For those that know me pre-children, they know that I love to cook. I have always had a passion for making dishes and the more elaborate the better. I can honestly say that I have spent over a day making a potato recipe, searching out the best ingredients, carefully putting them together, nurturing it for as long as it’s needed and then serving it. In that case the taste wasn’t worth that type of effort, but at other times it has been more than so. Because of this I have always admired Charlie Trotter.
Charlie Trotter is a Chicago icon. His restaurant in Lincoln Park that bears his name has been a mainstay on top places to eat not only in Chicago and the US, but also the world. Mr. Trotter has done this without ever attending a culinary institute, and in fact has a Political Science degree from the University of Wisconsin. His cooking was self-taught from books and experiance. During college he not only studied his coursework, but also read many culinary books and toured the best restaurants in the world during breaks.
Because of this I have always wanted to eat at his self-named restaurant and experience what culinary excellence tastes like. I was looking forward to eating good food, but also taking in the presentation skills that the best chefs offer their patrons. With that in mind I made the reservation to Charlie Trotter’s a few months back for my wife and I’s first wedding anniversary.
We arrived at Charlie Trotter’s before our 5:30pm reservation and were the first guests to arrive. The restaurant from the outside looks like a smallish house in the upper class Lincoln Park neighborhood in suburban Chicago. There was some construction-taking place on the outside of the building and they were cleaning the steps up to the restaurant. We were quite early and I suspect these were some last minute details being attended to before they expected their clientele to arrive.
Despite our early arrival the staff met us at the door and opened it for my wife and I. As we first entered we saw a beautiful display of wine’s reaching up to the vaulted ceiling full of different varieties as one might expect from all over the world. The bartender was there and met with us and of course offered us some champagne or other drink. We accepted the Champagne from the list that they had available by the glass. After a period of time we were then ushered to our seats and awaited the menu and the start of our experience.
The restaurant is available in two levels of seating with our seats being on the first level. There is also available some seating in the kitchen, from my understanding those are just randomly selected from the evenings guests. This must be an incredible experience to witness not only how the meal is put together, but also to see how the staff operates and the food arrives.
The menu arrives on a specially prepared sheet of paper and the wine list is a well-stocked book. There are two selections, the vegetable menu and the Grand Menu. The vegetable is just that all vegetables and the Grand contains many different styles of meats and seafood. Our waiter though was quick to point out that if we had any specially prepared items they would substitute or if there were any allergies they would also change out menu items as well.
Mr. Trotter only serves ingredients at the peak of their maturity so there are different menu choices on most any evening you might arrive. I have enclosed the choices we had and since neither Kate nor I have any allergies, changes were not needed.
The dining experience will take at least 2- 2½ hours from start to finish. I will not describe each dish, but only hit the highlights of both menus. With each different glass of wine, port or sherry there is a different piece of stemware from Reidel included. By about the 3rd course you forget what meals are scheduled and in what order so it is always exciting when they place each glass in front of you. We spent a little time guessing what wine and what meal course is arriving shortly.
For those carnivores thinking the vegetable menu might not be to their liking, I can relieve them from that caution. There were two exceptional dishes in my meal, both the duck and the veal, but until those arrived I was craving most of the dishes that arrived in front of Kate, each was very aromatic with exceptional tastes as well.
Each course and wine arrived with a short presentation from each attendant. During that they described the wine or meal with a short explanation. In the case of the wines, you heard about the grape varietal and the region the wine was from. For the meals you heard about each particular part of the entrée and the ingredients that make up each dish.
As one might expect the amenities and the presentation for an upper-tier restaurant is what will also attract some guests as well. None of the tables in our lower level dining room is intimate though. This leads to some benefit since most of the guests are eating from the same menu. Given that we were one of the first guests we were able to relive each course as the tables next to us received their portions. This always reminded me how exceptional each portion was.
Because of this lack of intimacy your dining becomes much more of a social event than you might anticipate. The table next to us asked us if we knew the score of the Cubs game, when I didn’t they checked it on their phone and reported the outcome to me.
Next door to the main level dining room is another small kitchen and a table for small parties. Many might remember this kitchen from Mr. Trotter’s PBS show, which aired a few years back. This room can easily hold another 20 or so guests and was in use later in the evening. This would also be where I bumped into Mr. Trotter who kindly pointed the direction back to the main hall for me when I was slightly distracted while watching the chef’s cook on multiple TV monitors placed in the rear of this second kitchen.
The service as you might expect was spectacular. All of the waiters and waitresses were very knowledgeable on each dish. We used this knowledge often and they were more than happy to go over each dish and flavor. Kate and I explored the many different flavors that are apart of the different courses. The plates and the presentation also changed with the wine glasses for each course, we also went through a number of different forks, knives and spoons as they also changed. With that much changing of place settings happening you might think the staff might get under-foot. Amazingly enough they were always there when you needed them, but somehow were never in your way nor interrupted any of our conversation.
During our meal there never was any pressure to finish each course, in fact quite the opposite. We were encouraged to enjoy each at our out pace, savor the wine and experience each dish with all of our senses. The vegetable menu lent itself often to this exploration, as those dishes were especially fragrant.
Almost all of the dishes were prepared with multiple flavors. However none of the different preparations was larger than a few mouthfuls. We found it best to enjoy these by taking small bites from each side of the plate. In order to share any, small bites will be a necessity. Because of the smaller portions we explored each part of the dish to experience each and every flavor. There were many times we asked the wait-staff back to tell us again what a certain flavor was. This was by far for me the best part of the meal because in many cases I would have never thought to combine certain ingredients together in one dish.
True to their word when we made the reservation the meal from start to finish was close to 2 ½ hours. As we neared the end of the meal a delightful elderly lady came by and asked if we might want to tour the kitchen after our meal was complete. I of course readily answered a yes and she said to have the wait-staff get her when we were ready.
After dessert the elderly woman was identified to us as Mrs. Trotter, we soon found out that this was Charlie’s mom and we set off to take advantage of the tour of the kitchen. As we entered the kitchen we spotted the lone table and then the multiple different areas for each course that was being prepared for the evening. We also found out the reason for the expert pacing through the meal was due to two people who were in charge of pacing each table so that within 30 seconds of preparation the course would be on our plate and ready to be eaten!
I discussed with Mrs. Trotter my love of cooking and how much both Kate and I enjoyed our meal, she then took us on a side tour to the extra banquet room to show us a special oven that Charlie cooks with called a TurboChef. She explained in hushed tones that it was $7,000, but that like all new technologies it would come down in price she was certain.
We also discussed with her some of the ingredients that were used in the evening such as ramps and Morel mushrooms. Morels are a favorite of mine from when I used to live in Michigan. It was then that we found out that Mrs. Trotter took her honeymoon and the car ferry that leaves from my hometown of Ludington. We shared some small talk about Ludington and many of the geographical places that she might remember. Our waiter thanking us for eating there interrupted our tour, but his comment to Mrs. Trotter about how much it was obvious we enjoyed the meal was a fond reminder of the meal we had just completed. She then walked us back to the front of the restaurant and on the way Charlie grabbed what he called his first kiss of the evening and then we exited Charlie Trotter’s onto the street.
As most can tell by this time I was very much impressed with every part of the meal, it was far and away the finest meal from beginning to end that I have enjoyed. The service was over and above and the whole dining experience was quite overwhelming, the tour just completed the end of a wonderful evening.
There are only a few criticisms I can arrive at for the diner who would want to experience this type of meal. I did not venture up to the upper floor so the seating there might be different. Dining at Charlie Trotter’s can be a social event. I’m sure for many of the patrons there this may be their only visit. There were many pictures being taken and conversation was quite prevalent for a festive occasion. It is not loud, but is present. For Kate and I it fit our festive mood. If you are looking for a very intimate dining experience this probably isn’t it.
The other item to prepare yourself for Charlie Trotter’s as you might expect does come at some cost. It is not to be ventured into lightly and without some room on the credit card. It is however an event that needs to be enjoyed from start to finish and for Kate and I celebrating our first anniversary it will be remembered and treasured.
The above picture was taken with my Panasonic LX3. It was actually done after some prodding from the wait-staff. Today I'm grateful of that prodding.
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