Whenever we go out to eat, I review the menu before I even step out my front door. For me, eating, for better or worse, is always research-gathering. I need to give some thought to my choices before I commit valuable gastro-real estate to any dish.
Last month, we were invited to brunch at Acanto, now an Italian restaurant in the space formerly occupied by the French-inflected Henri, both run by Billy Lawless, one of Chicago’s cooler restaurateurs and curator of one of the Western world’s most comprehensive treasuries of naughty jokes. (I’ve got a particularly vile one for him, and I’d tell it to you, but then you’d have to kill me.)
Walking into Acanto, I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted…but then I saw the chalkboard special: Veal Parmesan Sandwich.
Veal Parm is one of those sandwiches we tend to associate with lower-end dining places, even diners. Indeed, a little veal parm, ground up with a lot of breadcrumbs, is not too expensive even today. But veal is one of those meats that used to be way cheap. Once when I was a kid in the Fifties, we went to visit my aunt in Detroit. When we arrived, she’d prepared “mock chicken legs,” which were made of veal (cheaper than chicken!), breaded and wrapped around a stick to simulate a chicken leg.
Chatting after brunch with Acanto chef Christopher Gawronski, we mentioned the mock chicken legs, and he correctly observed that it was a lot like lobster, which was once considered trash food, suitable for lower class folks and prison inmates.
There are many foods that used to be considered “poor foods” and are now demonstrably up-market. Short ribs – all kinds of ribs, in fact – were once cheapo foods that now command top dollar. Ditto brisket, halibut, and cod, all once readily available for low prices, currently fetching much higher prices due to increased demand and decreased supply.
Beef used to be harvested young because by doing so, the cattle rancher did not have to suffer the expense of raising the calf to a full-grown steer.
Veal, because it was once the less expensive meat, may be associated with less skillful preparations, but Acanto elevated the simple veal Parmesan sandwich to heavenly heights by using whole cuts of veal breast (rather than ground meat mixed with filler), fresh buffalo mozzarella and basil. It’s this last element that made all the difference. To make a standard dish sing, you don’t always need to use costly ingredients; the simple addition of the basil leaves added to the sandwich a light pungency, a minty sharpness that stood out from the lush, caramelized coating of the meat. Using good bread also made a huge difference, as did the fried whole baby potatoes and salad. Even with all these white tablecloth touches, the sandwich came in around $16, which is not bad at all.
Acanto is located on Michigan Avenue, about a block from the Art Institute, so it’s a maybe 20-minute shot from Oak Park on the Green Line. Worth the trip.
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Acanto
18 S. Michigan
312-578-0763
