There are so many intriguing elements to Ravenswood’s Band of Bohemia that it’s easy to see why this endlessly gestating project was one of the most anticipated openings of 2015. A pair of Alinea vets launch a “culinary brewhouse” in a former cookie factory hard by the Metra tracks. Tapping into the national craft beer fixation, they’ve decided their food should be paired to complement their house-brewed suds—not the other way around. Befitting the partners’ shared background, the food itself is complicated, busy, technical, and intellectual, but it clearly plays second fiddle to the beer. The wide-open converted industrial space is ornate, almost steampunk-lite, raw brick walls towering over plush overstuffed red brocade chairs. In the daytime the place doubles as a grab-and-go coffee shop featuring Dark Matter beans. Reservations are by Alinea co-owner Nick Kokonas’s Tock ticketing system, which offers a choice of a la carte dining, a four-course tasting menu, or a deluxe 13-course “Chef’s Counter” experience overlooking the kitchen. The principals, chef-turned-brewer Michael Carroll and Craig Sindelar, who spent 11 years as Alinea’s head sommelier, tapped former El Ideas vets Matt Dubois and Kevin McMullen (executive chef and chef de cuisine, respectively) to implement a menu full of schmears, dots, purees, microgreens, shavings, sauces, and extrusions, described in the requisite clipped argot that has come to be known as Achatzese.
It’s a pattern found across the menu, much of which is confusingly organized under BoB’s beer varieties: four small plates, each to go with the grilled apple-tarragon ale, the orange-chicory rye ale, and the roasted beet-thyme ale. Five large plates are assigned to one of those beers, or to a maitake mushroom variety, or an amber farmhouse style “Culinary Noble.” Putting aside their unusual but relatively subtle food backnotes, these are all relatively similar, light-bodied, hoppy, easy-drinking session beers that don’t necessarily enhance the enjoyment of the food so much as stay out of its way. I suspect that’s not the intention.
If you’re inclined to visit Band of Bohemia I suggest disregarding the Tock reservation system, which doesn’t seem to be doing the restaurant or its guests any favors. Prior to each of my visits it was fully booked online except for senior hour and late night, yet on both I walked in at prime time to find the dining room more than half empty. The website encourages walk-ins, but I wonder how many people just decide to go somewhere else where they’re guaranteed a table. (I’ve experienced the same situation with the reservation site Open Table many times.)
4710 N Ravenswood 773-271-4710bandofbohemia.com
