Have you ever re-visited a restaurant that had been OK, but not great, in the past and be very happily surprised by a much-improved experience? It happened to us on this visit to the Albert.
We last visited and reviewed the Albert in October and November of 2017. We had some issues that I won’t rehash here because there have been some major changes.
We were looking for a relatively quick meal and the Albert is not far from our condo. Even though it had just been OK in the past, it was good enough for what we wanted and convenient. We were seated near the rear of the restaurant with a nice view of the private dining area and kitchen.
It’s alway a treat for me to be able to watch a professional kitchen at work. The organization and coordination are fascinating to me.
The first (small) happy surprise came when I looked at the cocktail menu.
The old cocktail menu was divided into categories that were supposed be creative, I suppose, but which I found to be simply confusing. Moreover, the cocktail descriptions were inconsistent in naming ingredients. All fixed! The new list is simple and the descriptions are in a consistent style. I do wish, however, that instead of just listing, for example, “bourbon” or “gin,” that the specific spirit was identified.
There is a famous cocktail from New Orleans called the Vieux Carré (“Old Quarter”) which is the old French name for the area we now call the French Quarter.
The Vieux Carré was created by Walter Bergeron around 1938 at the Hotel Monteleone, home of the famous Carousel Bar that rotates slowly as you sip your drinks. The original recipe called for equal parts of cognac, rye whiskey, and sweet vermouth flavored with both Angostura bitters and Peychaud’s bitters (also invented in New Orleans) and a little Benedictine (an herbal liqueur). The Albert’s play on the drink is called “A Quarter French” (see what they did there?) and substitutes an Amaro for the Benedictine. The type(s) of Amaro used was not specified (but it should be, along with the exact brand names of the other ingredients). The Amrao added somewhat similar, but different, herbal and bitter notes than the classic Benedictine does.
Here’s a short video in the history of the cocktail and how to make it. This, as far as I can determine, is the original recipe and the one I make at home, although lots of variations exist using different bitters and liqueurs (not to mention different brands of cognac, rye, and vermouth), so it’s easy to personalize to your taste.
As we were waiting for our cocktails, the BIG surprise arrived. A familiar face emerged from the kitchen: Chef Larry Feldmeier, who we knew from his days as Executive Sous Chef at Sixteen, is now the Executive Chef at the Albert. He has been there over nine months, but I missed the announcement. He seemed as happy to see us as we were to see him, and our strategy changed from a quick meal to having the Chef’s Tasting Menu, which was listed as 5 courses, but which grew to 8 before we were done. (Our waiter said that Chef likes to over-deliver on the tasting menu.)
First up, one of those delightful little bites called an amuse bouche (amused mouth) that you often wish you could have by the plateful.
This was a great start, with layers of flavors and textures: the creaminess of the cheese, the salty, delicate “pop” of the roe, the crunch of the same seeds, all wrapped in the delicate, slighty sweet pastry.
We’ve all been to lots of parties where one or more of the snacks/hors d’oeuvres were simply crackers with a little something tasty on top. I’ll be you never had one quite like this, though:
A flavorful, crispy, rye cracker was topped with creamy, tangy, goat cheese, sweet figs, crunchy, slightly bitter, radicchio, and sweet, tart, crunchy apples. A great combination of flavors and textures.
Naturally I needed some wine to go with dinner, so I ordered a bottle of 2015 Domaine des Sénéchaux Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the Rhone Valley in France.
I had not had this wine before, but I knew 2015 was a good year and Domaine des Sénéchaux was a reliable producer in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It turned out to be a great choice. Made from a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, it was a much bigger wine than I expected—not a bad thing! Tons of fruit on the nose—blackberries, raspberries, black cherries. Big in the mouth with plenty of tannin, this one belongs in a wine cellar to start drinking in maybe 5 years and keeping for 20.
Next up, a vegetarian (maybe vegan?) dish: thieves’ purses with nettles, artichokes, and mascarpone.
I have always seen these little pasta bundles referred to as “Beggars’ Purses,” but perhaps there is some distinction in the shape that makes it a “thieve’s purse.”
Most of us have had mascarpone (basically, Italian cream cheese, but richer than American cream cheese) in Italian restaurants.
Artichokes are a fairly common ingredient in restaurants and homemade dips, but nettles are not an everyday vegetable. That is at least in part because the common variety, stinging nettles, well, sting. They can hurt like heck if the little hairs on the stems, which contain formic acid, touch your skin. Animals generally do not eat them, but animals can’t pull off some of the tricks that we humans can, thanks to opposable thumbs and the invention of fire. Boiling the nettles deactivates all the poison and makes them safe to eat. At various times in various cultures, they have been an important vegetable. They grow abundantly and are most often considered a weed, not food, these days. Once cooked, they have a distinct taste that falls somewhere in the general area of spinach, arugula, and chard, but not exactly like any of them.
The result of combining all of these common and uncommon ingredients was a colorful, flavorful dish that we enjoyed very much.
Next, we moved into comfort food territory. March is a transitional month in Chicago. It can be as cold as winter one day and warm as late spring the next, so comfort food was still very much in season. How about a nice bean and rabbit stew?
“Confit” just means that the rabbit was cooked for a long time at a relatively low temperature submerged in fat, although in modern kitchens sous vide water circulators often replace the pot full of oil. It’s an old form of preservation that results in meltingly tender meat. Historically, meat prepared this way would simply be left in the fat as it cooled, solidified, and sealed the meat away from the air. The confit just needs to be heated up with some beans and herbs in a rich, thick sauce, served with some good bread, and you’re done.
I did have a discussion with Chef Feldmeier about the beans. They were cooked sort of al dente, but I like to cook mine until they are silky smooth. He explained that it’s one of those things he can’t win on. Some customers like they beans really soft, other like a bit of bite, so whichever way he does it, some people will be happy, some not. That makes sense to me, and given how good the dish tasted, I will forgive all of those people who don’t know how beans should be cooked.
And the last (but not least) savory course: beef with cipollini onions three ways.
I was so intrigued by the various ways the cipollini onions were being used that I missed exactly what cut of beef this was, but I think it was a hanger steak. Anyway, the cipollini sauce, cipollini onion rings, and steamed cipollini added different flavors and textures to the potatoes and meat. Sometimes one ingredient appears in multiple ways in a dish and they don’t all work, but this was a masterclass in how to use those little onions 3 very different ways on one plate to great success.
We could easily have stopped at that point, but there were a couple of desserts Chef wanted up to try, so we soldiered on.
First: a clever re-engineering of that fireside favorite, a S’More.
For those of you who don’t know, a S’More is a treat normally made around a campfire or fireplace. A marshmallow is toasted until soft and gooey, then sandwiched between two graham crackers with one or two pieces of chocolate (Hershey’s milk chocolate is the most iconic). This was definitely a high-end version of a childhood favorite. The graham cracker became a tart shell that was filled with marshmallow and chocolate. Yum!
Our last course was a Blueberry Cheesecake Pavlova with goat cheese and a smoked Graham cracker.
A traditional Pavlova is a merengue shell, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, filled with fresh fruit and whipped cream. This was a cleverly constructed deconstruction-reconstruction with crisp meringue chips around a mound of soft meringue. When we cut it open, here’s what we found:
Like almost every course we had tonight, this was a great combination of flavors and textures that were delicious together.
So, Chef Larry has definitely fixed all of the issues I had with his predecessor’s menu and, in fact, elevated it significantly beyond that. He has also improved things on the wine and cocktail side, although there is still work to do on the wine side. The Albert is now a neighborhood gem that, as a hotel restaurant, may continue to fly somewhat under the radar. Foodies, give it a shot and go for the Chef’s Tasting Menu.
The Albert (In EMC2 Hotel)
Address: 228 E Ontario St Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 471-3883
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: https://thealbertchicago.com
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Price Range: $31–$50
Hours: Sun–Wed, 6:00 am–10:00 pm
Thu–Sat, 6:00 am–11:00 pm
Brunch: Sat, Sun 6:00 am–2:00 pm
Breakfast: Mon–Fri 6:00 am–11:00 am
Lunch: Mon–Fri 11:00 am–3:00 pm
Happy Hour: Mon–Fri 3:00 pm–6:00 pm
Credit Cards: AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Chicago, IL 60611
The author has no affiliation with any of the businesses or products described in this article.
All images were taken with an Apple iPhoneX using ambient light. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom® and Adobe Photoshop® with Nik/Google and Skylum® Luminar® plugins.
