Quick Upscale Lunch to go
Dec 22, 2005 | 2:53 pm
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Quick Upscale Lunch to go
Two of Chicago's most celebrated chefs, Charlie Trotter and Rick Bayless, each recently opened fast-food style establishments downtown. We tried both and have this to report: Lunching in the Loop just got a whole lot better.
Trotter's To Go Express
200 W. Monroe St.
(312) 499-0640
Meals are grab-and-go packages, handy for eating at your desk. And like the Lincoln Park outpost, this Trotter's To Go is chic and sparkling clean. A nice addition: seating. Here you'll find a dozen curved brown stools along a window-front counter and some small tables. The space is quiet and airy.
Surprisingly, fare is wildly uneven. Best of the many sandwiches and salads we sampled is apricot curry chicken salad ($4.95). Need a curry fix? This will do the trick. A terrific counterpoint to the curry is hummus ($4), smooth and mild. French green lentil salad ($3.95) has the proper bite of vinegar, softened with blobs of creamy goat cheese and brightened with bits of red and yellow tomato.
But spinach pasta ($3.95), with peanuts, carrots and cilantro in a Thai sauce, is bland. Sandwiches ($7.95) were soggy, regardless of when we bought them, in the evening and as early as 11 a.m. Fillings are pleasing smoked salmon, barbecued pork or beef tenderloin but lettuce and other vegetables were wilted. At that price, sandwiches should be bigger and edible.
Desserts, too, were either fantastic or dreadful. Extra virgin olive oil cake, with pears and honey ($3.95), is unusual and wonderfully moist. An oversized organic oatmeal cookie ($2.25) is equally delightful. But chocolate pecan bread pudding in caramel sauce ($5.25) was awful, and the underemployed recent college grad among us threw out his chocolate mousse cake ($4.95), surprising even himself: "Have you ever seen me not finish a piece of chocolate cake?"
Frontera Fresco
Marshall Field's
111 N. State St., 7th floor
(312) 781-4483
There's nothing fast about this food stand, Mr. Bayless' first dining place away from Clark Street: It took 35 minutes from the time we joined the line, just before noon, until we set our trays with no-longer-hot soup onto a table. And when we left, just before 1 p.m., the line was even longer.
The draw of the food isn't surprising. It's tremendous both simple and complex and inexpensive. What does raise an eyebrow is the wait once your food has been plated, and it's left to cool as customers pay the sole cashier by credit card. We visited another day after the lunch rush and had the same problem. The acoustics stink, too: Remember your college cafeteria? This vast space home to six other food stands has the same clatter of trays and plates and silverware.
TOP TABLE
Frontera Fresco, for putting out astonishing food at very reasonable prices.
But the food is so extraordinary that the wait and "atmosphere" are worth bearing. Don't miss the beverages; mango-lime and raspberry-prickly pear ($1.95) are refreshing and colorful, served in tall clear glasses. Even tepid, the tortilla soup ($3.50) ranks among the best soups I've had anywhere: Its rich broth holds chunks of avocado, chicken and thin strips of corn tortillas.
A grilled steak torta ($6.95) is more like a panini, but its smoky chipotle sauce put it in another galaxy. Ditto the tamales (which stayed warm because of their corn-husk wrappers, $2.75), stuffed with goat cheese or shredded pork; both were the highlights of our visits. A side salad ($2) is a pleasing mix of greens: fresh, crunchy and not drowned in balsamic-vinegar dressing. Chunky guacamole and chips ($1.50) is a rare treat in a food court.
Chocolate pecan pie bars ($2.25), like a dense, fudgy brownie, are a sweet finish.
Trotter's To Go Express
200 W. Monroe St.
(312) 499-0640
Meals are grab-and-go packages, handy for eating at your desk. And like the Lincoln Park outpost, this Trotter's To Go is chic and sparkling clean. A nice addition: seating. Here you'll find a dozen curved brown stools along a window-front counter and some small tables. The space is quiet and airy.
Surprisingly, fare is wildly uneven. Best of the many sandwiches and salads we sampled is apricot curry chicken salad ($4.95). Need a curry fix? This will do the trick. A terrific counterpoint to the curry is hummus ($4), smooth and mild. French green lentil salad ($3.95) has the proper bite of vinegar, softened with blobs of creamy goat cheese and brightened with bits of red and yellow tomato.
But spinach pasta ($3.95), with peanuts, carrots and cilantro in a Thai sauce, is bland. Sandwiches ($7.95) were soggy, regardless of when we bought them, in the evening and as early as 11 a.m. Fillings are pleasing smoked salmon, barbecued pork or beef tenderloin but lettuce and other vegetables were wilted. At that price, sandwiches should be bigger and edible.
Desserts, too, were either fantastic or dreadful. Extra virgin olive oil cake, with pears and honey ($3.95), is unusual and wonderfully moist. An oversized organic oatmeal cookie ($2.25) is equally delightful. But chocolate pecan bread pudding in caramel sauce ($5.25) was awful, and the underemployed recent college grad among us threw out his chocolate mousse cake ($4.95), surprising even himself: "Have you ever seen me not finish a piece of chocolate cake?"
Frontera Fresco
Marshall Field's
111 N. State St., 7th floor
(312) 781-4483
There's nothing fast about this food stand, Mr. Bayless' first dining place away from Clark Street: It took 35 minutes from the time we joined the line, just before noon, until we set our trays with no-longer-hot soup onto a table. And when we left, just before 1 p.m., the line was even longer.
The draw of the food isn't surprising. It's tremendous both simple and complex and inexpensive. What does raise an eyebrow is the wait once your food has been plated, and it's left to cool as customers pay the sole cashier by credit card. We visited another day after the lunch rush and had the same problem. The acoustics stink, too: Remember your college cafeteria? This vast space home to six other food stands has the same clatter of trays and plates and silverware.
TOP TABLE
Frontera Fresco, for putting out astonishing food at very reasonable prices.
But the food is so extraordinary that the wait and "atmosphere" are worth bearing. Don't miss the beverages; mango-lime and raspberry-prickly pear ($1.95) are refreshing and colorful, served in tall clear glasses. Even tepid, the tortilla soup ($3.50) ranks among the best soups I've had anywhere: Its rich broth holds chunks of avocado, chicken and thin strips of corn tortillas.
A grilled steak torta ($6.95) is more like a panini, but its smoky chipotle sauce put it in another galaxy. Ditto the tamales (which stayed warm because of their corn-husk wrappers, $2.75), stuffed with goat cheese or shredded pork; both were the highlights of our visits. A side salad ($2) is a pleasing mix of greens: fresh, crunchy and not drowned in balsamic-vinegar dressing. Chunky guacamole and chips ($1.50) is a rare treat in a food court.
Chocolate pecan pie bars ($2.25), like a dense, fudgy brownie, are a sweet finish.
