Ribs n Bibs and Harolds

I said I would review "nearly" all the restaurants in Hyde Park.  With the kosher-ish thing, there really isn't any point in my reviewing these two.  What, I'm going to tell you the white bread is good?  But you should go to both of them. Regularly. To the best of my recollection, Ribs n Bibs and Harolds are some of the finest eating establishments around.  Although, sitdown booths at Harolds?  What's that about? That's sort of fake-Harolds.

If you are a U of C student paying full board to the university, try a little back of the envelope calculation. See how far your money would go if you could spend it all at Harolds and Ribs n Bibs instead of forking it over to the dining halls.

Or, you could do what a couple of U of C students from my era in the college did, and go open the Harolds franchise of your dreams after you graduate.  Did that really happen?  (I'm so old, I remember when we had three Harolds in the neighborhood: the newspaper, the chicken shack, and the Mayor).

Ribs, 5 stars, when they aren't shut down for taxes or something.
Harolds, 4 stars, deducting one star because I don't like the booths.

A Tale of Two Roasted Cauliflowers

I just thought of a new marketing opportunity for Five Guys on 53rd St. They could take orders for fries from hungry diners, especially vegan diners, at A10 next door.

I really want to like A10. It has a fun atmosphere, a good drinks menu* (*but not if I don’t have enough food to absorb the alcohol), and it isn’t A10’s fault that the other two times I was there someone close to me and/or my dining companion died a few weeks later. As a mostly vegan eater (but really, you don’t have to be vegan to want a plant-based dinner every now and then), I am used to there not being many options on most restaurant menus. I don’t go out to eat very often so two or so choices can do it for me.

No surprise, after the server confirmed that two pasta choices I thought of would not work, I ordered the roasted cauliflower from the “Large Plates” section of the menu. (“Roasted cauliflower: Curry Cauliflower Puree. Pomegranate. Fried Chickpeas. Herbs.”) When it arrived, I wondered what was supposed to fill up the part of the plate that didn’t have the slice of cauliflower, the twelve chickpeas, the pomegranate seed scattering.... I looked at my dinner companion’s plate. He had ordered the Campanelle pasta with braised lamb shoulder and while it wasn’t enormous it was a plate of food. One dollar more than mine--$20 to my $19. Very good flavor, he reported, although he felt the portion was too small (but he did not come home and look for more dinner in the fridge like I did). I looked at the plates of the people at the next table. Their meals looked much more substantial than mine.

I was left with a puzzle. It’s not that A10 is one of those snooty places that believes in starving ALL its diners. So.... I hear that cauliflower has gotten expensive? Or is it thought that vegetables are a side -- even if there isn’t a main? Or that people who order vegetable dishes don’t really like eating anyway? Or I’m too fat so they should control my portion for me? They could have put three slices of cauliflower on the plate instead of one without busting the budget, the aesthetics, or the calorie count.

A few weeks ago I went out for lunch at Davonti Enoteca, a restaurant in Little Italy, which as one might imagine, also doesn’t have a large number of vegan options. There too, I ordered cauliflower (“Cauliflower Steak ceci beans + olive tapenade + lemon jam”). $11, but to be fair, it was lunch prices, not dinner. It was delicious. As well as being enough food for a meal. Not a big overstuffed plate, just enough to enjoy lunch. I can’t tell you if the cauliflower at A10 was also delicious, because I wasn’t going to pretend it was more than three bites and it usually takes four bites before I decide if something is amazing.