Chef Michael Carlson's Schwa is a "distilled" fine-dining restaurant. It is distilled of all of the impurities that distract from the cuisine. There is no bar, no maitre d', no large room gilded with expensive objects d'art. The space is small (seats around 26 by my count), there is no wait staff (the chefs serve the dishes). Service is comfortable and unobtrusive. Schwa is unstressed, as the name of the restaurant announces, and the lack of stress focuses the meal directly to the essence of the dinner.
I dined with my wife and another couple on nine courses at Schwa a couple Fridays ago. (Menu choices are a degustation of three or nine courses, fixed price). The progression is impressive, using a wide array of techniques, styles, and ingredients, and running the gamut of flavors. A brief rundown of my impressions of each course--including a couple extra bites that brought the number up to eleven:
- Candied apple with fleur de sel: A nice jumpstart for the palate. Sweet candy shell around a tart apple with a bit of salt. We were transported back to our youth and immediately started discussing selling Affy Tapples for school fundraisers.
- Salad of white anchovy, apple, celery root puree, Manchego cheese: This was a lovely salad full of ten times the flavor you'd expect from such a simple array of ingredients. An excellent starter.
- Prosciutto consomme with melon, raw and crispy prosciutto: Chef Carlson takes us from the simple and understated salad directly to the bold and modern with a nouveau take on the classic proscuitto and melon combination. A small cup of consomme was rich with flavor and surprisingly not too salty (tiny melon balls floated in the cup). Draped and stacked on the cup were a nice slice of raw prosicutto and a crispy version. Three entirely different experiences on one plate using the same ingredient.
- Quail-egg ravioli with black truffle: I am not the first to praise this triumph. It is rich and luxurious and worth the price of admission alone.
- Sturgeon roe with cauliflower puree and avocado: This followed up the ravioli nicely. Flavorful and cool, the cauliflower and avocado cut through the richness from the previous course. I have had better caviar, though.
- Butter-poached lobster with gooseberries, Swiss chard, and lavender foam: This was one of the few dishes that didn't quite work for me. My lobster was salty to the point of killing any other flavors on the plate. Well-conceived, but not well executed.
- Scallop with truffle, chanterelle, and Brussels sprout: This was a one-spoon course that was just perfect. Every flavor was present and they all worked well together. I love Brussels sprouts.
- Sweetbreads with Hubmoldt Fog cheese, rhubarb: This was the course that I had the highest hopes for and it was the one that I enjoyed least. The sweetbread nuggets were tough and a bit flavorless and didn't quite work well with cheese for my taste.
- Beef: Raw, Pickled, Braised: A three-way beef course. First, a delicious bite of rich tartare with a quail egg. Second, the pickled beef tongue was among the best things I've tasted this year. I humbly requested a half-pound of it on a slice of rye bread with mustard. Finally, a perfect hunk of braised short rib rounded out this excellent beef preparation.
- Cheese risotto, apple: Another one-bite course that preceded dessert and re-introduced apple. It was dense, creamy and delicious.
- Two desserts: Desserts were split across diners. I received an olive shortcake with olive oil ice cream and candied olives. It's daring to push olives so heavily in a dessert dish and while it worked rather well, I'm not sure I'd order it. The other dessert was a pumpkin dominated plate of a chocolate-pumpkin brownie and ice cream was more conventional, and more satisfying.
Since Schwa is BYOB, a unique feature for a this style of restaurant, we brought an array of wines including a cava, a red burgundy, and a half-bottle of sauternes. (I was fortunate enough to be dining with a generous wine-collector friend who was responsible for bringing some of these very good wines.).
You may read the course descriptions above and be a bit turned off by the fact that I was disappointed by a couple courses. In spite of these minor quibbles, I left extraordinarily impressed by Chef Carlson and his staff.
If you're a follower of this site, you'll know that I am not generally intrigued by the fine-dining landscape of Chicago. As I read more about Schwa before dining there, it captured my interest in a way that other restaurants have not. In the same way that hearing an excellent musician in a small club is more exciting to the music-lover than the same musician in an arena concert, Schwa's intimacy and ease of enjoyment are just as exciting for food-lovers.
In creating Schwa, Chef Carlson has created a venue that shows us his main concern is on the plate rather than on the publicity, decor, or marketing. His restaurant follows his main priorities with confidence, and success is following (He will even be closing the restaurant on Saturday nights starting in 2007 to spend more time with his new child--how's that for priorities!).
If you are (or are not) intrigued by the fine-dining landscape in this city, you should call Schwa today and get the next available reservation (it may be two months away). It is rare to experience a chef with this type of talent and passion cooking in such a small, unadulterated environment. This is a experience that will not be available forever.
Side Note: Schwa has been rife with bloggers lately. The exact same night I was there, fine-dining enthusiast, friend and fellow blogger Gary Fine of Veal Cheeks was at the next table. You can read his account of the exact same meal here. We had a similar final analysis, although different impressions of the individual courses. Also, not longer after, Dom of Skillet Doux returned for his second visit. Read about it here.
Schwa is located at 1466 N Ashland in Chicago, (773) 252-1466, www.schwarestaurant.com. Reservations required.
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