Sometimes that rare occasion arises when “first tastes” takes you both to the old and the new in short order. Late in November, we saw and tasted how three accomplished chefs at two restaurants harnessed their ambition, drive and skill to claim their places at the summit of Chicago’s restaurant hierarchy. Sarah Gruenberg’s Monteverde has been around since 2015 and enjoying its seat among the elite since it opened. The other is only months old. But with its glittering pedigree and the outstanding dining experience it offers, Wherewithall has already captured the admiration and respect of both industry influencers and the public. Neither restaurant is completely what you’d expect.
If you don’t know the system, getting into Monteverde can pose challenges. It took a lot of trial and error on Resy to figure out you need to book one month ahead to get a table. Surprising, since for many of the premier restaurants in town, it’s not that difficult reserving seats one to two weeks in advance. So why is the lead time doubled? One reason becomes clear once you get your bill. Even when you splurge on a birthday outing, the final tab is going to be shockingly reasonable. That affordability and the wonderful food may also explain why the restaurant felt a little like New Year’s Eve when we walked in at 7:30 that Sunday night.
You should never presume how a place is going to look unless you like being wrong. Monteverde provides few visual clues it’s an Italian restaurant. There’s no need. The focus is on two things, the service and the food. All a restaurant needs to be is clean. Even though the 95-seat eatery is very dark, which can also be viewed as romantic, it was clear hygiene was not an issue. A trip to the beautiful Scandinavian clean bathroom sealed that assessment.
Wherewithall, the latest venture of a married pair of wunderkind, followed the aesthetic cues of its Michelin starred sister, Parachute, a few doors up the street. Co-owners and co-chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark have long wanted to broaden their cooking expressions and open a contemporary-American prix fixe restaurant in a neighborhood setting. The creativity and excellence they unleashed with Parachute a couple of years ago never fully satisfied their culinary dreams.
Spare, efficient and tasteful, the aim at Wherewithall is to please the eye, not dazzle. A comfortable and welcoming bar greets diners when they open the door. Around a wall on the left, tables run down the center of the main dining room with a short wall dividing them into two rows. Beyond the bar, a courtyard and private dining area expand the restaurant’s utility.
A pet peeve lingers regarding many restaurant dining rooms these days. Their industrial seating schemes with tables lined up virtually shoulder-to-shoulder to maximize capacity can make private conversations taxing. Gone are the days where you might find one or two two-tops tucked in corners or floating like not too distant islands in the middle of the room. Somehow Wherewithall managed to make that problem go away while keeping diners in tight proximity to each other. Even though the restaurant was teeming, conversation was refreshingly easy with virtually no spill over dialog filtering through from either side.
Because Monteverde felt so much like a party, the close quarters weren’t as disturbing as they might have been. But you were always conscious of the bordering tables and would have found a bigger bubble more comfortable.
Restaurant service seems to be undergoing a renaissance. It’s as if they’ve come up with a way to prepare, train, nurture and reward waitstaff in a way that makes them indisputably exemplary. Radiant at both Monteverde and Wherewithall, the style of service at each reflected a level of quality one thought had been lost to the ages. It was that personal at both. Casual, attentive, exceptionally knowledgeable and willing to go beyond the expected to please made the service at each restaurant as memorable as the food.
When asked about what kind of vegetables could be had with any of the entrees made Allison, the woman handling our table at Monteverde, chuckle. There were some roasted ones on the menu she responded, “but Monteverde is all about the pasta”. Boasting a horde things that teased the imagination, the menu was just large enough to bewilder. Allison helped navigate us through the choices and select several very pleasing options that included wild red snapper, the burrata e ham and wok fried arrabbiata. It was all a little rustic, appreciably plentiful and consistently delicious.
Under the prix fixe banner at Wherewithall, you just sit back and wait for the magic. Courses change virtually daily and the set price of $65 includes appetizers, a main course that’s served in stages, dessert and unexpected extras like a refreshing spiced peach sorbet palette cleanser. An additional $45 nets a highly-recommended wine pairing. Chef Clark curates the wine selection and has some real gems stashed away in his repertoire and matches them to dishes with just a hint of mischievous cunning and a lot of skill. The 2018 le raisin et l’ange, a blend of merlot, gamay and Grenache he chose to complement the steelhead trout, braised cabbage and huckleberries, displayed his adroitness at highlighting kindred flavors.
Like Monteverde, Wherewithall was light on vegetables the night we visited. It was of little consequence at either restaurant. In their own way, each revealed how interesting pinnacle dining can be in Chicago as we close out another year and each proves you can get it at a genuine value. Always a good discovery when you’re rolling the streets for a “first taste”.
Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio
1020 W. Madison St.
Chicago, IL 60607
312-888-3041
reserve.com
monteverdechicago.com
Wherewithall
3472 N. Elston
Chicago, IL 60618
773-692-2192
opentable.com