In the event that you’ve forgotten tenth-grade English, “the lunatic, the lover, and the poet” is a line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play by a certain William Shakespeare. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? It’s also the name of a new wine bar wedged into an increasingly restaurant-gunged Randolph Street. It’s a name so annoying I had to step away from the keyboard and command my dog to type it. Iambic pentameter should be left to trained professionals.
So what to eat with all that juice? The menu from chef Jessica Nowicki—a veteran of Naha, Brindille, and Oak Mill Bakery—is familiarly broad and unfocused, offering wide-ranging approaches in small, medium, and large formats. My most memorable bite was from a bowl of charred onion soup, initially presented empty but for a schmear of tangy quark cheese, over which is poured a thick veloute, industrial mustard in appearance, but a rich and toasty environment for the cheese. A moist corvina fillet came in a close second, set atop buttery carrot puree and served with sweet roasted fennel, topped with a cloud of the same, only shaved and fresh.
736 W. Randolph 312-775-0069thelunaticloverpoet.com
