Spoon & Stable - December 27, 2015

Given my fondness for their brunch I decided to spend the last Sunday brunch of the year at Spoon & Stable. At a la carte menu driven restaurants in the heart of downtown, like Spoon & Stable, they’ll usually be open seven days a week and do brunch on one or both days. A little further out from downtown and that type of restaurant might close one day a week, or skip a Sunday dinner service, closing up after doing brunch service. A few restaurants that are tasting menu driven, where all the chefs are part of every meal, will be closed two or more days a week.

That means when dining out on a Sunday, or Monday, you’ll occasionally run into chefs and staff from various restaurants that are closed those days of the week. Sometimes it’s a bartender from Eat Street Social, sometimes it’s the staff of Zen Box Izakaya. This time it was a chef from Travail and his boyfriend. 

If you’re a big fan of the various aspects of food, there’s not many people that are more fun to talk to about it than the people that cook it for a living. This isn’t to discount the discussions had with fellow food enthusiasts, those are always great too, sometimes I just want to jump tracks and talk about the creation of the dish being enjoyed, and who better than a creator? It doesn’t hurt that this chef is really creative and just returned from an inspiration trip to some of the esteemed molecular gastronomy restaurants and barrooms of Chicago. 

Roasted Pineapple and Almond Danish: Another solid addition to the stable of great laminated dough pastries. I haven’t asked, but the pineapple seems to have a faint almond taste too, making me wonder if the roasting includes some sort of almond syrup or liqueur. Very tasty.

Salty Caramel Donut: This sold out the first week, the second week I was under the weather, but I finally made it in to get it. Not overly sweet, not too much caramel flavor, great ratio of filling to crumb. Another great addition to the pastry board and I think it might be their first donut.

Crispy Porchetta with kale salsa verde, sunny side up egg, and fennel salad: Great. Tender and juicy pork roll, nice and crispy skin. Acid from the salsa goes with the bitter from the greens and red endive. Probably my second favorite of the current items on the brunch menu, after the Croque Madame.

Crepe Cake: Of course. Gravity wasn’t kind this day, and it tipped over before I could take a good picture. Still tasted amazing.