Now Open: Allium
By Minna A in Food on Mar 23, 2012 4:00PM
While welcoming diners since mid-February, Allium celebrated the grand opening of the restaurant by welcoming guests to sample their menu.
Keeping the old mahogany walls and marbled floors of former restaurant, Seasons, Allium has updated the inside with newly patterned textures and bright and colorful artwork. Allium, the Latin word for onion, features local fare and flavors, with regional farm-to-table ingredients to create new American fare by executive chef Kevin Hickey.
The dinner menu is separated into four sections: smaller, bigger, mine and from the meat locker allowing for shared small plates, or larger entrees. Listed on the menu are updated versions of Chicago-centric foods like a hot dog (with homemade everything) and pirogi (made with duck confit and foir gras) in addition to interesting dishes like the Boudin Black (a sausage sitting atop black pudding grits) and Bison Tartare.
Not to be outshined, pastry chef Scott Gerken offers a comprehensive menu that includes a cheesecake sundae, made with huckleberries, graham cracker crunchies, cream cheese mousse and grapefruit, and a S'mores cake with milk chocolate mousse, smoked chocolate gel and topped with a toasted marshmallow. The most whimsical-looking and fun dessert on the menu has to be the PB&J Float, a reminiscent aperitif with peanut butter ice cream floating atop Concorde grape soda topped with a heaping bunch of cotton candy.
The local focus doesn’t stop with just the food. Chef Kevin Hickey worked with Goose Island Clybourn brewmaster Jared Rouben to brew his own beer, a Belgian red ale, specifically for Allium.
Wanting to try everything without shelling out? Allium is participating in Chicago Chef’s Week, which ends tonight.
Allium is located inside the Four Seasons Hotel at 120 E. Delaware St.