After a few thwarted attempts to visit friends in Chicago, I was finally able to swing a last minute trip this past Thursday. With nothing more on my agenda than to try a new restaurant (to me, anyway) and to spend a day at the Art Institute, I set about to find the latest and greatest addition to the city's ever-burgeoning restaurant scene.
From Urban Belly to Xoco to Purple Pig, I gathered recommendations from friends, magazines, and blogs. Go carnivore? Herbivore? Asian? Latin? It was all too overwhelming. Fortunately, my friend Ronda had just purchased a $30 Groupon worth $60 at OTOM, in Chicago's Fulton Market district. For two on a budget, this sealed the deal. OTOM it was.
In the heart of the city's meatpacking district, OTOM sits one block away from The Publican, the pork-laden menu of which I glowingly reviewed on this site last year. It's also next door to sister restaurant, MOTO, which has gotten great reviews for the "future food" approach led by chef-slash-molecular gastronomist Homaro Cantu. The brainchildren of Chicago restaurateur Joseph DeVito, MOTO features post-modern cuisine in a futuristic "molecular tasting room" setting, while OTOM features modern comfort food in a chic, industrial, brick-walled former gallery interior.
The menu at OTOM shouts "comfort" like the big, fluffy sofa in your parents' rumpus room growing up, only trimmed in orange resin and upholstered with shiny, white vinyl. Macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, and fish and chips get a modern makeover by Executive Chef Thomas Elliott Bowman and his team. Feeling carnivorous, I selected the Pork Tenderloin entree, brined and smoked, and served with a creamy white bean puree, sauteed swiss chard, and dressed with a savory piquillo pepper sauce. Ronda took the herbivore route, opting for the daily Forager Plate special, which featured a substantial red rice risotto cake, flowering kale and shiitake mushroom sautee, and a chunk of sweet corn on the cob. Our meals were preceded by a barbecued pork belly appetizer, served atop thinly sliced fresh pineapple and a poblano sauce.
All three of these dishes were spectacular, from the sweet and salty belly with its hint of heat from the poblano, to my smoky tenderloin and its unexpectedly standout white bean accompaniment, to Ronda's red rice cake and its satisfyingly crunchy--yet lightly airy--breadcrumb crust. Our only complaint--which we were both disappointed to admit--was our shared side of macaroni and cheese, served in a preciously miniature cast iron dish. Consisting of twisted, trofie pasta tossed in a creamy white cheddar sauce, the mac and cheese was overwhelmingly salty, almost to the point where I thought, perhaps, the chef had accidentally knocked the contents of an entire cellar of salt into the sauce, yet served it anyway. Its only saving grace was the accompanying corn fritter, chock full of whole corn kernels, lightly battered and deliciously sweet.
Unfortunately, with bellies completely full from our appetizer and entrees, we had no room left for dessert. The menu sounded intriguing, however, featuring a Sazerac baba, soaked in a rye syrup and accompanied by absinthe ice cream, and a lavender-polenta honey cake, with sweet corn ice cream and peach coulis.
Adding a glass of rose' for me and a whiskey cocktail for Ronda, our bill for dinner came out to a reasonable $81 with tax. Subtracting the $30 savings from the Ronda's Groupon, our final tally of $51 was more than satisfying to our pocketbooks. At the end of the evening, however, Ronda and I debated whether we'd return to OTOM. If invited on someone else's dime: definitely, but with all of the new and exciting joints opening left and right in the city, OTOM is not one we would put on regular restaurant rotation. I would, however, fancy a feast at MOTO some day, to satisfy a "future food" fix.
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