The Barn in Evanston, from Amy Morton - Terrific!

This week we had dinner at The Barn, the new restaurant in downtown Evanston from owner Amy Morton and chef Nicole Peterson, the team from Found, a few blocks away. In a word, it was terrific! We ordered seven dishes, and all seven were standouts. And the atmosphere was delightful too.

I'll get to the food in a moment, but first, I love the building and its unique history. Yes, it was once a barn, in the middle of what is now downtown Evanston. And then it was vacant for over a hundred years, until Amy found it and transformed it into the restaurant. The reason it survived so long must be that it has no street frontage; follow the directions on their website to find it (they have valet parking at their entrance on the alley). When you walk in, there's a full-length curtain, and walking through it is like walking into another world. The brick walls are obviously original, while the inside is now a comfortable, modern restaurant with some original design flourishes. The ceiling is two stories high, and at one end of the room is a second floor used for dining, overlooking the main floor. The noise and activity level is festive, but still conversation-capable and not oppressively loud. The restaurant was full, even though it was a weekday. (I strongly recommend making reservations in advance.)


Okay, the food! As I mentioned, we loved every one of these dishes.

Soupe de Poisson - shellfish soup with poached halibut and herbed cream. This was a very rich reduced broth, such as in a bisque.


Tomato & Onion Tart - served cool from our farm table - cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, cornmeal crust and thyme. This sits on a table at the entrance to the restaurant and is one of the first things you see when you walk through the curtain. The crust is crumbly, almost like a shortbread. (Sorry for the picture quality.)


Warm King Crab with Golden Beet & Horseradish - butter poached crab, beet nage, pea tendrils and relish. I loved this dish, which amazed in part because of the way the ingredients combined; they are chopped fine so you have to eat them together, and the contrasting flavors and textures blended in a perfect harmony.


Chicken Pot Pie - creamy chicken velouté with flaky pastry crust. This entrée is a weekly special on Wednesdays only. It was a very good version, with a nicely meaty filling and not all that much liquid. Also noteworthy, the liquid was more like a rich chicken broth, and not the overly-floured gravy you sometimes find in this dish.


Crispy Sweetbreads - brown butter, lemon, capers, potato and cipollini onions. The website says that this is their weekly special on Thursdays only, but they changed their menu; the Thursday special is now a braised lamb shank. The sweetbreads are now on their everyday menu as an appetizer, or you can request a double portion as a main course, which is what we did. I love a great sweetbreads dish, one in which the pieces of sweetbreads are large enough that their unique flavor and texture shines through, and that's what this one was.


Crème Brulee - vanilla crème brulee topped with raspberries, finished tableside.

Cherry Cheesecake - vanilla sour cream cheesecake with macerated cherries, finished tableside. An excellent version, maybe the best cheesecake I've had in Chicagoland, with a rich filling and a graham cracker crust with a strong cinnamon flavor.


So that's the food we had, and every single one of those seven dishes was absolutely superb.

The service was consistently helpful and friendly, if slightly overworked thanks to the restaurant being full (even on a weekday - see above). They use a team approach, with three individuals (TJ, Luke, and Kim) serving us. Amy herself was in the room and stopped by many of the tables to chat, including ours.

I have one very very minor quibble, but it's worth mentioning, especially in case the folks at the restaurant read this. It was my companion's birthday, and I noted this in the advance reservation. The quibble is that there was no acknowledgment of the occasion by the restaurant. This is something that they could do without much cost or trouble, whether it means lighting a candle in one of the desserts, or writing happy birthday on the dessert plate, or just having the waitstaff wish us a happy birthday once or twice during the meal. Not a major flaw, but something they can do better. But again, this is very minor, and when it comes to the food and the service, they presented a wonderful, awesome dinner. We look forward to returning soon!

The Barn
Rear 1016 Church Street
Evanston 60201
847-868-8041
thebarnevanston.com

We went back to the Barn last night, and once again it was outstanding. This time we sat on the main floor, and unfortunately the photos came out a bit dark, oh well. Here are the dishes we tried this time around, in addition to the ones we repeated from last time.

Table-side Little Gem & Creamy Dijon Salad - chopped egg, pumpkin seeds, parmigiano reggiano & pickled vidalia onions. Tableside prep, with a choice of bacon or anchovies added.


Pan-seared Pork Chop - sweet potato puree, roasted apple & hazelnut relish.


Prime heritage 14 oz Angus New York Strip - presented on the bone with red-wide demi-glace and served with butterball potatoes & marrow butter.


Prime heritage 10 oz filet mignon - with red-wide demi-glace and served with butterball potatoes & marrow butter.


Pan-seared calves liver - bacon, leek, red wine reduction and black pepper.

I also took a nice photo of the tableside prep of the cherry topping for the cheesecake:


I know some of these photos look very dark, but they don't do the food justice; it was excellent, despite what may appear in the photos. In particular, those who ordered the steaks loved them, and one said it was one of the best steaks she had ever had.

We were there last night for Sue's birthday, and the food was indeed terrific.
Most of what we had is pictured above, so I don't feel bad for not having taken pictures.
We had the crab, the little gem salad, the 16oz rib-eye (not pictured above, but served the same way), and a side of roasted mushrooms (also not pictured above).

The potatoes (which are served with the steaks and available as a side) are truly fantastic: buttery (I don't taste the marrow), sweet, just about perfect. The mushrooms have a great fire-kissed char flavor, and although there's a wide variety of them in the dish (with a layer of creme fraiche at the bottom), they're all cooked equally well. The steak was awfully close to perfect, lacking only a little crustiness, but tender and very flavorful.

I was less excited about the appetizers: the crab was tasty, but didn't wow me (no hint of the listed horseradish, I could have used more pea shoots), and the salad was also good, but needed a little something to push it over the top.

For dessert, we split the chocolate mousse. Excellent, deep chocolate flavor with crushed candied hazelnuts.

Great special-occasion restaurant that couldn't have existed when went to school in the early 80's.

My meal was acutally close to the opposite from above. Wife and I LOVED the appetizers, particularly that crab salad and bison tartare. Our steaks were well cooked and high quality meat, but were lacking a proper sear. Not a dealbreaker in the slightest as the meat was still damn good, but a surprising break from current trends where everyone seems to want to put that crust on a steak.

The misses for us were that mushroom side, which comes with a heavy handed shmear of creme fraiche underneath and just ended up gloppy, and the otherwise delicious cheesecake that was undermined by a tableside cherry topping that tasted of about 99% cinnamon. If I'm back I will definitely order it dry next time (or on the side).

admich wrote:the otherwise delicious cheesecake that was undermined by a tableside cherry topping that tasted of about 99% cinnamon. If I'm back I will definitely order it dry next time (or on the side).

We had the delicious cheesecake, but didn't taste any cinnamon in the topping. OTOH the graham cracker crust had an unusually high concentration of cinnamon taste to it. (It was perhaps the best cheesecake crust I've ever had.)

Picked up curbside (alley side?) carryout orders of tenderloin and short ribs. Plenty of sides were included. Perhaps the most unusual side: