February 2003 | Conscious Dining
Casual Upscale Dining in Edgewater
by JoAnn Milivojevic
The Room can best be described as a restaurant with counter balance. The French-inspired menu is balanced with fun, ample-portioned comfort-like foods; the roughness of exposed redbrick walls is tempered with floor-to-ceiling sheer drapery; the soft, elegant lighting is energized by upbeat music. And you can comfortably dine here in jeans or a tuxedo, making it a good choice for casual or special-event dining such as Valentine’s Day.
Owner Jody Andre is no stranger to the restaurant business, she also owns Tom Boy in Andersonville. She was searching for a larger space and opened The Room about two years ago.
The Menu
Linda Raydl, chef since day one at Tom Boy, works at both places but spends most of her time at The Room on weekends. In the business for 16 years, she was among the first graduates of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago.
About 40 percent of the menu changes with the season. It is divided into petit, mid, and grand, any of which can make a meal. The grand choices are typical entrée-like items with side dishes and start at $14.
The menu has some interesting combinations in all categories, for example the popular petit choice — crab cakes with fried egg, and Brie and bacon crab cake with truffle-dressed watercress salad. Grand side dishes are also creative and dictated by what’s most freshly available. The wasabi in the mashed potatoes punched up an otherwise bland dish.
The vegetarian and vegan choices are scant but the waitress assured us they’d be more than happy to accommodate those dietary needs. Given their creativity with the other items, I’m sure it would a happy gamble to make.
In general, the portions are quite large. If you’re a three-course diner, you can easily share the first and last course and walk away more than satisfied. The roasted tomato bisque accompanied by smoked Gouda cheese finger sandwiches was meal in itself.
The Experience
Upon entering The Room on a busy Saturday night, it was a bit of a challenge to find the maitre d’. Despite our reservations we had about a 20-minute wait. Once we did make contact with the owner, Andre, she couldn’t have been more gracious, assuring us several times that we’d soon be seated.
The front bar area is a pleasant place to wait. A water panel on the wall soothes and the cozy settees are inviting. The bar has stools with backs — always a nice extra. The Room has been a popular place for larger parties for birthdays and such, but is also well suited for duet dining. They’ll even take a reservation for one.
The floating sheer panels in pretty shades of gold, rust, and maroon section off an otherwise large open room that seats about 110. Tables have white tableclothes and butcher- block paper that extends over the sides to avoid the annoying run-in with your elbows.
On my second dining experience here I found the energetic bass of techno music a bit too intrusive. We were certainly able to carry on a conversation without raising our voices, but the music made itself known. You might prefer to sit adjacent to your dinner companion rather than across the table.
Both the salmon and pork tenderloin that evening were topped with a raspberry BBQ sauce — too much sauce. The sauce overpowered the otherwise well prepared fish and meat. Consider requesting that they go easy on this full-bodied sauce.
Desert-wise, the crème brulee was heavenly, and again, seemingly double the portion of most restaurants. The custard inside was cool but not cold; the topping was warm and crisp. The fruit crepe was the lightest dessert on the menu, bursting with fresh berries and a bit of cream cheese. The crepe itself could have been thinner.
Don’t Miss
The grilled pear and asparagus salad is not to be missed. The perfectly roasted asparagus spears form a bed for thinly sliced grilled pears, they’re topped with Gorgonzola and port wine sauce. An amazing combination of flavors.
"Clean Food" Factor
The produce for The Room is handpicked, ensuring that the ingredients here are all of high quality. The shopper alerts the chef as to what’s fresh, what’s organic, and what’s affordable. The fish is bought fresh, never frozen. The Room has a lot of daily specials for this reason — they never know exactly what they’re going to get. They do at times include organic produce but don’t promote it as such. Olive oil is used for everything except the occasional deep-fried item where canola oil is used.
The Final Word
The Room is BYOB with a modest corkage fee and intends to stay that way. For wine lovers, it certainly brings down the bottom line. Street parking is fairly easy, but there’s also a parking lot across the street. We had no problem finding a spot within one block on a Saturday night.
Andre promises that Valentine’s Day here will certainly dress the part with roses on the table and special menu items. Last year there were heart shaped ravioli, strawberries decorated with chocolate tuxedos, and a sorbet complete with rose petals. Reservations are recommended but not required.
While we dined, there were plenty of people waiting to be seated, yet we never felt in the least bit rushed. Rather, the attention to service and detail made us feel like welcomed guests. We lingered, enjoyed, and left the calorie counting for another day.
The Room, 5900 N. Broadway, 773-989-7666. Dinner: Monday through Friday, 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm; Sunday Brunch, 10:30 am to 2:30 pm; no lunch.
When not playing in her own kitchen, Chicagoan JoAnn Milivojevic seeks out restaurants that have fun with food. JoAnn’s travel, food, and fitness stories appear in magazines nationwide.
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