I am a foodie. Yeah, I know. Huge surprise if you know me or have read a few of the entries on this website. So what do I think of when planning something for Valentine’s Day? Well, sure, you gotta have the traditional flowers and cute cards.
I would never skimp on those. Valeria finds cards hidden around our place all day long (more than are pictured here). The flowers are usually delivered the day before. Still, on any special occasion, my thoughts immediately turn to making a reservation at one of the Michelin ★★ and ★★★ restaurants that are all around us in Chicago. For me, there’s nothing like a great tasting menu featuring a dozen or so courses with skillfully matched wines or other adult beverages to accompany each course, stretching over three hours or more.
The truth is, while Valeria has definitely become a foodie and loves great food and wine, she really only enjoys the first ¾ or so of these gastronomic marathons. By that point she is pretty full, but carries on for my sake, sharing more and more of the rest of her courses with me. Love can be shown in many ways.
This year, however, I decided to take a different approach, one where we could focus a bit more on each other and less on the food. After over 10 years of marriage, I am happy to report that we still very much enjoy quality time together.
My plan was pretty simple:
- Cards and flowers ✅
- Nice, but not over the top, brunch
- Afternoon together time
- Evening at the theater
- After-theater light supper
The day started with sleeping in—another activity we both love. After a lazy morning and some good coffee (we love our Nespresso® machine, worthy of a rhapsodic blog of its own), it was off to brunch at The Kitchen. Not our kitchen, but the restaurant called The Kitchen. The Kitchen is a small chain of restaurants that started in Boulder CO and are still mostly in that area. To save myself some typing, let me just lift the story of the restaurants from their website:
We believe that gathering around the table and sharing good food and drink is what connects us as family, friends and a community. It’s the essence of “Community Through Food.”
More than just a philosophy; it’s also the story of how The Kitchen began.
In 2002, Kimbal Musk and Jen Lewin had just moved to Boulder, CO with the intention of opening a restaurant when, while walking along Pearl Street, their black Lab jumped into the lap of Hugo Matheson, who was enjoying a cup of tea outside a popular cafe. In the exchange of apologies Kimbal and Hugo recognized each other’s foreign accents – Kimbal Musk is a native of Pretoria, South Africa and Hugo Matheson is a native of Newmarket, England – which led to the type of small talk one might expect, ‘Where are you from?’, ‘Do you live here?’, etc.
What one may not have expected is that this casual chitchat led to a spontaneous dinner invitation – an unforgettable meal, prepared by Hugo Matheson, that years later would be remembered by Kimbal Musk as “one of the best-tasting and most relaxing meals of my life.”
It was during this dinner that Hugo, Kimbal and Jen first conceived of the idea to create a ‘world-class neighborhood restaurant’ that would eventually be called The Kitchen. The name ‘The Kitchen’ was chosen for it was their desire to create a restaurant that would act much like the kitchen in one’s home – a center of conversation and connection – the place everyone likes to hang out. On March 16, 2004, the three co-founders opened The Kitchen in downtown Boulder, the first of a growing family of community bistros, pubs and a cocktail lounge.
Today, The Kitchen has locations across Colorado in Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins, one location in Chicago and three locations coming soon to Memphis. The Kitchen restaurants are built by a community of craftsman, serving food & drink from local farmers, ranchers and purveyors for the sustainable enjoyment of the whole community – including staff. Being a community establishment also includes our commitment to environmentally-friendly practices, including composting, wind power, eco-friendly packaging and recycling.
The Kitchen was perfect for the mood and ambience I wanted for this Valentine’s Day. Their Chicago location (and presumably the others as well) is a very warm, open setting that somehow combines some of the hardness of the city (concrete and steel) with softer elements from the country (wood, huge windows looking out on the Chicago River). Modern elements blend with solid, more rustic chairs and family-size tables. The bar, the dining area and the kitchen are all open and communal, though you can easily get a quiet table for two.
As it happened, the weather on Valentine’s Day in Chicago was more like what you might want on Christmas Day. Snow flurries flew for much of the day. There was not enough accumulation to cause any trouble, but a light coating of white on everything looked lovely.
The winter has been very mild in Chicago this year, with very little snow and only a few days of really cold temperatures, so we were able to enjoy this touch of more typical mid-western winter weather.
The plan was to have a relatively simple brunch, but it was still Valentine’s Day. There had to be Champagne. Real Champagne, not a token glass of cheap Prosecco. On this I would not compromise, so I ordered a bottle of NV Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru “Viellissement Prolongé” Extra Brut Champagne.
Don’t you just love the names of European wines? Can’t they just label it “Sparkling Chardonnay” and be done with it? Well, the names may be intimidating at first, but, once you learn to read them, they offer a wealth of information. Let’s translate this one.
“NV” stands for non-vintage. That means the grapes used to make the wine were not all grown in the same year; wines from several vintages were blended together. This is common practice in Champagne, but even the best producers offer one or more non-vintage blends that are made to reflect a consistent house style from bottle to bottle and year to year. So, if you prefer, for example, the lighter, Chardonnay-driven style of Taittinger, you can buy their NV “La Francaise” Brut and get a consistent style of light, dry Champagne year after year. If you are in the mood for a more full-bodied Champagne, something like the NV Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut, made with a much higher proportion of Pinot Noir, is consistently bigger and more yeasty than the Taittinger. Each house has developed its own signature style for their NV wines, while the vintage wines, made entirely from the grapes of one vintage, may vary considerably in style, reflecting the characteristics of different vintages.
Not so long ago, if you wanted a bottle of Champagne, you would have to choose between the products of the very large champagne houses like Taittinger, Bollinger, Moët et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Perrier-Joust and a few others. These producers generally own large tracts of vineyards and so produce relatively large amounts of wine. They have been around a long time (a century or two—some much longer) so they also have great brand recognition. Volume and name recognition make exporting to the United States and other countries cost-effective for them.
In addition to the big growers and producers, however, there are many small [less than 5 acres (2 hectares)] vineyard owners—around 15,000—who don’t grow enough grapes to economically produce and distribute their own wines. They have traditionally sold their grapes, often of extremely high quality, to the large producers. In recent years, however, as the interest in fine wine has grown and distribution channels have become more efficient, many small producers now make and export their own wines to major markets. The large producers still make Champagnes that are anywhere from good to amazing in quality. There is no guarantee that a small producer will necessarily make a great or even a good wine, but it often works out that way. In any event, we have never had a broader range of styles and flavors of Champagnes to choose from.
Egly-Ouriet is one such small producer. The Egly family started growing grapes and selling them to the big producers in 1930. The 4th generation, Francis Egly, took over the operation in the 1980s. Francis was wise or lucky enough to marry a woman who had inherited about the same number of acres of grapes that he had. Their combined farmland totals about 30 acres (12 hectares) of almost all Grand Cru (i.e., the highest rated) vineyards in Ambonnay, Bouzy, Vrigny and Verzenay. Each of these villages is home to some of the best vineyards in Champagne. Given the tremendous quality of his vineyards and the reasonable size of the family holdings, Francis decided to stop selling his grapes to the big producers and make his own wine. His wines were well-received, but the big change came in 1995 when Robert Parker (arguably the most influential wine critic in the world for the last 30 or 40 years) ranked the Champagnes of Egly-Ouriet with the very greatest of Champagne producers. Other critics followed suit and a new star was born in Champagne.
Egly-Ouriet produces a half-dozen or so Champagnes each year. Their vineyards are about 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Meunier. Pinot Meunier is normally a minor blending grape in Champagne, but Egly-Ouriet bottles a 100% Pinot Meunier that is outstanding, which says something about his ability to get the very best out of his vineyards.
The “Viellissement Prolongé” (prolonged aging) spends up to 70 months aging in the bottle in contact with the yeast cells that produced the carbon dioxide bubbles. (French law requires a minimum of only 18 month of aging for NV wines.) The label tell us that the grapes for the wine came from the classic Grand Cru vineyards in Ambonnay, Boozy, and Verzenay. It also says that the wine is Extra Brut, which tells us that the wine is very dry (“dry” in wine-speak means “not sweet”). Most of the Champagne that is consumed in the US is Brut, which is a dry style. If the label says Extra Dry, however, it is actually a bit sweet. If you see Sec, which is the french word for “dry,” on the label, the wine is sweet, while a Demi-Sec (“half-sweet”) Champagne is sweeter still. Confused? I don’t blame you.
In summary, the label tells us that the wine is made by the Egly-Ouriet in the Champagne (region) with grapes from Grand Cru (best) vineyards in Ambonnay, Bouzy, and Verzenay. The grapes grown in several vintages (non-vintage or NV). It is very dry (Extra Brut).
Having said all of that, all that really matters is: how did it taste? In a word, delicious. The long aging gives the wine a rich, creamy texture and a yeasty nose that has hints of apricots, peaches, mushrooms, nuts and many aromas that are just too etherial to put name on. This is definitely a Valentine-worthy bottle of Champagne. You can expect to pay around $100 for a bottle in a wine shop. While it is not cheap, other Champagnes of equal (or even significantly less) quality can cost several times that much.
With Champagne safe in hand we cold turn our attention to food. The Brunch Menu at The Kitchen features a number of classics, some unique dishes, and a homemade touch to most everything. As I noted earlier, it was a wintry day, and what is better on a cold day than a bowl of hot tomato soup?
This was clearly made from scratch. A thick purée of tomatoes with a nice balance of sweetness and acidity. Valeria thought it was a bit salty, but it tasted just right to me. The little splash of olive oil on top was just enough to add a some variation in taste and mouthfeel to some spoonfuls.
We stayed traditional with our entrée selections. Valeria went with quiche and a salad.
The quiche of the day was vegetarian and it was perfectly cooked – creamy and flavorful. The salad, was, well, a salad; fresh greens, lightly dressed.
My choice was far less virtuous: Eggs Benedict.
This was a plate full of flavors and textures, most of which worked for me and just one that did not. The first great twist was serving the eggs with Béarnaise Sauce rather than the more traditional Hollandaise Sauce usually found on Eggs Benedict. Both sauces are basically egg yolks emulsified with butter and a little lemon juice but Béarnaise is also flavored with fresh herbs. In this case, fresh tarragon was added to the sauce. I love tarragon and it’s great with eggs. The eggs were perfectly poached and the house made English Muffin was really nice. The last component was a thick slice of house-cured Canadian bacon, and that is the piece that didn’t work for me. By itself, the Canadian bacon was terrific, with a rich, smoky flavor. However, that strong smoky flavor overwhelmed the rest of the components of the dish. I am a huge fan of slow, smoky barbecued meats, but, to my taste, the smokiness was too much for this dish. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the dish anyway and finished it all!
Here is a modern, relatively simple way to make your own Béarnaise. Give it a try and impress your friends.
The potatoes were amazing. They were rather roughly chopped with a mixture of smaller and larger pieces. This often means that the large pieces are undercooked, with hard centers, and the smaller pieces are overcooked and dried out. Somehow, they did not do that. The large and pieces were all fully cooked and creamy on the inside, crunchy on the outside. Moreover, the flavor was amazing. The waiter wouldn’t give up all the flavoring secrets, but among them was the addition of a vinaigrette before the final frying. Fried potatoes on a brunch plate are usually somewhere between awful and good in my experience, but these were just outstanding.
Since it was Valentine’s Day, something sweet was in order. Once again, Valeria took the (relatively) healthy route and went with the poached pear.
Poaching a pear properly is not difficult, but it has to be done right. This one was done right. The pear was perfectly cooked—tender, but not mushy—in what must have been a very flavorful mixture of wine and spices. It had to have been left to cool and soak in the poaching liquid for some time, as the flavor had penetrated all the way to the core of the pear. The bourbon ice cream was also clearly homemade and delicious—creamy and just a nice touch of bourbon flavor. The graham cracker-granola bar was a little dry for me, but Valeria loved it.
And for me? The first thing I saw on the menu was Grandma Link’s Glazed Donut.
Very often when something is called “Grandma’s,” it’s just a marketing phrase that sounds good. In this case, however, there really is a Grandma Link and these donuts are made using her recipe. One of the staff used to bring them in for the staff meals (which they all eat together at a big table – nice!). They were so good that they convinced the chef to put them on the menu. It’s a beautiful cake donut with some warm spices, glazed with a Krispy-Kreme like frosting. Yummy!
The servers were also terrific that day. We had not finished our Champagne by the time we had finished our food, so we asked them to hold off on dessert until the wine was gone. Some restaurants won’t give you that space, but they did here, waiting until our wine glasses were down to a sip or two before bringing out the desserts. (For those of you who don’t know, a sweet dessert will make a dry wine taste terrible, so it is important to finish the wine before dessert).
Overall, we very much enjoyed our meal in The Kitchen. On a nice day, it would have been a very pleasant walk from the restaurant, along the Chicago River and back to our condo, but the wet snow and wind argued for an Über ride.
The afternoon was spent sharing some quality time back in our condo. Those details will remain unreported. I’ll be back, however, with another blog covering Part 2 of our Valentine’s: Martians, Venusians and Beatrix. See you then.
The Kitchen
Address: 316 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: (312) 836-1300
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: http://thekitchen.com/the-kitchen-chicago/
Dress Code: Casual Elegant
Price Range: $31—$50
Hours: Lunch Daily 11:00am-5:00pm; Dinner Daily: 5:00pm to 10:00pm
AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Chicago, IL 60654
The slideshow contains some images not included in the text.
All images were taken with a Sony A6000 camera and a Sony-Zeiss SEL1670Z Vario-Tessar T E 16-70mm (24-105mm full frame equivalent) F4 ZA OSS lens using ambient light. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom® and Adobe Photoshop with Nik/Google plugins.
