This Week’s Episode: Tortoise Club, Ahjoomah’s Apron, Antique Taco

I have a thing for all things classic – I prefer Billie (Holiday) to Lorde, estate gems to modern, champagne coupes to flutes, and I love old school restaurants and speakeasy-style places.

I spent years living in Europe and it definitely brought out a nostalgia for things of times past (no surprise that I adored Woody Allen’s movie Midnight in Paris). So when I met Keene and Megan Addington, the owners of Tortoise Club, I was thrilled to hear of their plans to bring an old school supper club to Chicago. With New York’s famed 21 club in mind, they set out to create a unique atmosphere here in our city, leaving no detail unattended.

Little decisions they made all add to the authentic vibe of Tortoise Club. They chose to have the entrance a few steps down from street level, much like it would have been in old Chicago. Some furniture was vintage and other pieces were re-created from vintage inspirations. The salon (or red room as I call it) in the back is floor-to-ceiling high-gloss red and was modeled after the red lacquered room in the late Mrs. Astor’s apartment. Moving into the adjacent main dining room, I find the large portraits of Chicago notables they commissioned so fun. You aren’t going to find Oprah or Al Capone on these walls, but rather the people who embraced the spirit of our city and played a role in its development. To do this, they partnered with the Chicago History Museum to find colorful people with fantastic stories. My personal favorite is George Wellington Streeter…look for the guy with the bushy mustache and use the QRC code at the bottom of the picture when visiting the restaurant or read this short recap. I promise you will find him incredibly interesting! You will hear more about it in this week’s episode, but time necessarily limits how much can be shared during the show, so should you decide to visit, I wanted to give a bit more background. As for the food, I’ll let the guests tell you about that.

In the spirit of things past and classic cocktail culture, I have included a recipe for one of my favorite cocktails – the Corpse Reviver #2 (also available at Tortoise Club) – to sip while you relax over this chilly winter weekend.

Corpse Reviver #2 Recipe

Ingredients:
1 oz. Gin (I use Hendrick’s)
1 oz. Cointreau

1 oz. Lillet Blanc

1 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Dash of absinthe

Orange peel garnish

Method:
Shake all ingredients in a shaker, strain into a chilled coupe glass, and garnish.

The combination of restaurants on this week’s episode is the perfect Check, Please! mix – a swanky River North supper club, the only Korean restaurant in Chinatown – Ahjoomah’s Apron, and a hip Wicker Park taqueria, Antique Taco. And my guests’ opinions were as diverse as the restaurants they chose, so be sure to tune in tonight!

Cheers,
Catherine