Restaurant #16 – Big Jones

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Wigs, Kevin and Julie

Another lovely day in this Chicago summer – 60 degrees and raining.  Happy 4^th of July.  Boo.  We were going to go to Digger’s boat for a dock party, but since it was raining and cold, we decided to go out to dinner.  I chose this place because I’ve been here with Heather and book club girls several years ago, but Kevin & Wigs haven’t been.  The restaurant is in Andersonville, and serves upscale Southern food.   (Not Table 52 upscale – although I’ve never been - but not standard bar-fare.) 

We got there around 8:20 PM and they couldn’t seat us right away.  They took our name/number and said it would be about 30 minutes.  So we went over to Hamburger Mary’s for a beer.  They brew their own beers and also have “guest” beers available, so quite a big selection.  I had the Speakeasy Saison, a Belgian farmhouse ale.  Wigs had a sour stout, which is fermented with wild yeast.  Kev ordered a dark beer that was something about peanut butter.  Ick.  But the keg ran out, and he needed to change his order.  (The bartender did get a quarter of a glass, so we were able to try it.  I didn’t think it tasted very peanut-buttery, which was a good thing.)  He then ordered the Van Damme Good Belgian IPA, but they were out of that too.  At which point the bartender (who was really knowledgeable about all the beers) pulled the menu out of his hands, and recommended the Black Widow, a Cascadian dark rye.  All very good.

At 30 minutes (almost on the dot!), the host from Big Jones called Kevin and said a table still wasn’t available but that he could set us up at the bar and would buy us a drink for the trouble.  Extremely nice.  So we finished our beers and headed back to Big Jones.  It isn’t that big on the inside, and they do have a patio out back, which wasn’t open because of the rain.  So that may have been why they were so busy. 

We sat at the bar and ordered some fancy drinks.  I had a whiskey rhubarb mint julep, which was served in a tin cup.  Kevin had a gin & cranberry creation (more than just that in there, but I don’t recall what), and Wigs had a whiskey and something else creation.  Very descriptive, I know.  Theirs both looked kind of the same, so maybe his also had some cranberry in it.  They were all really yummy.  We ordered the Boucherie Board, which was a charcuterie sampling that had Andouille sausage, Tasso Ham, Hogs Head Pate (made with brandy and peppercorns, with bourbon-brown sugar mustard and homemade rye bread).  A table opened up for us, so we moved from the bar to a table.  The Board came and the presentation was really pretty and the food was delicious – in addition to the meats, there were some cheeses, hot mustard, cute little “whipped-looking” deviled eggs, rye bread and crackers.  We pretty much demolished it.  The waitress was impressed that we put such a good dent in the Hogs Head Pate – apparently that’s the one most people leave behind.  This photo doesn't do it justice.  This is after we ate most of what was on the Board:

For dinner, Kevin ordered Virginia Fried Steak (circa 1834 according to menu), which was a breaded veal steak crusted in bread crumbs, with creamed barley and peas, garnished with green onions.  It was gi-normous.  Literally bigger than Kevin’s head.  This picture also does not do it justice (we need to work on our food photos...):

He was able to only eat 2/3 of it.  He said he could’ve killed it, but used some restraint J  Wigs ordered the Chicken & Dumplings (circa 1920).  I really wanted to order this but decided to go healthier.  This was simmered chicken with hearty egg dumplings, butterbeans, carrots, and thyme, garnished with onion tops.  It didn’t look as heavy as I was expecting, but after finishing it, Wigs was stuffed. 

I ordered the Reezy-Peezy (circa 1730), which was basically grilled spring vegetables cooked on the wood grill, served with Charleston gold rice cake and creamy sea island red pea gravy.  Mine was good, but I thought it was over-priced ($18) for grilled veggies, and there wasn’t a huge variety in what I got – a mushroom, some scallions, the little red peas and zucchini in addition to the rice cake.  

   

With the meal, Wigs & Kevin ordered a tequila cocktail, which was basically a half-glass of straight tequila garnished with a lemon slice.  I had a glass of wine, which wasn’t that good, so I wonder if the bottle was opened for a while. 

All in all, a good dinner.  The staff (especially the host, but also the bartender and server) were really, really nice.  Kev & Wigs were stuffed.  I was comfortably full.  It was starting to warm up slightly and we ended up walking back to our place where Wigs then grabbed the Irving Park bus home.