Graham Elliot: Very happy birthday to Husband

This year we celebrated Husband's birthday in style at Graham Elliot, and we were not surprised one bit at how much we loved the fun and lively atmosphere and of course, the inventive, superb food. Our only issue? It was a Wednesday night so there was no way we could tackle Chef GE's 20-course repertoire menu. We could, however just barely, narrow down the varied, interesting choices and make it home with a little room left for birthday cake.

If you recall, just a few short days before Husband's birthday, the president of these United States also celebrated his birthday at Graham Elliot. So as the typical clientèle is maybe a hipster-foodie hybrid, we saw a lot of folks that looked like, well, my parents. But there's something about Graham Elliot that makes even the most unlikely neighbors smile at each other, inquire about what you're eating, and maybe, just maybe, sing happy birthday to your husband when they bring out some complementary foie gras lollipops (more on that later). We can all agree that the parmesan truffle popcorn is way better than any old bread.

The a la carte menu is split into hot, cold, sea, land, and sweet dishes, and our server suggested that each choosing a cold, hot, and sea/land dish would be a good amount of food. Husband's "cold" choice was the heirloom tomato salad with herbed bread, aerated mozzarella, basil seed, and balsamic bubbles...

And I went wild for my tuna sashimi with red pepper sorbet, passion fruit, radishes, avocado mousse, crispy plantain. That sorbet may be soon appearing in Husband's ice cream maker.

Our hot dishes included the scallops (what else?) with serrano ham, almond butter, canary melon, herb salad...

And my pick, Corn bisque: huitlacoche (mushroom) marshmallow, corn nuts, chipotle adobo, lime crema. Oh, yes. I said mushroom marshmallow.

And our entrees! It was very appropriate that Husband got to have one of his all-time favorites (waygu beef) on his bday. This was one was served with fingerling potatoes, charred ciopolinni, baby watercress, cabernet jam.

And mine was so beautiful and lovely and somehow light AND rich at the same time: Local whitefish, cauliflower couscous, red lentil, curried cucumber, currant chutney.

Even though we insisted we were finished after our entree (in order to save room for birthday cake), our deidcated server brought us a special treat, follipops, circular-shaped foie gras, rolled in pop rocks, on lollipop sticks. The coolest part of the night was meeting the chef himself on our way out. He was funny and gracious and talked to us about working on Masterchef. Awesome guy.

As I mentioned, it's only a matter of time before we return and take on the repertoire. Mark my words, that will be a long and favorable blog post.

Graham Elliot
www.grahamelliot.com
217 W Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 624-9975