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North Pond Restaurant, overlooking Lincoln Park’s North Pond, has become one of our absolute favorite restaurants in Chicago. We’ve dined there three times in the past six months, and have never had anything less than a perfect dining experience.
Many North siders don’t even know North Pond exists! There is no street access to the small restaurant, only pathways from the roads that border the park to the east and west. The building itself doesn’t look like much from the outside. Built as a warming house for skaters in 1912 and refurbished with an Arts and Crafts/Prairie School motif, North Pond may win the prize for the most comfortable of the city’s upscale restaurants. Unlike many of Chicago’s favorites, North Pond’s design doesn’t smack you in the face the moment you walk in the door – it’s enters your consciousness gradually. Vintage travel posters, quotes from Thoreau and Chaucer on the dimly lit walls, a small fireplace tucked into one corner; we noticed all of these things throughout our dining experience, and gleefully pointed them out to our companions.
Enough about how pretty it is. What about the food?
Chef Bruce Sherman (just nominated for a James Beard award for Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region) has put together a menu that manages to be interesting and exceptionally delicious without pulling any culinary tricks. More than mere spectacle, quality is the watchword at North Pond – take the lobster bisque, an old standard that is almost a cliché. By adding Vidalia onion and a tiny bit of pickled watermelon radish, Sherman intensifies the flavor of the creamy lobster broth. Not a “new twist on an old favorite,” just the best version of the dish that you can imagine. Slow-roasted, bacon-wrapped rabbit was another favorite - tender, well seasoned and accompanied by roasted purple potatoes. First-time customers to North Pond should try the rosemary basted quail, served with lobster.
North Pond integrates seasonality into its menu, but in the same modest way. Sherman, a member of the board of the Green City Market, has a strong commitment to environmentalism and local foods, but rather than bragging about his localvore credentials, there is only a small notation at the bottom of the menu that many of the products were grown locally and sustainably . Oh, and our server mentioned that we should watch out for buckshot in our squab, because it had been hunted instead of farmed.
North Pond Restaurant is located at 2610 N. Cannon Drive. There, you will find a valet station and a path to the restaurant. Reservations are strongly recommended. They are open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 5:30.
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"Oh, and our server mentioned that we should watch out for buckshot in our squab, because it had been hunted instead of farmed."
This is similar to how servers at my future chain of steakhouses will warn guests to ignore the ball peen hammer imprints in their venison.
/the only way to hunt...
I went here for a graduation party once. It is a great atmosphere and I loved walking up the path next to a pond that overlooks the skyline. The food however, was less than stellar. Maybe it was because I was with such a large crowd that they had to cook for.
What sticks out the most is the martini that tasted like perfume. I can enjoy or at least suck down most high end vodka, but this was awful in a not tasty and pretentious kinda way.
A bit over rated in my humble opinion.
"Oh, and our server mentioned that we should watch out for buckshot in our squab, because it had been hunted instead of farmed."
This is why I go to Arby's. All of their animals died a natural death ... after they became too old to continue performing at the circus level.
I tried to go here last summer when I had family in town but there was a sign on the door that said no jeans allowed. Lame.
"I tried to go here last summer when I had family in town but there was a sign on the door that said no jeans allowed."
who goes to a nice restaurant in jeans? Good for North Pond. Midwesterners dress like slobs and they should be ashamed of themselves.
Wow Matty. My dress jeans (yes they exist), dressy top and heels that I'm wearing today would say otherwise, but ok.
Jeans and heels. Yeah, classy.
"This is why I go to Arby's. All of their animals died a natural death ... after they became too old to continue performing at the circus level."
Wow, I sharted after reading this...funny stuff. But, doesn't Arby's use downer cows for its "beef"? What? Cuckoo.
Matty: Because seemingly endless snow and slush, icy sidewalks and six months of winter present the best environment for expressions of impractical fashion.
And if you think it is only Midwestern people who dress like "slobs," I suspect you haven't traveled enough, either in the USA or around the world (not all Europeans are well-dressed, for instance, despite what some would want you to believe).
I don't understand what's so difficult about it: It's a nice place. Unless you want to look like Kramer at the opera, put on some khakis (which, functionally, are zero different from jeans) and shut up.
who goes to a nice restaurant in jeans? Good for North Pond. Midwesterners dress like slobs and they should be ashamed of themselves.
Do you still wear a suit and straw boater hat when you attend baseball games? Do you still wear your best three-piece suit to church services? Get all gussied up for a Sunday afternoon drive in the country, do ya?
Lighten up, guy--it's 2008. People (and not just Midwesterners) wear jeans to work, school, church...everywhere.
This was summer for the other girl.
Look, not trying to be rude, but fashion is just not important here. And going to a restaurant in heels and jeans shows as much.
"..fashion is just not important here .."'
Thanks for reminding me one reason I like Chicago. Sure, I bitch about it, but I need reminders like this. Fashion is crap. Fashion is superficial trends.
I actually rarely dress a slob in public, but I never understood people who put so much energy into fashion.
By the way, I am sure when you fly you put on a suit, right? That's what used to happen.
Seriously, how often have you traveled outside the Midwest? You really have a narrow view of the world and the fashion habits of other people, it seems.
Matty, Michael Kors wears jeans all the time and I hardly think you can call that man a slob.
I'm not saying North Pond shouldn't have a dress code, that's their call, but your gross generalization of denim as the uniform of total slobs is insane.
Okay, back to topic: I've never eaten at North Pond. I'm just not balling like that (my Alinea visit Sunday was the splurge of a lifetime). But having said that, I've read oodles and oodles about Bruce Sherman, and I'm in love with the guy. He's just neat-o. And North Pond is definitely on my "splurge next" list.
"Seriously, how often have you traveled outside the Midwest? You really have a narrow view of the world and the fashion habits of other people, it seems."
I've been to London Paris NYC LA Toronto Shanghai Beijing Moscow and plan on Hong Kong and Buenos Aires in the next year.
People like fashion in these cities. More so than here at least.
And I think having an interest in your personal appearance is important to not only yourself but to others around you.
Jeans are fine, just not on a summer's day on a trip to the north pond.
"And I think having an interest in your personal appearance is important to not only yourself but to others around you."
Now I'm just being a bitch, but seriously, if I want to show up in pajamas to a restaurant, how does that affect you? Does it make the salad less crisp? The meat too dry? You're giving other people waaaay too much power.
And sorry for not closing that italics. :)
ahhhh Matty a man of midwestern ways, I rock jeans all the time at expensive resturants. As they say in The Wire, its how you carry it.
Sounds like a tourist spot any way with bland midwestern food. You know, a couple visiting the zoo from Shaumburg with their six kids. You get the picture.
Matty: I've been to nearly all those cities, and many more cities not on your list, and have found that once you get away from the small central areas, or the rich areas, you will find slobs aplenty.
Moscow? Fashion there is still too much 1990s-era New Jersey--big hair and tight jeans, even on the main shopping drags and parks near Red Square. Paris? Pretty fashionable, but often in a way that's not much better than Chicago (a lot of clothes that looked like they came from thrift stores, and too much emphasis on cheap scarves, though, I admit, the women are much better dressers than the men. But the men often wear their nice clothes very loose, with wrinkles, and really, the men often smell bad and have far too much stubble). NYC? You've been to Queens, right? And Harlem? Hell, people watch in Midtown for about 20 minutes and you'll see what I'm talking about.
"And I think having an interest in your personal appearance is important to not only yourself but to others around you."--I think you need to look for work as a personal shopper, if you are not one already.
FYI: I really have no problem with dress codes as restaurants, and I do share your view that people should, at the least, dress neatly. I just think you are being unfair to the Midwest in your judgments, that's all.
Actually my girlfriend is from queens and the brothas on jamaica ave just rock their dress to a tee. I mean, it's not Milan but even the poor people want to look ghetto fab and do it.
I was just saying that in general dressing isn't as important here. I wasn't saying that people dress better - certainly not in moscow - but they care about their appearance, however misguided their appearance may be.
And yes I am generalizing but there's a lot of truth to what I am saying. You yourself admitted you're not really into fashion at all, so why argue?
Also it doesn't help that most people here couldn't fit into anything designer anyway.
Seriously, I love chicago (born and raised) but our outward appearance can be appalling.
The food and atmosphere at North Pond was the only redeeming part of an otherwise awful first (and only) first date.
Matty: if you haven't figured it out already, I just enjoy arguing about anything I have a half-assed interest in. I would, though, consider ghetto fab to a form of sloppiness, at least the examples I've seen.
I don't really put too much importance in people caring about their appearance as long as they don't stink and look respectable. I care far more about their ideas and passions than their garmets.
Yes, but are their bathrooms clean?
"I don't really put too much importance in people caring about their appearance as long as they don't stink and look respectable. I care far more about their ideas and passions than their garments."
Whole heartedly agree.
Now running home to put on baggy sweatpants (so as to show off my thong of course), wifebeater and ugly ass flip flops.
And by affect others around you try going out to eat and there's a fat girl with bacne in an armless blouse with jeans and heels on wailing about how she doesn't have a boyfriend while she honks down a beer with her pork dish that she stuffed into a roll to make it a sandwich.
I think that would put me off to the whole restaurant.
Mmm... Pork dish sandwich and beer... Mmmm....
Matty: Sounds like your problems with humanity in Chicago are deeper than just fashion.
Matty: Whoa. Uh, er, just, whoa.
Matty...Methinks you may need to talk to someone about some deeper issues. But thanks for proving you are indeed a jackass.
We need a gay German fashion czar for Chicago. A Bruno type who makes everyone jog a mile every day and dress "FABULOUS" all the time.
Two things.
First, "Sounds like a tourist spot any way with bland midwestern food. You know, a couple visiting the zoo from Shaumburg with their six kids. You get the picture." Have you seen the prices? Evidently not. No six kids coming into this place after a day at the free zoo.
Second, just stopping feeding troll Matty. He likes to dress up. That's fine. And he likes to look down his nose at people who don't. That's fine. He's called an a-hole and people generally ignore a-holes when they meet them. Just ignore him.
And "no jeans" is fine. If that's how this place rolls, then that's how they roll.
Matty: Don't get me started on the fashion choices of those freaking Germans, man. They do good uniforms, but that's about all. At least the Germans tend not to stink.
i'm on matty's side in this. you go to a nice restaurant, dress nice.
I don't care if you are wearing $500 jeans. They are still jeans. They are not appropriate apparel for a nice restaurant. They are appropriate for the dive bar at the end of the street or Wrigley Field.
If I picked up a woman for a date at a place like North Pond and she was wearing jeans...well...the words "so...uhhh...I forgot my wallet..." come to mind. Or at least, "yeah, you owe $xxx (half of the bill)"
I love the food at North Pond, and the view has got to be one of the best in the city, but both times I've been there, the hostess has been a stone-cold bitch. And for the record, I was early or on time both times. And no, I was not wearing jeans;)
I've only been once, but they had a wild game prix fixe that was unbelievably fantastic from start to finish. Highly, highly recommended.
Oh and Matty, you might want to check last weeks New York Style section, son. Jeans run the economic gambit. You can't make those stereo types about jeans. Not that I would pay even 50 dollars for a pair, but its how you rock em.
And I bet you don't even bat an eye when folks walk around your midwest "fancy" resturants wearing beige cotton dockers! Talk about lacking class!
Jeans do run the gambit and they look good in a lot of situations. I never said otherwise.
So then we are in agreement and happy Friday!
Don't get me started on the fashion choices of those freaking Germans, man.
I've been to Germany a number of times and every time I think, "Christ, they dress like Chicagoans." I'm with Matty on this one, though. If you're at my table, I'd like you to look like you put some thought into your appearance, some preparation for the evening. And, to me, that includes no khakis/Dockers.
Alone at home, until it gets hot outside, I wear one sweater. One. I bought it in Budapest in 1999 for $30. I hide it when I have company. It smells its age.
It's aesthetics and you are projecting something, even if it's "meh". I'm not a meh kind of person, though. I suspect that North Pond is trying to do, consciously or otherwise, is create an environment in which the aesthetic is one of engagement, not apathy.
Now if you want to get into a Bourdieau discussion, I'll get my dork on. Hehe.
Yok: Christ, now I must dress for strangers whom I will never meet or probably even see again, and whose taste I could never discern 100%?
Modern living is hard, man.
Perhaps menus should come with fashion suggestions from now on.
Ah, but matilda, you already are. My point is not that you dress for them, though you could (am I wearing a tie today for me?), but that your aesthetic sense is a perpetual expression and one of choice. (Wasn't it you who quoted Sartre not so long ago? [written with a wink])
"I've been to Germany a number of times and every time I think, 'Christ, they dress like Chicagoans.'"
That's just a lie. Germans are so very, very easy to spot. From their odd-colored jeans, to their goofy glasses, to their unfortunate sock choices, to their unwillingness to wear suits in any "standard" colors, they simply do not dress like Chicagoans.
By the way, you know who dresses like Europeans? All of my Polish immigrant neighbors in Portage Park. You know how I know they dress like Europeans? BECAUSE THEY ARE EUROPEANS! Maybe Matty could explain how fancy pants they are.
Yok: Fine points, but I am spending a crap load of cash on a dinner, rest assured I am dressing for me and my companion, not some people I do not know. (written with a wink as well)
My sympathies about the tie.
That's just a lie.
Um, no, I honestly think it. I may be wrong, but lying I'm not. Overreact much?
Sorry, I thought that you would understand that I did not literally mean that you were being untruthful, but rather, would take "that's just a lie" in the playful manner the rest of the post was made in. In fact, upon further reflection, I think that you probably did understand it to be tongue-in-cheek.
As long as we are here, creating an atmosphere of engagement rather than apathy by banning jeans seems pretty easy. We should do that everywhere. I mean, if that is really what they are doing and not just making the entirely reasonable decision that they don't believe that jeans are dressy enough for the restaurant they are running.
Gotta love it, midwesterners judging Germans on what is and what isn't fashion.
Now go got iron your Cubs jerseys for tonight or will it be a botton down shirt?
Spook,
It pays to read the thread. The comment was that Germans dress like Chicagoans. We have now both shown that we believe that to be false, albeit from different perspectives.
By the way, that was not a very well-typed post. It was kind of hard to understand, so I hope I got your "point."
Here's my thinking re apathy vs. engagement: What is wrapped up in the expression jeans are [not] dressy enough for the restaurant they are running?
- Class distinction (through pricing, presentation, and dress code we can make the diner feel a part of something "elevated")
- Unity of presentation (by encouraging a form of dress, the other diners become part of the restaurant's aesthetics)
- Unity of participation (by encouraging a narrower range of sartorial choice, the diners look more like one another and are more likely to feel part of an experience larger than the plate)
It's not anything that they spell out explicitly... when you throw a dinner party and create a certain ambience you're hardly running through a hermeneutics of your taste.
Good lord, I'm painfully pedantic.
We know, Spook. The East Coast is the epicenter of the universe...
Yok,
As to paragraph one, I guess I would just have said "atmosphere" and left engagement and apathy out. Whatever though. Fair enough, I see your point of view. Frankly I see the restaurant's too.
As to paragraph three, yeah. Kinda.
yea, Chicago D, yer Spook was buzy trying to figure out his new Ipod, make a date with a certain young lady, while cleaning his office at the same time. Cause gets what? Its Friday and I just got paid, son! Paid Me, your Spook! And I'm about to raise up outta here like John Starks once did over Jordan, cause I got heart like that!
Pinko well the there is also New Orleans and I guess you could make a case for the west coast too! And I'm not being a troll, but what "trend" originated in Chicago except for house music and kids killing each other over Air Jordans? And today Chicago Barely has a house music scene any. These young-uns are confusing House Music with dumb A$s techno!
Yea we use to have Blues and Jazz, now Daley has reduced it to "tourist stuff". Now be good and get yer boy Spook a drink from the bar!
This was not a hate on Chicago thread. I just think we can do better. Do your part to dress better Chicago!
We can do it!
Matty I'm going out tonight and wearing a formal in honor of you.
@Spook
New Orleans is a blast. Los Angeles sucks. If I'm heading anywhere in that direction, it would be to the Pacific Northwest. But the simple truth of the matter is that the only place I really want to be is right here, right now...
And don't follow trends, son! Set them! (Did I sound enough like you there?) I'd be happy to get you that drink from the bar--whenever and wherever--you name it. The small price of admission would be worth meeting the man behind the curtain...