If good intentions were everything The Bristol would win the highest praise. The concept is bold and intriguing; their commitment is beyond question, and they have complete buy-in from the staff. The problem is that, after such a big build-up, the results are somewhat less than dazzling.
The concept is on-site butchery of whole animals. This takes the farm-to-table concept to another level. We're talking the absolute freshest, best quality cuts of meat. So the charcuterie promises to be without parallel. Combine that with the freshest vegetables from local farms and you are looking at a terrific platform from which to build stunning meals, mind-bogglingly fresh and delicious, promising the subtleties and nuances that only the freshest ingredients can impart.
The blackboard menu changes daily depending on whatever they happen to be hewing at the moment, along with a regular menu that touts the house favorites. Our waiter told us enthusiastically about a lamb that had just arrived. Yet a quick perusal of the blackboard menu revealed only a single high priced lamb dish. Where was the rest of the lamb? I asked. The waiter was evasive.
Okay. So we ordered fried crispy sardines with spicy green tomatoes to start with. It came with fried lemons, which were not mentioned on the menu. But okay. The fried lemons had almost no flavor. There were like fried pieces of flavored breading. The sardines, on the other hand, had plenty of flavor. Too much, in fact. The powerful fish flavor overwhelmed the breading, making it entirely superfluous. The spicy green tomatoes also struck with a burst of zesty flavor but one totally unrelated to the sardines. This was a poorly thought out dish.
The roast sweetbreads with cranberry mustard sunchoke and candied pistachios took a run at the edgy dish of the moment, a daring interplay of sweetbreads with actual sweets, accomplished to stunning perfection at Schwa, but here not nearly enough to make you sit up and take notice. The pull apart monkey bread with dill butter and sea salt was fun and interesting, the kind of thing that Applebee's is looking to add to their menu, but inadequate as a signature dish at a restaurant as ambitious as the Bristol. The parmesan crusted sausage with wilted greens was decent, but nothing to make you stand up and cheer. For all of the potential inherent in The Bristol’s daring concept, the execution was almost completely less than expected.
If the patrons aren’t completely sold, the staff certainly is. Our waiters not only sung the praises of the restaurant but did so theatrically and repeatedly, using every opportunity to whip us into a froth about what was about to land in front of us. Notice that I say “waiters” in the plural as we were virtually accosted by three different servers who kept interrupting our conversation to make sure we were enjoying what we were eating. I can only imagine what kind of histrionics would’ve ensued had I said what I was thinking: that I could get something very similar, but probably better, down the street at Hot Chocolate. I kept mum.
I am always a bit harder on restaurants that excite me and fall short. Had I been expecting much less and gotten what they served me at The Bristol I would be praising them to the rafters. But I was expecting something more and their waitstaff only reinforced my lofty expectations with their incessant hype, leading me to the conclusion that The Bristol does not live up to its own breast beating.
The Bristol is good, just not as good as they want you to believe it is.
The Bristol
2152 N. Damen
773-862-5555 / Reservations Not Accepted
Hours: M-W 5:30pm-11pm; Th 5:30-12am; F-Sa 5:30pm-1am; Su 5:30pm-10pm
Features: Private Party Facilities
Avg price of a meal for two including drinks and tax $101
Chef: Chris Pandel
Website: http://thebristolchicago.com
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