15 October 2004

Pat Bruno
Chicago Sun-Times

I doubt if there is much lament around Keefer's about business. On one visit, a Wednesday night, the place was percolating like a pot of coffee set over a blast furnace. Chaos? Not. Tables of 10 were being handled with the same ease and efficiency as two-tops. When I dropped in for lunch several days later, it was deja vu. It's all about organization and, man, is this place organized.

Chicago has steakhouses that dabble in fish and seafood houses that dabble in steak. Keefer's does a double-dabble. The dinner menu gives you a choice of mooing over eight of the most popular cuts of beefs and, if you throw into the boat the nightly seafood specials, you will have an equal number of seafood choices to hook into. More meat choices are listed under the Bistro Menu (see PatPourri above), so Keefer's is piling on the protein with a vengeance.

With all of that going on, you might be thinking surf and turf. Forget about it. That's not an option here. And I applaud the restraint. Surf and turf, the way I see it, is just a ploy to run the tab up the flagpole.

What Keefer's has done is stoke its menu to the rafters with staples that appeal to the power-eater type -- the elite power types that, in the bar and in the dining room, appear to have little concern about the bottom line on the credit card slip.

There is something else that I would like to point out about this menu -- it doesn't fool with your head. No fusion, no fooling, no unnecessary fireworks.

First, though, I have one gripe. The grilled calamari appetizer needs to be either reworked or done away with. It is not pleasing to look at, and it is not very good. What is the point of grilling calamari if you are then going to cut it into rings the size of rubber bands? The texture goes out the window and lands in the gutter. The trappings with the squid -- confit of tomato, arugula and balsamic vinaigrette -- were fine. I could only imagine how good the dish would have been if the squid had been grilled whole.

Mussels are steamed in the classic French style. Chef John Hogan, having trod the boards in a few French restaurants, has a way with mussels, so lacing those black beauties with that holy trio of shallots, garlic and white wine, put just the right flavor muscle to the mussels.

The soup of the day one evening was a rich and lusty corn soup. I wouldn't call it a corn chowder; it had more snob appeal than that, considering that it is served in a little copper pot and has a seared sea scallop plopped on top. Priced at $8.95, this is an expensive soup, so I say leave out the scallop and drop the price by two bucks. Another stab at soup wounded me. Cream of turkey and rice was a real turkey. No flavor, no substance. Dishwater.

If you are looking for a less expensive opener, go with the nice house salad (Bibb lettuce, Belgian endive, radicchio). It is a dandy, and priced at just $4.95.

Now to the meat of the matter. "All steaks are aged 21 days," the waiter intones. But I had already decided on one anyway -- steak au poivre. I remember the first steak au poivre I ever ate. I was 20 years old. It was at a restaurant outside of Lyon, France. The steak was flambeed with cognac tableside. It was an amazing steak au poivre. Keefer's goes with a New York strip and whacks it (not tableside) with a zippy peppercorn and brandy sauce. This was beef with a rich, buttery flavor. The sauce made it all the more interesting.

Steak & Frites at Keefer's was every bit as good as when Chef Hogan was pushing it out of the kitchen at Kiki's Bistro on North Franklin. The cut of beef was top sirloin, and it was eminently flavorful. The steak got an extra kick of flavor from the maitre d' butter, but would be just as good without it. The frites were great. Hogan has an almost compulsive attachment to making the best frites in town. Served ice cream cone-style (in a parchment paper-lined cylinder) are the skinny ones with just enough texture allow for a decent bite and just enough chew to keep you munching on.

One of the fish specials one night was top-to-bottom good. Chive "jimmies" on top, arugula and red and yellow tomato vinaigrette underneath, the roast Casco Bay cod was just plain (and relatively simple) terrific. This was a fine piece of fish, a fresh-tasting, delicious chunk of cod.

The chopped steak burger (it's on the lunch and dinner menu) was fantastic. Beef that tastes like beef was tucked into a sturdy bun. Bite after bite it delivered. Have it with Maytag blue cheese if you want to go over the top.

Desserts. You won't go wrong ordering the triple chocolate creation, which, by the numbers, included a yummy hunk of chocolate cake, homemade honey, cocoa ice cream and a divinely rich chocolate sauce. It will be a fight to the finish if you are sharing.

The bread and butter pudding lived up to its name. Rich, buttery, flavorful, studded with raisins and something like four inches thick. One person should not try to finish this alone.

Pat Bruno is a free-lance writer, critic and author.

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