Eat at Jo’s
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But what’s even more uncommon about Brasserie Jo is its menu, which is peppered with dishes certain to shock those intent on eating healthy. Plats du jour include duck a l’orange and beef Wellington, culinary dinosaurs from an era when low fat was not the mantra it is today. Among the hot entrees, meat and sausage dishes–such as calf’s liver, braised lamb shank, pot-au-feu, hanger steak with bearnaise sauce, blood sausage, and choucroute a l’Alsacienne–far outnumber fish items. One of the featured salads can be ordered with a fried egg on top. Those less inclined to eat typical brasserie fare may find solace in cold-plate offerings such as a smoked chicken, whitefish, or poached salmon. But the cold dishes also include steak tartare.
Other chefs who’ve tried to interest local diners in exotic fare insist that, for all his cooking abilities, Joho will have a tough time selling much of this menu. When chef Paul LoDuca opened his Italian seafood restaurant Mare two years ago, the menu featured dishes with exotic ingredients such as squid ink. But LoDuca says he eventually dropped them because they didn’t sell. “Most people want what they are familiar with,” says LoDuca, who also operates another Italian restaurant, Vinci. Restaurateur Roger Greenfield, who owns Grappa and Bossa Nova and whose new venture Cassis features Mediterranean cuisine with a number of fish and pasta preparations, says a brasserie is something he “would not want to do at this time.”
A Fence Around the Coyote
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jim Alexander Newberry.
