Post #424683 by Bongo Bungalow on Thu, Dec 18, 2008 11:56 AM

Nice article about TVChicago in today's Chicago Tribune:

Aloha, Trader Vic's

Bring on the mai tais: Tiki goes low-key at new location for this venerable icon
By Phil Vettel | Tribune critic
December 18, 2008

You could scarcely dream up a better time to open a cocktail-focused restaurant in Chicago than now. The cocktail culture is supernova-hot; restaurants and clubs are frantically inventing distinctive signature drinks, and bartenders are now known as "mixologists."

When better, then, to reintroduce Trader Vic's, the concept that practically invented the notion of signature cocktails?

Not only did Trader Vic's make the mai tai a household word (while sending hordes of home-entertainment types to liquor stores in search of Jamaican rum and orgeat syrup), but it also made our parents and grandparents familiar with the Zombie, Scorpion Bowl, and Suffering Bastard.

Three years ago, Trader Vic's closed after 48 years in the Palmer House Hilton. Monday was its grand reopening at 1030 N. State St. (312-642-6500; tradervicschicago.com), the former home of Arnie's, but it actually opened quietly to the public the previous weekend, and I just as quietly slipped in for a visit.

Fans will be happy, I predict. This Trader Vic's is a thinking man's tiki bar, an oasis of civility among its more boisterous Gold Coast neighbors. The dining room and bar are done in tiki decor, but it's a restrained, limited-tchotchkes look. Chairs are upholstered in a soft bamboo-leaf pattern; white linen graces the tables. The most eye-catching item is the giant Chinese wood-burning oven, which fills the dining room with an appetite-stimulating aroma.

I remember Trader Vic's as a good place for a drink but an indifferent place to eat. I may have to revise that opinion after the excellent Hawaiian pork chop I consumed, not to mention a first-rate tea-smoked duck.

The appetizer list includes the usual retro pupu nibbles, including a crab rangoon wherein one can actually discern crab flavor; meaty Chinese barbecued ribs and sliced pork; and crispy (if overbreaded) prawns. Order the Cosmo Tidbits for Two and you get a few of each.

Of course, I tried the mai tai, and Vic Bergeron's original is still my favorite version. I also indulged in a Suffering Bastard, and I didn't suffer one bit.