ERWIN
A WBBM RESTAURANT REVIEW BY SHERMAN KAPLAN
BROADCAST JUNE 6, 2008
(773-928-7200)
For star athletes, it is Love of the Game. For Erwin and Cathy Drechsler it is Love of the Food.
I’ve followed their restaurants almost from the beginning, too many decades ago. They opened their current restaurant Erwin, at 2925 North Halsted in 1994. Returning a couple of weeks back, reminded me why I like this restaurant so much.
Erwin is a comfortable setting, just short of country kitchen decor, with café lamps, understated lighting and other furnishing accents.
The menu is more sophisticated than the restaurant’s look might suggest. Onion tart is Drechsler’s signature dish, awash in the sweet taste of caramelized onions, clots of blue cheese and toasted walnuts sitting atop a flatbed crust.
Other appetizers run a gamut from sautéed chicken livers with chunked applesauce and arugula, to Southern style fried green tomatoes with an Italian style Prosciutto accent.
Among salads, the house Caesar would be so much better if Erwin used something other than Pecorino Cheese. Granted Reggio Parmigiano is too expensive and would defeat efforts to keep prices down, but how about its close cousin Grana Padana? As for other salads, green apples, cheddar cheese, balsamic vinaigrette and walnuts mate nicely with a bed of greens.
Among entrees, the whitefish plated with mashed potatoes and flavorful oyster mushrooms is a presentation which proves how versatile whitefish can be in talented hands. Other seafood includes steelhead salmon with fennel and fresh stewed tomatoes, and a Japanese inspired crab cake with daikon slaw and a ginger-soy based sauce.
Vegetarians will find mushroom cakes, paired with excellent sugar snap peas and a balsamic reduction. I think this needs something more, perhaps a Bordelaise foundation.
As for meats, the list includes hearty Black “Angus beef burger, flank steak in spicy chipotle barbecue sauce as well as roasted chicken in an apple cider sauce, among other choices.
The wine list appears to go that extra stretch for quality at accessible pricing. Service is accommodating and there is valet parking. Expect to spend about $75 a couple plus add ons. Erwin, at 2925 North Halsted has a K/RATING of 19/20.
AMBIANCE 4/4 HOSPITALITY 5/5 FOOD 10/11
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