Feb. 01--Cherry Circle Room's clubby feel evokes the bygone days of the Chicago Athletic Association, that private bastion of well-heeled sportsmanship. Now, it's the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel (12 S. Michigan Ave., 312-792-3515) -- and anyone can come and enjoy the three-course Chicago Restaurant Week lunch if they've got $22.
The menu sports some dishes with good-for-you robustness, appropriate given the history of this knowingly restored Loop landmark building. It's a lunch that's also quite interesting, offering an array of textures and flavors that can make even something like farro, an ancient and sturdy grain, seem contemporary and compelling.
I fell hard for that farro, which was served like a risotto, deeply flavored and scented with Parmesan cheese. It was studded with roasted butternut squash and celery root, but it was that mouth-filling umami quality of the cheese that stole the show, along with colorful red and white bullseye-patterned coins of chioggia beets. The farro and its various garnitures were held in creamy suspension; the cooked wheat grains were marvelously nubby.
Given the choice of a wild boar sausage sandwich or roasted walleye for the entree, I chose the fish. It was a Midwest touch to what otherwise would have been a Mediterranean stew. The walleye, bravely salted, teamed with three shrimp, three mussels and three clams in a smoked saffron broth with fennel, spiked with a tiny ring or two of red chili pepper. The dish was garnished with two pieces of grilled garlic bread.
That grilled bread was garnished one of the starters, a cozy soup of braised cabbage and pork sausage. It was terrific, a warming choice on a cold January day. The other first course was a chicory salad in a spry vinaigrette topped with a poached egg and notably accented with chunks of pork belly bacon.
For dessert, a confidently contemporary presentation called Chocolate Pumpkin involves cubes of dense chocolate and peanut butter ganache, dollops of pureed pumpkin and apple, pumpkin ice cream seasoned with nutmeg, clove and cinammon and dramatically curled ribbons of spiced meringue. There's a healthy sprinkle of granola and pumpkin seeds, too, a fun reminder of what the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel used to be.
Tribune writers will be filing restaurant reports every day during restaurant week, so please check back.You can read about every place we've been so far here. The ninth annual Chicago Restaurant Week runs through Feb. 4. For a list of participants, menus and online reservations, visit eatitupchicago.com.
wdaley@tribpub.com
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