SEPTEMBER 2019 | CHICAGO 51
Personal style
begins with the
perfectly-fitted
bespoke shirt.
Handmade in Chicago since 1916.
Prices beginning at $350.
175 N Franklin St.
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 913-1100
rbtailors.com/riddle-mcintyre/
Available exclusively at
Riddle McIntyre
Shirtmakers
tasting menu did not have the complex-
ity of, say, Noah Sandoval’s cuisine at
Oriole, but the prix fixe procession fol-
lowed a striking arc. The opening nibble
of white anchovy with ramp pesto and
ricotta salata was a clean, crunchy burst
that set the tone. It was the first of many
dishes with a green-and-white palette
meant to evoke McCaskey’s briny Maine
summers as a kid. By the fifth course,
butter-poached Penobscot Bay lobster
with a tom kha bisque that
folded McCaskey’s Southeast
Asian heritage into the New
England theme, I was check-
ing out Maine Airbnbs on
my phone.
The rare misfire not-
withstanding — namely, the
pho-glazed shima aji with
goat-milk-cured foie gras, soy
foam, and Carolina rice that
tasted like hoisin sauce and
not much else — the f lavors
were true and the presenta-
tions playful. McCaskey’s
masterpiece, Alaskan halibut
topped with a nutty brown butter and
pistachio gremolata, packed the crunch
of raw cauliflower and the punch of an
angry welterweight. He’d balanced it
with an earthy morel panna cotta made
with cream, agar, and gelatin that gave
the creation an almost foie-like consis-
tency. I was entranced.
Then, an hour and a half in, some-
thing odd happened. Our endlessly
attentive waiter, who’d flirted with my
wife, me, and a plate of bone marrow
over the past few courses, approached
our table, eyebrows raised. “Want to
stretch your legs a little?”
Curious, we followed him into the
kitchen, past McCaskey teaching a
younger chef to make headcheese while
pretending to ignore us, and to a high
table in back set with a white tablecloth,
flowers, and Champagne. My jaw went
slack. Up to this moment, Acadia had
played t he g a me so wel l t hat I had n’t even
seen it coming.
“WELCOME!” bellowed almost the
entire staff in unison.
“Gee,” I murmured to my wife. “You
think we’ve been spotted?”
The waiter brought over one of those
scorching-hot slabs of stone, onto which
he tonged six slices of the Miyazaki
wagyu, a $65 menu add-on we had
not opted for. Suddenly, I found myself
forced to view the entire meal through
a more suspicious lens. The smiling
people around me felt like actors from
The Truman Show, as if everything
was there for my benefit. I
began Googling images of
dishes to make sure the pho-
tos looked identical to what
was on my plate. (They did.)
Nearly everything served
to us after that — the avocado
sorbet topped with Yakult
pearls that echoed the earlier
scallop-roe dish, the straw-
berry mousse that pastry chef
Kyleen Atonson had infused
with duck egg yolk crema
and wrapped in a rhubarb
veil — was tremendous. And
while I confirmed that these
were nominally the same dishes served
to other diners at Acadia, there was little I
could do to compare their food with what I
was eating, short of wandering around the
dining room and asking for bites.
It’s tempting to give Acadia a
pass — Ryan McCaskey did whatever he
could to make a good impression in a
ferociously competitive business — but
the gambit was so audacious, it felt less
like a wink than a bribe. I’ll be honest: It
did feel good to have my ego massaged,
but when the buzz wore off, I felt dirty
and complicit.
To the extent that I was able to objec-
tively take the pulse of the place, Acadia
had no reason to muddy the waters. It
did not suddenly become excellent for
my benefit that Sunday night. Given
the caliber of the restaurant, where the
service and food have been honed by
years of experience, I came away believ-
ing McCaskey and his team could have
skipped the VIP routine and I’d still have
felt pampered. Even without breaking the
rules of the game, they would have won. CACADIA
★ ★ ★
1639 S. Wabash
Ave., South Loop
Q FYI Kyleen
Atonson, Acadia’s
endlessly creative
pastry chef, is a
future superstar.
Q Tab $185
for 10 courses;
$65 to $75
a la carte
QHours Dinner
Wednesday to
Sunday
★ Recommended
★★ Very Good ★★★ Excellent
★★★★ Exceptional