Dallas and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on May 5 (5/5). We’d made reservations at May Street Market to have dinner and celebrate, but secretly, I snagged a reservation at Schwa and canceled the May Street reservation. Schwa was a restaurant we’d talked about for years and have always wanted to go to. We’d heard how notoriously hard it is to get reservations and never even tried. Curiosity got the best of me and I dialed their number. My call was answered on the first ring. I requested a reservation on May 5, and it was accepted immediately. There were no issues at all!
The week of our anniversary Dallas had a cold, so I had to spoil the surprise the night before and ask him if he was well enough to go to Schwa. It’s not a cheap place to dine and I didn’t want to spend the money if he would not be able to taste anything. He assured me that he was feeling better. We started to get so psyched about dinner the next day and telling all of our friends about it.
Schwa doesn’t have wait staff or admin staff, the chef and the cooks do everything. On the morning of our anniversary Chef Michael Carlson called to confirm our reservation. Schwa is BYO and 2 days before I’d gotten our wine from Binny’s. We were all set. Then I got a call at about 4 p.m. Chef Carlson again. There was a problem with drainage in the kitchen and they had to close the restaurant that night. Deflated. That’s all I can think of to describe how I felt after the call. 5th anniversary on 5/5 and our reservation was canceled! On the phone, Chef Carlson seemed very sorry and asked if there was another day, any day, we’d like to make a reservation for and I said I wasn’t sure and I’d call back. I checked with Dallas and called back, but got voicemail. I left a message but then got a creeping feeling that I’d never get called back and would finally be put through the ringer of trying to get a reservation that I’d heard everyone talk about.
On our anniversary night we ended up going to May Street Market, our original Plan A. We had a lovely dinner, I really liked it, but we both had to just concentrate on the nice dinner we were having and not the one we could be having.
The next day Chef Carlson did call me back. We made our reservation for the following day, 5/7. We arrived and had our dinner without a hitch. Chef Carlson and the other chefs all apologized to us. They were very cool and sincere, even giving us a few bonus courses and knocking a bit off the bill for having had to cancel on us.
Here’s what we had:
Amuse: Grapefruit cells with honey sorbet, chamomile agar atop a cold glass “ice cube”. Instructed to eat it like you’re taking a shot.
Risotto: Beet, horseradish, taleggio.
Pea Soup: Menthol crystal, myer lemon.
Tortelloni: Cauliflower, coco nibs, curry.
Ravioli: Quail egg, ricotta, brown butter, parmigiano-reggiano. (Surprise course)
Shad Roe: Lemon, coffee, buckwheat
Jibarito: Peaky toe crab (Surprise course)
Lobster: Chestnut, ramps, lardo.
Chicken Liver: Rutabaga, tumeric, beer
Duck: Pumpkin, chocolate
Cheese: Taleggio, truffle salt
Dessert: Candied sweetbreads, parsnip panna cotta
Ice Cream Cone: Beet ice cream, white chocolate ice cream, bacon bitters (Surprise course)
Like I said earlier, Schwa has no waitstaff. The chefs who cook your food are the same people who bring it out to you. I like it. It gave us a chance to talk directly to the people who made our food throughout the evening and kept the chefs in touch with the diners. The restaurant only seats about 25-30 people, so it’s not like they’re running around like crazy serving hundreds. They are able to keep up with it all.
As far as the wine, they recommend you bring one white and one red. The chefs take the wine in the kitchen and then they pour and pair it for you. So, some courses you’re drinking your white and some you’re drinking your red.
The food at Schwa is very innovative and could be considered fancy. It definitely reminded me of Alinea at times. The difference is that the Schwa atmosphere is very laid back. The dress is more casual, the attitude more casual, the music is loud-ish and whatever the chefs are in the mood for that day. We heard everything from Wu Tang Clan to the theme song from Cheers.
Chef Carlson and the other chefs definitely made up for the hassle of having to reschedule. Dallas and I really enjoyed our Schwa experience and have talked about going back.
Note: These photographs first appeared on Chicagoist.
