Frontier: By Maggie

Maggie is a special education teacher who enjoys going out to eat, being with friends, crafting, and riding her scooter. Maggie considers a restaurant worthwhile if it has delicious and interesting flavors delivered with consistency. She also appreciates a restaurant that has inventive and thoughtful vegetarian dishes. One of the reasons Maggie watches Check, Please! is to encourage her to leave her neighborhood and try new places.

I recently headed south on Milwaukee and ended up at Frontier, the former Corosh spot. I’ve found myself there multiple times; meeting friends for drinks, stopping by with my boyfriend on my way home for one more IPA, going and leaving because there is a ridiculous wait for a table (and a bar-stool?- not a chance).
The space is cool. There is a great outdoor patio with a bar, TV, and huge fireplace. There is ample seating outside, which makes the restaurant much more accessible to the crowd. Inside there are tables that line the long bar and restaurant, with an additional area above the main room. The music is a combination of great alternative and indie rock that transitions into typical bar tunes as the night wears on. The décor is rustic yet comfortable, showing off lots of wood, stone, and cool metal.
I must admit that the large stuffed bear and frequent delivery of full roasted pigs to tables is a bit off putting, seeing as I am a vegetarian. This is precisely the reason why going there for the food and drinks makes Frontier all the more special.

They have a beer selection big enough to meet any hipster or beer connoisseur’s needs; one of my favorites is the Avery IPA in a can. There is also a decent wine selection given the bar-type atmosphere. On my most recent visit, I ordered the fried green tomato sandwich. While it is one of the only purely vegetarian dishes on the menu, hats off to Frontier for making it outstanding. It is on a delicious, long bun topped with a caponata, arugula,and goat cheese. The fresh green tomato is perfectly seasoned and fried. The balance between the tomato and toppings is perfect and all feel necessary and right to create this amazing sandwich.
All sandwiches come with a side, rather a huge basket of fries that are obviously homemade and fresh. While my stomach said “stop eating, you are full” my taste buds won and I finished my whole sandwich. I had plenty of fries left and could have definitely shared my order with someone else.

I would recommend Frontier, for the unassuming cool spot that it is. It is comfortable and unpretentious, while clearly having become a“scene”. The food and beer are great and the price is right.

Frontier
1072 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60642

(773) 772-4322
http://www.thefrontierchicago.com

Inovasi By: Steve Rheinstrom

Steve lives in Highland Park and enjoys cooking, photography and even hitting the slopes skiing in the winter.  He says because he enjoys cooking so much he truly appreciates going out to restaurants and experiencing the creations of a great chef. If you asked him what the best ingredients are for a perfect meal is he would say love and care.

We had dinner with our friends the W**** at one of my favorite restaurants, Inovasi in Lake Bluff.  A delightful place in an unlikely spot, as Lake Bluff is not know for fine dining, but that has changed since Inovasi arrived 2 ½ years ago.  “Inovasi” means innovation in Indonesian, and it is an apt name for this restaurant.

To give you a flavor for the surroundings, the restaurant is right in the middle of the small town center area of Lake Bluff, east of Sheridan Road off Rt. 176.  You walk into the restaurant in it’s bar area, a nice sized room with an almost Jackson Pollock like, bar counter.  The bartender is first rate, and the assortment of spirits and craft brews are excellent.  The seating areas are divided into 3, a smaller room off the bar, and 2 larger, open spaces with window views of the kitchen as you walk to your table.  The furthest room has a gas fireplace, and there is a touch of prairie style architecture to the moldings on the ceiling.  A picture of Theodore Roosevelt sits above the fireplace, and the menu makes mention of the ideal of conservation and the restaurant’s support of local sustainable organic farms.  The wait staff is uniformly knowledgeable and helpful, and the service is impeccable.

The chef, John des Rosiers, has a local background.  His career started at Gabriel’s in Highwood, and then to training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.  He then worked at Charlie Trotter’s, and returned to climb the ladder at Gabriel’s to the reach the level of chef de cuisine.  He then worked at Bank Lane Bistro in Lake Forest before he opened Inovasi.

This restaurant gives him the stage to create his style of fusion, mixing Asian accents with local ingredients.  This is not fusion restricted to one geographic area, but can reflect Spanish influences, low country Carolina cooking, and many others.  The menu changes with the seasons, reflecting what is best available.  The first time I went to Inovasi, I had rainbow trout served on a piece of cardboard, with a palate of 4 different sauces in a very random and abstract Jackson Pollock painting type of presentation on the shiny side of the cardboard, each of the sauces delicious, and the trout perfectly cooked.  The menu here has enough choices to satisfy my vegetarian daughter, and plenty of meat opinions for the carnivores, as well as fish choices.

On our last visit, we started with “Argyle St” flatbread, with pecans “driftless cheese” and wild huckleberries, sprinkled with herb oil.  Roasted Brussels sprouts were topped with shallot, a local cheese, and a touch of a truffle mayonnaise.  A circle of “El Piconero” goat cheese was mated with a small pillow of polenta and a tomato fondant.  Perfectly fried and lightly breaded calamari was spiced with Spanish chorizo and hints of marcona almonds.  These plates are small portions, designed to be starters, but were enough to share.

For entrées, I had the “fish swimming yesterday” which in my case turned out to be striped sea bass on a bed of julienned carrots with macadamia nuts.  D*** had the “carnivore addition” which was a delightful preparation of pork shoulder with anson mills farro verde, huckleberry vinaigrette, and fennel tops marinated in a variety of spices and presented in a round timbale about 2 ½ inches high.  My wife had dry aged beef sirloin served aside dollops of spicy chocolate (a take on molé) and cheese croutons.  J*** had organic roasted chicken breast on antebellum grits.

Chef des Rosiers constructs the plates elegantly.  The thing to keep in mind is that the “main” plates are still on a small portion concept, but the costs reflect the quality of the ingredients used.  The “fish swimming yesterday” is apt, as the piece of fish is sourced from small family operation fishing boats.  The striped sea bass I had was hand caught the day before in Rhode Island.  There is a Kentucky grilled squab on the menu that I am going to try next time. Add a little extra trust in Chef des Rosiers, and let him pick a tasting menu of 5 courses, that can be tailored around individual’s food allergies/aversions.

I also can't forget that I love burger night, every Tuesday.  They are not the cheapest burgers in town, but they are all very well executed and worthwhile!

 

Inovasi

28 East Center Ave.
Lake Bluff, IL 60044

(847)295-1000

http://inovasi.us/