Perennial

[ulterior epicure]

As someone who only heard of, but never actually experienced Ryan Poli's cooking at Butter (in Chicago), I'm very excited to hear about his new position at Perennial.

[Lenski]

I have eaten twice at "Perennial" already. It is a large space on Lincoln Park. I will post later but I can only say that I would be very surprised if "Perennial" does not become a very hot spot in Chicago. The dishes sampled were from a 'Chestnut soup," "Corn Risotto," "Porkbelly," a great charcuterie plate, great desserts (chocolate with olive oil, a funky yet very tasty Ille Flottante, an out of this world chocolate concoction reminiscent of "Celler").

Very good food at very affordable prices. A new favorite for me.

l

[ryanj]

I dined here last time I was in town over the July 4th weekend, along with visits to Graham Elliot and The Violet Hour. Perennial was my favorite by a hair, simply because of the pricing. The food at Perennial and GE were spot on, but Perennial came in about $50 cheaper than GE for three people. I remember having a short rib canneloni, scallops, and the spanish inspired chocolate dessert and loved them.

GE was good, too, and also not expensive. for the three of us, $180 w/ wine was not a huge bill considering the amount of effort and quality in the dishes there. Perennial was a little bit tamer in whimsy but quality was pretty much the same. A nice cap to the weekend was The Violet Hour, which I found very cheap for the experience, $10 cocktails which is damn near free to me lately.