Cork Wine Bar & Cafe (in the old Tournesol spot)

Ventured to Tournesol's replacement last night for dinner. Cork appears primarily intended to be a wine bar and offers a large wine list, as well as a smaller one page, double sided list of wines by the glass with probably 20-25 choices (exclusive of glasses of dessert wines which are listed on the back of the food menu). The food menu is basically a collection of small plates, a handfull of sides and 3 desserts. I understand that Michael Altenberg consulted on the menu, but that the chef from Tournesol stayed on.

When my friend and I walked into the place, we were a little confused. There is no hostess stand and it almost seems as if you're stepping onto a dance floor when you walk in -- a rather large area of empty space with no apparent purpose. We took several steps forward until we were in the middle of the restaurant, tables to our left and right, as well as some lounge-type chairs and a couple of couches. Still, no one came up to us even though a few employees were moving about the room. Then I noticed a couple of huge chalkboards on one wall, and one of the written lines on the chalkboard welcomed you to Cork and told you to seat yourself. We noticed an seemingly unoccupied table for 2 (it had an ashtray and 2 half-full glasses of water). Quickly, one of the employees cleaned the table. This was good since the place was pretty full.

Looking at the chalkboard, I noticed some other written items but because of the very low lighting, I decided to give up and trust that the menu contained everything I needed to know. My friend and I shared a handful of small plates and two desserts.

The first dish was a grilled octopus which was served in a bowl, cut up with quite a bit of julienned onions and red and yellow peppers. I don't know why they served this in a bowl since it was not a liquidy dish and might have made for a nicer plated presentation, but oh well. The vegetables were lightly oiled and nicely seasoned with salt & pepper. The octopus was perhaps a tad over-charcoal tasting, but was otherwise cooked well. However, the only flavors were salt and pepper and a lot of charcoal -- perhaps a slightly less charcoal flavor and a drizzle of lemon would have made the dish perfect. Overall, a decent dish but nothing special. I think it was around $8 or so.

We also had the potato and cheese croquettes. I liked these a lot. Crispy coating, soft interior, very mild flavor (sorry, don't remember the cheese), deep fried and served hot with grilled peach slices. Simple and yet very nice. (I think these were $5).

We also ordered the duck confit crepes. This was a good size crepe, cut into 2 still good size portions -- a good dish to share for 2, although difficult beyond that because the crepe was very difficult to cut. Overall, this dish was ok but slightly disappointing. The crepe itself was a tad dry. The duck itself lacked significant flavor. Most of the flavor in the dish was supplied by some oven-dried tomatoes inside the crepe and a little balasamic vinegar on the plate, and even then, not a ton of flavor. Not bad, but not great. I think it was $10. . . or maybe $9 -- somewhere in that ball park.

Also shared one of the sides -- fries -- which come with your choice of ONE aioli (I asked if we could try 2 and the waitress could not have been quicker to tell me that I could get only one). This was $4 and was a decent size bowl of fries that could be shared by two, but I suppose one person could finish them alone. I can't remember the other two aioli choices -- I believe one might have been chive, but we opted for the duck liver aioli. The aioli itself was excellent -- great flavor. The fries also had great flavor. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that the oil they were cooked in (perhaps for the second fry if they did a second fry) was not hot enough since the fries were very limp and a bit oversaturated with oil. Anyway, they tasted fine but the limpness did not allow me to indulge in the duck liver aioli quite as much as I wanted -- although the aioli was so good that I almost ate it with a spoon.

My friend ordered the smoked salmon appetizer ($5?) and unfortunately, before I could grab a taste, I noticed that he was putting the last toast bit in his mouth. He thought it was pretty good -- a small portion of smoked salmon, creme fraiche (I think with capers) and toast.

Next, dessert. Cork only offers three desserts (creme brulee as well as the two I'll discuss below). I ordered the bourbon-lacquered peaches served on a shortbread biscuit. ($4, give or take ) Peaches were fine, not a significant bourbon flavor unfortunately, but they tasted good nonetheless. The shortbread base was decent but unfortunately carried a slightly burnt flavor.

My friend ordered the chocolate mousse. Although the flavor was ok, this was the worst part of the meal since the mousse was very grainy. Also, it was not as bittersweet was I would have liked. A person I understood to be the GM came over and said hello when dessert was brought out and was nice enough to bring us 2 complementary glasses of port -- a nice touch.

Service was a bit slow. It took our waitress about 10-15 minutes to bring our first glass of wine and just a few minutes later, they began bringing out our food. She seemed to spend a bit too much time standing by the very small bar (maybe 3 chairs there?) in back gabbing with her co-workers. I would have liked a little more friendly server, but oh well, this was not a big deal.

Overall, Cork was ok, not great. Although it seems as if the wine program might be somewhat better than Volo in Roscoe Village, I think I preferred Volo for its food which was better and far more creative, although pricier. See my review which I apparently posted only on Chowhound:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 62346.html



Cork Wine Bar
4343 N. Lincoln

Volo
2008 W. Roscoe