Boltwood in Evanston focuses on Midwestern ingredients
EVANSTON, Ill. (WLS) -- Northwestern celebrates its homecoming game Saturday, but the formerly "dry" town is also celebrating a homecoming of another sort. After stints in the kitchens at Blackbird, Avec and the Publican, a talented young chef has decided to come home and cook for family and friends.
A whole, grilled branzino served gently over a pool of romesco sauce, showered in marinated-and-grilled squash with a forest of fresh watercress. This is not your typical North Shore entree, and Brian Huston is fine with that, because Boltwood is his chance to gather everything he's learned at other's people's stoves and bring them home.
"It was an opportunity for me to come home and cook for family and friends," Huston said.
But he says the menu is a departure from what he's been doing the last few years at The Publican in the West Loop.
"If Publican was beer, pork and oysters, we're gonna be vegetables, cheese and wine," he said.
His love of Midwestern ingredients is obvious. Brunkow cheese - that farmer's market mainstay - is sliced and grilled, served with seasonal melons and La Quercia prosciutto from Iowa, plus a drizzle of balsamic, some oil and fresh mint.
"Kind of like a hot-cold charcuterie cheese plate all in one," Huston said.
At least a half dozen vegetable sides grace the menu, including marinated eggplant, which changes with the season. Here, it's paired with chilies, peanuts and cilantro. Even the potatoes get some unusual treatment: after they're boiled with water, vinegar and salt, they're fried, then drained, and ultimately get tossed with some chicken fat.
"We serve our potatoes with schmaltz. I know everyone is doing duckfat potatoes and I guess I'm just being cheap," Huston said.
A healthy toss with salt and parsley make them awfully addictive with a dipping sauce combining ketchup and aioli. For dessert, how about goat's milk ricotta cheesecake with raspberries and brown sugar crumble, or fresh pie served tableside. Huston says any relation to his previous work elsewhere is purely coincidental.
"I've had a couple people come in that are familiar with both places, and I take it as a compliment that the food is a little different here," he said.
Now in addition to Huston's market-driven menu and a pie program that offers you slices as large as you'd like, there's also an ambitious coffee and tea program. Clearly, Boltwood is trying to shake things up here on the North Shore.
Boltwood is also open for lunch Tuesday through Friday.
Boltwood
804 Davis St., Evanston
847-859-2880
