2 Chicago restaurant recommendations

C

colleenmomof2

Well-known member
3 Arts Club Cafe (http://3artsclubcafe.com) and Imperial Lamian (http://www.imperial-lamian.com/#welcomebackup).

We chose the 3 Arts Club Cafe because it is near the Lincoln Park Zoo and our oldest son, traveling with us, is in the process of renovating

his 1950's home. The cafe is the atrium of the Chicago Renovation Hardware flagship store with 5 floors of RH goodies displayed in

well-appointed showrooms. The cafe "combines a coffeehouse, wine bar & American restaurant" with a creative selection of veggie-rich

choices developed by former Au Cheval chef, Brendan Sodikoff. When we arrived, clusters of people were seated in various living room displays

throughout the 1st floor while waiting for a table in the cafe. With a 90 minute promised wait, son and I took the stairs to the top floor/roof of

the building to see outdoor furnishings - and other people waiting, shopping and working with interior designers. Bedrooms and baths,

dining rooms, children's rooms were on each of the other floors. At one point, we entered a showroom with 3 different room displays

including a 10 person table housing 8 friends comfortably seated while sharing a laugh and a bottle of red wine purchased downstairs.

Were they waiting for a table or just enjoying a beautiful, warm place to hang out? The wait was just about enough time to see everything

before our reservation - see menu link.

At The Imperial Lamian, downtown and just north of the river, our dinner choices were all excellent but the star of the evening was their amazing

Lunar Blossom dessert - a tasty molasses ginger cake topped with buttercream, vanilla gelato and fresh fruit, hidden under a white chocolate

globe and "sectioned" table side into a lotus blossom by using streams of hot fudge smileys/wink.gif Colleen

https://www.scribd.com/document/283740973/Three-Arts-Cafe-Menu?ad_group=Online+Tracking+Link&campaign=Skimbit%2C+Ltd.&content=10079&irgwc=1&keyword=ft500noi&medium=affiliate&source=impactradius

http://diningout.com/chicago/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2016/10/Lunar-Blossom.jpg

 
This concept reminded me of a weird one I tried out on my boss Bern (Bern's Steakhouse, Tampa)

Mr. Laxer was an NYC ad man who went into the restaurant business, so EVERYTHING was a show to him. He kept asking me to think of unique and original dessert presentations.

One day I walked downstairs and handed him a baked meringue in the shape of a goblet. I mimed cutting through the meringue and inside was a foil-wrapped package, and when unwrapped was a snifter partially filled with warm cognac.

I explained that the meringue would be flambéed at the partron's table and then opened by the waiter. Bern had been speaking with a French gentleman --showing him through the huge kitchen and after he opened the presentation, he handed the snifter to his guests. Although I could tell Bern's face thought the idea was too weird, the guest thought the warm cognac was wonderful.

 
colleen, I use two methods. Either I grab the original photo and select EMAIL size and then

grab that *.jpg out of the email to post th to PhotoBucket:

Or I upload the original directly to Photobucket. Select EDIT on the image, reduce it to 600x400 (or something around that range) SAVE to OVERWRITE the original and only then do I copy the link and paste it.

 
You worked for the owner of Bern's Steakhouse? We bought a

VERY old house just 4 houses away from Bern's to remodel and sell. I spent many hours a day for many months working on that house. We went to eat there just once.

 
1987. We had moved from ABQ to Coral Gables. I was Bern's *pastry tester*

....in that he would come up with crazy ideas and I would try to create them. I wasn't a pastry chef for the restaurant; just simply baked test items for him based on his requests.

A few of his insane requests:

1. Pecan pie >> made with no sugar. Have you ever looked at a pecan pie filling? It is sugar blended with eggs, pecans and EVEN MORE sugar.
2. How about an individual apple pie? Okay, but it can't have a normal dough crust (he didn't like them), he didn't want any sugar in it (that again) and it had to bake in 5 minutes and be delivered warm to the table. This one I got really close on....I've seen my concept used quite frequently now.

I worked there in the evenings and was a draftsman during the day. He loved my clear handwriting and meticulous notes, but nothing I ever made was unique enough.

Basically, he wanted me to invent something like Toll House Cookies so he would be forever known for that dessert item.

When I left him 6 months later, I was so frustrated that I was crying and telling Bern I had printed circuit boards that I had designed on the space shuttle and on GPS satellites and yet I couldn't make bake anything unique enough for him. I realized then I was not cut out for the culinary world.

 
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