-Grubbing in Chicago
New to the 'Scene'
As regular readers know I always have my ear to the ground when it comes to restaurant openings in and around Chicago. I keep a little list of them in my head as far as places of intrigue. Upon learning of it Maxwells Trading is one that I immediately added to that list. I was very intrigued with this project from Chef Erling Wu-Bower who made a name for himself at Pacific Standard Time and Publican, among other spots in town. Maxwells Trading opened just before the new year on the outskirts of the West Loop just off Ashland in the still industrial part of the neighborhood.
From what I’ve read at sites like Eater and Block Club Chicago, Maxwells is a very personal project for the locally born Wu-Bower who’s half Vietnamese and half Cajun. He’s serving the type of food he likes to eat but it doesn’t have a label. There’s lots of Italian and Asian influence from dish to dish but you’re not going to find anything standard so to say and that’s a big reason why I was excited to check this place out. The space is big and modern with room for 100 people including a wrap around bar with first come, first served seating. The kitchen is mostly open with a live wood fired grill in full view. They have a rooftop farm where they’ll grow their own produce and such. It’s a big time production that also includes a coffee shop, flower store and a second floor for private parties.
But enough of all that let’s get into the food - the menu is broken down into five sections with a handful of dishes in each of them, give or take. We opted to pass on the four options listed in the “Beginnings” and went straight to the “Griddle Bread and Dunks” section where you can choose between four types of dips all of which come served with a naan like bread for dipping. Options like a hummus with spring peas or a Japanese eggplant were tempting but our waiter said the French Onion Dip with truffle oil and chives was his favorite so that’s what we decided to try. The bread is like a scallion pancake mixed with naan and it makes for the perfect dipping vehicle. The French Onion dip had the taste and consistency of chicken liver mousse minus the chicken livers. Both the bread and the dip were outstanding to where I had to ask for an extra piece of bread to scrape out the dip.
I found the most tempting dishes on the menu to be listed among the “Starch” selections. We ended up trying three of the four options leading off with a Japanese sweet potato sitting in a puddle of Northern Thai Curry with basil. I forget how long but the potato is cooked for a long time before it’s seared and given a crisp and crunchy top while the inside is a creamy mixture of sweet potato that plays really well with a smooth and spicy curry sauce. I made sure to get every last drop of that sauce which had some real deal heat going for it. In an interview with Block Club, Wu-Bower described the menu at Maxwell's as “largely Italian with very specific Asian explorations, dish by dish.” That's a pretty spot on description of the 'Hay & Straw' - a delicious pasta with very Asian influences in the form of fettuccini, garlic chives, confit potato, dry vermouth, chili crisp, parmesan cheese, and poached egg. We were told to mix all of it up to get maximum flavor which was more than achieved in what might have been my favorite dish of the night. But not without a fight from the Soup Dumpling Tortellini which lists pork shoulder and Maitake mushrooms as the ingredients but this dish goes much deeper than that. The perfectly textured tortellini is stuffed with a Chinese dumpling tasting blend of pork and green onion and other typical ingredients like ginger and soy sauce. The pasta sits in a liquid that taste like both hot and sour soup and brodo with thinly sliced Maitake mixed in. As someone who considers both pasta and dumplings to be comfort foods this one hit very close to home. I can’t decide which of the pastas I preferred so I suggest trying both of them as each was a home run.
Japanese Sweet Potato - northern style thai curry and basil
Hay & Straw - fettuccini, garlic chives, confit potato, dry vermouth, chili crisp, parmesan cheese, poached egg
Last up was the turbot from the “Substance, Grilled” portion of the menu which features two different preps of steak including a 16 oz bone-in strip served with miso bagna cauda, lettuce wrap, ssamjang, tangerine nice cham, and pickles. As tempting as that was it was the wife’s bday and she’s not a big red meat eater so we decided to go with the turbot over the black cod which along with a wood grilled chicken and two veggie preps completes the entree selections. The turbot is served with swiss chard, fingerling potatoes and an incredible kombu beurre blanc that took me straight to Paris with how rich and delicious it was. We had no room for desert after all of that but I can’t wait to get back as the menu switches up with the seasons. My only complaint was it took two hours to eat from when we ordered to when we left as the place was packed and there was a table of 12 that ordered right ahead of us. I don’t like to wait around in between dishes too long but the kitchen was clearly backed up so that’s ok. That’s just how it goes sometimes especially these days as places like Maxwells try to figure out how to pay their staff a living wage and give customers the service they expect. All in all I really liked the food and found the lively vibes to be pleasing in a way other places are not. Cool spot.
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