EL ideas

I know we're new and apparently not yet reviewed, but it seems silly to me that there is nothing mentioned or category formed here on a search of our new restaurant project. Aren't there any Chicago based foodies here?

EL
2419 W. 14th Street
Chicago
http://elideas.com

Whoa! Little pushy there big guy............

I don't know much about your restaurant but I'm interested based on some press I've seen here and there (actually, much less interested because of your post). A google search yielded little information. How does one get in the door if so inclined? What's the menu like? Do you have a website?

One way to endear yourself to this community would be to know something about it. An owner wondering where his review is isn't the way. In fact, it leaves a bad taste. May want to try posting this in the correct place as well, which under these circumstances would be in the professional forum.

I'm sure if anyone here was able to secure a seat, they'd have reported on it. But as it is, it's a bit hard with I believe only 15 seats a night, and open Thurs-Sun. And I usually can't make the 6pm reservation during the week. I am intrigued, but will have to wait till the time is right. In the meantime, someone who does make it in will have to report in.

"Where is this place?"

As we pull up behind a food truck, I breathe a sigh of relief and gratitude. Relief that we are 10 minutes ahead of our reservation time of 7pm. Gratitude for Google Navigation on my phone.

Chef Philip Foss was the executive chef at Lockwood, in the Palmer House Hilton. He left the restaurant last year and started his meatball sandwich food truck business. Now that his Meatyballs empire is on its way, Chef Foss decided to open a restaurant in the same location where his meatballs roll out.

Chef Andrew Brochu was formerly at Kith and Kin, which was 3 blocks away from where I live. My husband, who does not share my love for food, was thoroughly infatuated with Chef Brochu's skate wing dish at K&K. While I am sad that Kith & Kin is no longer, I am happy Chef Brochu has found a place at EL.

My friend and I were extremely lucky and honored that we scored reservations on opening night. While I usually shy away from dining at a newly opened restaurant, I could not pass this up.

Here's the concept: 11 courses, 1 menu. Allergies are accommodated, but dislikes are not. Everyone starts their meal at the same time. You come late and you will miss the course. Oh, and the menu costs $125, and it's BYOB.

I would normally take the opportunity to detail out what I thought of each course, but that would spoil the surprise for everyone else. Not to mention the dishes are seasonal and you may not get what we were served. So I will try and keep my comments to a minimum, but will definitely call out the highlights and criticisms of the night.


EL - brandade / caviar / blini / apple by agashi, on Flickr



EL - arancini / yogurt / young grapes / saffron by agashi, on Flickr


EL - haricots vert / black garlic / mustard / bee pollen by agashi, on Flickr

Wow… who knew green beans would be so… exciting! Tiny, impossibly small green beans, served with a "ball" of… sliced green beans held together with a glee. Black garlic gave an interesting counterpoint. Sweet, chewy, crunchy, vegetal. One of my favorite dishes of the night.


EL - chicken wing / celery / rhubarb / bleu cheese by agashi, on Flickr

Another highlight… Lollipopped chicken wing with a warm, creamy bleu cheese mousse. For a non-blue cheese lover, this was a hit. The celery rhubarb "salad" on the bottom was a perfect foil for the richness of the chicken.


EL - smoked oyster / vinegar / tomato seed / ocean froth by agashi, on Flickr

The smell of campfire preceded this dish. The cast iron pots were blazing hot, searing into the wood below. The lid opens and you see a lonely oyster perched on wood chips. Ocean froth (not foam, because that's SO 2000) is added on top.


EL - blueberry jus, cabernet verjus foam by agashi, on Flickr


EL - lobster / turnip / carrot / lily by agashi, on Flickr

My first criticism of the night. The lobster was perfectly cooked, sweet and tender. But the lobster broth was a tad oversalted.


EL - osso bucco / bibb / truffle / parmesan by agashi, on Flickr


EL - porcini / lamb tongue / beans / green garlic by agashi, on Flickr


EL - duck / cherries / onion /szechuan by agashi, on Flickr

Another instance of oversalting. The duck confit (hidden behind the breast) was salty again. But the duck breast was so perfectly medium rare, with the crispy skin.


EL - burrata / tomatoes / olive / gooseberries by agashi, on Flickr

I was so happy and sad when this course arrived. I love burrata. On a recent trip to Whole Foods for bread, I saw the burrata and pounced on it. $14 for a small palm-sized piece. Which is how I know the burrata they served was from Whole Foods. Because of the size of EL, they were unable to get this from a supplier. So they chose to splurge at Whole Foods paying retail! They didn't have to, but I am glad they did.


EL - peach / berries / forbidden rose / cocoa nib by agashi, on Flickr


EL - Chocolate Salty Balls by agashi, on Flickr


EL - Team by agashi, on Flickr

The small staff (4 in kitchen, 1 front of house) means that all 8 of us had plenty of interactions with the chefs. Bill was an excellent server with a great wine background. From chilling our whites to airing our reds, he was on point with everything. Eating at EL is less eating at a high-end restaurant than eating with really good friends of which 2 of them are outstanding chefs.

All in all, an excellent dinner. So reasonably priced for the quality of the food. Chef Foss and Chef Andrew Brochu shone this evening and their talent is undeniable. Things happen for a reason, and I am happy they did. These two chefs can explore and experiment, pushing themselves to discover new dishes, and we are fortunate enough to experience it here in Chicago.

EL is only open for dinner, Thursday thru Saturday. If you think the hours are limited, wait until you hear how many people he serves a night… 8. That is the size of the restaurant. Maybe 10-12 if there is one giant communal table.

EL
2419 W. 14th Street
Chicago, IL 60608
http://elideas.com

Reservations are by lottery. Send your request to [email protected] and please include a telephone number, desired table size, preferred dates.

To be honest - and if u know anything about me i am to probably a flaw - we went from conception to launch in about two months and are making all of it up as we go. Ready, fire, aim approach. This concept - and I immodestly/humbly say that there is little if nothing to compare it to - is as new to me as it is to you. And there will be much time and effort spent to redirect it now that it is all beginning to take shape. As I can only view this from behind the scenes, I welcome any questions/suggestions you may have. Even if that is to tell an egotistical jackass like myself to back the f*ck up.
Re: the menu request, I just got on it and it is now posted at http://www.elideas.com along with beverage suggestions. We are a byob.
Here's the 411 as fast as i can: we are going into our fourth week and of our 15 course menu, all but one of those dishes will have turned over. And even that one has been re-themed. This is not at all out of dissatisfaction, but that both Chef Andrew Brochu and I are using EL Ideas (we'll get to the name later) as a creative playground that challenges us both from the culinary and service sides. Chef Brochu is seriously a badass chef. Not to be lost behind his great ideas, this is forcing me to double down creatively. As we only seat ten guests each service, we have unparalleled proximity to the dining experience and are pushing the boundaries with the typical restaurant experience. One of our courses this week was partaken in the kitchen. Another had a story told for association. The inspiration is revealed behind each dish by its originating chef. We'll have a beer/taste your wines in the middle of our dinner service and aren't distracted by the garde manger station falling behind or coordinating a dinner rush. All of our focus is on ten guests. We enjoy it the most when our audience intermingles and lets go of their preconceptions. So far, we have not met anyone's best guess as to what the experience would be, but we are loving what we're putting forth & believe they are leaving blown away. Both Andrew and I are at the GCM on Wednesday mornings, forage, shop around the city, and work closely with purveyors to procure as many unique and high quality ingredients as we can. We then go back to 'The Ball Cave' (home of the Meatyballs Mobile) to get going on creating the new menu, preparations, and exploring other concepts. That's about the best I can give to y'all as I need to give pick up my daughter from school. But if you'd like, I'll just post all of the explanatory content I'm going to create for the website right here. Let me know what you want to know.

I appreciate the review which has since been posted, but Phillip - your initial post really would have been perfect in the Professional Forum - I think you would have garnered much more positive feedback.

That is the exact intent for that forum, so please look around the great areas besides just Eating Out in Chicagoland.

cheers,
miss ellen

Correct or not, I guess I'm the only one who took Phillip's post as sarcastic? That was my initial impression at least. I am surprised no one replied with "Shill!"

I think this is the appropriate forum to discuss his restaurant and look for reviews, but whatever. This thread is certainly a creative way to get people to talk about a restaurant, but, despite the large community here, when you only serve 30 people a week it may take a bit for someone to post a review unless you're inviting some of the forum insiders to dinner.

Great pictures CrazyC.

I was going to start the El Ideas thread, but after Phillip and I talked about it we decided it would be better for someone else to do it this time.

Note that after that initial meal at Lockwood shortly after it opened, I had a couple of very good ones in the year or two that followed. I'm also a huge fan of Brochu's cooking, dating back to the way underappreciated time he spent at Pops.

We're going this Saturday and are really looking forward to it. It wasn't hard to get a table. Certainly easier than Next!

Wine pairing ideas would be welcome!

smellen wrote:I appreciate the review which has since been posted, but Phillip - your initial post really would have been perfect in the Professional Forum - I think you would have garnered much more positive feedback.

Was really just looking to see if there was a thread and kind of surprised there wasn't. I have thick skin and don't mind ruffling a few feathers, but no disrespect was meant to anyone at all or the forum. Just the same, I rarely know what to ever put a topic under on the forum and did want the general community in on the conversation as I believe we offer a product worth knowing about. Besides, considering the way KennyZ originally reviewed me at Lockwood, a couple nicks like this on our opening page is kids play

my wife and I went with another couple and had a lot of fun. The server is a rad guy and will make you feel at home (you basically are in their home). The braised duck leg with seared duck breast was rad. I don't have the menu in front of me or else I'd comment on more stuff.

but for $125 a person for 15 courses with the ability to BYOB, there's going to be no dining experience in its class that comes close to this for the price. Go if you can.

Also: Chef Foss is very polite in real life.

I had the pleasure of visiting ElIdeas on Friday night and left very impressed. The menu was very well thought out, seemed to maintain its' excitement through the whole meal (as opposed to a few all-star intro courses and then clean-up duty,) was just the right amount of food, and served in a very cool space by an awesome staff. (Phillip and Andrew are super nice as well as the rest of the staff- Bill was very accommodating and fun as the sole FOH "staff", etc..)

Over the past few years, since a visit to spain in 2009, I haven't been as enthralled by tasting menus as much as I used to, and would find I would suffer from food fatigue towards the end of the savory courses. And thus, EL was a revelation for me on how great and innovative a tasting menu can be when the Chef's are hungry and in the zone.

EL had such consistency in quality and creativity with no throwaway courses, all without pretension. I look forward to returning when some of my more fooderific friends come to town (this was a double date, not an eating date ) and can say without reservations that this is the best meal I have had in Chicago since my last visit to Alinea over a year ago.

chico

BTW: Much better details on the food on the blog, as I didn't take notes or photos. And as an interesting footnote, my least favorite course was the first course with the caviar and sashimi, as I just thought despite the awesome ingredients and presentation, it lacked cohesiveness.

http://thepickledtongue.com/

LTH -

Recognizing this thread started off atypically (indulged for now), let's continue to keep the discussion on topic. As with most cases, firsthand experiences, observations, and real questions will help this develop relevantly.

Santander
for the mods

Wondering why this is "indulged for now"? I think it's wrong and manipulative and belongs on the Professional forum where it clearly states "If you're a pro and want to talk about your business, post here." Bad precedent.

Jazzfood wrote:Wondering why this is "indulged for now"? I think it's wrong and manipulative and belongs on the Professional forum where it clearly states "If you're a pro and want to talk about your business, post here." Bad precedent.

I don't know what the official stance about the Pro forum is, but I would much rather see posts like Phillip's here than there. To me the Pro forum should be for discussing the professional aspects of the business - threads like "looking for advice on how to market my restaurant" or "is my money better spent on advertising or hiring a PR firm?". Discussions about eating experiences in a restaurant should be here, regardless of who starts those discussions.

Kennyz wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:Wondering why this is "indulged for now"? I think it's wrong and manipulative and belongs on the Professional forum where it clearly states "If you're a pro and want to talk about your business, post here." Bad precedent.

I don't know what the official stance about the Pro forum is, but I would much rather see posts like Phillip's here than there. To me the Pro forum should be for discussing the professional aspects of the business - threads like "looking for advice on how to market my restaurant" or "is my money better spent on advertising or hiring a PR firm?". Discussions about eating experiences in a restaurant should be here, regardless of who starts those discussions.

Also, while I'm sympathetic to Jazzfood's point, the de facto truth is that few non-pros ever look at the Professional Forum (it has fewer than 2% the number of posts of the Eating Out Forum), so the OP would have been the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one to hear, and no ensuing discussion of the restaurant.

IMO Chef Foss is an interesting character and has added positive value to the site through his previous posts. Judging from my brief encounters with him at his food truck, he seems to be a very likable fellow. I'm guessing his initial post was done in a half-joking manner. If you want to split the thread in two that is fine. There have been some subsequent posts here that certainly belong in the "Eating Out in Chicagoland" forum.

teatpuller wrote:IMO Chef Foss is an interesting character and has added positive value to the site through his previous posts. Judging from my brief encounters with him at his food truck, he seems to be a very likable fellow. I'm guessing his initial post was done in a half-joking manner. If you want to split the thread in two that is fine. There have been some subsequent posts here that certainly belong in the "Eating Out in Chicagoland" forum.

Agreed. I've never met the man but, based on his previous posts, I immediately thought he was kidding around and just wanted to get a thread started on his place. I never thought that was against the rules, so long as affiliation was clearly identified (which this was). And, given that he couldn't be sure what would be posted once the door was opened, I admire his balls (pun intended) for putting it out there.

the de facto truth is that few non-pros ever look at the Professional Forum

Exactly my point. By posting here on this thread instead of there (the equivalent to LTH Siberia) I see as a manipulative way to garner the most hype for the restaurant. That's the issue. And it's worked, which to me @ least is a pity. i'm not saying that some of the posts that follow don't belong on this thread. The food may be great, it certainly looks good, the methods are what I'm questioning.

Jazzfood wrote:

the de facto truth is that few non-pros ever look at the Professional Forum

Exactly my point. By posting here on this thread instead of there (the equivalent to LTH Siberia) I see as a manipulative way to garner the most hype for the restaurant. That's the issue. And it's worked, which to me @ least is a pity. i'm not saying that some of the posts that follow don't belong on this thread. The food may be great, it certainly looks good, the methods are what I'm questioning.

I'll take Phillip's approach over PR firms and restauranteurs who invite LTHers (who may or may not also be members of the media) in for free dinners, and then see those LTHers start threads here. There seems to be very little issue taken with that method, and I find this one far less "manipulative".

I'll take Phillip's approach over PR firms and restauranteurs who invite LTHers (who may or may not also be members of the media) in for free dinners, and then see those LTHers start threads here. There seems to be very little issue taken with that method, and I find this one far less "manipulative".

I strongly agree with both KennyZ and Jazzfood. LTHForum's purpose is not to provide gratis PR via edible payola.

I say move the thread to the Professional Forum.

The thread will stay here.

Chef Foss most definitely should have started this thread in the Professional Forum but he didn't. However, before it could be moved, substantive posts by LTHers who'd eaten at El were added to the thread. Because of this, we're going to leave the thread here.

Thanks,

=R=
for the moderators

Getting back on track, can I say how much I appreciate places like this one (apparently) as well as One Sister (where I had an incredible meal the other night), offering good, creative food with a minimally intrusive catch (cash only, or at their apartment, or starts at 8 and seats 8, stuff like that) offset by remarkably low prices? A 15 course BYOB for $115, One Sister's similarly many-coursed meal for even less than that, top notch ingredients and a perhaps unique, never-repeated experience ... this trumps $150 for Thai any night, and I want to encourage more places/schemes like it. It makes the meal that much more memorable when you don't feel like just another warm body/wallet, and when the low price truly does feel, to some extent, like an act of generosity on the part of the kitchen that only heightens the sense of community and collective fun. From what I've read about the food already I can't wait to give it a shot.

Vitesse98 wrote:Getting back on track, can I say how much I appreciate places like this one (apparently) as well as One Sister (where I had an incredible meal the other night), offering good, creative food with a minimally intrusive catch (cash only, or at their apartment, or starts at 8 and seats 8, stuff like that) offset by remarkably low prices? A 15 course BYOB for $115, One Sister's similarly many-coursed meal for even less than that, top notch ingredients and a perhaps unique, never-repeated experience ... this trumps $150 for Thai any night, and I want to encourage more places/schemes like it. It makes the meal that much more memorable when you don't feel like just another warm body/wallet, and when the low price truly does feel, to some extent, like an act of generosity on the part of the kitchen that only heightens the sense of community and collective fun. From what I've read about the food already I can't wait to give it a shot.

This is actually quite similar to the original Schwa model, before they became the "it" kitchen, ya? I definitely agree and love BYOB for fine dining. It lets me bring out some of my interesting beers for pairing rather than needing to rely on a restrictive wine/beer list with somewhat inflated prices. Having had my first Meaty Balls torpedo yesterday, I'm looking forward to what EL has to offer!

Completely agree about the bargain and superb flexibility this represents. It's like that time when I finally switched to a private jet vs. just flying around with the regular folk in first class all the time.

If the private jet cost you $115 a head, plus tip, I totally agree!

The restaurant seems interesting but I havent been impressed with the quality of the truck food, (either too saucy making the bread too soggy or too dry). That makes me a little less excited about trying the restaurant.

I like the style of the resto, just not these new fangled reservation methods. All I want to do is either click on reserrvations and make one, or the old fashioned phone call (although not Schwa phone call). Lottery, tickets..grrrr...