National Culinary Review

Comfort marries chic at Leopold, left, where chef Jeffrey Hedin serves up Belgian food that includes smoked rabbit with mustard spaetzle, top, and pierogi.

socked with farmer’s cheese. And Hedin’s zesty Slagel Farm cassoulet—a mixture of rabbit confit, pork belly, moist German brat and saucy cannellini beans—celebrates Belgium’s host of French, German and Italian immigrants while warming us with bracing flavor that sticks to a happy gut.

The vegetarian among us loved his velvety, pristine white-potato aligot, rich in Gouda and cream, a mere dabble of which will thrill those watching their weight. Meanwhile, a slim smoked rabbit hindquarter was filled out with ample mustard spaetzle flavored with caramelized fennel and onion, plus a monks prune glaze—adding sweetness, smoke and spice to this zesty experience.

For dessert, our ticket over the border to the land of Brel included a tantalizing chocolate mousse with hazelnut praline. With warm Belgian waffle paired with cooling vanilla gelato, too, count on Leopold as a cool place to cheer life on with warm sensations.

Hidden gem
LOKaL
1904 W. North Ave.
(773) 904-8113

We sent our Polish American friend Leszek to LOKaL, and his first remark was, “Lemme tell you. There are no bison in Poland.” With their transformative take on the cuisine of their homeland, Artur “Art” Wnorowski and Gosia Pieniazek not only have bizon with celery root coleslaw on the menu, they allow us to say hello (or dzien dobry) to a whole new taste of Poland, a country boasting a distinguished, gastronomic history. Count on inspirations from France, Hungary, Russia and Germany in a land where bison really do roam.

Located in Chicago’s hip Wicker Park, LOKaL feels like one sexy Polish jazz club. There are abstract paintings throughout, with classic Polish film clips rolling on a flat-screen TV over the bar. But the real improvisation lies in this young Polish couple’s riff on the food of their childhood. Forget about Grandma’s boiled beet soup bombarded with sour cream cannonballs. Borscht, LOKaL-style, is a ruby-red beet reduction, as tempting as the lips of Polish actress Pola Negri, infamous vamp and femme fatale.

And to keep the movie metaphor rolling, crimini mushroom pierogi could be Academy Award contenders in the category, “Best New Interpretation of a Foreign Pasta.” Meanwhile, LOKaL’s Berkshire pork chop romances your taste buds with date musztarda, then deepens

Artur Wnorowski

Say hello to a whole new taste of Polish dining at LOKaL, where influences from France, Hungary, Russia and Germany lend a cosmopolitan air to such treats as this bison with celery root coleslaw.

the seduction with parsnip purée. For final credits, blueberries with housemade cookie flakes, shaved chocolate, hazelnut mousse and vanilla ice cream, a good entry into the category, “Best Pairing of Chocolate with Fruit and Nuts.” Art and Gosia work as “virtual” chefs with talented chef Ruben Torres, who honed his culinary chops at Scylla with Stephanie Izard, and who keeps the sensations soaring over the top. Then again, food cooked with cherry and bison grass vodka, as well as splashes of Polish beer and marvelous honey wine, make everything happier, better, brighter and more tantalizing throughout.

LOKaL offers a charming, tasty experience played against the beat of an increasingly corporatized food world, where the stakes involve nothing more, or less, than the future of all independent operators. Here’s to adventure, courage and guts.