First Taste of Spring
Considering the trajectory of our recent winter, you’ve probably never been happier to see an asparagus stalk in your life. It’s with wide open arms and mouths that we welcome spring menus to Chicago restaurants, invigorating our numbed senses with the rejuvenating life force of greenery. New menus continue to roll out on the regular, but here are some standout menus and dishes that provide a potent taste of spring in the Midwest.
Between asparagus risotto, sweet corn and fava bean succotash, and spring berry crisp, Gemini Bistro corners the market on quintessential spring menus this season. With newly appointed executive chef Jon Keeley in tow, the Lincoln Park staple is embracing spring in a big way. No dish exemplifies this quite like his spring-tasting market salad, lush with English peas, asparagus, fava beans, pattypan squash, cherry tomatoes, and a sherry vinaigrette.
Rhubarb takes the stage at sola for the North Center restaurant’s themed April prix fixe. Each month finds a different ingredient at the focal point of the three-pronged tasting, with this month’s star player being everyone’s favorite rosy spring provision. The menu starts off with arugula and pickled rhubarb salads with radishes, shallots, and rhubarb vinaigrette. Second course is salmon with black rice, baby bok choy, and rhubarb butter. And lastly, a rhubarb-apple tart with lavender-mixed berry syrup, ginger-miso cream cheese, and a rhubarb crisp.
The Purple Pig is a perpetual seasonal stunner, exhibiting bold Mediterranean flavors in exciting new ways. Case in point: squid stuffed with prosciutto and breadcrumbs alongside a fava puree; a seafood sausage stuffed with shrimp and sweetbreads atop charred green onions and romesco sauce; carrot-grapefruit salad; and Wagyu sirloin with white beans, escarole, and bone marrow vinaigrette.
The greenest menu in town is sure to be tesori when the Italian restaurant hones in on arugula for its “one ingredient dinner party” menu, wherein a designated ingredient is showcased in a multitude of dishes over several courses for a couple months. From April 15 through June 15, the restaurant is serving up a degustation that features dishes such as jumbo seared scallops with warm farro-barley salad, arugula, and Marcona almonds; linguini with shrimp, crab, tomato-brandy-cream sauce, and arugula-pine nut pesto; and grilled halibut with arugula fish brodo, baby turnips, pea greens, and hedgehog mushrooms.
Things are getting vibrant at Rodan. The Asian gastrolounge has implemented a slew of new spring dishes to put an extra skip in your step, including watermelon salad with Chinese sausage, baby arugula, macadamia shavings, togarashi, and lemon vinaigrette; Asian steamed pork meatballs with spiced blueberry hoisin; and a grilled veggie napoleon with portabello, eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes stacked with toasted cashew sesame butter on Texas toast.
For a Catalan-inspired taste of spring, head to Mercat a la Planxa. Executive chef Jose Garces and chef de cuisine Cory Morris tag-team the seasonally inspired tapas menu with a new assortment of refreshing plates. Spring for the quinoa dish with grapes, fennel, pine nuts, and lemon yogurt; the grilled endive salad with pistachios and tangerines; the striped bass swimming in green pea puree and carrot froth; and the green-as-can-be arroz verde, brimming with peas, asparagus, haricot verts, and broccoli cream.
Not all spring flavors are in salad form. Analogue’s recently added tropical cocktails conjure exotic images of sunny shores and warm getaways. The aptly named Who Loves the Sun? cocktail is a delicious middle finger to winter, made with Corazon Blanco, lime, aperol, orange juice, and Peychaud’s bitters, while the Pressure Drop is a tiki-style vacation in a glass featuring Banks 5 Island, lime, banana falernum, pineapple, and mint.
Perhaps the most optimistic and liveliest spring menu addition taking place right now is the BBQ series at Table, Donkey and Stick. The Logan Square restaurant, fresh off a remodel, just launched a monthly BBQ series on its patio, wherein a different guest chef cooks up ‘cue on the first Sunday of the month through September. The first guest chef is the aforementioned Keeley on May 4, followed by Kyle McElhinney, Trencherman’s sous chef, on June 8; Table, Donkey and Stick sous chefs Caleb Trahan and Greg Blumen on July 6; Lawrence Letrero of The Refinery on August 3; and Andrew Marquadt of 18th Street Brewery on September 7.
Gemini Bistro
2075 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
(773) 525-2522
Website
sola
3868 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
(773) 327-3868
Website
The Purple Pig
500 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 464-1744
Website
tesori
65 E. Adams Street, Chicago
(312) 786-9911
Website
Rodan
1530 N Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago
(773) 276-7036
Website
Mercat a la Planxa
638 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 765-0524
Website
Analogue
2523 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago
Website
Table, Donkey and Stick
2728 W. Armitage Avenue, Chicago
(773) 486-8525
Website
