A Critic Praises Uptown’s Fine Dining Spot

Brass Heart is getting better by the day and chef Mett Kerney, a Longman & Eagle vet, is “starting to hit his stride” according to Phil Vettel. The fine dining spot in Uptown isn’t flawless, but is still an “impressive” experience. The meal begins with a “nice” riff on caviar and blini, featuring golden osetra caviar on a quenelle of potato chip ice cream. Ham & Eggs is an elevated take on breakfast that consists of poached quail egg, bread, breakfast sausage, and maple-vinegar gel surrounded by a “beautiful” country-ham consomme. Kerney’s signature dish tops cubes of wagyu beef with butter-poached mushrooms and an “airy” pomme souffle. The only failure is an attempt to mimic fried chicken over white bread as the brioche descends into “gumminess.” A “complex” finale stars white-chocolate pound cake with bananas Foster ice cream, macadamia puree, and dots of roast pineapple curd. And for drinkers, Sarah Traynor-Price’s wine pairings are “unerring.” [Tribune]

Lola’s Coney Island offers a faithful recreation of the Detroit-style hot dog. Mike Sula praises the franks, describing them as “salty and bouncy” and “perfectly compatible with the chili.” At its core, it’s an “admirable, even craveable, expression of the style.” Other menu items include a coney taco made with ground beef, lettuce, tomato, onion, and shredded cheese on a steamed hot dog bun, as well as “astonishing” avgolemeno soup – a “lemony-chickeny” rice porridge that Sula calls “the best $5 risotto in the city.” To satiate the sweet tooth, there’s a Rock and Rye float featuring vanilla ice cream suspended in Faygo’s cherry cream cola. [Reader]

Adams Street Brewery, a rebrand of the Berghoff’s bar, retains the iconic restaurant’s charming experience. The lunch menu is the same as at the Berghoff and “dishes that succeed best at Adams Street are those that seem to have succeeded already for decades,” writes Graham Meyer. The bratwurst, served with sauerkraut on a pretzel bun, “exemplifie[s] a sausage lunch” while the Reuben is “unimpeachable.” Steak salad also offers “big hunks of steak stuffed into a modest and delicious salad.” Of the beers, the “smooth, strongly coffee-flavored” coffee milk stout and the rumbly dark dunkel are “standouts.” [Crain’s]