First of all: we are horrible journalists. Yesterday we claimed that TOC landed the first big review of graham elliot, but astute readers have informed us that we somehow overlooked Pat Bruno’s July 4 review, which robs TOC of the restaurant-review equivalent of commenting “FIRSTTTT!!!!!!!111!!!eleventy!!1”
We’re inclined to blame our oversight on any number of factors, starting with the fact that on July 4, technically speaking this blog you are reading now actually didn’t have an editor, and ending with the observation that nobody reads the freaking newspaper on July 4. But we are a grownup, so we will not make excuses. Ahem.
Suffice to say, Bruno awards Mr. Bowles 2.5 stars out of a possible 4 (since 2 is “good” and 3 is “excellent,” we are going to call this “goodellent”), and on the whole seems much more pleased with his experience than the TOC folks were. In particular we find ourselves swayed by his description of the deconstructed Caesar salad, avec “brioche Twinkie.” Sold!
Second of all: For dinner last night, we made the grilled chicken tacos with harissa mayo that appeared in Wednesday’s Tribune. We deviated a little, using boneless/skinless breasts instead of thighs, and marinating them for a half hour in lemon juice, olive oil, and a metric ton of spices (cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne, some cajun mishmash), but hot damn that is a good weeknight dinner.
graham elliot [MenuPages]
graham elliot [Official Site]
Bowled Over [Sun-Times]
Grilled chicken tacos with harissa mayo [Tribune]
[Photo: Bowles’s deconstructed Caesar salad, via SiFu Renka’s Flickr]
