Longman & Eagle - Chicago, IL
Overall: A
Fried Chicken & Waffle - Sweet Potato & Pork Belly Hash, Maple Syrup
This was a fantastic dish. It exemplifies perfect execution of fairly simple concepts. This was easily among the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. It was juicy, tender, tasty, and crispy. It wasn’t greasy or heavy.What else could fried chicken even offer? The waffle served a total background roll, similar to the white bread used in Chicago-style barbecue. It made this feel like more like just fried chicken rather than fried chicken and waffles, but with the chicken as good as it was, I didn’t even care. The hash was also great - the sweet potato was super tender and had a nice sweetness and the pork belly was basically meat candy. Tender and exploding with fatty pork flavor.
Local Cheeses - Honeycomb, Pumpkin Butter, Mustard
While a little bit small, all of the elements were really great on this cheese board. The bread was just awesome - chewy, a perfect light toast for spreading on while not being too hard, and had a surprisingly complex flavor. The mustard was great, not hot and slightly sweet. The pumpkin butter was really interesting and worked particularly well when combined with the other items. The honey had a great flavor while not being cloying and the honeycomb was a nice touch. The cheeses were all really nice.
White Corn Grits - Aged White Cheddar
These grits were killer. They were super creamy while still holding their texture. The cheddar played seamlessly into the butter and corn flavors, playing an umami roll like fish sauce. It wasn’t obvious that the cheddar was added, but once aware of it, the brilliance of its inclusion was obvious.
Salt Bake Apple - Dunbarton Cheese, Chicories, Wild Rice, Fig Honey
This dish was a little bit weird. It tasted good and had decent textural balance, but it meshed more like trail mix than a dish. The pieces were a little bit too bit to easily get them all on a fork at once, so eating it was mostly just eating the individual components, none of which were that interesting on their own.