I’m not sure an exhibition of large oil paintings of shipwrecks is the most auspicious subject for a fledgling restaurant to surround its guests with. But that’s what’s happened at the Cotton Duck, a Wicker Park art gallery/restaurant (artstaurant?) that will present a new menu every three months inspired by the work each time it mounts a show.
For now all I can say about his food’s relationship to broken battleships is that it features lots of seafood, much of it with haute ambitions, lots of blank space on the plates, many squiggles and smears of rich, voluptuous, and often salty sauces, strong flavors competing for attention in each dish, but little harmony or balance.
Things get heavy again at dessert. Sugared bombolini do battle with parsnip ice cream that starts sweet but finishes tasting like a root cellar, while an intensely funky blue cheese cheesecake overpowers the accompanying maple-pepper caramel and icy blackberry sorbet.
941 N. Damen 773-661-6131thecottonduck.com
