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.
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I had a great brunch there a few years ago.
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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.
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@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.
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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.
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Thanks!
Kapitan looks very intriguing, especially since I’ve never really had this type of cuisine… again, thanks!
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thanks for this lth link! Going to Chicago at some point in the next couple years and this looks really useful.
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menu looks fab!
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