Review: Maude's Liquor Bar

So I have been dying to go to Maude's for a few months since it seems to be one of the very "it" spots right now. And then lucky me, I went 2 times in a week and even got both experiences paid for...not what you think people! And the urge to go increased when my friend Suzi was there a few weeks prior to and saw Grant Achatz and girlfriend there as well. If it's cool enough for Grant to hang out there, then for sure, I want to check it out! (And no, I'm not obsessed if that's what you're thinking.)

After all the hype, I would say that I honestly have mixed feelings about the place. Here's a quick summary: drinks - average, food - solid, service - wildly discrepant, decor - superb, vibe - fantastic, price - more than what it should be, so overall, what do you rate a place like this? Especially when I want to love it so bad. So difficult! Here's the breakdown.

Over both visits, I had a couple of the specialty cocktails, including the St. German Fizz and Death in the Afternoon. Neither of them were memorable. I did, however, have a lovely sancerre that I need to go back for in order to find out the actual vineyard and vintage. I'm still thinking about it.

Next stop, food. Oysters were some of the best I've had in the city. They feature one east and west coast nightly and what did impress was that even though I went two times less than one week apart, they had 2 totally different sets of oysters both times. On the latter visit, they were serving Stingray oysters from Chesapeake Bay and Shoal Bay oysters from the Pacific Northwest. The first time I went, I was too drunk from my fantastic birthday meal at Blackbird to remember the oysters I was indulging in afterward. I know, sick, right? 3 course meal at Blackbird and then a dozen oysters at Maude's. Lesson here people: there is always room for oysters! The salad we had was amazing. It was the shaved salad special of the night which entailed of red and golden beets, radishes, blue cheese, and walnuts. The roasted bone marrow was also to die for. It was split length wide so you had to spoon it out. It was served with a red onion jam and toast points. Very intriguing indeed. What lacked any pizazz was the foie gras torchon with cherry jam which was unfortunate since I love foie gras. We were debating between the foie gras and chicken liver so next time, I'll go for the liver instead.

The service...ugh. The first time we went, the service was HORRIBLE, all CAPS. The hostesses, our server, D to all. While we were wrapping up our bill at the bar, which was all but 5 minutes, they gave away our table upstairs which we had requested and waited over an hour for. And our server, was super annoyed that we ordered only drinks and oysters downstairs and openly showed it, even though it was her own hostesses that gave our table upstairs away after we told them we were only there for drinks. She was also pretty condescending about a comment my sister made about a beer she suggested tasting somewhat like Blue Moon. OK, I know a place like Maude's does not serve anything remotely close to Blue Moon but she's also talking to 4 people who KNOW their food more than most people out there and certainly more than she did. I can't say enough about how bad the service was. (And I have to say it DID taste like Blue Moon.) Anyway, enough of that. The second time there, however, we had a super friendly, polite, and attentive server who was a breath of fresh air compared to our first experience. So she definitely made up for our first encounter a few times over. Guess service is a wash.

As for the decor, it is truly a scene out of old school France. No complaints. I love the decor and vibe they are going for... quite lovely.

Price seems to be a little all over the place. A dozen oysters are $30 and the foie gras torchon was $18 which both seem to be slightly too high. OK, I know I'm being picky but $2 or $3 less would seem more appropriate. However, the salad at $8 and bone marrow at $13 seems to be spot on.

So overall, I am really torn about what to rate Maude's. I didn't love it as much as I had hoped but there were very promising parts as well. I think a third visit is in order to offer better perspective between 2 and 3 stars! But for now, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Overall rating: 3 stars / 4

Maude's Liquor Bar
West Loop
Cost: $$$

http://www.maudesliquorbar.com/

(As a side note, pay no attention to the empty tables in the photo. This place is happenin' but I went right at opening since my friend was going to the Hawks game later that night, and I was on mom duty. Yes, I am probably the only person to ever take her baby to a place as cool and hip as Maude's...gasp! It was beyond packed when we left at a more regular hour.)

Pheasant Night

My brother-in-law goes hunting every year for pheasants at the Chain O'Lakes State Park. This year, I had 5 pheasants that he asked me to cook up for dinner. Now I've only ever cooked one wild game animal before, venison, but for some reason, pheasant seemed way scarier! Or maybe it was because I was fearful that I'd ruin something that someone actually took the time to hunt and kill for dinner.

After much research on-line, I read that most people either soak the birds overnight in milk or brine. This is mainly to reduce the gamey flavor or to pull out the excess blood. Gross, I know. I opted for the milk method which I really think worked well.

Anyway, I ended up making an apple stuffing and stuffed each pheasant breast with it, wrapped it in bacon, and added chopped onion. Because I figured even if the birds ended up sucking, at least they will taste better with bacon right? Everything tastes better with bacon! The sauce was made of prunes, apple vinegar, and heavy whipping cream. We even found 2 shots during our meal. Watch out teeth! They're too difficult to find when you're deboning the bird as they're only about 2 mm wide.

On the side, we had a lovely butternut squash, leek, and corn wild rice. And for dessert was a blackberry pear honey goat cheese tart.