You can’t fall from the Sears Tower without hitting a decent restaurant. Chi-town has restaurants running the gamut from jacket required to shorts accepted, from in a bun to on a plate, from haute cuisine to I’m really haute and oh my God this poutine is amazing. During a small window in mid-winter, it all becomes affordable. A couple hundred of Chicago’s finest offer fixe prix lunches ($22) and/or dinners ($33, generally) every day. Restaurant Week is an opportunity to enjoy a normally-very-expensive restaurant for a reasonable price. It’s also a reason to check out someplace new, but moreover, it’s an excuse to have a glass of wine or pint of beer with lunch on a weekday. I figure restaurants will put their best foot forward during Restaurant Week, and – although I’ve heard that sometimes they don’t – I’ve had great experiences, this year no less than any. Here’s how it’s been down for me so far:

Paramount Room

415 N. Milwaukee Avenue (near where Milwaukee flows into Kinzie/Desplaines) in the Fulton River District

There used to be a speakeasy in the basement of the Paramount Room; parts of it haven’t been touched since the 20’s. Make a reservation; you might be able to get a seat down there. If not, ask for a tour. They’ll show you the plugged up holes in the floor where people would pour their drinks if a raid was immanent, as well as the escape door that leads to the alley.

It’s a bar full of early-30’s cool cats, but don’t let that fool you. The food is fantastic rather than trendy, and it’s more sophisticated than many of Chicago’s superb gastropubs.

• Coronado Orange Avenue Wit: $6. Spiced Wheat Beer (CA). Light-bodied, citrusy more than spicy. “Wit” is a Belgian style of wheat beer. Blue Moon is an American take on that style, and this beer reminded me of a Blue Moon, although perhaps not as sweet.
• Silencio: $12. Fidencio Mezcal, Honey/Lemon, Egg White, Muddled Heat, Flamed Lemon. You have to like smokiness, because Fidencio is as smoky and herbal as a dry-rub barbecue. Unfortunately, I did not get to witness the flaming of the lemon, but that’s OK, because I dated a flaming lemon once, and that was enough.

Two Prix Fixe Dinners: $33 ea

• Braised Beets; cider-braised, warm goat cheese. Comes with an apple gastrique, which you can ask to have omitted by telling the server that you’d like a gastrique bypass. I loved this.
• Steak Tartare; hand cut raw beef, caper, parsley, Dijon, egg, grilled toasts. What’s the most obvious accompaniment to raw meat? Why, raw egg yolk, of course, which elevates the raw meat from “thrilling,” to “terrifying.” It’s like walking out onto the glass ledge in the Sears Tower’s observation deck: you want it, but you’re afraid of it … and after you’ve done it, you can’t wait to tell all your friends. I haven’t had steak tartare in, I don’t know, at least a couple of incarnations. It was fantastic. (5 / 5)
• Braised Pork; fork-tender ale-braised tender with Parmesan polenta. Fattiness transfigured into richness – which is as it should be.
• Mussels; ale-steamed P.E.I. mussels, garlic, shallots, parsley, and European butter with grilled toasts. We had to order a second round of toasts to soak up all that juicy, European-butter goodness. One of the evening’s highlights. It is probably no small coincidence that we enjoyed this dish so much, at the precise moment that we hit our cruising altitude, alcoholically speaking. (5 / 5)
• Chocolate Stout Pudding; peanut butter caramel sauce, ice cream.

Salpicon

1252 N. Wells St. (near Goethe and the other poets) in Old Town

My evening here was a fabulous blur, thanks to three margaritas, on the rocks, no salt (because, I mean, liver damage is one thing, but I draw the line at high blood pressure). The staff was impressively accommodating, gracious, and attentive.

Prix Fixe Dinner: $33

• Tostidas de tinga: crispy small tortillas mounded with shredded Maple Creek Farms pork and chorizo in a roasted tomato chipotle sauce; topped with Mexican crema and avocado
• Pescado al carbon: fresh fillet of seasonal fish, charcoal grilled and served with salsa fresca (fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and serrano chiles), white rice
• Pastel tres leches: a light, orange-flavored cake, soaked in three milks, frosted with freshly whipped cream and served with raspberry sauce.

Public House

400 N State (at Kinzie), Near North

Lunch was huge. Had to sleep it off. Remarkably friendly service. Watched Andy Murray on hard court in the Aussie Open on one of the big screens. I also accidentally wandered into the women’s room. Don’t ask. In any case, it was the funkiest room I’ve ever been in, and not just because of the surreal absence of urinals. It was like I was in … I don’t know … an old meat locker or something. Seriously old, cave-like cement and heavy wooden doors. Tastefully dungeonesque. Possibly haunted. You should check it out. (If you’re a guy, maybe you should just take my word for it.) The fish tacos were good, and so was the salad. I’d go back for those two things, and to see if the men’s room is as interesting architecturally.

“Public House” is where the word “pub” comes from, which you’d know if you watched Downton, or if you’re Irish. A pub is simply an establishment that has a license to sell liquor to the public, although you can add to the definition by saying that pubs are often the central meeting place for a given locale.

The food here is good … better than a TGI Friday, but in that vein.

Three-Flight: $11

• A Little Sumpin Sumpin Ale: Laguintas Brewing Co. (Petaluma CA) American Pale Wheat Ale. I didn’t know what to expect, but it seemed more ale than wheat to me, and I’m a more-wheat-than-ale kind of guy.
• Crisp Apple: Angry Orchard Cider Co. (Cincinnati OH) Hard Apple Cider
• Zombie Killer: B. Nektar Meadery (Ferndale, MI) Cherry Hard Cider/Mead. Perfect for day-drinking. So much so, I had to order a full glass of this to follow my flight. Don’t judge me. I’m a food blogger. I do these things for your entertainment.

Two Prix Fixe Lunches: $22 ea

• Housemade Pretzel; cheddar beer fondue
• Southwestern Cobb: black bean, corn, avocado, tomato, onion, tortilla strips, jack cheese, chipotle ranch. Stellar.
• Chicken Burger: sharp cheddar, caramelized onion, tomato, avocado, white BBQ, Hawaiian sesame bun
• Baja Fish Tacos: crispy mahi-mahi, citrus slaw, Habanero crema, guacamole. I don’t usually see the point of a fish taco, but I saw the point of these! (5 / 5)
• Gelato with strawberries

Blackbird

619 W Randolph (just east of the Kennedy) in the West Loop Gate

Michelin-starred Blackbird serves up interesting and elegant food in a “close-quartered, loud, and raucous” setting. It’s also widely regarded as hard to get out of without spending a fortune. That’s what makes the $22 prix fixe Restaurant Week lunch so attractive. But to everyone’s surprise, they actually have a $25 prix fixe lunch every day. Who knew? Blackbird’s desserts are widely praised – and they’re not served as afterthoughts. Dessert is a third course equal in weight to the first two, and that’s good, because I worried after the first two courses that I might have to stop off for a quick burger after my lunch at Blackbird. However, after the dessert, I was perfectly satisfied.

I went to lunch at Blackbird in jeans and flannel, plus a hoodie with a windbreaker thrown over it. I won’t say that I felt conspicuous, but I will say that it was a mistake. I tend to look a little scruffy, and this crowd was spiffy. My self-consciousness was purely my own, though; everyone with whom I interacted was downright warm and personable. Plus, uh, I think I was really rockin’ that flannel, man. So at least there was that.

Two Prix Fixe Lunches: $22 ea

• Seared broccoli
• Red kuri squash soup with walnut, pickled cabbage, smoked crème fraîche, and scallions
• Duck confit with charred sunchokes, hops aioli, Asian pear, and sorrel
• Grilled monkfish with pole bean, summer apple, and mustard oil
• Fancy Gelato

Chicago Restaurant Week

Credit for all images as noted (click the images to jump to source), otherwise Make It Like a Man!

This content was not written in exchange for anything, nor was it solicited. The city of Chicago did not threaten me with guns and force me to write it. Our handsome little bulldog of a leader, Rahm Emanuel, did not offer me a $5M settlement in exchange for a favorable opinion. Nor did my favorite south-sider, Barak Obama, offer to introduce me to my second-favorite south-sider, Jane Lynch, in the hopes that she’d take some of all that money they shower her with in Hollywood and use it to take me to one of Chicago’s Michelin three-star restaurants or hot dog stands. I paid for all these meals with my own hard-earned cash.

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