Sula Savors Explosive Flavors at City Mouse and More Reviews

Jason Vincent has brought a breath of fresh air to Fulton Market with City Mouse, Mike Sula writes. The Giant owner and his team are “serving the same sort of explosively flavored vegetable compositions; luscious, head-slappingly good pastas; and wacky sweet playthings that they made their name on in Logan Square.” To start, an aged cheddar cheese ball topped with spicy corn puree, a caramel tuile, and black caviar is a “virtual necessity” according to Sula. Fruits and veggies are similarly outstanding. A salad of white peaches, pecorino, and nutty farro is “so simultaneously sweet and savory it'll flood your brain with endorphins and wings will burst from your back,” while tahini-cooked eggplant with sweet dates and cucumber-tomato salad on flatbread is an “ultimately delicious composition.”

Pastas induce the same kind of “delirium.” Rigatoni “dance” in a light and acidic Bolognese sauce, and spaghetti intermingles with feta, Calabrian chiles, and chunks of bacon under a mound of bread crumbs. Desserts turn the “lights back on in the fun house with a handful of riffs on lowbrow classics,” such as an apple funnel cake served with an assortment of corn accompaniments.” Sula thinks that “of all the changes this neighborhood has gone through, this is surely one for the better.” [Reader]

Graham Meyer says City Mouse “produces proficient seasonal food” during the day. The afternoon brunch menu offers a “quietly excellent” smoked king salmon, served on an everything bagel with cream cheese, pickled onions, and caper leaves. Summer squash frittata “keeps the eggs moister than most places do and accentuates them with a pasty tomato-bacon jam and tartly dressed local greens,” while avocado toast “justifies its trendiness with radishes, sunflower-seed-crusted bread, Hungarian pepper and a precise soft-boiled egg.” The chicken salad sandwich “also defies expectations” with smoky chicken chunks that “dominate the experience.” [Crain’s]

The Kennison is a successful reconcept that should draw in hotel guests and locals alike, Phil Vettel writes. A “delicious” corn and wild mushroom risotto is a “sort of formal version of elotes,” but the “must-have dish” is the pastrami-spiced carrots. It’s an “all-veggie salute to the Reuben sandwich, as well as a beautiful salute to the fall,” and features herb-rubbed carrots on a pile of sauerkraut, topped with tuile and dots of beet-caraway-horseradish emulsion. Among entrees, roasted chicken with summer squash and Italian sausage is “simple and nurturing,” and pappardelle with rabbits, peaches, and ricotta is “summer personified.” Impressive desserts include an “artful deconstruction” of poppyseed angel food cake with meyer lemon curd, poppyseed meringue, and blueberry-lavender sorbet. [Tribune]