New Chicago restaurant Browntrout serves simple, elegantly prepared American contemporary fare from sustainable, organic and local sources. In fact, some ingredients are as local as it gets, picked from a rooftop garden. But the concept for Browntrout was born far, far away.
Owners Sean Sanders and Nadia Salameh-Sanders spent their honeymoon in January of 2009 trekking through the lush New Zealand countryside where they rented a cabin that, to their surprise, was a food-lovers’ paradise: an herb and vegetable garden, vines and fruit trees. They caught a brown trout in the cold waters of Lake Wanaka, which they cleaned and cooked. Then, with glasses of local wine in hand, they watched night unfold into a blanket of stars.
Nadia says, “We really felt like we were eating how we were supposed to be eating, you know—a place where you can walk by a tree and pick an apricot and eat it.”
When the couple returned to Chicago, they wanted to recapture this connection to food and green living. Sean, 33, had been working as a chef in Chicago for nearly a decade, and they talked of opening their own restaurant. Then Sean’s mother found an online listing for a deeply discounted restaurant space in the North Center neighborhood with all equipment included. The couple scraped together enough funding with the help of family and friends. Just two months after their honeymoon revelation, their dream was becoming a reality, and doors officially opened in May 2009.
The current menu, which features fish in about half of the dishes, relies on the quality of each ingredient by pairing simple flavors for great effect. Everything served is local and organic whenever possible, and seafood comes from sustainable farms or natural waters.
The Browntrout Fish Trio ($13), a signature appetizer, showcases orange cured sea trout, smoked rainbow trout and pan-seared lake perch. The smoky trout, contrasting with its lemon-laced bed of herbs, was a favorite. Nadia, who is Palestinian, also recommended the hummus from her own family recipe ($5). The Dietzler Farms Top Sirloin ($26) paired the tender sirloin with the subtle kick of horseradish crème fraiche. I tried the signature dish, Pan-Seared Idaho Golden Trout ($23), and the item’s menu description sums up Browntrout’s personal, local ethos. It is described as “Kiwi style (ask the chef)” and includes “rooftop mint.”
Allison Augustyn, a Browntrout patron who lives in the neighborhood, discovered the restaurant in early August and posted a five-star review on Yelp.com raving about the heirloom tomato salad and the strawberry shortcake. She explained to me that her enthusiasm springs not just from the food but from the fact that she was able to strike up a conversation with the owners, and even Sean’s mother, who was there filling water pitchers. “There’s a real presence, a real personality to the place,” Augustyn says. “Personality sometimes comes in a restaurant’s décor or trying to outdo the competition, but here the food speaks for itself, and it’s more about the people who put the time into making it.”
Time is definitely a huge investment for the couple—Nadia says they’re both working until 2am most days and waking again at sunrise. Even when I stop by on a Tuesday afternoon, although the restaurant is closed for business, Sean says he spent the morning shopping farmers markets for heirloom tomatoes, and Nadia is hammering nails into the wall for new artwork.
Up on the sunny roof, Sean walks me through the half-dozen rows of plants in wooden containers: rhubarb; raspberries; chamomile; tarragon. “This one is really cool, you’ve got to try this,” he says, and plucks a small leaf from a plant. “Lemon basil. Almost tastes like candy,” he says. The leaf tastes of citrus and sunshine, a little bitter and a little sweet.
As we look out over the garden, he says that his dreams don’t end with the opening of Browntrout. “Our goal is to be the greenest restaurant in Chicago,” he says. For now, while still a start-up, he’s taking an even broader view of what it means to be sustainable. “I’ve made some mistakes,” he says. “I’m learning how to stay positive. Sustainable is not just about being green, sustainable is about how you treat everyone, every employee, and about making food that’s consistently the best it can be.”
But despite the hardship, there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing, Sean says. Like the restaurant’s namesake brown trout plucked from the lake waters of their honeymoon travels, Sean says that the opportunity to open the restaurant was worth seizing. “I feel thankful every day,” he says. “When something good comes along, you’ve got to grab it.”
Browntrout
4111 N. Lincoln, Ave.,
Chicago
773.472.4111
Browntroutchicago.com
