Oct. 28--At one point there were as many as a dozen Czech restaurants in the Chicago area, most of them grouped along Cermak Road (named after a Czech-born former Chicago mayor), in Cicero and Berwyn, and along Ogden Avenue in Brookfield. I used to call the area the "dumpling corridor."
You visited these places for hearty, heavy, inexpensive food served in abundant portions. You could dine every day for a month and not encounter a green vegetable. You would never call any of these restaurants hip; their utter lack of hipness was part of the experience.
Well, Bohemian House, which opened in July in River North, is hip. Not A-list hip, but it's noisy and lively and pulls in a young crowd, most of them dressed for the place they're headed next. Certainly the restaurant benefits from its proximity to The Underground and other late-night haunts, but with its lounge-y sitting area, cool-looking bar and affectionately retro design elements, Bohemian House is fun on its own.
The chef is Jimmy Papadopoulos, not a name one instantly associates with svickova and sweet-and-sour cabbage, a disconnect the chef readily acknowledges. Before being approached for this gig, Papadopoulos headed the upscale steakhouse Sam Harry's in Schaumburg, and the opportunity to work in River North -- "the lion's den," he calls it -- was irresistible.
Within the parameters of the Czech table, Papadopoulos manages to show flashes of skill and creativity and a fine sense of flavor and balance. His potato pancakes, one of the menu's small-plate appetizers, are topped with sour cream, apple preserves, kohlrabi matchsticks and cured salmon, in a mashup of Czech potato pancakes (with sour cream and applesauce) and latkes with salmon. It works. Another two-apps-in-one creation consists of beef marrow, served in a split bone, but topped with a very good steak tartare and served with plenty of sourdough toast.
The knackwurst in a blanket also works, not just because it's a fine, house-made sausage that probably weighs half a pound; it's cleverly presented, topped with a puff-pastry layer, dabbed with a creamy beer-based vinaigrette and strewn with sweet-and-sour cabbage and turnip. The flavors say Eastern Europe; the visuals say Chicago hot dog.
The bacon buns aren't going to remind many Czechs of the old country, but these large, puffy buns, stuffed with chopped bacon, brushed with bacon fat and sprinkled with a bit of sea salt, are certainly in tune with the cuisine's hearty-eating style, and I can't stop ordering them. Papadopoulos' cauliflower salad struck me as a Lyonnaise salad made on the other side of the Iron Curtain: grilled and chopped cauliflower, tossed with watercress greens in a smoked-onion vinaigrette, sprinkled with fried chicken skin (chicken chicharrones, if you will) and topped with a poached egg.
Papadopoulos offers a "grilled chicken paprikash," which is a rather delicious contradiction in terms. It's not at all a paprikash, but it is a deboned half-bird, grilled and pan-roasted, and seasoned with enough hot paprika to give the chicken a pleasant spice level. It emerges golden-brown and moist, sitting in a pan sauce with a couple of grenade-sized potato dumplings; pickled sweet peppers supply acidic relief. It might be my favorite entree, though I also admire the note-perfect pork schnitzel, with dill potatoes, onions and bacon; and the wonderfully light spaetzle, coated with melted aged Gouda and tossed with braised beef tongue and corn niblets. The skirt steak is on the menu because it has to be, but the perfect medium-rare temperature and well-sourced meat demonstrate that the chef hasn't forgotten his steakhouse roots.
Not everything works. The deviled eggs are a bit too busy; the beef pierogi, though tasty, arguably are a smidge too thick. The kitchen misses badly on only one dish, and, shockingly, it's the roasted duck, which is a Czech mainstay. Papadopoulos offers a bone-in leg-thigh and dresses up the dish with apples, turnips, brandied prunes and smoked hazelnuts. All well and good, and the crisp skin is a definite plus. But the duck that made it to our table -- with a $24 price tag -- was shockingly puny, especially in view of the protein-palooza that makes up the rest of the menu. A couple-three slices of duck breast would go a long way toward justifying this entree's existence.
There are but three desserts, but one of them is a very good kolacky (caramelized plum and poppy seed syrup on my visits; by now likely a cheese version), offered with an optional scoop of gelato or ice cream. A cute "coffee doughnuts" creation presents hazelnut-topped coffee gelato in a coffee cup, alongside four light, sugar-dusted doughnuts.
Service is generally good but needs to get better. On my first visit, on a busy weekend night, we ordered five appetizers, all of which arrived at our table within a five-minute span. It's no fun trying to navigate five dishes simultaneously, and better service would have spaced these plates out more. Another visit, we were seated toward the end of the bar, an area that apparently is designated for idle chatter. If you must comment on what's going on at the table in the far corner, make sure other customers can't hear you.
The clever design touches include a back bar constructed of stacked coffee tables, which is a neat visual. Even neater is a wall-mounted tableau of 14 place settings, arranged as if for a banquet, with Old World-looking china and all the requisite glassware, flatware, candles and centerpieces glued in place. It's playful, but in a respectful way, and I think that sums up Papadopoulos' culinary approach as well. I hope people embrace Boho (as the restaurant refers to itself), because there's really nothing in Chicago quite like it.
Watch Phil Vettel's reviews weekends on WGN-Ch. 9's "News at Nine" and on CLTV.
pvettel@tribune.com
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Bohemian House
11 W. Illinois St.
312-955-0439
bohochicago.com
Tribune rating: Two stars
Open: Dinner Monday-Sunday
Prices: Entrees $17-$30
Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V
Reservations: Strongly recommended
Noise: Conversation-challenged
Other: Wheelchair accessible
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid by the Tribune.
