Game dishes in Chicago
 

Bagging a game dish at lunch can be tough hunting in Chicago; most chefs avoid it because it can be too pricey for a midday meal.

And when you do find it, don't expect it to be truly wild — or even necessarily raised in the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations put an end — near as we can tell — to the days when chefs bought game from local hunters or, in some cases, shot their own.

Virtually all game sold for retail use is raised on ranches or farms, some in the U.S., some in countries like New Zealand, which supplies roughly three-fourths of all venison consumed here. Bigger game, like deer, elk and bison, are free-range, sometimes within large, fenced areas. They eat a mixture of forage and feed. Smaller game like birds and rabbits are often raised in free-roaming barns and outdoor pens.

Executive chef Terry Crandall at the Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St., is offering a Szechuan peppercorn-crusted venison chop with taro cake ($28) for lunch and dinner at the hotel's Shanghai Terrace restaurant. The chop is seared and served with Chinese plum wine sauce; the taro cake, made from taro root, is stuffed with venison confit and deep-fried.
"Deer usually eat a lot of grain and berries, so we match it with something sweet like wine and taro root," says Mr. Crandall.
He orders venison from Broken Arrow Ranch in Texas, which he prefers because the animals are free-range, eat mostly forage and are hormone- and antibiotic-free.

At Vivere, 71 W. Monroe St., chef Drew Kennedy is debuting a rustic pasta dish with rabbit this fall ($14.95 full portion; $9.95 half). House-made pasta squares are served with shredded, orange-braised rabbit, sautéed apples, golden raisins and Pecorino Toscano, a sheep's-milk cheese.
The restaurant's signature pheasant pasta ($14.95 full order; $9.95 half) is available at lunch all year. A menu fixture since Vivere's opening in 1990, the dish features ground, braised pheasant stuffed into rich, egg-yolk pasta doused with a butter, sage and parmesan sauce.

The rabbits come from Rabbit Man Farms in Sandy Hook, Miss. The pheasant is from MacFarlane Pheasants Inc., a 76-year-old company near Janesville, Wis., that recently closed a deal to supply its birds to Whole Foods Markets. The pheasant are raised in free-roaming barns and flight pens and are hormone- and antibiotic-free.
Both Rabbit Man Farms and MacFarlane supply Chicago Game & Gourmet, 350 N. Ogden Ave., which sells to local restaurants.

At Russian Tea Time, 77 E. Adams St., game from the dinner menu can be ordered for lunch. Owner Klara Muchnik says the kitchen is always prepared to serve quail with cherry sauce on corn polenta with baby spinach ($22.95) or the combination platter of broiled venison, quail and kielbasa with sautéed eggplant, Russian-style potatoes and baby greens ($18.95).
Its quail are raised by Quail International in Georgia, a 22-year-old operation that supplies pen-raised birds to restaurants and regional grocery chains including Kroger and Piggly Wiggly.

At 312 Chicago, 136 N. LaSalle St., chef Dean Zanella recently brought back his popular pheasant sausage starter ($11.95). White pheasant meat from MacFarlane is mixed with a little pork and some seasonings and served with white beans and pickled onions or mushrooms and lentils.
Mr. Zanella also serves game specials for lunch each week. "If I put them on the regular menu, they get lost," he says. "If I bring it on as a special, the waiters get excited and talk it up to the tables."
Rabbit with risotto or gnocchi or wild boar ragu (both about $16) are a couple of standard options. Call ahead to find out if they're on the day's specials: (312) 696-2420.

New on the appetizer list at Blackbird, 619 Randolph St., is Paul Kahan's venison carpaccio with Medjool dates, walnuts, pumpernickel and pickled shallots ($12). The kitchen cures the venison in-house for a pastrami-like flavor and texture.

Jim Todd, sales executive at Chicago Game & Gourmet, says game sales have increased 35% to 40% in the past five years because Chicago chefs are experimenting with it more and because diners like the nutritional profile. Game is low in fat and cholesterol and high in protein.

Heading to Chicago in September and have a sudden craving for venison, venison and mole, even better. It doesn't look like Peninsula has it on the menu and I'm pretty sure the last place in Chicago where I had venison was Salbute which is now closed.
Any good recommendations would be appreciated!

Frontier serves a lot of game dishes, I've been a few times, generally high quality food.

The Gage also serves a number of game dishes.

I'm thinking venison is more a late fall/winter dish, wish you luck in your search.

If you willing to think outside the box, Gino's East South Loop location has a fantastic venison deep dish with apples, cremini, and fried egg.

Yes, it looks like I might be out of luck. Gino's is outside the box I had painted but maybe I'll warm up to the idea.
I see Frontier has a venison burger this time of year, but no steak. I'll keep searching around, possibly a Mexican restaurant would have some venison mole.
Thanks

if you find some venison mole, please do share the location.

I don't mean to discourage by stating the following, I'd be shocked to find a tacqueria offering the dish.

No joy on the venison and mole I was hoping for... maybe next time.

Even more bad news: I discovered that Gino's took the venison pizza off the menu a few weeks ago.

I guess venison is not a hot item right now or too early in the season. I did get my fair share of Lou Malnati's and was not disappointed!

I haven't been to Casa de Samuel for a few years but they do have Mexican style game (and venison in season) on the menu.

http://www.lacasadesamuel.com/index.html

Darn, I missed it. The reviews on yelp look pretty good. Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely consider this next time I'm in town. The queso fundido on their website looks yummy.

I used to work in the Med Center area near there and the food was very good about 6 years ago.

I think I'll go in a week or so to check it out again as I love game and Mexican food.

I completely missed the Mexican intonation on 'mole' when I first read this, and had a momentary panic that folk in Chicago had started eating mole :eek:

new job leaves me with zero time or else I'd join you, that sounded delicious.

lol, it is the game dish thread. I'll pass on the mole, opossum, muskrat, etc. From the looks of that European mole though it'd be an easy catch. How does that thing even get around. :-)