ML - Michigan Avenue

2014 - Issue 8 - December/January

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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photography by anjali pinto Italian Renaissance The GaGe owner Billy lawless Transforms The former henri inTo warm, welcominG new iTalian desTinaTion AcAnto. by j.p. anderson Billy Lawless's two South Michigan Avenue restau- rants, The Gage and Henri, were always strange bedfellows: the boisterously energetic, packed-to-the- rafters tavern next door to its elegant, comparatively hushed French fine-dining cousin. Each delivered culinary excellence in strikingly different ways— The Gage with its inspired tavern fare, like addictive poutine and Scotch eggs; Henri with its deconstructed haute plates—but the latter never achieved the heights of its rowdier neighbor. Sums up the Galway, Ireland– raised Lawless, "For as well as Henri did, the room was a little too formal for the area." The restaurateur's solution? Out with Henri, in with artisanal Italian concept Acanto. Reasons Lawless, "I think people are much more naturally disarmed when it comes to food if you say Italian rather than fine-dining French." To that end, Executive Chef Chris Gawronski turned his focus from Henri's fastidiously constructed fare to a more rustic selection of plates—all with an artisanal focus, from stone-oven-cooked pizzas to from-scratch pastas, sauces, and several varieties of house-made salumi. (The restaurant is even working with California-based Bohemian Creamery to supply Acanto's entire cheese program—the only Illinois restaurant to carry the line, notes Gawronski proudly.) Among the signature starters at Acanto, sepia and octopus with fig, radish, Fresno chili, and balsamic is a standout. continued on page 92 michiganavemag.com  91 taste this Issue: Holiday Comforts

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