Aviary is Haunted

Chef Daniel Humm and GM Will Guidara like taking their show on the road. They visited Aviary for the Eleven Madison Park cookbook launch party, they swapped restaurants with Chef Grant Achatz for the 21st Century Limited, and this week, they’re on their way to San Francisco for a reception and book signing. And now, rumor has it Humm and Guidara could be headed back to Chicago for another Aviary event in a few weeks. Ahab speculates it may something to do with NoMad’s one year anniversary. Like Aviary, it also is a James Beard finalist for Outstanding Bar Program.

It’s a partnership; he supplies the muscle part. He makes a fierce red flame there! I do deem it now a most meaning thing, that that old Greek, Prometheus, who made men, they say, should have been a blacksmith, and animated them with fire; for what’s made in fire must properly belong to fire; and so hell’s probable.

As previously noted, Chef Andrew Graves worked his last shift this weekend. (He’s leaving Aviary / Next to take over a restaurant in Costa Rica.) Before he left, Chef Graves was nice enough to bring back the chowder bite, if only to shut Ahab up. Yes, it was just as delicious as Ahab remembered. Especially when washed down with a bottle of Cigar City Brewing’s Bolita Double Brown Ale. Anyway, best of luck to Chef Graves in his new gig.

For what he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him. Peace and satisfaction have for ever departed from my stomach.

When did Next start serving dinner downstairs in the Office? Or is that for truly high rollers only? Check out all of Bonjwing Lee’s photos of his unique Hunt experience.

Stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas, you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity, and kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth. But still you see his power in his play.

Food Republic celebrates Beverage Director Charles Joly, and gives us another recipe for the file. The end of Days:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 ounces Del Maguey Vida
• 1/4 ounce Eagle Rare 10 Year
• 3/4 ounce Unibroue Fin du Monde
• 3/4 ounce lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce simple syrup (adjust to taste)
• Egg white
• Pomegranate-rum torch — 80% Lemon Hart 151 rum, 20% pomegranate molasses, fine strained

Directions

Combine mezcal, bourbon, lemon, simple and egg white. Dry shake. Add ice, shake and double strain into chilled coupe. Add beer.

Use a misto to ignite rum torch — aromatize top of cocktail. (Note: Do not overshake cocktail, as the addition of beer adds extra dilution. Overshaking will result in washed out flavors).

This was a great cocktail.

An Anacharsis Clootz deputation from all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod to lay the world’s grievances before that bar from which not very many of them ever come back.

Great time at Aviary’s event last night launching its beer collaboration with Evil Twin Brewing. As promised there were ten beers as well as nine paired bites, as shown above. Ahab and his muse generally preferred the lighter beers, including Nine (aged in a George T. Stagg barrel), Eight (aged in a Pierre Ferrand barrel), and Six (aged in a Clynelish barrel). Ten, as it turned, was a blend of the other nine beers, rather than a beer aged in a different barrel. And Ten was the only beer Ahab did not enjoy, because it had a astringent, almost medicinal tang.

Unlike with past events, the doors were open to Next, and guests could wander back and forth to the different beer stations. As a result, this was much less crowded than past Aviary events, and there was ample seating. Incidentally, it was interesting to visit Next’s dining room when not in use for formal dining. The room truly is very chameleon-like.

If you missed out on the event but are hoping to try the Evil Twin beers, Aviary used up only half its stock of the bottles last night. And there are kegs of all the beers except for nine, which was damaged. Also, more Forager is on its way soon as well as another special Aviary beer from Mikeller. So, there should be plenty of Aviary-related gypsy beers to try during the weeks and months ahead.

Woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale! Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway!

On Friday, Aviary remarked it has been “surprised” there have not been more guesses regarding the barrel used to age the tenth Evil Twin brew. Which predictably unleashed a flood of guesses, including:

• Pappy Van Winkle
• Malort
• Bordeaux
• Port
• Sazerac
• Mezcal
• Chartreuse

The most popular guess was Pappy Van Winkle. If true, that would be boring and a disappointment, especially since another of the beers already has been aged in an Elijah Craig 12 year barrel. Ahab hopes it is something more off the wall - Yquem maybe.

But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in the transition stage—neither caterpillar nor butterfly. He was just enough civilized to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manners. His education was not yet completed. He was an undergraduate. If he had not been a small degree civilized, he very probably would not have troubled himself with boots at all; but then, if he had not been still a savage, he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on.

Looking at the labels of the ten Evil Twin beers, Ahab is reminded of a question that has bedeviled him (and Magic 8-Ball) since before Aviary even opened. What’s the inspiration for the name? Did design — specifically the birdcage isolating the kitchen, the theme of the original art, etc. — drive the naming process or vice versa? (Adrian Leverkühn’s interview suggests the latter.) Or was Aviary’s name inspired by something else entirely? Perhaps Chef Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas have explained this, but if so, Ahab missed it.

Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness!

Time Out Chicago’s print edition sadly is going away, but the online version may continue in some form or another. Still, this could be the last edition of its cocktail bar report cards. TOC’s Marissa Conrad asks, “Is Aviary still worth the hype?”

Creativity This bar is built on theatrics, including a Rob Roy served in a vacuum-sealed bag of lavender air, an apple set on fire at the table (the Baked Apple) and an ice slingshot (In the Rocks).

Quality The bar probably could get by on presentation alone, but it doesn’t. Drinks are balanced to the last sip.

Value Yes, this is the most expensive bar in Chicago. That’s why you go once a year instead of once a week.

Food Finally, some real-person-sized food! In addition to options that are barely a bite, the kitchen now offers larger items such as short-rib goulash ($16), a satisfying snack for two.

Final evaluation A terrific special-occasion bar.

Still Iconic? YES

Conrad gets a lot of details wrong — reservations aren’t necessary early in the week, it’s not a bar built on theatrics, no apples are flambéed table-side, and it might not even be the most expensive bar in Chicago (more on this later) — but her verdict ultimately is spot on. Aviary remains iconic.

Jet-black as Yojo, the ebony idol of Queequeg. And an idol, indeed, it is; or, rather, in old times, its likeness was. Such an idol as that found in the secret groves of Queen Maachah in Judea; and for worshipping which, King Asa, her son, did depose her, and destroyed the idol, and burnt it for an abomination at the brook Kedron, as darkly set forth in the 15th chapter of the First Book of Kings.

Before opening Tuesday, Aviary staff shared a toast with a magnum of 2002 Georges Laval Brut Nature. Georges Laval is a wonderful, tiny grower estate in Cumières, and the wines are difficult to find here in the States. In fact, Aviary doesn’t have any Georges Laval on its list. Wonder where they got it? ;)

At length, towards noon, upon the final dismissal of the ship’s riggers, and after the Pequod had been hauled out from the wharf, and after the ever-thoughtful Charity had come off in a whale-boat, with her last gift—a night-cap for Stubb, the second mate, her brother-in-law, and a spare Bible for the steward.