blackbird

I had the pleasure of having lunch with my friend Maggie at blackbird on Friday. Mags works at Food & Wine, so she's a blackbird pro, but it was my first time. (Cross it off the bucket list!)

I have to confess that I couldn't bring myself to take many pictures of the food at blackbird. I'm sorry. Given the pristine, minimalist atmosphere in the restaurant, I felt like it was almost blasphemous to bust out my phone for every single dish. Basically, I wimped out. Which of course, I regret now.

Something that everyone should know is that blackbird offers a fabulous prixe fixe lunch option -- $22 for 3 courses. This is definitely worth the money if you are looking to enjoy an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. You should also know that Maggie and I decided to forgo this, since she was dying to get the pork belly sandwich (her favorite thing to order for lunch there) and I really wanted a croque madame, neither of which were featured among the prixe fixe options that day.

I also have to confess that I was a little hungover when I enjoyed lunch at blackbird. This is part of what made a croque madame so appealing -- and also prevented me from trying their acclaimed baby octopus confit appetizer. Couldn't do it. Not on Friday. (Damn you, country night at Houndstooth. You were glorious, but you made dining adventurously a challenge on Friday at noon.)

Ok, enough caveats. On to what we DID enjoy for lunch. Maggie made the brilliant recommendation of splitting the endive salad, which is probably the coolest salad I've seen/eaten -- maybe ever. It's such a work of art. The menu describes it as follows: "Salad of endives with baby lettuces, potato, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg." The entire salad is served in a nest of crispy potato, with the endive leaves peeking out artfully from the top. A poached egg sits atop baby mixed greens, herbs and pancetta. Once you break that egg, the entire thing is covered in yoke-y goodness. This salad is fabulous. It is like a delicious combination of breakfast (poached egg, crispy potatoes and pancetta) and lunch (endive, baby greens, basil, dijon, etc.). You have to try it.

We also tried an order of the soup of the day, mostly because it was a chilled lettuce soup and I was intrigued by this. It was poured into our bowls over lumps of halibut (also chilled) and a cheese that was artfully spread at the base of the bowl. The soup was just all right. The halibut was good and the soup (made from Romaine lettuce) was interesting, but it paled in comparison to the endive salad.

As I mentioned, Maggie enjoyed the pork belly sandwich, a highlight of the blackbird lunch menu and frequently featured in the prixe fixe menu option... just not that day. It sounded amazing. The only reason I didn't order the pork belly sandwich myself is that I realized I'd eaten pork belly 3 times in the past week already and decided I needed to branch out. But it looked amazing and she was thoroughly pleased. Here's how blackbird describes it: "organic pork belly sandwich with cabbage slaw, dijonnaise, winter vegetable salad and garlic frites." I will definitely order it the next time I'm there for lunch.

My croque madame was JUST what the doctor ordered, especially given my slightly hungover state. I mean, this is an amazing sandwich. A croque madame is basically a hot ham and cheese served with a fried egg on top. And not surprisingly, the better quality the ingredients are, the better the end result is. This one was served on buttery toasted bread, which houses delicious house-cured ham, melty Swiss cheese and red onion. Lastly, it is topped with an organic fried egg and served with some truly fantastic pommes frites. Everything on my plate was perfect in every way. I want to eat this again and again.

Both Maggie and I enjoyed our extremely rich sandwiches so much that we were too full to even split dessert (a rarity). But that only means that I'll have to come back to blackbird to give those a try. The desserts on the menu that day sounded both tasty and interesting, which is in keeping with the reputation that Paul Kahan (Executive Chef) and Mike Sheerin (Chef de Cuisine) have built for blackbird.

In fact, Mike Sheerin was named "Chef of the Year" in the recently released (and always eagerly anticipated by Chicago foodies) "Restaurants Issue" of CS. It's certainly not the first award Sheerin was won for his work at blackbird; he was also named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs this year. But if you want to see what all of the acclaim is about, you'd better make that reservation... In the same CS "Restaurant Issue," Sheerin is quoted as saying that he is plotting his own solo project and intends to launch within the next year -- or two, at the most.

Get in while the getting's good!

Pricing Info: Maggie's and my two entrees plus two appetizers and two soft drinks came to a total of $46. So even if you don't do the prixe fixe menu, you can still get lunch at a hot Chicago restaurant for under $25.

Fun fact: blackbird is named after the slang term for the Merlot grape. Kinda cool, I thought.