When meals involve chefs summoning hunks of spitting meat from towering curtains of flame, they summon all sorts of pleasurable primeval associations: the sun setting over the field where your enemies lie vanquished, your horse is tied panting to a post, and you’re wiping gore from your blades in anticipation of the spoils you’ve killed for.
Second courses will appeal to more hardcore carnivores. Compressed veal sweetbreads in a pickly house giardiniera are a bit stiff, the breast implant of sweetbread dishes. Meanwhile a loosely bound, lightly seasoned blood sausage plays second fiddle to a succotash made with corn and white beans.
Pastry chef Marianna Reynolds makes a strong showing with some fairly innovative desserts: an “Argentine float” of Coke, lightly herbaceous fernet ice cream, berries, peaches, and candied almond; a dense, rolled tamarind cake with warmly spiced horchata ice cream drizzled with hot goat’s milk caramel; and a chocolate-coated mousse cake topped with marshmallows spiced with piri piri and set aflame at the table. In addition to the usual new- and old-world regions, the wine list features a healthy representation of Argentine reds, while seven cocktails sport some sort of Latin American element (yerba mate gin sour, mezcal negroni).
845 W. Washington 312-265-1130elchebarchicago.com
