Jean-Claude talks about his luxury affordable wines
Jean-Claude Mas is a tall, handsome, slender Frenchman who has earned a respected place among experts in the wine world as the leader of Domaines Paul Mas. He said while in Chicago recently that he never grows tired of talking about his wines because he doesn’t talk about the technical side. He speaks from his heart about the emotional side of winemaking.
He spoke with obvious pleasure and pride about the wines he’s been creating in Languedoc since 2000. His deep enthusiasm for the process and the joys of making wine, tasting wine, and enjoying wine with friends and customers came through as he spoke with passion about his dedication to creating “everyday luxury” for wine consumers.
Domaines Paul Mas is a leading wine producer from the South of France. At it since 1892, the Mas family bequeathed 35 hectares of vines in Languedoc to Jean-Claude Mas in 1998, and he has taken the reins with gusto and imagination far beyond where the family had previously gone. Now owner and producer, Jean-Claude Mas takes full advantage of the many variations on Mediterranean climate and the wide array of terroirs available in the region by establishing ten separate vineyards.
He makes the most of each location by hiring winemakers who have the technical skills needed and who share his commitment to sustainable growing practices, while he himself makes the critical decisions: when to pick the grapes and so on. His portfolio of fine-yet-affordable wines has been instrumental in propelling forward what many call the “new Languedoc” or the “new wave” of French wine.
The Mas culture and philosophy is called “luxe rural” because, he says, “we cherish our rural roots, we strive for excellence in everything we do. Our wines are the end result of our desire to delight and thrill.” And yet, he makes a point of honor that almost all of his retail wine prices be kept under $20 US–the point at which many buyers begin to question value for dollars.
Delightful small bites at Naha restaurant went well with the luxury wines
As proof, almost all of the wines showcased at Naha restaurant, 500 N. Clark St. were extraordinary and yet are available at that mark of under $20. The wines were a treat for the palate, and the elegant table setting in the downstairs private dining room at Naha was a treat for the eyes, while the imaginative American-and-Middle-Eastern-inspired tapas made delicious satellites to the starring wines.
It’s not easy choosing memorable wines from among the thousands of possibilities. But based on this tasting, you should be able to choose almost any wine from one of the Domaines Paul Mas estates and be sure you’ll get a highly drinkable fine wine. One thing you could do is have this list with you when you speak with your wine merchant. Pick the varietal you’re in the mood for and ask for a bottle from one of these ten estates (see photo of map below):
Château Paul Mas, Clos de Savignac & Clos des Mûres, Montagnac;
Domaine Silène, Saint Pons de Mauchien;
Château Paul Mas, Conas & Clos de Moulinas, Pézenas;
Like most people today, you probably care deeply about how your food is grown. If you can afford it, you may buy organically grown fruits and vegetables, but do you know what’s involved in keeping plants organic? If you’ve ever known a farmer—of even a small plot—who tried to grow organically, you know how hard it is to keep soil healthy and what a raging, frustrating, ongoing battle it is to keep the bugs, the subterranean creatures and the above-ground animals from ravaging your crops before it’s time to harvest them.
In vineyards around the world, winemakers fight the same battles on a daily basis. Jean-Claude Mas, winemaker and owner of Domaines Paul Mas wineries, who brought samples of many of his luxury-for-value French wines to Chicago recently, subscribes to a sustainable-growth program called Terra Vitis that was created in 1998 and is certified by the French Ministry of Agriculture. “It is the stamp,” he said, “of French vinegrower-winemakers who respect nature and apply sustainable agriculture.” Below is a simplified description of the program and a few ways his wineries practice it.
Winemaker and vine growers consult on sustainable practicesFrom vine to table – sustainably grown luxury French wines
Objectives:
Respect the environment.
Preserve our terroirs.
Safeguard our soils and respect their ecosystems by:
Promoting biodiversity throughout the vineyard, and
Preventing soil compaction and making use of available mineral and organic resources from our vineyards.
Reduce the use of chemicals (herbicides) in the vineyards.
Meet consumer expectations.
Steps:
Inoculate the soils with selected endomycorrhizal fungi (to help vine roots absorb nutrients more effectively).
Bring biological enrichments to increase the microbial biomass of soils. For example, in our Les Tannes vineyard we are introducing certain selected bacteria that act as biological activators. That is, they make possible the mineralization of organic fertilizers and increase the bio-availability of critical plant nutrients.
Practice deep plows to decompact the soils and encourage roots to grow and other life to develop and be active in the soil.
Use lighter machinery to avoid excessive compaction of the soils. As an example, we bought a Kubota tractor—1000 kg lighter than its equivalent from Fendt or New Holland.
Use phytosanitary products that are more respectful of the environment, usually consisting of plant decoctions like these:
Anti-mildew: We use horsetail decoction as an elicitor—that is, it significantly increases the width of the cell walls, which makes the plant more resistant to plagues.
Herbicides: We use a decoction of fern that works well as a repellent.
Use existing phytosanitary products and use them in a reasoned way. The timing of the application and the dosage are very important. We have been able to reduce the dosage to one third while maintaining total efficiency.
Really makes you think about what goes on behind the scenes to produce that luscious glass of wine you’re drinking with dinner, doesn’t it?
It’s a funny name, but football fans know it well. Israel Idonije. He played for the Chicago Bears for ten seasons. He had a Super-Bowl season. And now he guides a Chicago foundation to help under-served kids.
“IFF programs focus on helping kids further develop social and emotional life skills in the hope that every child achieves his/her goals.” Even though you’ll hang out with many of Chicago’s who’s who to enjoy the fashion show and great cocktails and food from local restaurants, the best reason to go is to support this Chicago-based foundation.
The event will be Thursday, October 29, 2015, at The Godfrey Hotel Chicago | I|O Urban Roofscape, 127 W. Huron St. at LaSalle St. VIP private cocktail reception (5:30 – 6:00 pm) with Israel Idonije. Private cocktail reception from 6:00 to 7:30 pm for general ticket holders, followed by a runway show with fashion by international designers Zadig & Voltaire, hair by George the Salon (George Gonzalez), and makeup by Makeup by Aga (Aga Kaskiewicz) at 8:00 pm. The event features light hors d’oeuvres from a collection of local restaurants, a wine tasting led by advanced sommelier Jim Bube from Heritage Wine Cellars, and a raffle for cool donated items.
Purchase tickets in advance (prior to 10/26) for just $50. Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the night of the event for $65. A VIP Patron ticket ($100) entitles you to a private meet-and-greet cocktail reception with Israel Idonije, a gift bag, 5 raffle tickets and reserved seats. To reserve your tickets in advance, visit www.compassionfashioncocktails2015.eventbrite.com. I’ll see you there.
This is the picture that you see in most bottles of Chateau Ste. Michelle wines from Washington state. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Titled “Women in Wine: Sip Summer Tasting,” a recent portfolio tasting of Ste. Michelle Estates’ wines took place inside the cool and elegant confines of City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph St. The showcase, meant to celebrate the influence of women on wine making, featured a series of booths designated by place of origin and staffed by experts in each of the wines displayed. Presenters offered generous samples of their wines to enjoy with unique and tasty appetizers chosen specifically by City Winery’s chefs to pair with each set of wines.
A couple of the experts manning (and womanning) the tables defined some terms we hear all the time but may not know the precise meaning of. “Fruit forward”–a term that’s become very popular recently–simply means, according to one expert, that fruitiness is the first thing you notice when you smell or taste a wine.
“Legs” refers to that phenomenon whereby when you swirl the wine in your glass you notice long “legs” of it remaining on the side of the glass after the main portion of wine re-settles at the bottom. The longer and thicker the legs, the fuller, more viscous the wine is–and that’s often the most noticeable visual difference between a $10 bottle and one that goes for $20. Wines with legs are said to have great staying power and can be aged longer.
Tannins is another term used constantly in the wine industry. Naturally occurring substances found mostly in grape skins, seeds and stems, tannins can give young wines a mouth-puckering bitterness and astringency, but some tannins are desirable in red wines to give them structure. Generally, wines with high levels of tannins can take a long time to mature. For more about the language of wine tasting, check out the Gallo glossary of wine terms online.
The Ste. Michelle portfolio is extensive, so it can help to have specific recommendations when you shop:
To find retailers who carry Ste. Michelle wines, use the handy “Find Our Wines” feature on their website. There are hundreds of outlets in Chicago that carry at least some of these wines, including many locations of Walgreens, CVS, Mariano’s and Jewel/Osco, among others.
The restaurant industry is a rough place to work. If you pick up Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, you’ll read a brilliant account of the details of the seamy side of life as a restaurant employee—cook, line prep, server or whatever—and you’ll never think about the “back of the house” the same way again.
Recently received a review copy of another book about the dark side of the industry. Called Torn Together, it chronicles the life and times of a married couple as they navigate the choppy waters of addiction and recovery, and condemns how the restaurant industry tends to promote a life of abuse and addiction for its many members.
Authors Scott Magnuson and his wife Shaaren Pine co-own the Argonaut Tavern—a place twice recognized by local Washington, D.C. magazines as one of the city’s best bars and family-friendly restaurants. Magnuson writes as someone who’s recovering from alcohol and drug addiction that started when he was 14 years old. Pine writes as someone who’s had to hold the business and the family together during the worst of it.
The couple founded a nonprofit called Restaurant Recovery that works to assist restaurant employees and their families who need help finding and paying for reputable drug and alcohol treatment programs. The book is intended as a cautionary tale for those fighting addiction and as a call to action to the restaurant industry to change the culture of permissiveness that allows and encourages employees to overindulge. Read more at http://www.torntogetherbook.com/
Magnolia Bakery, 108 N. State St #128, home to some truly delicious cupcakes, has a bright idea for back-to-school fun–personalized image cupcakes. Think about how fun it might be for a kid to take her new teacher a super-luxe frosted cupcake with the child’s picture on it? Even if the teacher is a hidebound, I-never-eat-sugar type, s/he’s bound to enjoy such a charming and thoughtful gift.
Magnolia bakery makes personalized photo cupcakes
Or how about you give your first-time-in-school grandson one with a picture of his mom or dad or even yourself on it? So he’ll know you’re with him in spirit.
Here’s the deal: One week before you want to give it to your giftee, you provide the friendly folks at Magnolia with a picture of whatever you want to appear on the cupcake–even the kid’s favorite toy or a pet–and they print it out on edible paper. When you pick it up, the image that comes out on the cupcake looks identical to the picture you provided.
I can even imagine putting the kid’s picture on one and having him give it to his mom–and telling her “This is so you won’t miss me so much!” But hey, this idea sounds great for lots of other occasions, too. How about a child’s or friend’s photo on birthday cupcakes? Or a family picture on holiday cupcakes? At $5.25 apiece, this is a unique and affordable gift.
P.S. Cupcakes with cute, back-to-school decorations (see photo) and that fabulous buttercream frosting are $3.50.
Free lunchbox notes from bydawnnicole.com
And while you’re at it, how about some free pre-printed lunchbox notes you can surprise your school-age kid with? Did your mom ever put a note in your lunchbox? I don’t think mine did. What a neat idea. Check these out at bydawnnicole.com.
Jeff Mauro, Food Network celebrity chef (Photo credit: Food Network)
Food Network star Jeff Mauro (The Kitchen, Star Salvation, Sandwich King) took time out from his crazy-busy schedule recently to host the 3rd annual RedEye Battle of the Burger presented by Amstel Light. More than 500 guests enjoyed the beautiful summer evening on the patio of the Chicago History Museum where they sampled the between-the-bun, mainly-beef specialty offerings from nearly two dozen of the city’s well-known eateries and cast their votes for Chicago’s best burger. Winning burgers are at the end of this article–and man, they taste good with Amstel Light.
Jeff was kind enough to do a brief Q&A about being a Food Network star. Jeff originally wanted to be a comedian, but after years of cooking and working in delis and four years as a private chef in a big corporation, he also knew he wanted to be on Food Network. So, on his third try at the contest, he finally got cast.
What’s your favorite story about how you got started?
“I was in NY for 11 weeks. My son was 2 years old. We just got done living in the basement with my in-laws. It was so stressful leaving, but I was pursuing this dream. When I came home from the call, I was in the top two and I knew I was going to make it. I went to my house—that I’d saved up for so long—and after thirteen years, my house, family, son. I was elated to be with my family again.” He went on to win the Food Network star competition.
How do they choose contestants for competitions on Food Network TV?
“The show’s producers hire a casting company and these folks do an incredibly thorough job of vetting contestants. First, you make and submit a video, then you wait for a casting call. Then you go and then wait for a call back, then you compete. They do background checks, psychological testing, incident testing, on-camera test, ask very personal questions, and so on. They want to be very sure that this person will make a good appearance on television in terms of behavior, attitude and strength of character. It’s a long process. But my wife just knew that last time that I’d make it. She told me, ‘This video is going to get you there. Your life is going to change forever.’ She was right.”
How did you become known as the “Sandwich King”?
“When we were in the midst of the competition and I’d been mentioning all the diners and delis I worked at, Bobby Flay said to me, ‘So, you’re gonna be the sandwich king, eh?’ And it stuck. That became my name henceforth. That had been my point of view for years as I went from butcher shop to sandwich catering company. I knew I was good at constructing those.” For handy hints on making a non-slip sandwich, visit Mauro’s Sandwich King web page.
What do you enjoy most—besides money!—about being a Food Network star?
“All the travel is hard, but it’s great that I can include my family and travel places and experience foods. You get treated a certain way in restaurants. It’s unique. I don’t take it for granted. We still live in the same house and same neighborhood. I love making television. I’ve been doing it four years now.”
What do you like most about Chicago as a foodie heaven?
“I’ve been in LA and NY. I’m in New York four to five times a month. I go to all the great restaurants everywhere, but I absolutely adore Chicago. It is a place where chefs can exercise their creative chops without the intense pressure that chefs in, say, New York have to face every moment when they’re paying tens of thousands of dollars a month in rent. Chicago allows chefs to experiment and feel comfortable with trying new things, without always worrying about being first or how high they are in the competition.”
What are some of your favorite restaurants in the Chicago area?
Jam Restaurant in Logan Square is owned by a Jeff Mauro, but that’s not the same guy.
“Yeah, it’s a different Jeff Mauro who owns Jam Restaurant. I actually had him appear as a guest on my Sandwich King show.”
What would you say to anyone who aspires to become a famous chef?
“Work in the kitchen at a restaurant for a summer. That’ll tell you whether you really want to cook and whether you can stand the life. Short order cook, work the line, whatever—for free most likely. Save yourself 30-40 grand for culinary school.”
Is there a book in your future?
“Maybe. Probably a memoir, though, not a cookbook. Anybody can get my recipes from TV. If I do write one, it’s more likely to be the story of my life.”
Leadbelly (Portage Park and Gladstone Park): Old Time Religion Burger – Roasted tomato, goat cheese, arugula and truffle aioli (and I might add, try their fabulous housemade butter cookies).
Beef & Barley, 3001 N. Ashland: The “Smang It” Burger – Chipotle mayo, Spanish chorizo, avocado, jalapeno, lettuce, tomato and pickle.
Whisk, 2018 W. Chicago: House Burger – Chihuahua cheese, chipotle mayo, guacamole and tortilla strips.
Whether you’re new to enjoying wines or an old hand, it’s always nice to hear what an expert has to say—especially one who grew up in the midst of the French champagne mystique. Such a man is Patrick d’Aulan, who recently visited Chicago.
Matthieu Grassin and Patrick d’Aulan enjoy talking about wines
Patrick d’Aulan (right in photo), owner of both Altamana Chilean and Alta Vista Argentinian wineries, comes from a family with 150 years of winemaking experience as owners of Piper Heidsieck champagne. But all that time and even after selling the company, d’Aulan said his father was always looking for new challenges. “He was the first to make sparkling wine in India,” said d”Aulan. “He had already gone to Sonoma and established a presence there with Piper Heidsieck.” He said his father believed in starting early to instill the appreciation of wine in his children.
“My father began teaching me and my sister to taste wines when I was 5 or 6 years old. On Sunday nights he would give us a small glass of wine, then blindfold us and put a covered plate of fruit in front of us. Smell the wine, then smell the fruit, he would say, to notice the relationship between the two.” D’Aulan recalled how early Chardonnays were always associated in his mind with pineapple.
“The fact that he made it fun really helped us learn how to taste wines,” said d’Aulan. “But I really began to learn about wines seriously from my uncle. He had a library of wines. He started me early in life by giving me a little bit of wine and a lot of water. Then each year he would increase the wine a little and decrease the water. Once I reached 18, he told me I had the right to go into his library of wines. Later, I gave him a bottle of my first wine which he had agreed to put in his library.”
“People tend to confuse the idea of having wine as part of your lifestyle with the excesses of alcoholism,” said d’Aulan. “There is no comparison. Giving a kid wine early on is a great way to introduce that child to the appreciation of wine for a lifetime.”
Technology can help, and education is very important. Matthieu Grassin (left in photo), winemaker at d’Aulan’s Alta Vista vineyards in Argentina said, “We use technology to enhance our ability to make good decisions while making our wines.” Grassin said they use an app that shows the slope and temperature variations over every square yard of their vineyards. But that’s just a tool in their winemaking scenario, D’Aulan said. He hired Grassin not just for his formal education in oenology and viticulture, but also because he had significant hands-on experience in the trenches—personally working the vineyards. “I would not trust someone who did not have this kind of experience,” said d’Aulan.
D’Aulan is proud that Alta Vista’s three single-vineyard Malbec wines are considered benchmarks of Mendoza’s old Malbec terroir wines. To help Argentina build its reputation—and so that his own wines will be part of it—he has gifted the trademark concept and use of “single vineyard” Malbec to the Argentinean National Viticulture Institute.
More memorable remarks from Monsieur d’Aulan:
Technology can help with changing climate conditions, but good winemakers know how to make good vintages in all kinds of weather. “When nature is not generous with us, we have to deal with it. It is the heart and courage of the winemakers that makes the difference,” said d’Aulan.
Global warming isn’t just a temperature threat. More frequent storms, especially hailstorms, are an even greater threat to a vineyard. They can destroy the green-leap canopy and damage the vines for the next year as well. Our protection against hail is emergency nets; against frost, it’s setting fire pots around the vineyard. One winemaker hires a helicopter to fan the air circulation against frost. These attacks cannot be predicted but rather are always completely random.
Cutting down on nature’s interference may make less work for a winemaker, according to d’Aulan, but a very clean vineyard is not a good sign. “It should be wild and a little dirty, with flowers and creatures.”
D’Aulan believes that apps like Vivino make sense. “I like to get feedback from consumers, expert or not.”
Winemakers usually add SO2 (sulfur dioxide) to their wines to purify them. But this is not natural. D’Aulan’s Altamana vineyard is working towards adding no SO2 to become a totally natural wine. No pesticides.
Wavy French fries sold in a Canadian supermarket. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
National French Fries Day (July 13) was yesterday. Sorry we missed it, but over at this Gold Coast eatery, The Local Chicago, 198 E Delaware Pl., they’ve kicked off the celebration with a new french-fry-based dish, Cherry Pepper Poutine. Made up of hand-cut fries, rich brown gravy, Wisconsin cheese curds and fresh cherry peppers, it’s then topped with pork belly and an over-easy egg sprinkled with tasty chives. A filling meal-in-a-dish for $14.
French fries covered in cheese (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Whether fast or fancy, some people have been known to judge a restaurant almost exclusively on how good its French fries are. Either way, it’s an honorable dish in the U.S. (deep-fried potatoes are known as chips in Great Britain), despite the French nomenclature. Read more about the history of French fries here.
Meanwhile, also in honor of National French Fries Day (July 13th), Ranker.com (crowd-sourced rankings) released results of its public poll asking voters to rank The Best Fast Food French Fries to determine which ones are a cut above the rest. Here are a few highlights:
McDonald’s French fries Take #1 Spot
Millennials prefer Dairy Queen French Fries and Chick-fil-A waffle fries
Women favor Rally’s/Checker’s seasoned fries and Culver’s fries
Men’s top picks included KFC Potato Wedges and Dairy Queen french fries
Baby boomers like Arby’s curly fries and White Castle fries
I was recently invited to sample new menu items at Chicago Q on a complimentary basis. I’m delighted to report my experience was exceptional in almost every way. Kyle, our server, gave attentive service that didn’t overwhelm, and he was happy to share his extensive knowledge of the food. Plus, he told us a great story about how he came to work at Chicago q. Seems he worked at a nearby establishment when the manager there decided to take the employees out for a team-building lunch. It so happened the lunch was at Chicago q. Kyle was so impressed with the food and the place that within three weeks he jumped ship at the other place and came to work here.
I can see why. Almost everything we tasted here was not just delicious but also non-greasy (who gets to say that about barbeque ribs?) and exceptionally flavorful.
Complimentary B&B pickles and Pig Powder Chips
As soon as you sit down, your table gets a complimentary bowl of house-made sweet Bread and Butter pickles (we saw a vat of those marinating from scratch with garlic and onions) and another of their proudly Pig Powdered potato chips made in-house and flavored with the restaurant’s signature rub, made from Chef Whippen’s father’s recipe from long ago. A smart tip from Kyle: These are delicious, addictive and filling, so control yourself! You do not want to miss out on experiencing some of the other delicious menu items.
New among the starters: Pork Belly Corn Dog (made with in-house brined and smoked pork belly), Pig Powder Fries, and Smoked Alligator Sausage (clove-y, gently spiced, tender, fall-apart meat inside a traditional sausage casing, served nestled in a bed of chunky Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes). The Select-a-Style sides are new: two bucks a side for your sandwich that include a choice of: Memphis style with coleslaw, house-made B&B pickles, and a mild barbeque sauce; or Chicago style with caramelized onions and peppers and American cheese; or Southern style with crispy bacon, a fried egg and American cheese.
Two massive Southern-style smokers in the kitchen give the royal rotation-smoking treatment to everything from ribs to pork belly to whole brined chickens (brining makes the breast come out just as juicy as the dark meat).
Elote grilled corn
Q’s smoker firebox
Q’s ‘Gator Sausage ‘n’ buttermilk mash
Other new items include the Steakhouse Wedge salad, sides of grilled vegetable skewers (crisp-cooked onion, pepper, zucchini), Elote Grilled Corn with herbs, Cotija cheese and chipotle sauce (maybe slightly overcooked but lovely to look at and very tasty). Other new dishes include Shrimp Brochettes (wrapped in bacon and stuffed with Monterey cheese and poblano peppers), and the CAB house-cut Ribeye. This is just the heart of the ribeye steak, cooked
Gorgeously charred CAB ribeye (Sorry about the blur)
to your desired doneness inside a sugar-char-crust that makes a heavenly complement to the tender, juicy medallion of meat—served with house-made chunky Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes with the natural sweetness of good potato flavor and a tiny tang from the buttermilk. Don’t know how they manage to get the crust so dark and crunchy and still have the meat come out medium rare. Meltingly delicious. Another new item is the Bourbon Vegetable Kebabs (grilled zucchini, mushrooms, red onion, green pepper and tomato with a Kentucky Bourbon glaze).
The macaroni and cheese sports a crispy Panko breadcrumb topping and a mix of cheeses enrobing the curly macaroni pasta. Kyle explained that the small order we asked for was not as cheesy as the full orders. Although we couldn’t finish the skillet because of all the other excellent dishes we had, I sure enjoyed the hell out of the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Plus you can get the Mac’n’Cheese Pitmaster style: mixed with your choice of bites of one or more of Baby Back Ribs, American Kobe Brisket Burnt Ends, Pulled Pork, Pulled Chicken, Bacon or Smoked Corn.
Charcoal-grilled bacon slabs
The Q Bacon appetizer takes a seriously thick hunk from the same spot on the pig that your grocery-store bacon comes from but then performs a small miracle with it. Think a quadruple-thick-sliced, maple-glazed chunk of smoked pork grilled on a super-hot charcoal grill. This is not your mother’s bacon, people. The leftovers next day made a scrumptious dinner with a baked potato and steamed green beans.
Did I tell you Chef Lee Ann Whippen wears earrings with little dangling gold pigs? She grew up visiting a hog farm that one of her relatives owned, and she does not kid around about her love of all things pig.
Honey Butter Cornbread pleases everyone!
The Honey Butter Cornbread was a huge hit for us—and with our 8-year-old lunch companion, who by the way also inhaled her grilled hamburger—while the more savory version of the cornbread, Poblano Cheddar, promised to be equally rewarding. The Watermelon Feta Salad sounded appealingly refreshing. And then there was an intriguing list of other sides: Bruleed Mac’n’cheese, American Kobe Brisket Baked Beans, Red Bliss Potato Salad, and Braised Greens. Heck, you could make a satisfying meal just out of sides here.
Q’x Competition Ribs and veg skewer
As for the ribs, we had to try the Chef’s Competition Ribs (at $38 for a full slab a bit pricier than the regular ribs at $20/$29), but for good reason. The rub on Competition Ribs is bolder than the signature Pig Powder used on the regular ribs. The meat is cooked two hours longer at a lower temperature, plus the Chef adds other ingredients that make these ribs even tenderer and spicier. Chef Lee Ann Whippen wins competitions all over the country with this recipe. And it’s clear why. Incredibly tender, sweet meat falls effortlessly away from the bone yet maintains a firm texture and an integrity that surpasses any we’ve tasted before. Thanks to Kyle’s suggestion, I dipped this beautiful meat into a combination of the Kansas City spicy sauce mixed with a little of the mustard sauce. Perfection. Really. I rarely eat meat and never as much as I happily consumed at Chicago q that day.
Irresistible Oreo-crusted peanut butter pie – we’d already started eating before we remembered to take the photo
Oh, and the Chef insisted we save room for dessert and had us try a piece of her justly famous Peanut Butter Pie. A thick, firm crust made from Oreo cookies plus the filling formed the container for an exceptionally light-yet-rich filling made of undisclosed ingredients (maybe including cream cheese with fluffy beaten egg whites to lighten it?) whipped together and delicately flavored with peanut butter. We, I’m embarrassed to say, ate the whole thing.
All in all, this is a place I will definitely come back to and am already recommending unreservedly to friends and acquaintances. My companion, whose husband’s ribs have been her total favorite for many years, insists she is bringing him back here with her ASAP (they live in Cleveland so it’ll be a long way to come to learn that your ribs are no longer the fairest in the land).
Q’s chalkboard list of bourbons
In fact, Chicago q is having a Woodford Reserve Bourbon Dinner this July 7. It’s only $65, including cocktails, and my friend and I already have reservations. I don’t even know the full menu yet, but I can almost guarantee, if you appreciate barbeque at all, you’ll love it.
P.S. They have a cool upstairs for private parties and a BYOq (Build Your Own q) catering menu of all their specialties. And their weekend brunch sounds great with items like Carrot Cake Pancakes, Cheddar Chive Biscuits & Gravy and more. Saturdays and Sundays 10 to 3.
