19th
schwa restaurant
Sometimes given time constraints I feel compelled to rely on others to tell great stories. She’s a far better writer than me anyways :) The following is her account of our experience at schwa.
What I will add though is my rationale of why I found schwa so unique. By the 2nd hour of our meal, I felt like we were friends with the entire staff. Michael Carlson and others would pass banter back and forth as they walked by. The service was casual, unusual for the price and quality of the restaurant, and most importantly engaging. I’ve never felt such a close (and frank) bond with waitstaff before. Its what I would expect from close friend who was entertaining a dinner party (as I sometimes do.)
Welcome to ghetto-Alinea. I’m not quite sure how to go about describing my experience, because it was unlike any other meal I’ve ever had. The food was, to put it simply, incredible. I’ve read that Chef Michael Carlson uses the same quality of ingredients as Alinea, and it definitely shows.
To begin with, if you’re really interested, check out my previous posts on schwa for articles on the restaurant and my adventure in making reservations.
Eric and I took the Metra to schwa because we were planning on splitting at least 4 bottles of wine with Corrie and her Eric. We met them at the restaurant and headed inside. Our table was waiting for us, and the staff took our wine bottles and put them in the kitchen.
We quickly determined that the 9-course menu was the way to go (3x the food as the 3-course, but only twice the price).
The main reason we had such a good time at schwa was the staff. As I’ve mentioned previously, the entire staff for the restaurant is the kitchen staff. That meant that the Chef, Michael Carlson, was serving us most of our dishes.
I could rhapsodize and agonize over every single dish, but I might as well summarize and say that they were all complex, fascinating, engaging and delicious.
Some favorites:
This was the famous quail-egg ravioli, and my personal favorite dish. You were instructed to pop it in your mouth whole and then chew. It was buttery, rich, cheesy, and so so satisfying. Love.
An interesting take on the cheese course. The bowl contained cheese with eggs on top, then the spoon had powdered honey in it. You mixed the honey into the egg-cheese concoction to make a weird pudding-like dish.
We all ended up being oddly in love with the pea soup dish accompanied by powdered peas and pea hummus. We were tempted to lick the plates.
Besides the amazing food, what made this restaurant a standout was the service. It wasn’t traditional fine dining service. In fact, it was the opposite. The kitchen stereo was blasting hard rock, metal and hip hop. At one point I jokingly put in a request for Mickey Avalon, and one of the cooks looked on the iPod for me (sadly, they didn’t have it).
When Michael dropped off our dishes, he described them for us. At one point he said, “So, this is the lobster, it’s pimp shit. In fact, everything we do here is pimp shit.” That was kind of the tone of the evening. We were loving it. We laughed and joked with the staff, danced at the table and had a rollicking good time.
At the end of the night I had decided, I will definitely be going back to Schwa. Although I loved Charlie Trotter’s and Alinea, those are big spender, special occasion places. I can’t afford to go to Schwa every week, nor would I want to, but I could definitely justify going 2-3 times a year if I lived in Chicago.
So, make a reservation. NOW. Before they close again.
food-28
decor-9
service-22*
*I’m comparing this to the classic scale. I thought the service was off the charts because it was such a fun experience, but I realize it’s not for everyone, and some people might be offended by the “fast and loose” atmosphere.
