Big Jones - Coastal Southern Cuisine

[gomexico]

A last-minute change in plans Friday night opened the opportunity for me to visit a restaurant I’d been wanting to try – Big Jones. Big Jones proclaims its focus as “Coastal Southern Cuisine.”

It’s a casual restaurant – no dress code – come as you are. It was an early dinner, 6 p.m., planned so I’d not need a reservation and seating me would be easy to achieve. As I walked in the door of the place I was greeted by Mark, one of the owners. I thought it a good touch for Mark to say what his role is: he runs the front of the house.

Seated at a duce parallel to the attractive bar with about 10 stools yet to be occupied, I first noted the presence of children at three or four tables. Though it was only 6 p.m. at the time, it was clearly a child-friendly place. Well-behaved young children, I should add.

Though the room was about 50% occupied when I arrived, when I departed an hour later the place was full, including all of the seats at the bar – and Mark was turning people away at the door. And the noise volume of the restaurant increased with the crowd – starting nicely quiet to a roar. People were having fun. Reservations appear to be necessary, particularly so on the weekend.

My seemingly knowledgeable waiter Andy walked me through the menu and provided a description of the three specials. For a before-dinner cocktail I chose the “Dark and Stormy,” a concoction of rum, ginger beer and something else. It was flavorful, and the bartender did not short-pour the rum.

For a starter I chose a beet salad: quartered roasted red beets and pickled yellow beets set upon a narrow piped-line of crème fraiche with a few small croutons scattered about. I love beets and the plate was what I’d hoped it would be.

My entrée choice was the night’s special, “Lamb Duet.” Rich, full of flavor small chunks of braised lamb and a link of somewhat spicy lamb sausage were plated upon a smear of puree of turnips. The flavor of the lamb chunks was outstanding and the made-in-house lamb sausage was spicy but not too.

I asked Andy to select a by-the-glass wine to accompany my entrée – leaving the choice to him. He returned to the table with a glass of a Minervois (south of France) red that I thought worked very well with the lamb.

For dessert I chose the lemon galette – a thin Meyer lemon tart, accompanied by a small pot of lychee black tea. Like what preceded this course, I enjoyed the dessert and tea.

Service at the restaurant was outstanding. Not just from the waitstaff, but from the support staff – bussers – as well. Mark, the part-owner – was attentive, constantly monitoring the ebb and flow of the room. Andy, my waiter, clearly possessed lots of knowledge of the menu and other aspects of the restaurant but was not overbearing – he didn’t seem to feel the need to attempt to impress those he was serving that night.

The demographics of the patrons ranged from about 1 year to 85, or thereabouts. Cost of my dinner was, before gratuity, $68.

I plan to re-visit the restaurant, probably for brunch one weekend.

Big Jones
5347 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60640
[phone]
Website: http://www.bigjoneschicago.com

a "p.s." late edit": my visit was on Saturday night, not Friday.

[nsxtasy]

>> I plan to re-visit the restaurant, probably for brunch one weekend.

They do an excellent brunch. In particular, I love the complimentary beignets they serve hot when you are first seated. It's also nice that they accept reservations on Opentable.com so you don't have to risk a long wait like at many breakfast/brunch-oriented places. I posted a detailed report about the Big Jones brunch in the brunch topic at http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/364403

Thanks for the report! If you can, let us know how you like it for brunch too.