There’s an arresting dish served at Publican Anker, the latest offshoot of One Off Hospitality’s surging Publican brand, located in the Wicker Park crotch. It’s a Viking cauldron of swampy-looking green broth bobbing with perfectly cooked mussels, clams, and hake chunks, mounted atop a leather trivet. On the occasion I ordered it, it arrived with no bowls, no spoons, and no ladle, and until we wrangled our server, we were forced to contend with it caveman style, since the forks and small plates dealt out to handle almost everything else on the menu were useless.
The aforementioned green chile fish stew has an antecedent on the Publican’s menu too, but any chile heat is subsumed in the savory, murky broth, camouflaged by a shower of fresh cilantro. That herb shows up again and again on these plates, enough that—along with the abundant garnishes of chopped mint, spikes of acidic lime, and occasional bass notes of fish-sauce funk—makes me suspect menu brainstorming occurred during marathon sessions at Aroy Thai or Rainbow Cuisine. The menu, however, actually name-checks a number of Middle Eastern ingredients, which is more in line with the moment, culinarily speaking.
Speaking of which, the dessert menu includes a magnetic interpretation of the classic British banoffee pie, a spongy toffee pudding doused in butterscotch and showered with banana slices and crushed pecan. But don’t let it strong-arm you past the tangy blood-orange Creamsicle ice cream.
1576 N. Milwaukee 773-905-1121publicananker.com
