Brian Huston couldn’t have picked a better time to open Boltwood, a vigorously market-driven restaurant in the square and squeaky-clean epicenter of downtown Evanston. It’s high summer and, mild as it’s been, a bounty of seasonal produce has been parading across his protean menu every day. Huston, an Evanston native, may have to overcome the expectations of eaters who know him from his half-dozen years as the Publican‘s chef de cuisine. But Boltwood is not Publican North. It’s much, much louder. The animated conversations of its early adopters amplify, echo, and pinball around the spare room at a volume that makes his old workplace sound like a funeral parlor.
The rare talent for exercising restraint on quality elements is most evident with the larger, shareable meat- and fish-dominated dishes—and especially with the section of the menu devoted entirely to vegetables. Tart plums and sticks of crunchy kohlrabi nicely counter the richness and sweetness of sweetbreads, lightly glazed with a candy coating of palm sugar and butter. Tender grilled squid takes on the heady spices of the curried green cauliflower and tender new potatoes that accompany it, tossed with nutty green pumpkin seeds. Even something as straightforward as a boring old grilled skirt steak (tri-tip on another occasion) comes alive with piquant halos of red Fresno chiles, tart purslane cuttings, a wedge of grilled cantaloupe, and crumbled blue cheese softening in the ambient heat.
804 Davis, Evanston 847-859-2880boltwoodevanston.com
