Nothing much pleasant ever occurs in a trench. Long, narrow ditches are the natural habitats of trench foot, trench mouth, and trench warfare, to name just a few discomforts. Certainly nobody expects good food and good times to inhabit a trench. And yet that’s the name chosen by Heisler Hospitality’s Kevin Heisner and Matt Eisler to reboot Trenchermen, their popular Wicker Park tavern, after founding chef Patrick Sheerin stepped away at the end of last year.
But Wentworth was also one of the first chefs in town to put pig face on a plate, and maybe that’s a signature too valuable to give up. You’ll find it in the very middle of the menu, eyeing you like a hog approaching the bolt stunner.
It was smelt season when I visited Trench, and on the menu was a trio of the bitty fish battered, fried, and served with a tiny bowl of remoulade and salmon roe. The pan-roasted cod might stick around longer. A lush, thick-flaked piece of the fish was surrounded by its white poaching medium, thick with a Portuguese-style brew of clams, chorizo, olives, potatoes, and kale. One of the more opulent dishes on the current menu features celery root agnolotti and sweet lobster meat lurking in a murky swamp of thick truffled broth that tastes like the sort of life-giving chicken soup an invalid would pray for.
2039 W. North 773-661-1540trenchbar.com
