Food & Drink in Illinois

If red wine goes with red meat and white wine goes with white fish, then what color wine goes with green curry, chocolate-tinged mole sauce, or rainbow sushi rolls? Until someone invents a palatable rainbow wine, restaurants’ wine lists can help ease the stress of choosing the perfect pairing. However, this safety net doesn’t exist when dining at BYOB eateries. In these situations, the question becomes: how do you know what wine to bring for a meal that hasn’t even been ordered yet? Don Hupp, manager at Que Syrah Fine Wines (3726 N. Southport Ave.), knows how to pick a bottle with confidence. Here are his wine-pairing suggestions for some common BYOB cuisines: Sushi “Pinot noir is a standby,” Don says right off the bat. He also notes that wines from the Beaujolais region in France also play well with a wide variety of sushi dishes. The important thing is to select a bottle that is low in tannin, alcohol, and oaky flavor. According to Don, this helps ensure that the wine won’t overwhelm a sushi meal’s delicate flavors and textures. BYOB Testing Grounds: Seadog Sushi Bar (Wicker Park | 1500 W. Division St.)  Thai  To help temper the spice of a Thai curry or noodle dish, Don recommends wines made from gewürztraminer “if you aren’t scared of a little sweetness.” If that hint of sugar seems off-putting, he suggests trying a dry rosé from southern France. A gewürztraminer’s off-dry sweetness or a rosé’s bright acidity can cut the burn of tiny thai chilies while refreshing the palate. BYOB Testing Grounds: Aroy Thai (Ravenswood | 4654 N. Damen Ave.) Barbecue This one has a clear-cut winner in Don’s mind. “I do a barbecue pairing every year, and zinfandel is king there,” he says. He likes that the spice and the relatively high alcohol levels help the wine stand up to robust barbecue sauces, complementing the flavors without overwhelming them. BYOB Testing Grounds: Smoque BBQ (Irving Park | 3800 N. Pulaski Rd.)  Pizza  Don admits that there’s a lot of variability here, and a perfect pairing really depends on the style of pizza and what toppings are included. However, he says that one good rule to keep in mind is that “if it grows there, it goes there.” Tuscan blends and chiantis are an obvious yet reliable choice for pairing with a freshly baked Italian pie. BYOB Testing Grounds: Pizza Art Cafe (Lincoln Square | 4658 N. Rockwell St.) Indian  To drink with Indian cuisine, “I don’t mind doing a higher alcohol wine with soft tannins,” Don says. The bold fruit flavors of an Australian shiraz can balance the heft and the occasional heat of Indian dishes. For a completely different approach, he also suggests trying a sparkling wine, which runs no risk of overpowering the food and still manages to refresh the palate with every sip. BYOB Testing Grounds: Uru-Swati (West Rogers Park | 2629 W. Devon Ave.) Mexican  Don says that Spanish riojas manage to walk a fine line. The tempranillo-based blends are “light enough to carry along with different courses,” but they tend to have just enough of an earthy backbone to complement richer flavors. Don also recommends seeking out a bottle of South American bonarda, a little-known varietal that typically features the sort of soft, fruit-forward flavors that characterize food-friendly wines. BYOB Testing Grounds: Chilapan (Logan Square | 2459 W. Armitage Ave.) [Read how Chilapan’s chef works to perfect his mole recipes.] Burgers “Merlot gets a bad rap,” Don says, “but it’s a good wine.” With a hearty burger, he recommends sticking with a classic Californian merlot, noting that the robust fruit flavors help the wines stand up well to the heartiness of a burger right off the grill. As an added bonus, Don appreciates the fact that finding a solid bottle of merlot for an affordable price tends to be relatively easy. BYOB Testing Grounds: Butcher & the Burger (Lincoln Park | 1021 W. Armitage Ave.) Photo: © Stephanie Bassos, Groupon

“I’m not against mainstream music. I just think most of it’s really bad.” That’s Uncanned Music founder Scott McNiece, whose programming service curates eclectic playlists for top-tier restaurants across Chicago’s West Town. With comments like this, McNiece risks coming across as a music snob, but it’s hard to blame the busy DJ who refuses to mince words. After all, it’s his full-time job to explore the strange underbelly of American and international music. Even if you’ve never heard of McNiece or Uncanned Music, you might have heard his work. Those reel-to-reel hip-hop tapes that make the brunch plates rattle at Au Cheval? Probably McNiece’s most well-known project. Those soulful tunes that splash off the white-tiled walls at Trenchermen Bar? Another soundtrack courtesy of Uncanned. But what’s the key to building a solid playlist? Mixtapes, road trips, parties, workouts—almost everybody’s made a soundtrack for something at some point. I sat down with McNiece to see what sets his soundscapes apart from a Pandora One subscription. Step One: Think Like a Scientist Originally a student of anthropology, McNiece approaches music with the curiosity of a scientist. Before curating a playlist for one of his Chicago-based clients, he spends as much time as he can inside the space—preferably on a crowded night—making meticulous field observations. “I think about what I heard when I was there and how it affected people, how it made me feel, how it flattered the space,” he explains. “I think about the people that are working there and what kind of style they have, what kind of energy they have.” He also pays attention to the room’s construction. For instance, a jangly garage-rock song would echo terribly in a room with lots of mirrors, hardwood floors, and wooden tables. “[With] really soft rooms, you can pretty much go any way with it,” McNiece says. “The more reverberant [the room] is, the less choices you have.” Step Two: Play Matchmaker McNiece also considers taste—in the literal sense. Some sounds go best with comfort food, while others pair better with a menu that’s cerebral and complicated. “If the place serves cheeseburgers and hot dogs, you [don’t] want to use some arty Brian Eno [tracks] from the late '70s,” he says. “You might want to consider using something more comfortable—like the Rolling Stones.” Step Three: Think Visually McNiece often thinks of his music less as “playlists” and more as “soundtracks.” The first time he walked into Trenchermen, he immediately thought of the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. “The visual symmetry of the room is really striking in the same way that a lot of [the film’s director] Wes Anderson’s shots are,” he explains. For the first song on his Trenchermen playlist, McNiece chose Sigur Rós’s “Starálfur,” a song that actually appears in the film. This may seem like a strange source of inspiration, but McNiece often references movies when brainstorming with clients. “Part of the method of defining and designing a music program is trying to think of the room as a scene. The most epic, amazing, unforgettable movie scenes you’ve ever seen with a song in 'em—could it ever be a different song in that scene? If you saw it [with a different song], it would fuck you up.” He claims that films are “a great common language point” that help him easily relate his ideas. When designing the soundtrack for Ruxbin, for example, he noticed that the restaurant seems to marry a “postapocalyptic Asian junkyard vibe” with “futuristic food.” So with the owner’s blessing, he sculpted a playlist loosely based on the Blade Runner soundtrack. Step Four: Play for 10% of the Room “We don’t play Top 40,” McNiece says. “Customers [should] feel like the music they’re hearing … is not something they can get anywhere else.” He prioritizes local artists—Tortoise, Angel Olsen, and the Cairo Gang are among his current favorites—but doesn’t shy away from obscure genres such as Polish psychedelic pop (a sample of which he played for me; I was expecting it to be bizarre, but it’s actually quite pretty). In fact, McNiece only expects his music to appeal to about 10% of a restaurant’s clientele. “But that 10% are the people who really know music and understand it,” he says. “And they’re the kind of people that will become incredibly excited, and will be like, ‘I can’t believe they’re playing this song, I thought only I liked this music!’” Crowdsourcing Inspiration In addition to the curated playlists, McNiece and the Uncanned Music team also DJ (the old-fashioned way, with vinyl) and host a series called Collection Selection. For this project, McNiece interviews music collectors who work within the restaurant industry and invites them to guest DJ at Trenchermen. “Music for most people is very personal,” he explains. “The more profiles of people you understand, the more you can understand how music is grouped together and what people like.” To hear the latest from McNiece and Uncanned Music, check out their calendar for upcoming events or simply visit Trenchermen, The Revel Room, Carriage House, Mott Street, or Au Cheval—all restaurants that feature their music. Photo: © Stephanie Bassos, Groupon

At Carriage House (1700 W. Division St.) in Wicker Park, Chef Mark Steuer’s Restaurant Week menu ($44 for dinner) gives Chicago a taste of a balmy Southern beach town in the midst of our winter deep-freeze. LOWCOUNTRY, DEFINED To my ears, the words lowcountry cuisine are onomatopoeia in action: five smooth syllables that are buttermilk biscuits, bags of boiled peanuts, iron vats of corncobs and shrimp. This association is from growing up living—and eating—in the South. I relished the thick slices of liver mush that my grandmother fried for breakfast, Wheel of Fortune blaring in the background; the baskets of hush puppies my sisters and I shared at a now long-since-shuttered restaurant called Po’Folks. On certain holidays, we’d pile into our parents’ minivan and ride across North Carolina’s rolling piedmont toward Charleston, South Carolina’s ritzy beach town. Once we got there, we’d cover our bodies in sunscreen, hit the beach, and acquire impressive sunburns. Equally important, though, was the ritual that came afterward—searching for dinner along Charleston’s mansion-lined boulevards. In Charleston, dinner wasn’t just a meal. It was a mainline to the city’s lifeblood: a chance to glimpse fancy old ladies and distinguished gentlemen, the couples carousing with their debutante daughters. It was a chance to giggle at tourist-hustlers coaching trained monkeys, a chance to taste fried squid from chefs who ventured onto the sidewalk with platters. These were my first glimpses at lowcountry dining. These food memories are so wrapped up in culture, which makes sense. After all, lowcountry cuisine, by nature, brings many cultures together. Even in ubiquitous dishes like shrimp and grits or hoppin’ john, you’ll find flavors of Spanish and French influence, as well as culinary traditions from enslaved Africans. The frequent use of rich ingredients such as cream and sherry denotes the decadent tastes of the area’s ornate upper-class homes. LOWCOUNTRY COMES TO CHICAGO Mark Steuer, the culinary mind behind Chicago’s Carriage House (1700 W. Division St.) and The Bedford (1612 W. Division St.), knows these lowcountry elements well. He too grew up in the South. Steuer’s education in Southern cooking began hands-on: he remembers fishing crabs and shrimp from a backyard dock on John’s Island with his father, then cooking the seafood on the family’s porch. Later, he learned the intricacies of lowcountry cuisine in the kitchen of Brett’s, a James Island eatery run by lauded Charleston restaurateur Brett McKee. A move to Madison—and enrollment at the University of Wisconsin—ended Steuer’s residence in the South, but he never got over lowcountry cuisine, left lingering on his palate like a debutante's kiss. Carriage House is Steuer’s way of remaking and sharing his memories of the South. The dishes he serves don’t play to a typical Southern standard of authenticity; instead, they highlight some of the South’s most evocative flavors in preparations that aren’t too stereotypically heavy or greasy. Carriage House’s Restaurant Week 2014 menu ($44 for dinner) offers newcomers a chance to get oriented with Steuer’s take on lowcountry cuisine, and offers Southern transplants like myself an evening with a culinary passport home. Read on for some of Steuer’s thoughts on the dishes he and his team are preparing regularly and for Restaurant Week, which includes a first course of skillet cornbread, pictured below. GROUPON: If someone has never had lowcountry cuisine before, how would you describe it to them? MARK STEUER: It’s a mix of of familiar Southern food with a bit of French and Spanish influence. G: You’re known for adding modern touches to traditional Southern cuisine. Are there any dishes on the Restaurant Week menu that really bring together traditional and modern flavors and techniques? MS: The pickled-squash salad. Normally, pickling squash would make it mushy, so we use a cryo machine to compress the squash so it stays nice and crisp and crunchy. We also use pears packed in salt and roasted for an hour, so they stay crunchy. G: I read on your site that you credit Mindy Segal with helping you master sourcing ingredients. In what ways did she influence you when if comes to ingredient-sourcing? MS: Mindy facilitated me meeting everyone I need to know. She’s a big supporter of the farmer’s market, and so am I. She helped me understand how important local sourcing is, because everything tastes so much better that way. G: If you weren’t cooking during Restaurant Week, where would you eat? MS: Probably La Sirena (954 W. Fulton Market) or Maude’s Liquor Bar (840 W. Randolph St.). Photo of lowcountry boil and skillet cornbread courtesy of Jamco Creative; photo of Chef Steur courtesy of Carriage House