a pop-up dinner at Claudia

a small interruption from the posts on Amsterdam and the Netherlands - Sunday night on the last day of May - when it was 45* as a high in "real feel" as AccuWeather says- we headed to a warehouse style building on the near west side of Chicago for a pop up dinner at Claudia.....

WHAT IS A POP-UP RESTAURANT?

Pop-up restaurants, also known as underground restaurants, are restaurants that “pop-up” in non-traditional venues or inside existing restaurants. Pop-up restaurants originally come from the prohibition era speakeasies, where only a specific group of patrons were "in the know ".

So we went last night to join a group of - LOL-  fourteen other "in the know" patrons for a beautifully prepared meal of mostly seafood with a main of lamb.  The food was stunningly presented as you will see in the photos.

When we arrived the wines were being opened and lined up for the course order- the first four are those from our cellar and our friends who invited us - all of these showed well and some exceptionally - the Dominus was the red winner and both whites were excellent examples of their varietal and terroir-

there were actually a few other wines that showed up after I had taken the photos so I missed those -

and at each place our first "taste" was waiting for us- GREEN PEA MARSHMALLOW BACON CHIP, MINT

then on to the next- which was one of my personal favorites - SALMON MACAROON, HORSERADISH CREAM, DILL

TUNA, FOIE GRAS, PONZU, LEMON SNOW, FINES HERBES, SEA BEANS, RADISH

DAY AT THE BEACH: SPOT PRAWN, SAND, DRIFTWOOD, BEACH PEBBLES, SEAWATER

SCALLOP, FENNEL, LYCHEE, MISO

RABBIT AND SWEETBREADS, PEA PURÉE, APRICOT, FRISÉE, PEA VINE SALAD, JUS

THE LAMB - GLAZED CARROTS, PETITE PURPLE ONIONS, BABY LEEKS, FAVA BEANS, MISO CONSOMMÉ (before and after the miso was added)

PEAS AND CARROTS - CARROT SORBET, CITRUS CREAM, PEA CRUMBLE (this dish never ever tasted this good when I was growing up...LOL)

"CAPRESE" DESSERT - BASIL PARFAIT, POACHED TOMATOES, OLIVE OIL FINANCIER, OLIVE OIL ICE CREAM

the bare bones room and a few of the corks we left behind--- LOL

Chef Trevor Teich is a Chicago native, and has worked in some of the best restaurants in the city including L2O, NOMI, and Acadia. His series of pop-up restaurants, claudia, show a fresh perspective on fine dining. utilizing the very best ingredients from all over the world, Chef Teich offers a seasonal tasting menu that is truly an experience.

we were happy we were scheduled for the early seating because not long after we left the eyelids began getting that jet lag style heavy.  They say a day for every hour of time difference so we still have a couple more days to get back on schedule- luckily we are both retired and can be awake or asleep as we please....  except this morning the contractor was scheduled to put in our new backyard fence to replace the one that fell over in the winter...so it was up at 7:30 no matter what!?!?!

so I will do one more interruption post and then get back to the trip posts and keep moving along!