I've been following the chef on tiktok for years at this point, listening to his philosophies on food and love for local ingredients… and it was enough to get me to make a 2,000-mile round trip drive to visit his place.
It did not disappoint.
I know it's been a divisive place on this subreddit, but to me this was solidly a 2* restaurant, with a few small nits keeping it from 3*. It was all a fantastic blend of Scandinavian sensibility and international influence to highlight everything the Midwest has to offer. There was a distinct lack of 'luxury' ingredients that I would expect from the price point – no caviar, foie, truffles… but I didn't miss them. Didn't even realize I didn't get any until writing up this review right now.
I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if a decade or so from now, Jake Potashnick ends up being regarded as one of the great American chefs, and I'll get to brag that I was trolling him about his dog in tiktok comments back when he was "notyetachef".
Highlights:
– Asparagus: I counted 7 total preparations, each one highlighting different attributes of the vegetable. I wouldn't say I *love* asparagus, but this made me love it – just the sheer celebration of the absolute best product available.
– Apple sorbet with fennel: and honestly all of the desserts in general. Very vegetable-forward and did a fantastic job of highlighting the natural sweetness that you can only get from ultra-fresh produce. I normally miss it when there's no chocolate dessert at the end of a tasting – not here. Ending on highest-quality raw fruit was a very Japanese and very well-appreciated move.
– Steamed spinach in dashi: very unimpressive when it hit the table, almost reminded me of the standard bowl of miso you get at every sushi restaurant. But the depth of flavor of the broth, combined with the freshness of the spinach and mushrooms… it was a fantastic contrast and a great way to signal that the opening courses were over.
– Crayfish 'gumbo': I'm sure there are southerners that would be outraged at some northerners putting a mole and a foam on top of rice and calling it a gumbo. All I know is that it was delicious. Tremendous flavor and just the right amount of spice as to not overpower the crayfish.
– Low-ABV pairing: it's always fantastic to see a place that puts effort into curating their non-alcoholic program, and they did not disappoint here either. I particularly liked the approach of '*some* alcohol is okay' – which serves me and the average non-drinker well. I can't speak for everyone, but I feel like most of us aren't strictly sober, we're just not interested in getting drunk with our meal.
– Service: normally all I care about is the food, but the service here was awesome. The entire dining room is centered on the two pickup stations, and seemingly every member of staff takes a hand in presenting dishes. Most places I've been to with a similar set-up ends up bringing a kind of urgency to service, the cooks seem like they need to leave the table as quickly as possible to get back to cooking. Not here. Everyone was warm and hospitable while still pumping out 20+ courses. Especially considering the place hasn't even been open for two years, everything was perfectly smooth.
(Nit-picky) negatives:
– The plates. I know it from the Chef's tiktok, but the servers never mentioned that they're all local and custom-made. It's a great selling point and further the ethos of the restaurant, but a couple of the plates ultimately detracted from the food. The opening soda of chamomile, rhubarb, and pepper was delicious, but the wide dish was weird to drink from and made it go flat quickly. The snapper sashimi had a super-wide brim that prevented me from drinking the broth, and, I'm sorry, that one dish looks even more like pubes in person. I did think the ceramic fruit carton was hilarious.
– The strawberry in the opening snacks. The server *probably* mentioned it being cooked or treated in some way but the detail was lost in them describing the 10 different things. I picked it up, expecting a ripe, seasonal strawberry, and instead it squished like an rotten one would. Tasted good, but it was a bit unsettling.
– The trout was my least-favorite dish and I still would've happily eaten an entree-sized portion. The salt content and habanero oil overpowered the more delicate notes of the fish. And again, the plates… it was difficult to break the perfectly-crispy skin apart without splashing the broth out of the rim.
– The absence of a bread course. There were definitely sauces I would've loved to sop up, and considering the place is meant to highlight the product of the "Breadbasket of America"… I missed it for sure.
– The progression was a *little* off. Every individual dish was great, but it's all vegetables, one sashimi, another veg, two cooked fish, and then straight into two grilled red meats. If they had put in a couple of poultry, pork, or even mushroom dishes, nixed the (delicious) beef, and had the guts to end on an organ meat instead… I think it would have flowed better.
Yahtzee Crenshaw of Zero Punctuation, of all people, once said "the closer something gets to perfection, the more glaring the mistakes become", and that's what's going on here. Just to be clear, I fucking loved this meal. I would compare it, favorably, to the meals I've had at Noma and Geranium. Seeing how much they've improved since opening and extrapolating that 5-10 years in the future… Feld is going to be the Next Big Thing, mark my words.
by Marx0r