Feb. 02--I get it: A $22 lunch is an investment on an average workday. But during Chicago Restaurant Week at Bohemian House, you get your money's worth.
Never been? It's a cute spot in River North, simultaneously chic and homey, with flower-rimmed plates like you'd find at grandma's house and a mix of German, Czech and Austrian food. The first pro to the Restaurant Week menu is a choice at every turn: three options for a starter, three options for a main and an either-or for dessert. This makes sharing fun -- and with generous portion sizes, there's plenty to go around.
For the first course, go ahead and judge a book by its cover: The deviled eggs, topped with a cherry-red burst of pepper relish, are as satisfying as they are beautiful. The relish and chili flakes bring a pleasant heat, while a sprinkle of crispy shallots adds texture. They come three to an order; my colleague and I, both eyeing the last, cut it in half to share. (Consider it the opposite of the Judgment of Solomon; this was an undeniable act of love for the egg.)
Spying plenty of sauerkraut and sausage ahead, we opted for the Brussels sprout salad as the other starter, over a sauerkraut soup with kielbasa, potatoes and cabbage. You know how in old Bugs Bunny cartoons, a bed of leaves would be carefully arranged to hide a net that would whoosh up to capture its victim (usually Elmer Fudd)? Here, picture that same nest of leaves hiding a much better surprise: a slow-cooked egg, waiting to be sliced in half to ooze over the Brussels (perfectly cooked, with a little bite), delicately shaved radish and crumbled rye cracker.
A microscopic grumble: I prefer my yolks runnier so I can soak up the flavor in every bite. But on a technical level, this was a gorgeous medium egg.
The entree course is where decisions get hard. Spatzle, weisswurst or schnitzel? Of the "six things you can't live without" on my OKCupid profile, those are the top three. But if you try just one thing I recommend at this lunch, make it the schnitzel. A whale of a pork cutlet, pounded, breaded and pan-fried, comes on thick-sliced toasted rye with horseradish cream, kraut and the star of the show: a mustard with grains the size of caviar pearls, which coat your whole palate and tease you in for one more bite, again and again, until the whole dish is, unthinkably, gone.
If you're not feeling a food coma, the spatzle is a lovely choice, with toothsome pasta, though it went a little Beyonce on the solo act: The sheer amount of spatzle leaves you wondering why there wasn't more broccoli, or those lovely hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. Sometimes you just need a little Michelle, you know?
Dessert I'll make easy for you. Get the apricot kolacky. The three-bite pastries, served warm, boast a delightfully buttery crust, and a stiff, sweet cream with a hint of sour-cream flavor, a nice complement to the sour cream in the dough. The doughnuts, the other choice, are fine, but nothing to text home about.
If you have enough willpower to leave with leftovers, they'll easily do you for lunch tomorrow, making this whole shebang more cost-effective than most lunch spots in the Loop. Restaurant Week, can you last forever?
mconrad@tribpub.com
Twitter @marissa_conrad
