Dining

Item Description

A gift certificate for $50 to dine at Erwin Café in Chicago.

Erwin will tell you his cooking techniques are based in the nouvelle movement of French cooking.  The flavors are straightforward.  They are not masked by heavy cream sauces or butter and are ultimately more healthy.  Erwin regularly shops the farmer's markets and teaches classes to anyone wanting to learn about choosing high quality fruits and vegetables.  In creating menus he returns to thoughts about seasonal energy, balance and the meaning of Urban Heartland cuisine.

"The old saying about our bodies being temples is very true and the more harmonious foods you feed it the better it will feel," says Erwin.  "I hope my menus provide those choices."

While reading a fall menu at erwin you might find fresh pan roasted Halibut atop herbed basmati rice, black beans and gazpacho sauce.  Or, Wood Grilled Lamb Chops and homemade basil sausage with chick pea ragout, seasonal ratatouille and feta cheese.  And then, you can always order a wood grilled hamburger on a freshly baked homemade poppy seed roll with hand cut French fries (the biggest, thickest ones you have ever seen) and pickled vegetables.  Why a hamburger in a fine dining establishment?

"We can't take it off the menu!" exclaims Erwin.  "We have people that come here because they won't eat a hamburger anywhere else.  It's a great gourmet-style hamburger, so we leave it on the menu and people really like it."

As Erwin says, the restaurant has something for everyone.  While erwin celebrates foodstuffs from the heartland, it embraces all regions of America.  Because of its urban environment and its heartland location, Erwin brings those two words together to form a cuisine style that is completely his own.  Since Chicago is known as a melting pot of ethnic cultures, it seems fitting that just around the block from America's favorite baseball park, erwin can offer many diverse cooking styles.