There are beignets for dessert at Gideon Sweet, Matthias Merges and Graham Elliot’s reunion of sorts in the Randolph Street space that once housed the latter chef’s Graham Elliot Bistro.
And scene.
Now he and Elliot have tapped chef Michael Shrader,* from the last spot (and Urban Union before that). Here he’s executing a menu that’s more Yusho-like than anything previously mentioned, featuring just more than a dozen small plates with a very slight Asian bias, fairly complementary to a beverage program developed by longtime Merges collaborator and Trotter’s vet Alex Bachman.
One of Gideon Sweet’s greatest strengths is pastry chef Katsumura, who’s worked all over town, but most recently at Ty Fujimara’s “casual fine dining” Lakeview spot Entente, where I had a sassafras profiterole that still haunts my dreams. Apart from the beignets, she’s topped a warm apple tart with a quenelle of cheddar cheese ice cream, embraced citrus season with a palate-scouring red-grapefruit parfait with Meyer lemon sherbet, and constructed an astonishing take on Filipino halo halo, a towering sundae of purple sweet-potato ice cream given abundant texture with fruity jellies and ices.
841 W. Randolph 312-888-2258 gideonsweet.com
