For a short time at least, no one is going to talk about Daisies without talking about Analogue.
At Daisies Frillman’s offering eight pasta dishes, nine, really, if you count a pasta salad appetizer. I’m interested in knowing who would go for a pasta salad starter and then follow it with something like mushroom ragu pappardelle or whole wheat tagliatelle with walnuts and fava bean pesto. I’ve never met anyone like that.
For better and worse, both of these appetizers represent something we’ve seen again and again recently: chefs applying midwestern ideas, ingredients, and flavors to foreign cuisines (see Kitsune, Mango Pickle). This is most evident among the pastas, which are represented by six traditional Italian shapes—and pierogies. Besides that, almost nothing else on the menu even hints that it’s been nudged by the Italian boot.
The rest of the pastas range from very good to sublime. That would be the previously mentioned tajarin, as well as its opposite: wide ribbons of toothy pappardelle in a chunky mushroom ragu. This is the plate of pasta you wish for when you’re cold, alone, and running out of hope.
Despite the improved but still imperfect design of Daisies, I have faith that people will begin to talk about the restaurant wholly on its own terms. And apart from a few dishes that ought to be rethought, Frillman is a chef of enough original talent to chase away whatever ghosts of restaurants past that may still reside in the minds of his guests. v
2523 N. Milwaukee 773-661-1671daisieschicago.com
