember reading the menu of a spot right near my office called Koh Samui and The Monkey and I saw something that looked so friggin amazing.   It was their Aromatic Pumpkin Curry.     The description of the dish on the menu quite simply says:

Aromatic Pumpkin Curry* chicken, bell pepper in red curry sauce served in pumpkin

Ok let me take a moment to talk about my inner thought process that occured when I read this:

"uh...pumkin,,,curry w/chicken......Mmmmmmmmm"

Let me just say I was sold.    For two main reasons I was absolutely intrigued.  Reason #1 is pumpkin and curry together with some coconut milk and chicken sounds insanely delicious.   Reason #2 is that my wife and I was got it in our heads that we wanted to cooked a piece of fish in some banana leaves.   We ran to our local market to find that sadly our local market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan did not carry banana leaves.    How would of thought?    Gossip Girl doesn't make her fish in banana leaves????  Anywho suddenly after having my heart broken by Citeralla I saw  beautiful orange shining light in the produce section.   I beautiful pumpkin that would fit perfectly in my oven and if I could reinforce the sides to keep it from falling in on itself when I bake it.  Oh and I would be able to harvest the seeds for toasting....mmmm......Oh and I could pin the spices to the top of pumpkin on the inside with butter so I could create a spice drip.   *idea*

The pumpkin pot fish was amazing.   An instant classic in the Donahue household.   So as you can imagine the notion of someone else using a pot like this to make a curry dish definitely got me drooling.

Well I ordered it and it did not let down.  It was creamy, pumpkiny, spicy goodness.    I highly reccomend this dish as it was sweet and fragrant with a nice back end of delicious spice.

YUM YUM YUM

Blue Ribbon Brooklyn Restaurant

For me restaurants are evaluated on 3 key criteria:

• Quality
• Consistency
• Creativity

For this reason Blue Ribbon Brooklyn has been one of my favorite spots for years.   I had the chance to take two friends from St Louis there and let me tell you Blue Ribbon lived up to it's iconic image in my mind yet again.

I have taken the time to try alot of the dishes at Blue Ribbon but last night I went for the tried and true....Bone Marrow and Fried Chicken.   Their Bone Marrow appetizer is simply amazing.   Beef Bone Marrow served and roasted in the bone with Ox Marmalade and deep fried herb.  This dish is ridiculous.  There are very few dishes in the world that cause me to have a "American Pie" reaction to them but this is really one of them.   They also had on special Stone Crab Claw which I simply couldn't resist.   They serve it with a homemade mayonnaise and it did not let down.   Simply delish. 

For an entree I had the Fried Chicken.   Their Fried Chicken is amazing.   It comes with greens and mashed potatoes with gravy but as always I ignored those bits and made out with the chicken.   The chicken is served with honey on the side to use as a dipping sauce.   They also give you Blue Ribbon brand hot sauce with the dish.  The hot sauce is so yummy.  If you are a chili head you got to give this a try.    Habanero and Carrot are the main ingredients and all I can really say is YUM.

When you get a chance you have to try Blue Ribbon Brooklyn.  It is simply amazing.

El Jalapeno First Tasting

In June I started a new gig as Chief Technical Officer in San Francisco California.    In order to service this business I have to split my time between my home of New York City and San Francisco.   Since moving there I have realized how wonerful Mexican food can be.   Fresh ingredients and care in preparation really bring out the premium nature of the Mexican cuisine.   On fortunately it has also shown me how New York City doesn't the same quality filter for Mexican restaurants.  

Therefore I have started a quest to find good Mexican restaurants in New York City.   So last night I ordered from El Jalapeno which had dope results on yelp

Well the reviews were pretty spot on.  There food was fresh, creative yet traditional and absolutely fresh.  

The "El Jalapeno" nacho was like Mexican pizza crack.  I took a taste and relentlessly wanted more.
I also ordered the Chile Relleno and it was smokey cheesy goodness. 

We also got the steak fajitas and they were delish as well.  A bit greasy but good none the less.