I follow this guy although he’s away from Chicago for the summer it appears.
Billy Goat for sure not, but inside it is a bit cavernous. Other two places you should check because we’ve dined/drank only inside. One more thing though out of walking range and without experience supporting vouch – we’ve been told good things about Longman & Eagle:
Three bucks for a snoot of Jim Beam or Rittenhouse rye could be vouching enough.
I had a great brunch there a few years ago.
only if they have outdoor seating. i’ll check out their site.
that place sounds good, and hooray - outdoor seating! Thanks!
I dm’d @mariacarmen but as I read further I think this might be of interest to many: a WaPo travel article about Chicago with lots of interesting-sounding restaurant recommendations. I have no idea if it’s behind a paywall, sorry.
@mariacarmen is likely already acquainted with the Chicago Reader, but when I lived there, it was an important resource for all things cultural and eats-wise for me. On a quick scan, Kapitan sounds appealing. @klyeoh might find it interesting.
I think it’s absolutely fascinating that one can even find a Nyonya restaurant in Chicago nowadays. 15 years ago when I was working in San Francisco and travelled extensively across the US, I could barely find anything remotely close to what we have in Singapore/Malaysia.
I was a regular at Chris Yeo’s now-defunct Straits restaurant at the Westfield SF Centre. He’s Singaporean, but his offerings have been so localized, the dishes were more fusion-Asian than anything.
But Kapitan’s dishes looked pretty “authentic”, though it’ll be a huge challenge to reproduce our native flavors with the dearth of certain fresh products in Chicago: freshly-grated coconut, pandan leaves, etc.
Still, I salute Kapitan for even attempting to offer labor-intensive myriad of Nyonya kueh. It takes years for experienced kueh-makers to perfect their offerings. Fresh coconut milk, fresh pandan leaves and good quality palm sugar are essential here.
The way they cut the kueh talam at Kapitan left a lot to be desired. It will NOT be acceptable to serve cakes haphazardly cut like this in Singapore/Malaysia.
Peranakan-Nyonya cooking has very exacting standards. Nyonya kuehs has to be cut like these. Any imperfect ones are never served.
I guess Kapitan can only improve - hopefully, they get some constructive feedback from their customers.
Thanks!
Kapitan looks very intriguing, especially since I’ve never really had this type of cuisine… again, thanks!
thanks for this lth link! Going to Chicago at some point in the next couple years and this looks really useful.
menu looks fab!