Fresh Ingredients Spring Forth on Menus
Considering the frigid trajectory of winter this year, you’ve probably never been happier to see rhubarb in your life. It’s with wide open arms and mouths that we welcome spring dishes and drinks to Chicago, re-inspiring our numbed senses with the vivifying life force of fresh produce. New menus continue to roll out on the regular, but here are some standout items that are sure to provide a taste of spring in the Midwest.
Piccolo Sogno and Piccolo Sogno Due may be rooted in Italian tradition, but they’re as seasonally and locally minded as the best of them. Adapting local, fresh ingredients into his Italian arsenal, executive chef/partner Tony Priolo is newly showcasing items like ramps, squash blossoms, peas, and fava beans at his original restaurant, Piccolo Sogno. Dishes on the lunch and dinner menus include fava beans with Tuscan pecorino and extra virgin olive oil; Fontina-stuffed squash blossoms with olive oil puree; spring nettle-filled pasta with mushrooms and buffalo milk ricotta; farro flour pasta with ramps, spring asparagus, pea shoots, and garlic; Alaskan halibut with spring onions, peas, carrots, and farro; and pizza strewn with mushrooms, sausage, ramps, and fresh mozzarella. At Piccolo Sogno Due, things skew a little more coastal, with items like tubular pasta with shrimp, zucchini, ramps, and tomatoes; grilled Scottish salmon with asparagus and tomato ragu; and poached cuttlefish with lemon, fennel, arugula, and squid ink.
Fruit-forward elixirs take the stage on Barrelhouse Flat’s new spring cocktail menu. Get thirsty for the apricot liqueur- and gin-splashed That’s Probably Him; the Jessica Rabbit with cherry liqueur and Cocchi Rosa; the Magic Jordan with pear brandy and pineapple; or the Grandma Zotti with raspberry brandy, absinthe, lemon, and bourbon. Or if your cravings skew syrupy, you can celebrate the onset of maple season with the Standing Room Only, made with Rittenhouse Rye, maple, cinnamon-apple shrub, allspice liqueur, lemon, and angostura bitters.
Seasonal American food and drink is the crux of things at newly renovated and reopened Atwood. Under the direction of new chef Brian Millman, examples of that ethos include asparagus and kale soup; Rushing Waters trout with edamame, asparagus, and lemon confit potatoes; housemade fettuccine with crab, spinach, peas, white wine-basil cream, and artichoke crisps; a spring ragout of vegetables with grits; and rhubarb upside-down cake with strawberry-cream cheese ice cream.
One surefire way to help us move on to spring is by jumping straight into watermelon season! más is doing just that with a couple new melon-centric drinks and dishes, starting with their watermelon margarita. It’s ideally matched with their grouper gazpacho, which features pasilla panko-breaded grouper, watermelon gazpacho, and pink chile mayo.
Things are getting green at Blue Door Farm Stand, where new dishes are rolling out to celebrate the best in pristine produce. Grab a fork and dig into the new Strawberry Fields salad made with watercress, arugula, spinach, ham, apples, strawberries, almonds, and strawberry vinaigrette. Asparagus and white beans take the stage in the Green House salad, outfitted with more wild greens, heirloom tomato, frisee, quinoa, and basil vinaigrette. Sandwich-wise, the AVA contains avocado, kale-pine nut pesto, spinach, green tomato relish, goat cheese, mozzarella, Havarti, and Swiss on multi-grain bread, while the Kale-a-Dilla is a vegetal riff on a quesadilla stuffed with kale-pine nut pesto, Parmesan, Cojita and Havarti cheeses, asparagus, mushrooms, and pico de gallo.
Rabbit and carrots make a natural pairing at mk The Restaurant, where chef Michael Kornick is serving roasted leg and loin of farm-raised rabbit with ginger-spiced carrot puree, crushed fava beans, and English peas and shiso gremolata.
Piccolo Sogno
464 N. Halsted Street, Chicago
(312) 421-0077
Website
Piccolo Sogno Due
340 N. Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 822-0077
Website
Barrelhouse Flat
2624 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
(773) 857-0421
Website
Atwood
1 W. Washington Street, Chicago
(312) 368-1900
Website
más
800 W. Washington Boulevard, Chicago
(312) 243-1995
Website
Blue Door Farm Stand
843 W. Armitage Avenue, Chicago
(773) 935-2583
Website
mk The Restaurant
868 N. Franklin Street, Chicago
(312) 482-9179
Website