Moto 2014

It had been a couple of years since we went to Moto, Chicago’s temple of molecular gastronomy. We had a very different experience on this visit from our past visits. It began with a table downstairs, in a space we didn’t realize existed. It’s much quieter than upstairs, and you can watch one of the chefs prepping dishes.

We entertained ourselves by identifying the element symbols on the wall
We entertained ourselves by identifying the element symbols on the wall
Downstairs dining room. It's much quieter than upstairs, and you can watch the prep chef
Downstairs dining room. It’s much quieter than upstairs, and you can watch the prep chef

Previously Moto served a ten or twenty course dinner where each course was very playful, and looked like something it wasn’t. For example there was a tiny cuban pork sandwich that looked like a cigar. But now they seem to have reinvented themselves as a more upscale experience (although pricing for a 14 course extravaganza remains a very reasonable $175). So the dishes were less playful, and there was a focus on how they were presented. Some of the presentations were extremely fun and imaginative, and a few we recognized as influenced by 11 Madison or Tru.

Because their dishes are hard to match with wines, we’ve always had the wine pairing in the past, but since these are (by necessity) rather odd wines, we opted to go off the list this time. That was probably a mistake, as indeed few of the courses matched our chardonnay and pinot noir. Dani and I finished by sharing a couple ounces of 1912 D’Oliveiras Verdelho Madeira, which was spectacular and would have matched every course. I photographed some of the more interesting looking courses:

This was the "menu." A tiny sample of an ingredient from each dish to follow
This was the “menu.” A tiny sample of an ingredient from each dish to follow
Fish with assorted accompaniments
Fish with assorted accompaniment
Welks and accompaniments on a glass plate over seaweed and seashells. I suspect this was inspired by Tru
Welks and accompaniments on a glass plate over seaweed and seashells. I suspect this was inspired by Tru
Chicken crest and egg custard
Chicken crest and egg custard
This was everyone's favorite course, an amazing combo of onion and garlic flavors, and one tiny fragment that tasted like an entire smoked rabbit
This was everyone’s favorite course, an amazing combo of onion and garlic flavors, and one tiny fragment that tasted like an entire smoked rabbit
Pork belly and lamb in a custom box
Pork belly and lamb in a custom box
Three tiers, with wagu on to, broccoli in the middle, and other goodies below the screen
Three tiers, with wagu on top, broccoli in the middle, and other goodies below the screen
Shredded pork in mole. This was Linda's and Dani's second favorite dish
Shredded pork in mole. This was Linda’s and Dani’s second favorite dish
Three delicious cheeses. This was my second favorite course
Three delicious cheeses. This was my second favorite course
Toasting marshmallows stuffed with graham crackers and dark chocolate, an inside out smore
Toasting marshmallows stuffed with graham crackers and dark chocolate, an inside out smore
Final parting course, a beach ball macaron
Final parting course, a beach ball macaron

Afterwards we toured the kitchen, which was driven by an automated computer system that tracked and voice announced every course for every table. There was also a separate room for growing all the micro greens and herbs used throughout the menu.

We found this new approach at Moto interesting, but because it’s less playful, it requires spectacular food. Admittedly we are spoiled by other great restaurants we’ve been to, but we felt that, despite the creative presentations, there was only one gastronomic home run in the meal: the sampling of various onion and garlic pieces with a tiny fragment of smoked rabbit that was so flavorful it was like having an entire barbecue meal the size of a grain of rice!

I’ll return to Moto, but probably wait a couple of years to see what new things they come up with.

Vacuum and other lab equipment
Vacuum and other lab equipment
These poker chips are used to track food allergies
These poker chips are used to track food allergies
Kitchen
Kitchen
Sophisticated, automated, voice announced course planner for each table
Sophisticated, automated, voice announced course planner for each table
Micro greens
Micro greens
Hydroponic micro greens
Hydroponic micro greens
In the hydroponics room off the kitchen
In the hydroponics room off the kitchen

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Linda flew in to Chicago for a long weekend and to escape her Disney projects. Dani and I met her at Midway with Korean Barbecue tacos from the nearby Dos Ricco’s Mexican and Asian Cuisine. I like the Korean taco, but with a corn tortilla. These were a bit spicier than the last time, with a big squirt of Sriracha on each!

We had  four hours to kill before our dinner theatre tickets, and Linda wanted to visit the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, where she hadn’t been since our visit in 1986. When we got there we discovered their featured exhibit was… wait for it… Disney!

For some reason the museum was closing at 4pm, so we only had two hours. Still, we made good use of our time, booking tickets for the Disney exhibit, the WWII sub and the coal mine.

I’m pleased to report that the museum is in excellent repair, a vast improvement from Dani’s an my visit a few years ago. Further more, the employee morale is amazing. We encountered five cast members — ticket seller, Disney tour host, two different guides at the sub, and the mine tour guide — who were all incredibly enthusiastic and helpful, going out of their way to make sure every guest had a great experience. This was better-than-Disney guest relations, and we left feeling very impressed.

MSI2014-1  MSI2014-3

MSI2014-4

MSI2014-2

Dinner was a The City Winery. We didn’t know the group playing, Jackopierce, although they’ve been around for 25 years. But I picked it because Dani and I had been before, and loved the ambience, great acoustics, interesting small plate food, and wines.

We spent an hour on the outside patio having appetizers and wine. Linda discovered that in addition to their own wines they have a 400-bottle list. Wow! Wines from just about every country, and some real gems at pricing only slightly higher than retail. We started with a Sea Smoke Chardonnay, and finished with a 2005 Morey Saint Denis that was really smokin’. I can’t believe that bottle was just $80. And all the glassware is Riedel, with each matched to the type of wine. Those glasses cost more than our wine!

Jackopierce was very talented, although no particular song stood out for me. But I really liked the opener, a local guitarist and singer named Phil Jacobson.

CityWinery

 

 

 

 

Bottles and Bottega

BottlesAndBottega1

Last month Dani and her friends visited Bottles and Bottega to drink some wine and paint a picture. It looked like so much fun I suggested we go there on the evening I arrived in Evanston, and Dani eagerly agreed. A bottega, as we learned, is an artist’s studio where students learn by doing.

The long, narrow space is divided into a painting area where a dozen people can work simultaneously, a lounge, and a party space at the rear. The evening begins with a half hour to enjoy any wine or snack you’ve brought, and then you sit at one of the tables where a canvas, paints and brushes have been provided.

BottlesAndBottega2

Everyone works on basically the same picture, but it’s amazing how much variation occurs because of individual styles. Some useful but light hearted instruction is provided throughout the evening, and there are plenty of breaks for more wine.

I hadn’t really worked with acrylic paints before, and really liked the way they dried in minutes, and one color could cover another; quite the opposite of oils, were your colors keep mixing on the canvas for days.

BottlesAndBottega3

Dani and I were both pleased with the way our masterpieces turned out.

by Dani
by Dani

 

by Steve
by Steve

 

Enterprise Car Rental, Midway Airport

This was the most amazing car rental experience I’ve ever had, and in the place I least expected it. My absolute worst car rental experiences have all been at Midway, where I have slowly been working my way through all the different companies. Dollar was particularly awful, with incredibly rude, uncaring employees who thought it was absolutely standard operating procedure to not only not have the car you reserved, but not have any cars, with a two hour wait for the next random, uncleaned vehicle to come in.

Anyway, I digress.

At Enterprise, the woman behind the counter greeted me, introduced herself, shook my hand, processed my reservation in less than a minute, shook my hand again, gave me her card and sent me upstairs. I thought maybe she was just an anomaly.

But upstairs the attendant greeted me before I even got near the booth, introduced himself and escorted me to a car. Using a tablet for checkout he noticed the car’s license had expired. He apologized and immediately said that for my inconvenience I could choose from any of the upgrade cars there. He had obviously been empowered to do this; what a delight! He checked whether one of the cars had a feature I wanted, assured me it did, gave me his card (on which he’d hand-written return instructions for the facility and his email!), and I was off.

At the exit kiosk I was handed my paperwork and asked what I thought of their rental experience. “Awesome” was all I could reply.

The Revenge of Burgundy

RonBev20140517

 

A few weeks ago we got together with Ron and Bev for dinner at The Vineyard, with the shocking result that the Bordeaux outshone the Burgundy. This almost never happens. So when Ron invited us to join Rhett from B-21 at their home for dinner, I was ready for a rematch.

Dinner, which Ron and Bev threw together on the spur of the moment, was amazing. We started with tuna tartare, smoked salmon, and Ron’s famous balls (sweet red peppers stuffed with mozzarella and wrapped in bacon). These all went really well with the Jacques Selosse.

We segued to the patio for Stone Crabs with mustard sauce. What a great match to the Aubert and what a perfect evening for stone crabs on the patio!

This is where the Burgundy kicked in, and the first two were the wines to be all night… until the end, when Ron did beat them, with another Burgundy, as you’ll see.

In the dining room we had a phenomenal baked sea bass, radicchio salad with a delicious Chardonnay vinegar, and then prime steaks from the Meat House. We finished off with Bev’s famous tira misu. (I don’t think I’ve had tira misu since the last time I had Bev’s because it’s never as good anywhere else!) The idea was to mimic a dinner at Eddie V’s, but every course surpassed it.

As for the wines… order was restored to the universe. The old Burgundies were absolutely superb, and eclipsed all of the other wines. The Bordeaux paled in comparison, although the Unico certainly was a great wine.

As dinner wound down, I didn’t think anything would top the two 1964 Leroy wines, but then Ron dared me to name something and he’d see if he had it in his cellar.

For years my go to wines at Bern’s were the now-depleted Pierre Ponnell Burgundies 50s and 60s, in particular the 1957 Morey Saint Denis Clos de la Roche. 1957 was a pretty good year in Burgundy, but I always wanted to try the 1953. Sure enough, Ron had it! Well, not only was it stellar, it was the Wine of the Night, beating the Leroys. I scored it 100 points.

And now Ron has even more bragging rights about his cellar, because where else in the state (country, world?) could someone just pull that wine from their cellar?!

We finished out by the fire pit with some Armagnac. Everything had been so wonderful even Linda was amazed to discover it was 2am!

RonBev20140517-Lineup

 

Jacques Selosse Lieux Dite La Cote Faron  (Ron)

Creamy, Toast, great balance, green apple, kiwi fruit. Smooth, 94 pts

1990 Bollinger, disgorged 2001  (Ron)

Crisp, green, austere, acidic, bitter walnut, 90 pts

2008 Aubert Loren (Ron)

Butterscotch, cinnamon, toast, butter, very balanced and elegant, 95 pts

1964 Leroy Pommard Les Grande Epinots (Steve)

Earth, soy, forest floor, Asian spices, super balanced, crushed pine needles, 97 pts

1964 Leroy Grand Echezeaux (Ron)

Intense chocolate coated cherries with kirsch liqueur, really long, 99 pts

1966 Ch Mouton Rothschild (Steve)

Black cherries, bell peppers, pine, really awkward at first, then opened up, gardenias, vanilla, Creme brûlée, dust, then quickly faded, 88 pts

1995 Rayas (Ron)

Cherry pie with caramelized cinnamon crust, fig newton cookie dough, 94 pts

1982 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon (Steve)

Fading fruit, still goof tannic structure, dust, cocoa, cherry, 84 pts

1983 Ch Cheval Blanc (Ron)

Bordeaux gravelly nose, black pepper, 90 pts

1970 Unico

Very, very young, mint, vanilla, not at all Spanish tasting, 100% Tempranillo, American oak, dill, cinnamon, caramelized sugar, buttered icing, 96 pts.

1947 Aloxe-Corton Bouchard (Ron)

Cherry, tobacco, bright, fresh, balanced, vanilla, elegant, woody, sweet, earthy, cotton candy, charred wood, 99 pts

1953 Pierre Ponnelle Morey Saint Denis Clos de la Roche  (Ron)

Young, perfectly integrated, cherries, earth, balance, vanilla, wood, mint, vanilla, cocoa, spice, butterscotch, charred wood, amazing sweet fruit. I named a producer, vineyard and vintage that I wanted to taste and Ron produced exactly that wine, and it was the Wine of the Night. 100 pts

50 Year Armagnac

Pleasant, but lacking the depth, balance and complexity of Laberdolive Bas Armagnac. 90 pts

MoneyShot!

MonwyShot

Alexander Sage Oyen is a young composer of Broadway-style music. He first came to my attention when a few of Dani’s friends sang on his debut album, released shortly after his graduation for Dr. Phillips High School. Since then I’ve purchase two more of his albums, which include many excellent numbers that could easily come from a musical in the style of Songs for a New World or The Last Five Years.

Last year Dani, Linda and I attended a revue of his songs at The Abbey, and the year before that, Hunter and I saw a reading of his musical, Moneyshot! It’s about a girl who goes to Los Angeles to be an actress and ends up as a porn star.

That reading of the show had a number of good songs, but the plot and pacing didn’t quite work. I sent Alex a couple of pages of notes about it, and he sent me unreleased recordings of the score. So it was with great interest that I went last night to see the opening of the show at the Orlando Fringe Festival.

The first thing I noticed on the poster was that the book had been rewritten by a different author, so I expected a different approach to the story. Indeed, that was the case. The previous slow start, prior to going to LA, was completely cut, as was a drawn out chase scene in the ending (which would never have worked onstage).

The middle part was less changed, although the plot is advanced more through songs and less through dialogue, a good move. The show still has two fundamental problems, though.

The first problem is that it revolves around a love story between the lead and a guy she meets on her first day in LA and moves in with. Their relationship is never developed, and just doesn’t ring true. In fact, since his part has been pared down and his roommate’s part bolstered, I kept expecting her to fall for the roommate instead.

The second problem is that this is a show about a girl who becomes a porn star, but to avoid any nudity (not a requirement of the Fringe, but appropriate for a show rated PG13) her entire career has been skipped. She goes for an interview, and then, except for a couple of arguments, we skip forward five years and she’s thinking of quitting. This simply doesn’t work. We don’t see why she likes the job at first, why she grows tired of it, or why it causes the arguments. And since the arguments are about a relationship that never developed, it leaves the whole thing looking for a convincing story line.

That said, Alex’s music is excellent. I noted many of the songs had changed. I wish he’d left in a couple of the catchier ones, but there were also some good new ones.

The talent was top notch. All three leads were excellent singers and actors, and the choreography and pacing were terrific. Clever use of rolling chairs, tables and couches made for lightning fast set changes.

Music was prerecorded, and very well produced, and the main cast members had fairly good radio mics. At times it was hard to hear the ten or so person chorus.

Four lighting towers topped with robotic lights provided a stunning light show during the overture. I wish this had been saved for a big finale, because the show sort of trails off at the end. It could have used that final boost and a bigger production number to finish off, but that’s going to depend on yet another try at finding a compelling story.

It’s really impressive how quickly they load in these shows, as Fringe has the same theater scheduled back to back to back.

The audience was large and appreciative. Given the care with which this production was put together, I’m sure this is one of this year’s top Fringe shows.

This Week in Zendesk

ZenDesk

Every Friday afternoon the Alcorn McBride engineers and support team gather to discuss the week’s support tickets, which are tracked in Zendesk. Hence the meeting is called TWIZ. Since it’s late on a Friday, the meeting doesn’t run on any particular agenda, and lasts until the support tickets or beer runs out, whichever comes first. This week, responding to a suggestion from Hunter, Loren provided everyone with official Alcorn McBride lab coats to lend a clinical analysis to the proceedings.