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Taking My Life Into My Own Hands with Organ Meats at The Bristol in Chicago

"Chris Pandel might be the best organ meat chef in the city." Photograph of Chris Pandel from thebristolchicago.com I’ve not been especially easy on The Bristol. In an old review, I accused them of cooking mediocre dishes, mixing terrible drinks, and ripping off other Chicago restaurants. Despite all of that, I'd been particularly intrigued by a plate of thinly sliced rare pork liver topped with bitter greens, toasted hazelnuts, sautéed chanterelles, and fennel vinaigrette from chef Chris Pandel that I ate during my review period. It was one of the best dishes I ate last year. Any displeasure I expressed towards the Bristol was a sort of a fatherly disappointment. In that one dish I recognized they could be so...

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2 Comments | Posted by Michael Nagrant, August 20, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Tagged: Chicago, Illinois, The Bristol

Everything But the Squeal: A Peek at Some of Chicago's New Hot Restaurants

Pretty Province Manzanita Trees at Province Randy Zweiban, formerly of Norman Van Aken’s Miami outpost Norman’s and Chicago’s Nacional 27, opened up his new spot, Province, last week. When I spoke with Zweiban recently he said he’d chosen “maybe the worst time in the last 150 years to open a restaurant.” He wasn’t worried though, saying his former mentor Van Aken always used to ask why, if the restaurant business was so hard to make money at, was there a restaurant on every corner in America? Hard to argue with that. That being said, Zweiban’s new LEED certified dining room featuring reclaimed wood, cork, a breathtaking ceiling mounted grove of petrified Manzanita trees, and mouth-watering food photography from Laurie Proffitt...

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Post a Comment | Posted by Michael Nagrant, October 23, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Tagged: Chicago, Flavor Guides, Illinois, Province, The Bristol, The Publican