I am often asked to name my "favorite" restaurant. I must frustrate the person asking this question when I always answer this question with another question: "In what situation?" I cannot say that I like Schwa more than I like Salam. They both excel in the ways that they are best suited.
Some restaurants are great for a couple of meat-eaters who want a hearty meal, others are great for your picky-eater parents, and others are great for a small group with ecclectic tastes. Rarely do restaurants cross these types of categories in multiple ways to find themselves well-suited to a variety of different situations. Most restaurants are simply not flexible. (Though, not for a lack of trying. For example, Tre Kronor is an excellent family-friendly brunch spot, but falters for me as a quaint dinner destination).
There is one restaurant that defines flexibility for me. In fact, I would go so far as to submit it to you as "Chicago's Most Flexible Restaurant":
Hashalom is an Israeli-Moroccan restaurant at the west end of Chicago's multi-ethnic Devon Avenue. The proprietors have been serving nearly the same menu for almost two decades. I grew up less than a half-block from Hashalom and have been eating there with good regularity since they've been open. It is only recently that I've discovered their astounding flexibility. I've seen birthday parties, business meetings, quiet dinners for two, and big family meals at Hashalom and each one fits just fine.
Hashalom works well if:
- You're looking for a good, inexpensive lunch.
- You're having dinner with vegetarians and are looking for a place that'll have some good options for them but you'd like to eat something besides seitan and brown rice.
- You're having dinner with "meat-and-potatoes-only" people and are looking for a place that'll have some good options for them.
- You're going out for a casual dinner with friends and would like a BYO restaurant with a low (or zero) corkage.
- You're going out with your hard-to-please, picky-eater parents, aunts, and uncles.
- You're going out on a date and would like to impress him/her with something that's slightly unknown and a little exotic.
- You're hungry and tired after work and you want something good, reliable, inexpensive, and simple.
So, what about the food? Hashalom serves Middle Eastern standards like kebabs, felafel, hommous, and baba ganouj along with some exotic and Moroccan specialties like shakshouka (eggs in a tomato sauce), couscous (weekends only), bourekas (stuffed filo triangles), lahme (spiced meat over rice or hommous), and a terrific cornish hen stuffed with fruit and nuts. There are a wide variety of different salads, house-made soups, and appetizers. Two different combination plates (Israeli or Moroccan) are a good way to taste a lot of choices (entrees come with soup or salad too). For the meat-and-potatoes eaters, I'd put the garlicky skirt steak with crisp home fries up against any other steak and potatoes plate in town. Simple broiled chicken, whitefish, or fried chicken cutlets are all quite good.
Stuffed Cornish Hen
Shakshouka
Flexibility has its limits as Hashalom does not accept credit cards and is closed both Monday and Tuesday. Nevertheless, Hashalom's combination of good food, low prices, a family-friendly atmosphere, and a menu that has a little something for everyone adds up to a pretty good case for the title of "Chicago's Most Flexible Restaurant".
Check out Hashalom Restaurant at 2905 W. Devon in Chicago, 773-465-5675. Street parking, BYO. Call ahead with a big group.
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