Restaurants
So Long, Shikami
February 20th, 2008
I keep telling myself that this is not a food blog, but I just can’t help myself.
Last night we dined at Kevin. The restaurant holds special meaning for me & K as the site of a memorable meal with our parents, celebrating our engagement back in ’04. Alas, the restaurant is closing its doors next week, so we went to pay our respects. As anticipated, it was pretty empty, but the food was damn good. We even got to meet the chef/owner and thank him for the ridiculous broth on the lobster dumplings at his newer restaurant, Shikago (which I gushed about previously).
Kevin Shikami is a diminutive and quiet man, with small circle-rim glasses. He doesn’t make the rounds in the dining room the way some more boisterous chefs do, so I asked if he could come by our table (I never do this, BTW).
His hand, when you shook it, was big and heavy. And rough as dried and cracked leather.
Alhambra Cafe
January 18th, 2008
This place is down the street from us, on a particularly inauspicious stretch of Irving Park Road. But we went there recently with the grandparents and found it utterly charming and unique. Like going to the home of a friend you wish could come out from the kitchen and chat more about life in his homeland of Egypt or the culinary inspirations that lead him to carefully source the freshest and most environmentally-sound ingredients, but instead you let him remain at work back there making delicious dips to order, generous sandwiches on fresh bread, and stunning salads with locally-sourced greens.
Please go and keep them in business.
Local Dumplings
January 15th, 2008
Last night, after another volunteering stint at Obama HQ in downtown Chicago, K and I thought we deserved a treat for all of our pro bono… So we stopped into Shikago, a new restaurant by one of our favorite local chefs.
We just sat in the bar area and had a drink and some appetizers (they call them “tastes” here, a fitting homage to the eponymous city’s most popular summer festival). But it’s worth mentioning that the lobster dumplings on the bar menu were insanely good. Like, best thing I’ve had in a restaurant in years good. Good enough that I’m blogging for the first time in 17 years good. That good.