Local eateries celebrate spring
Spring at last! The last snows have melted away (fingers crossed!) and it's time to get out and about.
Local restaurants are celebrating this season of renewal with menus highlighting the best of spring's fresh produce and other seasonal dishes.
Dishes you can expect to see for a few brief weeks include fresh peas and pea sprouts, green and white asparagus, fava beans, artichokes, green garlic, rhubarb, strawberries, Alaskan halibut, red snapper, blue crab, Pacific salmon and spring lamb. If you're fortunate, you may see ramps, sorrel, morel mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, nettles and young dandelion greens, and you might also see a few spring libations, like German maibock beers and maiwein, infused with sweet woodruff.
"These things scream spring to me," says chef Jeremy Lycan of Niche in Geneva.
"Springtime is one of my favorite times of the year because of two things," says chef Danny Salgado of Holy Mackerel! in Lombard. "Halibut season starts and rhubarb is in season."
He notes, "Halibut should be perfectly seared golden brown on one side and delicately flaky white on the other."
Here are some of the spring specialties at dozen local restaurants.
Adobo Grill, 356 Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard, (630) 627-9990, www.adobogrill.com
Spinach and poblano chili soup ($6) and grilled local asparagus salad ($7.95).
Birch River Grill, Doubletree Hotel Chicago-Arlington Heights, 75 W. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights, (847) 427-4242, www.birchrivergrill.com
Artichoke and roasted garlic ravioli with saffron broth, roasted red bell peppers, basil pesto, shaved parmesan ($12).
Cafe Pyrenees, Adler Square Shopping Center, 1762 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville, (847) 362-2233, www.cafepyrenees.com
Oven-roasted halibut with sorrel sauce, over a bed of mushroom ragout and grilled asparagus ($26).
Durty Nellie's, 180 N. Smith St., Palatine, (847) 358-9150, www.durtynellies.com
Maibock beers ($4 to 7), and grilled asparagus with roasted garlic crouton, goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette ($8).
Holy Mackerel! Westin Lombard, 70 Yorktown Center, Lombard, (630) 953-3444, http://holymackerelseafood.com
Alaskan halibut with Okinowan blue potato puree, rhubarb coulis and lavender-vanilla oil ($28).
Isabella's Estiatorio, 330 W. State St., Geneva, (630) 845-8624, www.isabellasgeneva.com
English pea, fava bean and bean lettuce soup with meyer lemon creme fraiche ($7); La Quercia artisanal prosciutto and white asparagus with toasted hazelnuts, chervil, shaved parmesan, white balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil ($11); wild-caught, wood-grilled Colombia River sturgeon with white asparagus and salsify risotto, green asparagus, shaved black truffle aioli with lemon and whole grain mustard ($24); pan-seared scallops, nettle and spring garlic ravioli, roasted morel mushrooms, fresh fava beans and fava leaves and sauce vierge ($28); veal osso buco with braised veal-shoulder cannelloni, fiddlehead ferns, nettle and ramp "spaetzle" and caper and lemon-parsley relish ($34).
Le Titi de Paris, 1015 W. Dundee Road, Arlington Heights, (847) 506-0222, www.letitideparis.com
Seared sea scallops on spring field greens, aged balsamic, strawberry, and garden rhubarb compote ($10); multigrain tart of spring peas, oven-roasted red bell peppers, thyme- and garlic-braised leg of lamb, with crumbled gorgonzola cheese and rosemary infusion ($9); pancetta-wrapped wild striped bass, green-onion, fava-bean and asparagus risotto with gingered morel-mushroom barigoule ($26)
McCormick and Schmick's, 140 E. Higgins Road, Schaumburg, (847) 517-1616, www.mccormickandschmicks.com
Prosciutto- and salmon-wrapped white and green asparagus with stone-ground mustard aioli ($6.95) and grilled snapper with green lentils and fennel salad with basil oil ($21.95).
Niche Restaurant, 14 S. Third St., Geneva (630) 262-1000, www.nichegeneva.com
English sweet-pea cream soup with brown butter, Oregon state morels and sweet-pea tendrils ($9), and shaved white asparagus salad with white truffle oil, blood orange supreme and coulis ($12.50).
Reel Club, 272 Oak Brook Center Drive, Oak Brook, (630) 368-9400, www.leye.com
Roasted halibut with organic spring pea risotto and pea tendrils ($26).
Osteria di Tramonto, The Westin Chicago North Shore at 601 N. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling, (847) 777-6570, www.cenitare.com
Wood oven-roasted whole branzino (sea bass) with fennel, meyer lemon and dill and cavatelli with local asparagus, French horn mushrooms and smoked ricotta salata (call for prices).
Zed451, 801 E. Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, (847) 925-0061, 3008 Finley Road, Downers Grove, (630) 512-0900, www.zed451.com
Strawberry rhubarb spinach salad (included with complete dinner, $42.50, or salad bar, $24.50)