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It’s only been a month since I wrote about our first visit to Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, but we found ourselves back there much sooner than we might have expected.

My niece, Sarah and her husband of only a few months, C.J., came to stay with us and visit Chicago for a few days just before Thanksgiving. Sarah’s sister, Stephanie, and her boyfriend, Tim, were already residents of Chicago, so we had a great excuse to take everyone out to dinner. Naturally all our guests were fans of Michael Jordan and steaks, so it made sense to return to his steakhouse. We also invited Valeria’s mom, Vera, to keep all us kids under control. 🙂

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Sarah and C.J. arrived on Friday. Saturday morning we walked a few short blocks to the Streeterville location of Glazed and Infused Donuts for a “healthy” breakfast.

OK, maybe not “healthy” exactly, but darn delicious. The Maple-Bacon Longjohn is a decadent creation and the Apple Fritter is a personal favorite of mine. Donuts have become a thing in Chicago these days. Several boutique donut shops have opened to compete with the Dunkin’ Donuts chain locations and more are scheduled to open in the coming year or so. This does not bode well for my waistline, but the quality, variety and creativity of these donuts is through the roof.

Later that day, just before leaving for dinner, we were able to watch the annual Magnificent Mile Lights Festival with a bird’s eye view from our condo.

You can see more images of the lights and floats in the slide show at the end of this post.

OK, now I’m caught up. We’re off to Michael Jordan’s!

This was definitely a night for celebration. Not only was the holiday season kicking off, but we don’t often get a group of relatives together in Chicago. There are many ways to start a celebration, but few are better than Champagne.

J. Lassalle Champagnes are “go-to” selections for Valeria and me. They are reliably delicious and generally more affordable than the better-known “big names.” The wine world has been historically dominated by men (though women owners and winemakers have been making strides in recent years). J. Lassalle, however, is currently lead by a 3rd-generation female family member. The house was founded in 1942 by Jules Lassalle. When he passed away in 1982, his wife, Olga and their daughter, Chantal, took over. The winemaker today is Chantal’s daughter, Angeline Templar. Their motto is “une femme, un esprit, un style” (one woman, one spirit, one style).

The NV Brut Rosé Premier Cru is a wine that is made only for export to the American market and is a blend of a little more than 2/3 Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (red grapes) and a little less than ⅓ Chardonnay (a white grape). These are the three classic grapes used to make Champagne, but they are used in widely varying proportions to make different styles of bubbly. A higher proportion of the red grapes tend to make the wines heavier and fruitier, while more Chardonnay tends to make a lighter, more elegant wine, although the actually winemaking style can influence this a lot.

Many people still think of rosé or “pink” wines as sweet and cheap, but that is not the case with this wine or, indeed, with virtually all rosés from France. The wine is dry, but has a nice fruitiness that is easy to drink and great with food. At least the participants in this family gathering enjoyed it.

We ordered a couple of appetizers for the table: Nueske’s Double Smoked Bacon with Maple Glaze and Garlic Bread with Wisconsin Roth Kase Blue Cheese Fondue.

I described and discussed these two dishes in detail in my previous article on Michael Jordan’s. Neither dish is popular with the Food Police, but they are really delicious.

A third appetizer was Roasted Bone Marrow with Pickled Horseradish and Sea Salt.

Bone marrow is one of those dishes that tends to divide the world into two camps: “I love it!” or “Gross!”. I’m in the “love” category and find the rich, soft, beefy marrow to be delicious when spread on toast. I totally get it, however, if you are in the “Gross!” category.  🙂

I also enjoyed a Wedge Salad before the steaks came out.

Why? Well, I could say it was to get some extra vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, shallots) into my meal, but that would not be entirely accurate. Mostly I wanted some more of that delicious Neuske bacon (which is served on top of the salad) and more blue cheese.

While I generally advocate only going to a steakhouse if you want steak, almost all of them also offer a few seafood or other non-steak options and Michael Jordan’s is no exception. One person in our party ordered a salmon dish as her entrée.

Non-steak options are often an afterthought at steakhouses. One of the ways a steakhouse can differentiate itself is by offering seafood or other options that have clearly been thought through and executed well. MJ’s met those criteria with their Scottish Salmon with Lentils. The salmon was cooked to a nice medium and the lentils, which have plenty of flavor on their own, were enhanced with some herbs and I think a little garlic. Definitely a dish to consider if you are not a steak person.

For the rest of us, beef. Valeria and I shared a Porterhouse for two, just as we did on our last visit.

I discussed this cut, along with the horseradish, garlic and chimichurri sides, in detail in my previous article, so I won’t repeat it all here. Suffice it to say that the meat was flavorful, tender and more than enough for the two of us.

A couple of our guests ordered a 14 oz Prime NY Strip steak.

This is my personal favorite cut. Here is is wet-aged for 28 days, seasoned well with salt and pepper, and seared to the desired temperature. This is steak at its purest and (arguably) finest: simply aged, seasoned, cooked and presented.

A couple of others went with MJ’s 16 oz Prime Delmonico (i.e., ribeye), dry aged 45 days and served with a ginger-balsamic vinegar jus.

Honestly, I wish they would dry-age the strip steaks, too, as I prefer the more intensely beefy, sometimes slightly funky, flavor of dry-aged beef. This is supposed to be Michael Jordan’s personal favorite, but it really does not need a celebrity endorsement. It stands on its own as an excellent steak. Purists (which I, in all honesty, tend to be at steakhouses) will scoff at the ginger-balsamic jus, but the flavors blend very nicely and do not overpower the meat. The chives and enoki mushrooms on top add a little more subtle flavor, but the meat shines through.

Of course we needed some wine to wash down all this beef. I decided to stick with the female winemaker theme set by the Champagne and chose the 2011 Trombetta Gap’s Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, California.

Trombetta is a family winery in the most literal sense. It started as the dream of CEO Rickey Trombetta Stancliff. Her daughter, Erica Stancliff, who was identified at an early age as a “super taster” (i.e., someone with a very sensitive nose and palate) is the winemaker. Husband/father Roger Stancliff supports his wife and daughter and helps with the business, as does son/brother Michael. The Trombetta name on the label is an homage to Rickey’s father. Rickey grew up in and Italian family in Sonoma county and learned the joys of good food, good wine and having good friends over for dinner parties. Valeria and I were lucky enough to be in California earlier this year and to attend their fall release party, which they hold at their home. The whole family, including the family dog, were warm and welcoming.

I believe the the 2010 Gap’s Crown Pinot Noir was their first commercial release. It was certainly the first one I tasted and it was (and is) an outstanding wine from a really good year for Sonoma Coast Pinots. 2011 was a much more problematic year, but this wine, too, is delicious. A bit more austere than the 2010, there is still very clean aromas and flavors of blackberries and other dark fruits supported with a touch of earthiness (a good thing in a Pinot Noir) and some herbal notes. I am a fan of many of the outstanding Pinot Noirs being produced in the cooler parts of Sonoma County, especially in the west. The Gap’s Crown Vineyard is in the cool Petaluma Gap and several excellent producers bottle a wine made from the grapes grown there.

I guess it is a sign of my advancing age that Erica does not look old enough to me to drink wine, let alone be a winemaker, but all you need to do is talk with her for a few minutes to be convinced that she is, as the saying goes “a trained professional” who not only know the technical stuff but has the passion it takes to be successful in the wine business. Until you get the chance to meet her, take a look at these short “Ask a Winemaker” YouTube videos to learn a little more about her and her approach to winemaking.

Production at Trombetta is small, but you will find the wines on some good restaurant wine lists and (depending on your local wine laws) you can order them on the winery’s website. You can also read more about the family and the story of their journey into winemaking there.

Back to our dinner. Of course we did not just gnaw on our meat like so many cavemen (albeit sophisticated cavemen who drank wine with their roast mastodon). We also had a nice selection of side dishes. I discussed some of these, like the French Fries…

…and mashed potato trio (goat cheese, Lobster-sweet corn, roasted garlic)…

…in my earlier report.

Others we tasted for the first time, including a nice Mexican-inspired riff on corn, where the sweet kernels are flavored with smoked chili-lime butter and cojita cheese.

Mushrooms are almost a requirement with a good steak, so we ordered the Roasted Oyster Mushrooms with garlic and a white soy vinaigrette.

Finally, a nice green vegetable to round thing out: Roasted Asparagus with brown butter, tarragon and lemon:

I think boiling is one of the worse things you can do to most vegetables, including asparagus. Steaming is better, but roasting or grilling is better still. This batch had just the right amount of char and a light dressing of butter, tarragon and lemon.

Valeria and I will, more often as not, skip dessert, but my nieces were raised in a family where desserts are not an option, but a requirement. Valeria and I did not protest too much as a few desserts were chosen for the table. After all, it would be downright un-American to turn down apple pie with ice cream, right?

Key Lime Pie is another American treat, perhaps best enjoyed in the sunshine at some of the specialty bakeries in Key West, but, failing that, it can taste might good in Chicago even as winter approaches.

To round out the trio of desserts chosen: Mascarpone Cheesecake with Greek yogurt sorbet and strawberry-rhubarb jam.

This was a really nice combination of flavors. The cheesecake was rich but relatively light. The yogurt gave a nice tang to the sorbet while the classic strawberry-rhubarb combination made it health food because, well, fruit is good for you, right? Although I guess rhubarb is a vegetable, which is even better because now you have a fruit and a vegetable on the plate.

As you might imagine, we were all pretty stuffed by now. It was a night of good food and good wine with lots of laughs and good conversation among family and friends. I am confident that the ladies of J. Lassalle and Trombetta would be happy to see their wines enjoyed this way and, in fact, probably would have been happy to be a part of the dinner (unless one of them is a vegetarian, in which case the night was a disaster!).

Vera, Stephanie and Tim all went back to their places in Chicago after dinner, while Sarah and C.J. left the next day to go back home to Cleveland (though not before finishing the last of the donuts). If there is anything better than a great Chicago steak dinner, it’s a great steak dinner with people you love.

Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse
Address: 505 North Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60611 (In the Hotel Intercontinental)
Phone: (312) 321-8823
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: http://mjshchicago.com
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Price Range: $31—$50
Hours: Lunch & Dinner
Lunch Daily 11:00am-3:00pm
Dinner: Mon-Thu 5:00pm-10:00pm
Fri-Sat 5:00pm-11:00pm
Sun 5:00pm-9:00pm
AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa

The slideshow includes images not shown in the blog post.

All images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark III camera and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens. Post-processing was done in Adobe Lightroom^® and Adobe Photoshop^® with Nik/Google plugins.

The author has no affiliation with any of the businesses or products described in this article.