A restaurant I have been wanting to try for a long time is Trenchermen over in Wicker Park.  The outside is the remains of an old bath house which makes the restaurant look antique and inviting.  When you walk into the actual restaurant you actually feel like you are on a ship from the 1800s. The environment is calm and inviting, with just enough tables to fit a handful of both small and large groups, but not too many to make it so loud you can’t hear your dinner date. To start off, Trenchermen has a variety of wines from around the world, two reds of which I tasted that were delicious.  Our server was very helpful in providing direction on types of wine to taste based on our day-to-day preference. I got the Cantina Cellaro ‘Bacaro’  from Italy and Vina Magana ‘Dignus’ from Spain.

There were a handful of items on the menu we wanted to try and based on what we were interested in  our waiter suggested the option to go with the Prix Fixe menu which offered a share plate, a side, a main course and a dessert for $50 – allowing me and my friend to try a total of 8 items.  

For the ‘Share’ plates we ordered the pickle tots and the beef tartare.  When the food came out I was already regretting my decision to go with the Prix Fixe menu.  The portions were super small and we would have gotten more bang for our buck if we ordered normally from the menu.  However, the pickle tots were incredible with pinkish red onion yogurt and scallions – if only there were more.  Yum!

Next up in the ‘Starters’ section were there fried green tomatoes in a deviled egg puree and potato gnocchi with pork belly – I die for the gnocchi.  Another thing I would get a very large portion of.

For the full course we got the artic char and the quail.  Both really good, but the quail came out on top with sides of hush puppies and really yummy greens.  In a way the quail tasted similar to a hot dog, but the whole package was fabulous.

For dessert we ordered the greek yogurt panna cotta and the Trenchermen s’more.  I heard amazing things about the Trenchermen s’more which is melt in your mouth chocoloate combined with popcorn ice cream (sounds weird but is just amazingness), a homemade graham with smoked marshmallow whip. A must have!

To sum it all up – Trenchermen has a great venue in the heart of Wicker Park, great food, and excellent service, but sharing the full plates seemed to definitely be more worth it than the Prix Fixe.