Once you get past the unlikely industrial location (and the haunted-house anteroom), this young, hip boîte offers solid sour-salty-spicy gastropub food in an atmosphere perfect for chilling out. Bar bites such as fried black-eyed peas and Asian-flavored blistered Melrose and shishito peppers outdo Beer Nuts by a hipster mile; cavatelli with mint pesto, peas, prosciutto, and Parmesan demonstrates how to show off seasonality in this milieu for strong flavors. Some dishes fizzle with weak ingredients or overdo the salt. Cocktails don’t live up to the hype. But no other place in town with a Ping-Pong table on an AstroTurf patio turns out food this good.
Additional Information
Rating: 1½ stars
Price: $30-$39
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Noteworthy: high noise level outdoor dining wheelchair accessible
Dishes We Liked:
Black-eyed peas ($4), crispy potatoes ($6), Melrose and shishito peppers ($6), green and yellow beans ($7), cavatelli ($9), pork chop ($16), buttermilk panna cotta ($7)
