Review: Weeknight tasting menu at Vie in Western Springs

February 24, 11:28 AMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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Frozen mallomar with peanut butter ice cream

It almost goes without saying that this is the week to get out to all those restaurants you've been meaning to try. Chef Week and Restaurant Week are running concurrently, offering three-course prix fixe dinner menus for $32 and lunch menus for $22 per person. For more information (and menus, where available) on Chicago Restaurant Week, check out Chicago Restaurant Examiner Laura Hansen's preview here. Chicago Chef Week participants can be found here.

Inspired by the numerous options suddenly available to us, given our rapidly thinning wallets, my mom and I made reservations at Vie, a chef-driven restaurant in Western Springs with a focus on seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. I had been trying to make my way out there for months, probably years at this point, but finally we had the impetus we needed: Inexpensive, good food.

The restaurant itself is sparse yet elegant, a largely white and silver space that juxtaposes mini chandeliers with aluminum chairs and simply framed photos of winter scenery with warm candlelight. It was at once comfortable and refined.

We shuffled the various menus clipped to individual, brushed aluminum clipboards, scanning the wine list, the regular menu, the 7-course weekday tasting menu and the 3-course Chef Week menu before arriving at the same conclusion: We could not, in good conscience, settle for only three courses. True, when my mom and I dine out restraint is easily discarded, but we had made these reservations with the intention of sampling Chef Virant's special three-course menu...yet the Chef Week Menu left us wanting.

It didn't help things that there were no vegetarian options listed (mom's a vegetarian), but the simple fact was that the tasting menu inspired me to dine, whereas the Chef Week menu made me feel like I was showing up for the Early Bird Special. I'm sure the Cream of Sauerkraut Soup (with Slagel Farm fresh ham and brown bread toast), Shepherd's Pie (red wine braised local beef with roasted root vegetables and local potato puree) and Chocolate and Peanut Swirl Ice Cream (with caramel sauce and brittled peanuts) are all wonderful, but by now I had my sights set on a seven-course experience, complete with wine pairings ($70 without wine, $100 with*). And to say I was satisfied with my decision doesn't even begin to hint at the ecstasy elicited by the duck liver pâté alone.

The first course, paired with a glass of prosecco, was an amuse, showcasing two shrimp ensconced in the lightest shell of tempura, the delicate crunch giving way to a single, tender bite of shellfish, with the tartly acidic preserved red peppers cutting through the rich, garlicky aioli pooled on the plate. It was a lovely way to start any meal; The next dish, however, proved to be one of those "happenings," one of those startlingly extraordinary tastes I'll never forget and yet I know will elude me forever after.

If it seems like I'm gushing, it's because I am.

The duck liver pâté, an inch-thick slab topped with caramelized onions and served with a fruit compote and micro greens, is definitely worth gushing over. I had a delicious country pâté at Perennial last week, but either I'm country pâté-d out or maybe I had somehow forgotten the sumptuous creaminess of traditional French pâté en terrine, because my limbs went slack upon tasting this dish. It melted in my mouth on contact, offering up peppery hints of the rhubarb with which it was served and ending with a subtle, lingering note of cognac.

There were probably a good five ounces of pâté on my plate and I savored every last bit, even convincing vegetarian mom (who is also known to indulge in foie gras from time to time; it's mostly the texture of meat that gets to her) to take a taste, which was unsurprisingly followed by another taste only moments later. I felt like I was grossing out our waiter, Thierry, who admitted to being shocked that anyone could finish such a decadent serving, but at the same time I knew my only other option was to ask for a doggy bag.  That being a practice I'm loathe to employ when enjoying a tasting menu, I delicately shaved away slivers of pate with my fork, convincing myself that dainty eating would make up for my gluttony.

The white Côte de Rhone served with the pâté made a wonderful, honeyed complement to the rich dish, although I'm embarrassed to admit I cannot recall the vintage. Indeed, each wine seemed custom-tailored for the dish it accompanied, the way a truly good wine pairing does. Mondays at Vie mean half-price bottles, an option that seemed impossible to refuse, given the well curated list that would have allowed for us to indulge in a bottle of the Shafer "Relentless" Syrah or Fiddlehead Pinot Noir for scarcely more than their retail costs, but the expertise with which the pairings were selected reinforced our belief that we had made the right choice.

Each dish that followed was characterized by a freshness and simplicity of flavor that belied the care with which the dishes had been crafted. I should also mention that the service was flawless and delightfully accommodating: Thierry was generous enough to seek out an alternate entree for my mom, even bringing out an arugula salad with preserved fennel in place of the pâté course, which we hadn't thought to substitute.

Chef Virant was present in the dining room, chatting with guests and kindly inquiring as to what my mom thought of the arugula salad and wood-grilled sturgeon entree while simultaneously enduring my barrage of questions about the monthly canning classes they have planned for this summer. (Let it be said that Chef Virant is not only much younger looking than I had expected, but he's also pretty darn handsome, causing me to turn about three or four shades of red as I pressed forth with my inquiries.)

My own entree consisted of a duo of braised beef brisket and beef liver dumpling, topped with pickled onion and fire-roasted chard, all of which made me feel as wintertime-cozy as if I was snuggled under a blanket in front of a roaring fire, but my mom's entree evoked a more Proustian response, conjuring up memories of our summer house on Lake Michigan. From the very first bite, I was transported to our weather-worn deck overlooking a row of A-frames and crashing waves, my adolescent flip-flopped feet dusted with sand and a damp beach towel wrapped around my sunburned shoulders. I have no idea exactly what it was that churned up these nearly forgotten memories, whether it was the smokiness from the wood grilling or simply the fresh-caught flavor of the fish, but it comforted me in a completely unexpected way.

Dessert was a frozen mallomar with peanut butter ice cream and candied nuts. The thick robe of dark chocolate was frozen hard over the ice cream and homemade marshmallow filling. It took a few indelicate stabs of my spoon to crack the exterior (terrified all the while that the oversized bon-bon was about to fly off my plate and knock out one of our fellow diners), but ultimately my hard work paid off, the splintered dome revealing a soft, pillowy marshmallow center topped with velvety peanut ice cream.

Paired with a glass of sherry, the dessert acheived its intended effect of capping the meal in an appropriately decadent way, but when our server brought out a second, complementary cordial, this time a fortified wine that tasted much like a light, cherry-tinged ruby port, the dish reached new heights. Lulled into the gentle drowsiness of a proper food coma, I set down my spoon with a deep, satisfied sigh. We might have missed our financial mark, dropping about triple what we had planned to spend, but when a meal has the ability to both transport you back to your childhood and startle you with possibilities for the future, then I say that's money well spent.

What Chef Week or Restaurant Week menus have you taken advantage of, or do you plan to take advantage of? I'm headed to Province on Wednesday, and this time I hope to stick to my prix fixe plan (for my pocketbook's sake), but I suppose I won't really know what the plan is until it's right in front of me. I'll be sure to let you know.

Vie is located at 4471 Lawn Ave. in Western Springs. Call 708.246.2082 to make reservations. Visit Vie's website here for more information on menus and upcoming classes.

*A portion of the revenue (10%) from the weeknight tasting menu at Vie is donated to a local charity. This month's charity is Common Threads, an organization dedicated to educating children about how to better nourish their minds and bodies through healthy eating habits and learning to cook at home. For more information about Common Threads, click here.

Photo by Emily Szopa, ©2009