Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below.

Amy Cavanaugh: Welcome to Dish From Chicago Magazine. I’m Amy Cavanaugh, Chicago magazine’s dining editor.

John Kessler: And I’m John Kessler, Chicago magazine’s dining critic. 

Amy: Today we’re talking about John’s latest review, which is on the Alston, the buzzy new River North steakhouse. We’re also going to talk about the Wisconsin old fashioned trend that’s popping up around town. And we’ll finish up by sharing the best things we’ve eaten lately, which includes a New Haven-style pizza at a Roscoe Village joint. 

Amy: So the Alston is the new spot in River North. It’s from the Fifty/50 Group headed up by chef Jenner Tomaska of Esmé. It is glitzy. It is glamorous. It is really a scene. It is a place to, you know, really go when you want a big splurge, I was there for one of your three review dinners, and I felt very attuned to what your critiques were on it, what the things you liked were, but tell me your initial impressions.

John: My initial impression was that this is a restaurant that is trying to be like what Delmonico’s was to New York City in the Gilded Age. It was just trying to be this incredibly glamorous, over-the-top place where the elite would meet under beautiful chandeliers and just indulge in all their new money. It’s very much about money this place. I will say I had a lot of fun going there. Not all the food is great. I have a lot of criticisms about things they should be doing better. But man, it is such a— it isn’t just a restaurant. It’s like a warren of places to eat and drink and sit on patios and go to private clubs and watch carts wheel through the dining room and watch things go whoosh up in flames. That’s what the Alston is.

Amy: Yeah, I think fun is a good word. The menu is filled with dishes that are fun, like I love the pommes purée frites. And so I think that, you know, that that really sense— that that sense of fun really comes through in terms of food. What dishes would you go back for?

John: The dish that’s really become their signature is the canard à la presse, the pressed duck, which is an older French style way of presenting roast duck. There is a contraption that looks like a medieval torture device that they bring to the table, and you are presented with the entire duck. The breasts are cut off the bone, and they are generally meant to be served quite rare, and then the carcass goes into the press, along with the duck’s organs, to form the basis for the sauce, which is cooked in front of you. When I tried it, the duck was ,the breast was so perfectly cooked. It was so delicious, so beautifully presented. The legs were kind of tough, I gotta say, they weren’t the best, but it’s quite a show. I would go there for that, and you will see a lot of them being prepared in the dining room.

Amy: Well, I didn’t try the duck, but I joined you for the steak, and we had a bone-in ribeye. How did you think the steak matched up? 

John: I thought it was great. I thought it was one of the better steaks I’ve had lately. Jenner Tomaska, the chef, cooks it over a wood-fired grill at a very high temperature, and he really, really rests it a long time. So you just, you know, if you like steak to be rare, medium rare, you get that beautiful, like, combination of, kind of a crisp, well-seared crust and just very tender interior. I mean, I thought it was pretty awesome. How about you? 

Amy: I thought it was excellent, like, just really beautifully cooked and a great flavor on the steak.

John: Yeah. Didn’t love that sauce we got with it, but that just felt kind of extraneous.

Amy: Yeah, I would say, we did the house Alston sauce. I would skip that next time and just enjoy the steak on its own.

John: And then as for the rest of it. Man, there’s just so much on this menu. There’s all these different grades of caviar. You and I shared this, like, this lobster, this tourte au mar, or whatever, but it’s like a lobster pot pie with, like, you know, the lobster, his body just like, leaping out of it like a monster, but it was delicious. 

Amy: That was super tasty. 

John: Yeah, that was really nicely done. I mean, everything’s just so over the top. I mean, at a steak house, I kind of want to get, like, nice, clean vegetables and french fries and things that are kind of salad, things that are simple against the steak. But, you know, I got, like, their, their braised leeks, which have, oh, I don’t know, it was like fennel and chicken skin and pears and all this other stuff on it. And it was real tasty. But it was like, every, everything, single dish on the table was going, like, you know, me, me, me! Pick me! Pick me! I’m the I’m the yummiest, I’m the yummiest! It was like one of those, like everything was competing meals.

Amy: Yeah, definitely felt like a lot of dishes had a lot of different things going on. What else do you think the spot does?

John: Well, I really love their happy hour. Unfortunately, it only goes to 5:30, but if you go, sit in the bar, they make a great, great, great, great, great, great burger, if you like a big, thick, juicy burger, which is kind of more my speed. Love the burger. You can get an entire ounce of caviar for $65 and it comes with these crispy, freshly made waffles and these super weird-ass garnishes, like peanut butter, but, you know, an ounce of caviar for $65 and a good glass of wine with it, and a really pretty over-the-top club-slash-boudoir-slash-dining area-slash-fantasy. You know, what’s not to love about that?

Amy: Yeah, that bar space looks really nice, so I want to go check that out. Next time.

John: I will say the cocktails I tried, they had some house Negroni. And it was like, I don’t know, it just tasted really off. And I was like, Can I just have a regular Negroni? And the guy sitting at the bar next to me said, Oh, man, I want to do that too. I was like, but go ahead, you don’t like it. He goes, No, no, I don’t do that. I I’m just gonna drink it. And I was like, All right, yeah, so didn’t love the cocktails. And the wine is like, this seems like they’ve got a really, you know, they have a big wine cellar with a hidden room behind it. A lot going on there. I wish they put a little more attention into the wine by the glass program.

Amy: Yeah, I thought that. I enjoyed the wines that we were served, but I never like even got the name of them. So yeah, I think yeah, would have been great to include. And so how would you say this kind of fits into the Chicago steakhouse landscape?

John: I mean, everybody is always trying to figure out what the next glam steakhouse is gonna look like, like what defines glam for whatever era we’re in? And I feel this kind of strikes this, without getting too— without getting political about this, I think this is kind of the right steakhouse for this era. It’s very gilded. And I feel like it kind of has that steakhouse swagger that people look for. It’s also a place where you feel you can splurge, whether a splurge for you means $400 worth of caviar, or whether a splurge means $45 steak frites. So I think it’s gonna be around for a while, that’s my guess.

Amy: So in the September issue, I wrote a story about the Wisconsin old fashioned trend that I spotted happening around the city, I found four versions of them, and so I felt like I wanted to just do a little trend roundup in the magazine about what sets each of these versions apart. So first of all, a Wisconsin old fashioned is not your standard old fashioned. John. Have you had them before?

John: I had one once in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, and they asked, Do you want it like— they gave me all these options, and I was like, Um, sure, I’ll take the first one. So it was sweet, and it was, it seemed like it’d be a fun thing to get drunk on.

Amy: Yes, they are super fun. You find them at supper clubs. I mean, really, any restaurant in Wisconsin will serve you a Wisconsin old fashioned. But what sets these apart from your standard, like stirred whiskey old fashioned that you know we drink around the city, is that they’re made with brandy and kind of like the old fashioneds of the past, you know, there’s muddled fruit, so it’s muddled orange and cherry with sugar and angostura bitters, and then that’s topped with brandy, and then that’s finished with soda. And so the soda is really the kind of wild card here. So you can order it sweet, which means Sprite or 7 Up. Sour, which is sour mix or Squirt. You can get soda, just plain soda. And then press, which is half sweet, half soda. So there’s four different options that you can go with to get your Wisconsin old fashioned. I usually go sweet, which is the most— that’s the most prevalent. I did a poll on my Instagram, for when I was working on the story, just to kind of gage people’s takes on this. And old fashioned sweet was, was the most popular. So if you’re new to these, the old fashioned sweet is, is kind of where you want to go. And you know, the versions around town are really kind of taking fancier, they’re fancier versions. These are not your very simple old fashioneds that you know, that you would get at a supper club, but they’re— the bartenders have, like, really refined them,

John: And are they usually served in a rocks class, or, like, a highball?

Amy: They’re served in a rocks glass. And, yeah, you know, because they have that soda, like, it kind of makes it a low ABV drink, you know? And so it is absolutely something where you could have two before dinner. You can keep drinking them, you know, with your fish fry on your Friday night at the supper club, and you can have a handful and still still be upright. So one of the versions I wrote about is the brandy old fashioned at Gus’ Sip & Dip, which they use cognac, muddled orange and maraschino cherries, and 7 Up. That’s for the house version, but they will also make it for you with Squirt or soda if you want to try different styles. So if you haven’t had one of these, Gus’ would be a great place in town to go to kind of have your first one.

John: I’m taking it that in Wisconsin, it’s not cognac, but like E&J brandy or something like that, is that… 

Amy: Korbel is most prevalent. Okay, yeah, Korbel and, yes, and so it, you’re starting to see more people kind of tap more independent producers or local producers for that. You’ll see that up in up in Wisconsin, but what you won’t see is a supper club, the supper club old fashioned at Daisies, which is really clever. And what I like about Daisies is that, you know, we know their food menu is super seasonal, and things like the the wonderful overpriced tomato toast comes back every summer, but so does the supper club old fashioned. So they, you know, get local spruce tips and make a soda out of that. So it’s like, kind of similar to, like, Sprite, but also woodsy. And then they use brandy, of course, but then add a little bit of rye, and then cherry bitters. So very different, very original. Totally on brand for Daisies, but, you know, really strikes those notes of the brandy old fashioned.

John: Wow, that sounds great. They’re, the bar at Daisies, I feel is like kind of their low key, you know, MVP there. I mean, the cocktails I’ve had, they’re really good.

Amy: Yeah, that is, they’ve had a couple beverage directors over their times, but it’s currently Nicole Yarovinsky, and I think she’s doing really cool stuff, you know, getting things from the kitchen to turn into cocktails. And I don’t always find that, you know, reading the kitchen always works. And I think, you know, I worry a little bit when I see like too many savory ingredients packed into a cocktail. But at Daisies, I really think she nails it.

John: Any other Wisconsin old fashioneds in Chicago you want to give a shout out to?

Amy: Yeah, so Charis Listening Bar has one too, and they use Armagnac, and so that sets it apart a little bit. And then Demerara syrup, muddled fruits, they make their own house carbonated soda, and then orange bitters, which really adds, you know, a note to kind of tie everything together. And then I would say the most out-there one is the Frozen Sconnie old fashioned from L. Woods in Lincolnwood. I love L. Woods. If you want the supper club experience without having to drive to Wisconsin, go to L. Woods. The, you know, wood-paneled room is is very much inspired by by the North Woods. And so you can get your fish fry, you can get your ribs, and then get the frozen old fashioned. They have made so many different kinds of old fashioneds at this restaurant. But the current one is, it’s a frozen, frozen version with orange and lemon juice, cherry syrup, angostura, and then they use Korbel brandy, so that one’s true to true to Wisconsin in the brandy choice. But you know, taken into a new direction.

John: Sounds kind of like a Slurpee for degenerates.

Amy: Yes. If you have not been to a Wisconsin supper club, you need to add that on your fall to-do list, because they’re really a special experience. I have been to so many wonderful ones around the state. Ishnala in Lake Delton is really special. That’s, that’s in a state park, and so it’s, you know, right on a lake, it has, like, I think it has four bars now, there were only three when I went. I think they added another bar. But closest to home, you know, you guys should go to the Hobnob, which is in Racine. And so it’s really not far. I went a couple months ago. And you know, it had new owners, so I was a little nervous about it, but the food was just as good as before. And you know, I had a, sat at the bar, had a couple old fashioneds. You can watch the sunset because the, or you can watch the sunset over the lake because it’s right on Lake Michigan. So it’s, it’s a really fun, fun trip, and I love all these fancy versions around town, but the best way to enjoy a Wisconsin old fashioned is at a Wisconsin supper club.

John: How do you watch the sunset over Lake Michigan to the east?

Amy: John, what’s the best thing you ate lately?

John: After many years, I went back to Gene & Georgetti, that old-school Italian steak house in River North. And oh, my God, I had so much good food there. But the dish that really stood out to me was a special. It was called roasted shrimp cocktail. And, yeah, it sounds different. What they do is they roast the shrimp in the shell and then chill them, peel them, and just place them over, like a kind of a garlic mayonnaise. And the shrimp were like, so perfectly cooked. They were huge. They were really tender. And I just have been thinking about them. I want to go back and get them with some french fries. So that was my best bite of the week. How about yours?

Amy: Well, I went to Pizza Amelia in Roscoe Village, which I had had a couple recommendations to go to. I love, like, New Haven-style pizza, New York-style pizza. Like, anywhere I can go get a slice. We do not have enough by-the-slice purveyors in this town, and so 

John: Agreed. 

Amy: Can we have more? Please? Like, more, more of this one in particular. I got two slices. I did a cheese and I did a pepperoni. The owner asked if I wanted some, you know, fresh basil. So he snipped some basil over the top of it. Absolutely delicious. They opened last August. So they are over a year old now at this point, but they do pizza by the slice. They do whole pies as well. And there are more toppings available if you opt for a whole pie— and Italian ice! And it’s super simple, couple tables inside the shop, couple picnic tables outside. Really happy with it. Would definitely go back or also get takeout, like I was there at like five o’clock, and it was lots of people dining there, but also lots of people getting pizza boxes to go.