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We went to Mercat a la Planxa last night. This was their opening night, but the only way you could really tell was that there was some guy going around with an industrial-strength camera taking pictures of everything. Both the food and the service were spot on. There were a lot of "managers" around, men in sport coats with earpieces. Not sure what they were managing, but there they were.

We had a hard time finding reasonable parking. There are a lot of hotels nearby, all of which host bunches of events, so many of the nearby parking lots were filled up. There's very little street parking, and at least a few of the lots close at 10 pm (who closes a lot at 10 pm on Saturday night?). The Hotel has very expensive valet parking.

Our reservation was 7:15 and we got there around 7:20. We were greeted warmly in the lobby/entry. The downstairs actually does seem a bit like clubs and bars in Barcelona - a small bar, a few low and comfy seats. The washrooms are down here, and they took our coats here.

Upstairs via a pretty circular staircase is a huge room (not as huge as Carnivale, but that same sort of high ceiling and noisy sound bouncing). The walls are tile or mirrors painted with birds. The kitchen is open, but I didn't get a lot of sound from the kitchen. We could definitely have a conversation. Not sure how larger groups would fare, but we were OK.

They start you with pa amb tomaquet, though they call it pan con tomate (using Spanish instead of Catalan on most of the menu, though they say they are Catalan). The menu is on their web site, so you can see what they have and the prices, etc. They have a nice selection of wines, with plenty available by the glass, though they "recommend" their sangrias.

We had the Jamon Iberico, Patron peppers, garlic shrimp, grilled calamari, grilled morcilla, warm lima bean salad and garroxta cheese. Was it as good as sitting at the bar at Cal Pep? Perish the thought. But it was good food and we enjoyed ourselves. It was a taste of Spain, it's not like being there.

The crowd seemed like a mix of neighborhood people (Columbia College folks) and hotel guests. My guess is that they will do well with all the hotels on Michigan ave. We'll definitely go back, and would recommend it to folks looking for tapas.

Mercat a la Planxa
http://mercatchicago.com
638 S MICHIGAN AVENUE,
CHICAGO, IL 60605
TEL 312 765 0524

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Leek
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leek, what are the food/drinks prices like? The menu on the web site looks interesting, but I can't find the prices.

Thanks!

You're right - not there. Sorry. The jamon iberico was the most expensive "small plate" sort of thing at $23. The grilled meats were up there too. Everything else was more in the middle, I think some of the dishes were as low as $6 each, maybe even less for things like olives, though don't quote me on that. You can spend a lot or not a lot, depending on what you choose on the menu.


edited because I was way off on some of the prices.

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Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

I visited on opening night as well, and had a similar experience. Things were running as if they'd been open for months/years. They may have been overstaffed to deal with any potential problems (there were servers and runners everywhere), but it worked.

We had a great server, and tried 13 of the dishes. The top end meats "A La Plaxa" were $32 (ribeye, lamb chops, a couple other things), but prices tended to be around $10-15 for the other plates, and there were a handful of things as low as $5.

The Shortribs and scallops dish, the rabbit pasta w/ truffle and even the simple Pimento de Padron (fried chili peppers with salbitxada - basically catalonian romanesco sauce) were especially delicious.

Very nice place, I was geniunely impressed and hope to get back.

Sounds good and I'll definitely check it out. Am I correct that the name of the place is Catalan for "meerkat a la plancha" (perhaps a signature dish)?

According to their listing in Metromix, "Planxa (pronounced plahn-CHA) refers to a style of grilled-to-order tapas popular in the Catalan region." I don't know what the Catalan word "mercat" means but I doubt that it refers to the small south African mammal.

I'm going to hazard a guess* here and guess that "mercat" means market.

*Guess based on 4 years of high school Spanish and 3 seconds of Googling.

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-Josh

An amuse bouche at breakfast is called a Bloody Mary - Scott Manlin

Should be a forum tagline. Also, I can probably talk Casa de Samuel into making us meerkat tonight, along with the rattlesnake and alligator we're already having. I'll let you know.

- Yes, mercat is, indeed, 'market'.
- x in Catalan is pronounced on its own roughly as »sh« in English is and so Castillian plancha and Catalan planxa sound pretty much alike.
- Just for the record, the reference to salbitxada above as "basically catalonian romanesco sauce" is a little off the mark. Romesco is itself a quintessentially Catalan sauce. Belonging to the same family of Catalan sauces is salbitxada, which is a version that is most typically or famously served with grilled calçots.

Antonius

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.

Which leaves me puzzled. If a la planxa is a style of cooking/serving, on a particular kind of board, then the combined whole seems nonsensical to me: "market on a board"?

Help me, Antonius!

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Gypsy Boy

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” (Julia Child)

Ciao (chao), GB!

One shouldn't take it so lliterally.

You're right in thinking of 'a la planxa' (cf. Cast. 'a la plancha', as seen in so many Mexican restaurants around town) as a phrasal name for a cooking style, namely, grilled or griddled on a flat iron grill (or griddle... that is, on a planxa/plancha).

So then, there are two ideas that the name calls to mind for me, both appropriate... 1) Market for 'a la planxa' dishes... 2) ((the place for) fresh flesh from the) market prepared 'a la planxa'...

A

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.

Couldn't the imlied meaning of the name be, "From the market to the grill"? In other words, grilled stuff fresh from the market?

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-Josh

An amuse bouche at breakfast is called a Bloody Mary - Scott Manlin

Broadly, it just means "market of grilled foods," calling to mind the open-air markets in Spain (and elsewhere) where you can get grilled meats in addition to fresh produce. Like getting kebabs or Polish in street markets here.

Plancha is cognate with plank, and is used to describe an iron (for clothes) in addition to a grill or griddle. While in Spanish (and 'plank' in English) the connotation is a flat surface, this group of words is thought to derive etymologically from the same place as phalanx and phalanges (fingers), which have more to do with rods or cylinders (of wood, originally).

Update: I just damned it all and called the restaurant. The sense they intend is (drumroll):

Market on the Grill

This left me equally confused. "Market ON the grill?" says I. "Not, 'from the market to the grill,' or 'market of grilled foods,' or 'market in grilled style?'"

"No," comes the reply. "'Market ON the grill.' We want our customers to picture everything out there and available for them, pretty much a whole market of options, here on our grill.'

I was with AB on Saturday as well. I echo what he said, plus the Rabbit Agnolotti was a great, great dish.

Pics of a few dishes here:

Mercat Pics

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MJN "AKA" Michael Nagrant
www.hungrymag.com - All Things Tasty

I don't see what is so puzzling. Their explanation seems to fit exactly what I said above: "We want our customers to picture everything out there and available for them, pretty much a whole market of options, here on our grill."

cf. from my post above: 2) ((the place for) fresh flesh from the) market prepared 'a la planxa'...

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
________
Na sir is na seachain an cath.

I'm right with you, Antonius. A Spanish-speaker (though not a Catalan speaker), I just think "on" is the least preferable preposition to use in the translation, if you're going to provide your reservationists with a definition and explanation to give customers. I also wrote my posts before reading yours (that lovely LTH limbo where in the time you're typing or on the phone mid-composition, the thread goes on).

To clarify: I got the sense that the person with whom I spoke (not the owner) was picturing a marketplace on a grill, with people walking around burning their feet in melted butter and garlic, "on" here being used like "city ON a hill." It seemed a bit literal of an interpretation to me. The confusion named and emoticoned above was mocking of the restaurant and the fact that it was the only translation / rendering not so far named in the thread.

So how were the portions?

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You could get out for $130 for two with wine and tip easily and feel full. Mike G, as you know, I'm no willow in the wind, so I think that is a good indicator.

I think in general, price per size was spot on. You don't feel like you're getting value, but you don't feel like you're getting screwed either. Considering the mag mile location and rent, etc, it probably represents a value for the area. It definitely felt like a value like say relative to the Gage.

Some specific examples:

$5 for eight 1" rounds of smoked mayo stuffed patatas bravas.

Nice appetizer portion, six 1-1/2" braised rabbit agnolotti dotted with black truffle and and cream $13

4 meaty lamb chops, probably 3 oz each so a total of about 12 oz for $32 was maybe the only thing I thought maybe a little expensive for the size. But then again, a similar entree at any other place would probably run the same, so maybe not.

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MJN "AKA" Michael Nagrant
www.hungrymag.com - All Things Tasty

I have "reserved" a suckling pig for Friday night. The cost is $32 per person for our party of four. Corkage is $25 per bottle. I'll report on the succulence of the pig after it has been consumed. The web site says that it is served with grilled green onions, fingerling potatoes, spinach and white beans with rosemary.

Would love to see some pix of the piglet if possible

The food is wonderful, but anyone going with the idea of picture taking should go for lunch and get a window seat. We went last night, and for a change, I had a camera along but it was impossible in that lighting, even with flash.

And if you need to visit the ladies' room, take a flashlight! What were they thinking??? Very dramatic -- and clearly designed by a man. I hate to accuse the designer of misogyny, but at a minimum, he must be absolutely clueless about the things women need to do in restrooms ... and I'm not talking about putting on makeup.

When it comes to bathrooms, give me function over form every time.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

I went to Mercat tonight for dinner and was the first to order the piglet. We were a party of six, and the piglet was seven to nine weeks old and weighed about 35 pounds. I'm not sure we were served the whole pig, but we were certainly overserved. As Fenger asked for some pics, I will attempt to post them, although I'm quite the pic posting newb.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24748517@N08/?saved=1

Dinner was very good and service was unobtrusive. We had more than enough to eat, but the pimentos de padron are a personal favorite and remind me of Spain. The hazelnuts on the bottom were also tasty. The olives were unremarkable. The flatbreads were good. The anchovy had a pronounced orange citrus flavor, and the pinenuts and microgreens helped balance the dish. The shortrib flatbread was good, but I felt the shortrib was a bit too moist to place on the flat bread. The 35 pound suckling pig was served with grilled green onions, roasted fingerling potatoes, spinach and white beans with rosemary and bacon. The potatoes had delicious carmelized onions and the spinach was quite good. The green onions were OK, and the beans were too salty and we really didn't need the addition of bacon with the beans. After all, we were eating a 35 pound pig.

I'm not sure we got the whole hog, but there was plenty left over. The nebbiolo we brought was perfect with the pig ($25/bottle corkage). The pig was cooked well, the skin was crisp, the cheeks were gelatinous and the ears were crispy. The mostly Spanish wine list was OK, although a bit overpriced, if you wanted to buy something from the list, I like the Castano monastrell (mourvedre) well enough for $24 if you need something affordable and versatile. The Burgans albarino for $40 is also quite nice for a decent white.

The place was very busy and very well staffed. Our server, Evangeline, was quite nice and the sommelier seemed interested in his job.

We had a few desserts, but they aren't really worth mentioning. I would have posted the pics, but I don't know how. I might be back next week for another pig. It was really good. Unfortunately, the wine we brought sucked. I would highly recommend this meal for a night out or a celebration.

The pig and onions, potatoes, spinach, and beans was $32 a person. Quite the feast. The room was a bit noisy with thumping bass, but we were too busy eating to be too bothered. If someone wants to PM me, I would be happy to post my pictures on the site instead of Flickr.

I'm sure those scallions were fine, but they look sad compared to genuine calçots. One of my favorite memories of a trip to Barcelona five years ago:

We went last night and had the chef's tasting for 6 people at $55 per person. Most of the food was great, however I wouldn't say there was a lot of it, but satisfying. The morel risotto was a stand out for me. I one thing I'll say is they served some great sangria. I don't order sangria out because it is always to sweet, however their "seasonal" sangria last night was Blood orange and chili. It was tart with just the right amount of heat/spice in the after taste. Worth going back for just this.

Yeah, I'd second that. My wife and a friend remarked that the bathrooms were "darker than a Spanish prison".

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MJN "AKA" Michael Nagrant
www.hungrymag.com - All Things Tasty

Just watch out for those Spanish prisoners.

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New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.

Call me crazy (or just a man), but beyond the application of makeup, I always thought the restroom's purpose was pretty much the same for a man or a woman.

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...Pedro

Wow, three LTHer all reporting about a single place in one night, got be some kind of LTH record.

The wife and I also went last night, but was joined last minute by two more friends (dang it, had I known they were coming, I'd try to score a piggy as well). In any case, we stayed a bit mainstream, and ordered mostly from non-traditional side. The aroma from the Jamon Serrano set a great tone for us to start the night, it's actually one of my top dish all night. The Pine Nut Flatbread was a little too acidy for me, a bit less acid and a bit more pancetta would've been great. The marinate on our Colorado lamb was so good that each of us couldn’t resist to pick up the bone and suck the living daylight out of it (good thing we were sitting in the corner of the dining room). Highlight of the night for myself was Braised Rabbit Agnolotti. Rich, nutty and wholesome and I was asking the server for bread so I could finish the darn cherry brandy sauce off the bowl (wife thought I was nuts). As beautiful looking as the Arroz con Cangrejo (crab cake) looked in the pic, unfortunately, it didn't do it for me. I had high hope for the Slow-Cooked Pork Belly, it turned out to be a bit dry, but the sherry glaze really saved it. On the vegetarian side, we had two hits, the spicy potato (not as in-your-face) and wild mushrooms (stronger aroma and flavor) balanced each other out for us very nicely, and were well received by the whole group. I would like to try the rest of the vegetarian list next time. Also had the white sangaria with pear and some other fruits, that was very tame and balanced the strong flavor-aroma based meal out pretty nicely.

The evening: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83069851@N00/sets/72157604121168908/detail

Aside from the fact that women can't just point and shoot (and they're more likely to wash their hands).... A man using a restroom rarely has to manage a skirt, a slip, a foundation garment or pantyhose ... and he never needs to change a sanitary napkin.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008