Girl and the Goat

As I mentioned earlier, this past weekend, LC and I had a very special date night.  He took me to Girl and the Goat located here in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood.  It is ran by Stephanie Izard, who was the winner of Bravo's Top Chef in 2008.  She opened up Girl and the Goat in the summer of 2010.  When LC called to make a reservation, the only time they had open was 11:45 PM!!  The hostess said their next available reservation was in about a month, BUT if we just walked in, we would have to wait for the next available table.  Not knowing how long we'd have to wait, we took our chances anyway.  We're crazy like that :-) 

We got to the restaurant around 8 o'clock.  The wait was about an hour and 15 minutes.  I wasn't loving that wait time, but we parked ourselves near the bar and ordered some drinks.  Two people that were sitting in front of us at the bar, got up to leave and we took their seats.  The bartender asked if we wanted menus for food. I'm not crazy about eating dinner at the bar, but with an hour left to wait, we weren't going to turn it down.  So we sat at the bar and had exceptional service and thankfully, we didn't have people reaching over us to get their drinks from the bartender.

The food was absolutely phenomenal! There are no other words. The menu changes based on what's in season and the restaurant works with local farmers to support the community. From Girl and the Goat's website, "Stephanie likes to see how the animals we use in our kitchen are raised before working with a farm, as not all farms have the same practices."  Awesomeness! 

The food was served small-plate style, so LC and I shared everything.  The bartender recommended about 6-8 plates for a couple.  For our starter, we ordered a bread called, squish squash.  It was warm and pre-sliced and it came with pecan butter and apple pear oil to be used as spreads.  They were both really good, but I preferred the pecan butter, which had real pieces of pecan in it. 

The next plate that was brought out to us were the oysters.  The oysters consister of

raw shibumi, radish mignonette, and tarragon.  They tasted really fresh were very flavorful, but the best oysters I've ever had were in New Orleans. 

After oysters came heaven in a bowl, AKA Sweet Potato Gratin.  In the mix with the fluffy sweet potatos was rogue river smokey blue, topped with crispy onions.  This was so good, that I'm going to try and recreate something like this.  I have to have it again!    

After heaven in a bowl, I stopped and had a refill of my wine, The Girls in the Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon.  It was definitely one of the better cabernets I've had and I will be on the look out for this bottle on our next trip to Binny's.

Next, we have my favorite....SCALLOPS!  Next to lobster, probably one of my favorite sea foods ever :-)  It contained brown butter XO, goat sausage crumbles, white shrimp, shiitakes, and winter squash.  I take back my previous statement, THIS was heaven in a bowl! My mouth is watering just reading back the ingredients!  The only downfall of this dish- there were only two scallops and I had to share with LC.     

   

Our second to last dish was the calamari.  When I read the description, I was under the impression they were going to be breaded and fried.  Thankfully, they weren't.  This was the second best calamari that I've ever tasted in my life.  The calamari I had in Turkey from the Mediterranean Sea tops the list!  This calamari was stuffed with lamb sausage, sweetbread crisp, sweet garlic, and currant saor.        

And our grande finale of this culinary feast: roasted pork shank.  It was topped with truffled apples, spaghetti squash & truffle tapenade.  The pork was so soft, that it could be cut with a spoon.  It was a good blend of flavors and wasn't over taken by anything else on the plate.           

Overall, LC and I enjoyed our experience at Girl and the Goat.  Between the atmosphere and the small plates, it was the perfect place for a date night.  I could also see going there for a girls night as well.  We will definitely be back here again, probably sometime in the summer after the wedding.