Yesterday, lunchicago checked out The Atwood Cafe at the southwest corner of Washington and State street. This historic building shares the space with the Hotel Burnham. "When Mr. Burnham, John Root and Charles Atwood revolutionized their world and downtown Chicago by creating the 14-story Reliance Building (Hotel Burnham) in 1895, they became fathers of the modern day skyscraper (http://www.atwoodcafe.com/chicago-restaurant-history.php)."
The room is lovely, and very open and bright. My mom wasn't having a very good day, so this didn't feel like a proper lunch that we could focus on all of the particulars that we usually do.
For starters, we split the Baby Beet Salad (goat cheese mousse, frisée, brioche log, lemon vinaigrette). I liked this salad a lot but I felt that the goat cheese mousse was lacking a bit of flavor. I should have opted for the fresh ground pepper that was offered, I'm thinking that would've made it better.
Next we split an open egg salad sandwich - that is not listed on their site's menu. I loved this! It was on a toasted brioche bread and topped with a hollandaise sauce.
We also had a nice treat at the end of the meal for my mom's birthday, a chocolate molten cake with rum whipped cream! YUM!
I would definitely like to go back and try this place again. The wild mushroom orzo and amaretto creme brulee are calling my name.
Here's a link to their lunch menu: http://www.atwoodcafe.com/chicago-loop-dining.php?sec_id=2
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Henri
Yikes! Where did the month of February go? We had planned on going to Henri several times but meetings or other commitments came up; we need to watch our calendars better so we can focus on our lunchicago duties. Sorry we got behind on this project.
We went to Henri's on Michigan Avenue, what a lovely restaurant. It's small with less than 20 tables in the restaurant, but the European atmosphere was delightful. The tables had cloth tablecloths, fabric walls and the bathroom had a wonderful reptile-type textured wall-paper. Our waiter was pleasant, however we were in the last part of the lunch crowd and he seemed somewhat finished for the day. I think Brooke is posting pictures of the restaurant on her blog. We both agreed this would be the place to 'seal the deal'. Clients would be impressed with this environment and definitely attentive to the person who escorted them here and picked up the tab.
We both ordered a sparkling lemonade, but the wine list is extensive along with other types of cocktails. The bar area is near the door, it is a beautiful, ornate wooden bar that fits perfectly into the decor of the restaurant. I ordered the butternut squash potage with caramelized pecans and shrimp. My entree was the Nicoise salad with purple and white potatoes, olives and the usual collection of green beans, hard-boiled egg and tuna chunks. The potatoes were a nice addition, the color variation added a nice dimension to the salad. Here is the down side, our bill was almost $100. You can read Brooke's blog for her meal, but I thought with no alcoholic beverages we would have a bill in the range of $60 or $70 dollars. We both ran out of time and needed to get back to work, so no dessert for us this time. I would definitely have dessert the choices were wonderful. . .creme brulee, dark chocolate tart, the menu is online.
I shouldn't complain about the money part, because we agreed to try restaurants for lunch that were very nice and different. I will merely give you the price without a commentary about how much it costs. It was a lovely place and we were surrounded by business people chatting about business 'stuff'. The gentlemen who sat next to us were definitely on a business lunch. The lead person used his iPad to show the other gentlemen various pictures of environments. They had a great business lunch, with pictures too.
Do try this place, it's an elegant, impressive environment, and the food was great. Their website is elegant as well: http://www.henrichicago.com, notice the unusual meats in the entree's.
We went to Henri's on Michigan Avenue, what a lovely restaurant. It's small with less than 20 tables in the restaurant, but the European atmosphere was delightful. The tables had cloth tablecloths, fabric walls and the bathroom had a wonderful reptile-type textured wall-paper. Our waiter was pleasant, however we were in the last part of the lunch crowd and he seemed somewhat finished for the day. I think Brooke is posting pictures of the restaurant on her blog. We both agreed this would be the place to 'seal the deal'. Clients would be impressed with this environment and definitely attentive to the person who escorted them here and picked up the tab.
We both ordered a sparkling lemonade, but the wine list is extensive along with other types of cocktails. The bar area is near the door, it is a beautiful, ornate wooden bar that fits perfectly into the decor of the restaurant. I ordered the butternut squash potage with caramelized pecans and shrimp. My entree was the Nicoise salad with purple and white potatoes, olives and the usual collection of green beans, hard-boiled egg and tuna chunks. The potatoes were a nice addition, the color variation added a nice dimension to the salad. Here is the down side, our bill was almost $100. You can read Brooke's blog for her meal, but I thought with no alcoholic beverages we would have a bill in the range of $60 or $70 dollars. We both ran out of time and needed to get back to work, so no dessert for us this time. I would definitely have dessert the choices were wonderful. . .creme brulee, dark chocolate tart, the menu is online.
I shouldn't complain about the money part, because we agreed to try restaurants for lunch that were very nice and different. I will merely give you the price without a commentary about how much it costs. It was a lovely place and we were surrounded by business people chatting about business 'stuff'. The gentlemen who sat next to us were definitely on a business lunch. The lead person used his iPad to show the other gentlemen various pictures of environments. They had a great business lunch, with pictures too.
Do try this place, it's an elegant, impressive environment, and the food was great. Their website is elegant as well: http://www.henrichicago.com, notice the unusual meats in the entree's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)