Mercat a la Planxa: The Bloggers Dinner

Shreyas Shah, NBC Chicago Street Team

I’m currently at South Loop hotspot Mercat a la Planxa about to enjoy several courses of tapas, and then I’m going to blog review each course right after I eat it. I’m doing this at the restaurant’s invitation, but I told them I might be brutal. Their superstar executive chef, Jose Garces (whom I recognize from when he competed on Iron Chef) is in the house, as is Chef Michael Fiorello. I’m sitting with several other Chicago food bloggers. This was supposed to be an introductory post, but they’ve already served us an apertif, so lets get started:

Apertif: Fusil Humeante
Designed to cleanse our palate and get our mouth watering, this drink is definitely interesting in terms of flavor combination: a concotion of apricot infused tequila, smoky mezcal, pureed blackberry, with a salt and pepper rim. The sweet and savory was in harmonious balance, but I think the drink needs a bit more acid, a little lemon or lime juice would perfect the balance and brighten the drink. Could be that I’m just used to acid in any tequila based cocktail.

About these ads