Vintage Wine Bar -- Chicago, IL

Howdy, I am attempting to back track here since I have been to many a restaurant I have not commented on. A few weeks ago, we were wandering Division Street. We were planning on going to Jerry's Sandwich shop. Jerry's is a fantastic little place that serves about 100 sandwiches on their menu. It sounds like a deli but it really is a very nice, quaint, down-to-earth deli that serves wine and beer as well. Anyways, Jerry's was a minimum 30 minute wait so we decided to continue walking. We did not get far (next door) and I said I had always wanted to go to Vintage Wine bar but never had. We checked out the menu.

It is a quaint little restaurant, dimly lit and a very nice, easy going atmosphere. They a few $10 flat bread pizzas so we decided to try it out. This ended up being a nice little gem. I think I will go back there often. We ordered a bottle of wine and then got two pizzas (a BBQ Chicken pizza and an Artichoke, spinach and goat cheese pizza). Both were really, really good. The main complaint I found with Vintage resides in the small jazz band that was playing. They were really loud, really too loud for a smaller, quaint restaurant.

I am still amazed by how much the atmosphere of a restaurant can influence your night. You would think it is all about the food and the people you are with. We enjoyed this place because we were able to just relax. The pizzas were very moderately priced and a good size, let alone good.

To close the dinner out we ordered the creme brulee. It was good, but not as good as the creme brulee I had in St. Kitts. All in all, a really good dinner for $80 considering we bought a bottle of wine. We lingered in Vintage just chatting it up and staring at other people around us. It is funny, sometimes when you call a restaurant a "wine bar" you will find "wine snobs" that clearly frequent the place just because it is a "wine bar." We enjoyed about a 8 minute convo/laugh watching a young gentleman who would only hold his wine glass by the stem (clearly to not compromise the temperature of his white wine, which clearly would have occurred had he held the wine glass by the actual oblong vessel in which the wine was relaxing).

I have probably ordered around 10 bottles of wine together in the past 5 weeks. No, I do not have a problem but every time, the server is clearly trained to go through the "wine presentation" with me. This would include:

1. Presenting me with the bottle
2. Uncorking (hopefully cleanly though we have run into a few servers in those 10 who broke the cork and had to get a new bottle)
3. Pouring the individual who ordered the wine a small tasting
4. Allowing me to comment on the wine, the serving glasses to those other(s) at the table.

To me this process is annoying. I ask the server sometimes if they have actually ever had someone send a bottle back and they commonly say, "Yes, I have." This astonishes me. It also makes me proud to be only a pseudo-wine snob. I like wine that I like. Typically I stay away from the boxed stuff or overly fruity wines but that is where I draw the line. Some of these people get so full of themselves and "enjoy the process" described above. Just pour me the wine, let me drink it. If I order crap wine, that is my fault. If I order crap food, that is my fault for not (1) finding a good restaurant and (2) ordering something that I could trust would turn out well.

Well, I turned Vintage into a wine tangent but it was a good place, I will definitely go back. It was nice to go to a place that is not commercially known and still enjoy the experience. I hope to try something new next time and write another great review.

Nacional 27 -- Chicago, IL

So, once again I have been slightly slacking. Aunt Peggy thank you for the virtual kick in the ass to "lock it up" and write a post. I will start with my dinner last night but then go back and review a few of the places from St. Kitts.

So, last night a few friends and I decided to try somewhere new. We chose Nacional 27 in River North in Chicago. Here is what was ordered:

1. Ceviche Sampler: Shrimp and Scallop • Cold Smoked Tasmanian Salmon • Ahi Tuna and Watermelon -- $11.95
   
2. Grilled Tasmanian Salmon: Spinach, Fennel, Spring Onions, Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette -- $19.95
   
3. Beef Tenderloin "Medallions": Spanish Cheese-Potato Gratin, Red Wine Jus Truffle, Blue Cheese -- $23.95
4. Me: Pacific Blue Nose "Huachinango": Tomatillo Salsa, Arroz Verde, Cilantro Sauce -- $21.95
5. Bottle of Wine: 2005 Fillaboa Albariño -- $32

I will get the negatives out of the way first because overall this was a great dinner and experience and I would definitely go back to Nacional 27 again. We wanted to sit outside but decided against it as the table next to our's had a dog that was walking around our table. So, we opted to sit inside. It was a Tuesday night around 8:15. As a result, it was a pretty slow night. The wait staff was fairly slow in dealing with us. After an initial greeting from David, another server took over. This was fine as maybe it was time for David to go home since it was slow. Our new server was knowledgeable and nice but like I said, he was slow. Not like, sorry I am busy slow but almost like he forgot about us a few times. We ordered the bottle of wine and instead of leaving the bottle at the table, it was set away from us and we had no idea where it was at. Our server did refill our glasses for us but only when he saw we were sitting with near empty glasses of wine. Other then the slow service, this was truly a great experience. Once again, I attribute this to the slow night they were having.

We were started with a chef's treat of three homemade fried potato chips with a house made ceviche on it with manchego cheese and a drizzle of lemon vinaigrette. I think every single restaurant that truly serves great food should do this. No, we did not pay for it but it was a fantastic treat while we were looking over the menu and provided us with a trust in the chef that whatever we ordered was truly going to be amazing.

After long deliberation, we chose our meals as stated above. They provided us with a bread basket with homemade bread and some breadsticks along with a black bean dip and a chipotle dip. Both were great and it was nice to get different types of bread with something other then the standard butter.

The wine was fantastic, light, crisp and dry. It would have tasted even better had Rufus the dog not inhabited our outdoor table. The food was great. I did not taste The other dishes but they said the food was great. My fish was fantastic. There was a really spicy salsa verde which made each bite fantastic and luckily for me went great with the wine. I had never heard of Huachinago fish before. It is from the pacific and my waiter informed me it was similar to grouper. It was fantastic and grilled. Dinner did not last that long because the food was so good.

We decided to try some desserts. I had the coffee creme brulee. This was a let down. The creme portion was very bland with an overwhelming espresso taste at the end which was somewhat bitter. There needed to be some sort of sweetness added. Reid had the Roasted Pumpkin Flan which he was was great and tasted like really good pumpkin pie. A flan should not have the consistency of pumpkin pie but as long as it tasted good, that is what matters. I guess flavoring the flan with pumpkin automatically will make it a different consistency.

Overall a great meal and I would definitely go back. Nacional 27 has salsa dancing on the weekends which would be fun to go and watch. Apparently they have fantastic mojitos and one has habeneros in it, sounded really interesting. I would try the churros with carmel ice cream if I went back and I was very tempted to try the skirt steak since that is typically a stable at a latino restaurant.

Once again, I had a different dining experience. It was nice to have people from different aspects of my life at dinner. Everyone had met previously, which I think helps. But, once we got the ball rolling, we talked about a lot of stuff and did a little people watching (always a fun Watson past time). The nice part as well was this felt like we were actually adults. Sometimes, at the age of 26-27, people are stuck in one extreme or the other (socially speaking). They either want to run around wild and crazy like they are actually on spring break or they are married and only do the dinner party thing. This was the perfect adult mix for us because we had fun, laughed and enjoyed some wine and good food but also were able to get out to this nice dinner on a Tuesday night, something inconceivable when we were younger.

More to come....