A Sustainable Night Out at Browntrout

I found myself on Sunday evening with an intense craving for seafood. But what’s a do-gooder to do when miles away an oil slick the size of Delaware threatens to wipe out enormous populations of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks? Browntrout, a new restaurant in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago, turns out to be an excellent solution.

Browntrout lies apart from the major dining centers of Chicago, where parking can be found in less than ten minutes and the neighborhood quiets down after seven. Its floor to ceiling windows, reveal a simple but elegant design. Brown walls hung with forest aquarelles, pots of ferns, and soft but ample lighting lend the space a sylvan charm.

Sean Sanders, the chef and founder of Browntrout, came up with the idea for his restaurant on his honeymoon in New Zealand. There he found himself preparing the eponymous fish using only local ingredients and was so smitten with the results, he decided to take the concept of “fresh and sustainable ingredients” on the road. He and his wife, Nadia, started Browntrout in 2009 and in the ensuing year have realized their vision.

Browntrout purchases most of its produce from sustainable and organic growers. They have standing relationships with local farms and they grow their own herbs in a rooftop garden, which is apparently just beginning to green. All the meats on the menu (pork, lamb, and chicken) were donated by free-range animals. As for the fish, they are said to have been purchased from sustainable farms and natural waters. The two fish on the menu, the golden trout and the walleye, were deemed “best choice” and “good choice” to eat by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch (a great resource when choosing which fish to chow on). The golden trout on the menu (aka rainbow trout) comes from Idaho, where most of its kind are farmed. Trout fisheries are famously eco-friendly, with efficient waste management, flowing water, and tight regulations. The fish cannot survive well in the cold rivers of Idaho, so they do not pose a risk as an invasive species. Unlike trout, which eat insects and worms, walleye are ferocious predators that eat other fish. This makes them difficult and expensive to farm. But walleye populations are thriving in Canada’s lakes where the fish on Browntrout’s menu came from.

Impressive though these ideas and ideals are, good intentions don’t necessarily equal a good meal. At Browntrout however, they do. My companion and I each ordered the 3 course tasting menu. As we waited for our first course, we enjoyed home-made sodas: ginger ale and four-alive. The former wasn’t your vending machine’s ginger ale. It was clearly made from fresh ginger and it was spicy sweet and extremely refreshing. The citrus infused “four alive” is also much tastier and fresher than its cousin Five Alive.

Our first course was the house pappardelle. It was my first encounter with that particular type of pasta, and although it was a little thick for my liking, it was boiled to perfection: not too hard, not too soft. The sauce was mouthwatering: a rich, earthy blend of port braised beef cheek, stewed together with wild mushrooms, asparagus, and rosemary. Even after I had demolished the fork-able parts of my meal, I couldn’t help sopping up the remaining sauce with a piece of bread.

We didn’t have to wait long before the attentive wait staff brought our main course: the walleye. This fish is another first for me and I declare myself a fan. The filet had a lovely flakey texture and the skin was crusted and flavored perfectly, and not chewy at all. Walleye has a surprisingly un-fishy taste. The flavor is almost sweet and the meal’s centerpiece fully satisfied my seafood craving. The fish rested on a sizable bed of white polenta, that was so creamy and buttery, I first mistook it for mashed potatoes. To the side were three little artfully crafted salads of garbanzo beans, ramps, and baby carrots (all three in season), whose crunch and texture contrasted with and complimented that of the walleye and polenta.

Finally, dessert. Oh dessert. Shortcake is a personal favorite of mine and Browntrout’s was exquisite: ripe red strawberries on wonderful shortcake biscuits, dense and granulated, but not too sweet. Honey and lime mascarpone was sweet and tart, filled into the hollowed out shells of the strawberries. To tell it short, it took the cake.

As we waited for our bill (incidentally, a quite reasonable one), we observed patrons at a nearby table ask the host about a basil drink they had sampled. The host disappeared and returned with the chef’s wife, who thanked the diners for their interest, insisted it was quite easy to reproduce, and proceeded to share her secret recipe in great detail. The honesty shown in this exchange could serve as a metaphor for the restaurant as a whole, from the transparency with which the sources of all ingredients are revealed, to the ease with which the diner can identify everything on her plate. In a country where “fresh” can mean “just defrosted” and “meat” stands in for beef and pork, we sure could use more places like Browntrout.

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