Bohemian-Czech Cusine

Does anyone know of a good Bohemian-Czech resturant in the Chicagoland area? We are looking for a Bohemian-Czech that serves good roast duck and dumplings.

Thanks!!

Hi,

I somehow doubt you are related to Rosemary ...

Using keywords of bohemian or czech, I found three threads:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=27993#27993

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... 5f809e64a4

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... 5389429fc9

I have been to

Bohemian Crystal
639 Blackhawk Drive
Westmont, IL 60559
630-789-1981

I saw reference in some other threads to the Golden Duck, I found two addresses. These may be related or unrelated restaurants, I would call to learn which one, if not both, are Czech oriented.

Golden Duck
500 Ogden Avenue
Downers Grove, IL 60515
630-968-8887

Golden Duck Restaurant
4801 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60630
773-205-7300

The Golden Duck at 4801 North Milwaukee is definitely not Czech or Bohemian. I would characterize it as a cross between Polish and neighborhood American family restaurant. Based on one lunch there are many better alternatives along Milwaukee.

ekreider wrote:The Golden Duck at 4801 North Milwaukee is definitely not Czech or Bohemian. I would characterize it as a cross between Polish and neighborhood American family restaurant. Based on one lunch there are many better alternatives along Milwaukee.

Not Polish. Definitely Middle European of some sort, with a menu full of goulash, schnitzel and paprikash. I've been to the Golden Duck a couple of times and had excellent dinners, particularly the namesake roast duckling, perfectly crisp.

If there are better options nearby, I'd welcome your comments on them, since I found this the best area option during the Silent Summer Film Festival, as related here. We did a lot of scouting and turned up very little.

Well even though Cathy2 linked to an Operetta post of mine (thanks), I might as well plug the place. As I have said before, I do not know a place that more seems to mirror the ethos of this board and its denizens, yet remains so under-used.

It has everything one wants in an LTH restaurant (well not everything, the secret menu seems to be gone, with a *decent* translated menu now readily available). But there is still free flowing original Pilsner beers on draft (and two-for-one on Wednesday's!); the food is mildly exotic, yet familiar enough. At times, the menu can read like an episode from Fawlty Towers--we were there a week ago and the soup was smoked butt, the specials smoked butt with sauerkraut, smoked butt with spinanch, smoked butt stuffed in potato dumplings, luckily the smoked butt's pretty good...At no time have I visited Operetta and found myself in the company of other non-Czechs (I mean besides my table). Wait, I take that back, perhaps there has been a table of Slovaks, and we've been told that Polish people like Operetta too. Still, there is a feeling of leaving the USA each time, of entering a neighborhood cafe in Prague. A neighborhood cafe where one can fill up on garlic soup with cheesy croutons; mass helpings of bread dumplings and all the smoked butt dishes you can imagine.

As I have also noted before, Operetta is not catering to a crowd looking for value before all else. It's Bohemian through and through, not Bohemian American. It is very much worth visiting.

Operetta
(773) 622-2613
5653 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60639

So my best bets it looks like are
Operetta
Klas on Cermack
Bohemian Crystal

Does anyone prefer one over the other?

Just to confuse matters - Golden Duck in Westmont is Bohemian, but is not terribly good IMO. Bohemian Crystal is good and reliable, but has never excited me.

My favorite hole in the wall Czech place is Moldau in Brookfield. Dirt cheap (hard to spend 10 dollars on a meal), and it used to be very good, but, my last 2 visits have only been so-so, sadly. The crowd is generally over 60, and very old school.

I have not been to Operetta, or to Klas in 30 years so my experience is a wee bit out of date, and I cannot compare. But my favorite place for food of this category is Chef Paul in Lisle (which may not be too convenient). Now, Chef Paul calls his place Bavarian, but all the same standards - duck, pork (roast & cutlet) goulash of many flavors, etc are there. Plus it is a nice room, great beer selection, and the food is all quite well done.

In previous discussions on this topic, some have sworn by Bohemian Gardens. For whatever reason (probably the proximity of Chef Paul) I have never quite made it there, but it is another option.

And just to confuse things a little further, here is a link to the Czech embassies web site that lists Czech restaurants(!). http://www.mzv.cz/washington/general/restaurants.htm#Illinois

Personally, I would probably try Operetta first, just to see what it is about, but when I want classic middle european cuisine, I think Chef Paul does it as well as anyone these days. Traditionally, the best places were always in the Brookfield/Berwyn/Riverside/Cicero area, for whatever that is worth, but it appears the Czech diaspora is ongoing , and the restuarants are spreading out.

Chef Paul's Bavarian Lodge
1800 Ogden Ave.
Lisle
630-241-4701

Moldau Restaurant
9310 Ogden Avenue
Brookfield, IL 60513
Tel: (708) 485-2155

Bohemian Garden Restaurant
980 W. 75th
Downers Grove, IL
Tel: (630) 960-0078

As I read this thread and statements such as "when I want classic middle european cuisine," part of me, at least, thinks, "and why would you?"

Having traveled in Middle Europe, I can't say that the food was ever the best part of the trip. It has its charms, I suppose, and there is the occasional marvelous dish (a pasta-based dessert with nuts and honey in Hungary and some soups in Romania come to mind), but generally it is heavy, fatty and bland.

In Bohemia, the best food by far is pivo.

(Beer)

Those among us with any Eastern/Central European heritage find some of the offerings at these places at least vaguely familiar. At its "best" it can bring one back to a very specific point in life...perhaps a kid in grandma's warm kitchen in her three-flat on Kedzie. I think that's part of the appeal of this kind of food. Do all Scots pine for the haggis back home because it's so delicious?

I'll add my own place to the Bohemian list that I used to frequent at lunch when I worked in Oak Brook. Think braised pork steaks in brown gravy and lime Jello for dessert and you'll have a good idea of what the place is about. Right at 8 Corners in Brookfield.

Corner Restaurant
9201 Broadway Avenue
Brookfield
(708) 485-5660

cowdery wrote:As I read this thread and statements such as "when I want classic middle european cuisine," part of me, at least, thinks, "and why would you?"

Having traveled in Middle Europe, I can't say that the food was ever the best part of the trip. It has its charms, I suppose, and there is the occasional marvelous dish (a pasta-based dessert with nuts and honey in Hungary and some soups in Romania come to mind), but generally it is heavy, fatty and bland.

In Bohemia, the best food by far is pivo.

(Beer)

While it is surely so that there are people who come to the conclusion that the to varying degrees related cuisines of 'Mittel-Europa' (at its core Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland, but some may include other countries here) are not to their tastes on the basis of reasonably broad experience (and I have no reason to doubt that Chuck Cowdery's negative personal opinion is in that sense well-founded), I think it also the case that many people denigrate these cuisines without much real knowledge of the object of their contempt, either with regard to the quality of the representatives of these cuisines to which they have been exposed or the breadth of their exposure to a variety of dishes and different styles of preparation used in these cuisines.

At the same time, it seems to me many folks are these days -- in the joyous spirit of "multiculturalism" -- far more inclined to believe or assume that the exotic is necessarily better. Aside from the inherent interest that exotica may hold, it is of course true that 'exotica' (from a European perspective) often is in many ways especially interesting. And one can, I'm sure, argue in a factual and aesthetically and philosophically informed way that, for example, the cuisines of South India or of South East Asia or of Northern China are more interesting, more developed, more... better than the cuisine of old Mittel-Europa. I can see that and may very well concur.

And yet, I maintain that many of those who have an ill opinion of Mittel-Europa's culinary offerings might well change their minds to at least some small degree if they but had the opportunity to sample especially well-prepared renditions of many standard dishes and in addition also had the chance to try some lesser known dishes. Of such standard dishes, I call to your attention Sauerbraten, which is generally speaking not all that well made in restaurants in the States but, when made by a skilled chef -- professional or domestic -- can be a really beautifully complex dish. A less well-known dish that comes to my mind in this context is Königsberger Klopse, which to be made properly requires a good amount of care and, with the best ingredients, the right effort produces what is in my opinion probably one of the most interesting and subtle and delicious "meatball" recipes in the world. While I will join the throngs who sing in praise of Chinese potstickers, of Turkish manti, and of Sardinian culingionis, Poland's pierogi pack a considerably pleasurable punch when it comes to stuffed dumplings and Swabia's best Maultaschen need take no backseat to the Riviera's raioli.

While poverty, both real and state-induced, has surely had a very negative influence on the development of the culinary arts in the former Warsaw Pact countries over much of the past 60 years, there are nonetheless both interesting and delicious basic products and dishes from all over the region. In Germany and Austria, on the other hand, prosperity has been no stranger for most of that period and I am always struck by the availablity of so many comestibles and potables of outstanding quality in those two countries. In addition, I think it fair to say that the cuisine of Austria is particularly interesting, in part due to its long-standing position as the heart of a variegate empire but also surely in part to a particularly strong native interest in eating and drinking well. And for what it's worth, the Germans and Czechs of Bohemia were long regarded in Europe as people who really knew what they were doing when it came to food and drink.

Certainly there is, as Chuck says, a lot of heavy, fatty and bland food served up in central and eastern Europe, but I also maintain that the cuisines in question have in some cases suffered as the result of long-standing socio-economic problems and in all cases offer many more genuinely interesting and delicious dishes than is generally thought to be the case these days.

Prost/Na zdrowie!
Guten Appetit/Smacznego!
Antonius

I also must reply to Chuck's dismissal of great Bohemian cuisine. If one only had meat loaf at a Stuckey's by the side of the highway, one might dismiss it as salty, fatty, and bland. Heaven knows what one might think of mashed potatos and gravy.

But we all know (I hope) that a meat loaf, mashed potatos and gravy in the hands of a good cook can be quite delectable.

The same is true, absolutely, of Bohemian and Middle European cuisine in general. Sauerkraut, and red cabbage, to start, when done well rank with the best side vegetable preparations in the world, IMO. A well done breaded cutlet, veal or pork, is a wonderful thing. A savory, crispy roast duck with bread dumplings, and red cabbage is, for me, one of the best meals in the world, bar none. And a good pork roast, ahhhh . And I have not even begun to enthuse about sausages, soups and spatzle.

Having said that, I admit that during my one week in the Czech Republic a few years back, I found the food and wine served to me to be pretty awful, and the best food was the beer. Funny thing was, when I returned to Vienna at the end of the week, the first thing I did was have a good Bohemian meal with some good Austrian wine, and I was in heaven.

Let me know when you want to meet at Operetta or Klas, Chuck. There may be more of the good stuff here than over there, because it is easy to get better ingredients, and the clientele is more demanding.

dicksond wrote:Let me know when you want to meet at Operetta or Klas, Chuck. There may be more of the good stuff here than over there, because it is easy to get better ingreedients, and the clientele is more demanding.

I think its hard to defend or define whether bread dumplings can be good or not, especially as compared with what mole or special curry (let alone coq au vin or something "gourmet"). Yea, it does not do quite the sommersaults on the palate. The thing is, some of us, well me for instance, do not always need somersaults.

Still, as someone who eats an inordinate amount of mittel-Euro food (and I've made this point before). I do it not really 'cause I love the food at Operetta or Halina or whatever more than at Spoon Thai or Steve's Shish. I do it because of the places closest to me, I am fully confident that when I go there, I will get food that is treated with great care, even at low prices. The will be a great lack of "Syscoization" to the food I get at Operetta or what not, and I find that more often than not, I appreciate a housemade bowl of anything to a sloppy, careless (corporate) plate of something.

I'm there at the next LTH Bohemianathon

Note that I did say "part of me" wonders why anyone seeks Middle-European food. The other part of me understands and eats the stuff with glee. When I traveled in that part of the world, I would say the restaurant culture was confused, not sure what travelers and other diners really wanted (cheap and filling, distinctively local, safely continental, etc.) and also still very much suffering from the economic limitations Antonious described.

I was with a group one time that asked a German chef what he would prepare for a "gourmet meal of German food" and his answer was, "nothing you would recognize as German." He went on to explain that what we mostly know as "German food" is Bavarian peasant food. "Gourmet" German cuisine, he said, is more like French cooking, just using more typically German ingredients.

And Sauerbraten is a good example, because I have had it well-prepared (here, not there) and it is a wonderful dish, not the usual roast beef with a slightly vinegary gravy.

I also noticed a certain uniformity to the cuisine, again at least in terms of what I was being offered in restaurants, that may have been a result of the Hapsburg empire being followed by the Soviet one. There were a few things on the menu in Romania that weren't on the menu in Prague, and vice versa, but they had a lot in common too.

It was not really my intention to dismiss great Bohemian cuisine, but I did want to hear its defense. What, for example, would you say are the signature dishes of great Bohemian cuisine? And what dishes or methods of preparation would you say are uniquely Bohemian, distinct from the cuisines of Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, etc.

You will like Klas Chuck! best bar and has Radogast, Budvar, and other czech beers and liquors--where is Rene G when we need him. I know he did a post on Klas.