A little while back, I made my pilgrimage to The Publican, a restaurant on Fulton Market in Chicago that is well-renowned at a national level, and has won awards for it's design. And sure enough, the place was cool has hell. Globe lights coming down from the ceiling. Cool wood chairs with high backs, and matching tables. And the most noticeable things are the gigantic piantings of different heritage breeds of pigs. Definitely a talking point. The seating was sort of communal - just a long bench, and you got seated next to other parties. And in the middle were some round, 2-tiered tables w/ no chairs, where people waiting for their tables could get a brew. This place was a little casual - but it was still a place where people were spending $40/person. We were slightly underdressed in jeans and a polo or jeans and an untucked dress shirt. But not completely out of place. The place had a nice energy to it, a little buzz from the conversation, but the crowd was older. Most of the folks looked to be in their 40's or 50's. But it may have been the 5:30pm Saturday time... a little on the early side for the younger crowd.
But to be honest, I'm not as worried about the crowd, the ambience, renown, or design. I'm there because I've read great things about Paul Kahan, the chef/owner, and The Publican's devotion to all things pig. So, me and CJ wandered over, and we sat down to devour as much as we could physically handle. It was real, and it was spectacular.
First of all, The Publican is a place molded in the gastropub theme. You have a great selection of alcohol, done with a vision. In this case, it's good beer. And then you put great food around it. In this case, it's pig, done with a blend of European tradition, with some American twists thrown in. Pretty much everything that we had was good, and some of it was spectacular. We pretty much ignored the seafood, and went basically all pig.
The first thing that came out was just plain indulgent. Some really nice french fries. And two sunny-side eggs on top. Cut the eggs and let the yolk run all over the fries. Awesome. Love runny egg yolks on just about anything...
Next up, a trio of cured hams. The folks at Publican have a number of choices, including some really nice American ham, including hams from Kentucky and Iowa. The chef's choices we got were the Spanish Serrano ham, the Italian Prosciutto, and a American country ham. Both of the European hams were nice - creamy texture, nice clean flavor, and just what you'd expect. These were the high-dollar hams, and worth the price. Now, the country ham was noticeably cheaper, but I actually liked it the best. My comment was that if you blind-folded me and didn't tell me what I was eating, that I'd like the country ham the best. It was a little sweet, and had some nice, deep spice notes going on (clove, was what I was thinking). Just great stuff.
Similarly, the charcuterie plate was just darned good. It came with some pickled asparagus, some cornichon, and some thing else that I have no idea what it was (green, looked a little like grapes crossed with olives). All were nice. And it came with three types of mustard. The pork confit (I think), and pork pie (basically, a little 1.5" radius, 1.5" tall quarter-wedge with a nice pie crust, with some cured pork and pork fat in there) were solid. The house cured Chorizo (nicely done, good spice) was really enjoyable. But what stole the show was the head cheese and the squab and fois gras terrine. The head cheese was meaty, and had a nice solid gelatin going on. It stayed together until the gelatin melted in your mouth, and the meat was noticably meat. Nice flavor. Great product. The squab and fois gras terrine was just decadent. Creamy, rich, a little salty. Like I said - not everything was spectacular, but everything was good, and there were some definitely high notes.
The next thing that came out were the rillettes. I had no idea what a rillette was, until the server explained it. Basically, it's a slow-cooked cut of meat, and traditionally cooked in it's own fat (like a confit, only it's shredded or cut before cooking), and then cooled. It all solidifies, and then you spread it on toast. It's ridiculously good at Publican. They put on a finely chopped pickled rhubarb on top for a little tang and crunch. I love the old school preparation. Back in the day, if you pack something in fat, you did it so that it wouldn't spoil. Today we have refrigeration, so now you do it because it's awesome.
The one thing that I had overlooked in the starters was the pork rinds, and in retrospect, may have eschewed the fries (though they were darned good) and went with the pork rinds. But what we got was all good, and the rillettes were awesome.
Then came the entrees. Now, I guess that I lied about going all pig. I couldn't resist the Basque stew. It was essentially a slightly spicy fish stew (a lot like bouillabaisse), with a lot of fennel, some orange, and an assortment of shrimp, clams, mussels, crab, octopus, and salt cod. All of the fish was cooked well (not overcooked, which is easy to do in these dishes), and the cod was spectacularly tender. It's served with a few slabs of toasted bread and rouille (a spicy mayo). You slather some rouille on the bread, and then ladle the soup and seafood over the bread. You work on the seafood, while the bread soaks up the broth. Then, you eat the bread, and get a nice meal. If you told me it was just bouillabaisse, I'd have believed you. I think that what made it "Basque" was some saffron and orange (and maybe Spanish paprika) and the salt cod. But it was good.
But to finish off, we definitely went back to swine, with the potee, which is essentially a dish all cooked in one vessel. I'm not sure if the version at Publican was a true version, but it was great. Ours came with three choice versions of pork. The first was a very nice smoked sausage - meaty, smoky, and a salty. No complaints. The next was a cut of braised pork shoulder, which was incredibly tender and tasty. The last cut was pork tenderloin. Tender, reasonably tasty, and incredibly uninteresting. All of it came on top of roast veggies - brussel sprouts, baby turnips, baby carrots, zucchini, and a little aioli. The veggies were nicely cooked, and the aioli was a great touch. I guess that I was hoping for a little cut of pork belly or maybe something like a trotter. But all in all it was a nice entree.
I had to add one side, that looked incredible. Italian-style greens. I think that it was collard greens, cooked with some ham, and then finished with some balsamic. The greens were really good. And what took it over the top was the breaded, fried hominy that was on top. Never would have figured it. Crispy, then dense and flavorful. Great addition to the greens, and a top-notch side item.
Looking back at the menu, a couple nice, bold red wines may have been the way to go. But the focus of Publican was beer. So I rolled with beer. I went with a Great Lakes Brewing Co. brew - the porter on draft. Nice, dark, complex coffee/chocolate notes. A little sweet and bitter at the end. And it went great with the food. CJ stuck w/ the iced tea - he had almost died from drinking the night before, and wasn't about to go with the hair of the dog.
But we gorged ourselves. I walked out of there wondering why I ate so much. But the answer was obvious. The food was awesome. This is high end cooking, and there's a reason why people rave about this place. If you get a chance to go, you should definitely go. Have a nice beer, have some rillettes, have some pork rinds, and have a great time.
So, why is this post only Part I? Because I had to follow this up with a trip to Cochon, in New Orleans. And what is Cochon? Well, "cochon" is "pig" in French. I said that Publican leaned toward European-style preparations, with some American twists. On the other Cochon is southern cooking, with a little bit of an European twist. And naturally, I had to see the difference for myself.
-foodgeek
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