Counsel’s Table: A duality of taste

By Russell B. Selman
Katten Muchin Rosenman • Restaurant Critic

It always seems odd to me to vacation away from Chicago just when Chicago’s weather suddenly improves each summer. The glorious summer has such power as to induce amnesia, and I quickly forget what I just endured.

Not all Chicago residents agree with me: Some very wealthy friends recently returned from a restorative trip to North Korea. When I wryly questioned whether they had an unnatural fondness for concrete they simply asked whether I, too, had recently visited Pyongyang. Err …, ”I have not,” I responded, and I suppose when it’s time for me to vacation in North Korea it means that I have visited every other place on earth. And, that I am so old that one-piece jump suits and permed gray hair are a comfortable choice.

No, for me, I stay in Chicago in the summer, but I look for places in-town that have a languid and somewhat dissipated attitude. While I know that such description can apply to several of Chicago’s most venerated mid-sized firms currently suckling merger partners, I mean places to hang-out over leisurely lunches. The kinds of places where you can show-up alone and they still bring over the full-bottle wine menu never thinking you prefer wine-by-the glass.

Aigre Doux is that sort of place. While we hours-obsessed lawyers build our time sheet sand castles all year summer is the time to recognize that our clients really don’t love us, so you might as well have a drink and kick off your shoes. For me, such is the essence of relaxation, especially since Aigre Doux’s floors are a cool stone.

The mixture of my love/hate summer attitude is the same as Aigre Doux’s name, which refers to a duality of sweet/sour taste. Just when you think you have pegged a flavor, it turns inside out and metamorphoses. Not to the opposite, the flavor just becomes something else.

So the oxtail raviolis are round, but individually served in square little plates for contrast. The flavor is first sweet, than gets more savory and complex. I notice a few saucy spots have appeared on my shirt and I grin. Another ”I’ll send this shirt to the laundry” choice is the mussels in a coconut curry, which are fragrant and plump. Again, the mussels make my shirt a virtual photo log of the feast I’ve eaten.

But so what, when the food is good that’s my attitude and that’s my attitude at Aigre Doux.

Entrees are less accident-prone, but still juicy. The sweet duck uses currants to bring out a fuller flavor by restricting the sweetness and keeping the flavor within the bounds of propriety. A simple pulled-pork sandwich is less successful, because the chef has again and again sweetened the meat to candied consistency and doubled-down by invoking it all in a buttery bun. While summer is the time for candy-apples, I looked for, in vain, a spot of sour rectitude.

Keeping the sweet/sour balance is not the end-all of Aigre Doux. Some dishes are just good, like the rack of lamb, with truffled grits, which prove that with enough truffles even Styrofoam can climb to the top of the food pyramid. I also favor the black cod in miso, which establishes a food fantasy that this cod lived its very happy life in a strange Japanese tributary of miso waters, which added a natural shroud of sweetness.

Aigre Doux is able to bring off this imaginary quality. With all of this intense cooking interest, Aigre Doux is more of a European sophisticated-type vacation not a quick week’s trip to Hawaii where you might go for some sun and hanging-out. Aigre Doux is a nice place for a lawyer on the lam without leaving Chicago.

Pleadings:
Aigre Doux
230 W. Kinzie St.
312-329-9400

Court costs:
Appetizers $8 - $12 Entrees $12 - $35

Verdict:
Three Gavels