Chicago: The Publican (Revisited)

I knew long before that I wanted my graduation dinner to be at the Publican.  It was perfect.  Good for a large party, casual atmosphere, and of course, fantastic food with decent portion sizes.  Surely, my father wouldn't be able to find anything to pick at.

I made my reservations the day they started taking them, exactly two months prior, and I invited my closest friends (who weren't graduating themselves and had dinner plans of their own).

Graduation day was hot, especially in a church with no AC, packed with hundreds of people and let's not forget wearing a heavy velvet graduation gown of doom ($680 if you wanted to buy the monstrosity!).  I tried to cheat by wearing shorts underneath, but it was a futile effort.

Lunch was a lackluster affair at the law school's reception, so by dinnertime we were all excited.  Well, I was:

I love the interior of the Publican:

Most tables are communal, but we got our own table by the window.

As usual, I let Queen G figure out what to order.  Our server was also very helpful in giving suggestions.  We started with the daily pickles:

Then moved on to the octopus with cherries hazelnuts, farro, and sea beans:

And the beef tongue with bean radish salad, basil, and hayoli:

The porcini mushrooms were supposedly all handpicked:

They rested on a bed made of some kind of pungent cheese, but I forget what it was.  My mother particularly loved this dish.

The pork belly with clams, artichoke, and mint sounded too good to resist:

What I'd been waiting for was the half farm chicken with fries and sausage:

My favorite part is scarfing down the fries that have soaked in all the chicken juices.  The sausage was a bit...hard, which was weird.

For dessert, we picked three to share among the six of us.  I didn't take a picture of the dessert menu, so I don't remember what they were exactly.  Sorry!  Actually, I don't have any pictures of any of the menus, so I had to zoom in on pictures that my dad took to find out the names of all the previous dishes.  Pretty good sleuthing job, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, this was some kind of brownie with mint ice cream concoction:

We got the coconut ice cream for my father:

Love love love the hints of lime.

Finally, the strawberry shortcake:

As usual, I had a great time at the Publican.  To top it all off, both my parents actually left with nice things to say about the meal.  No request for a trip to Crisp from my father this time around.  Thank goodness.

Thank you to both EK and Queen G for making it out to my graduation dinner and for the generous gifts!  I really miss you guys.  Sniff sniff...


The Publican
837 W Fulton St
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 733-9555
http://thepublicanrestaurant.com/