Where the brunch is

Jam is a hit in Ukrainian Village

09/02/2009 10:00 PM

By MELISSA ALBERT
Contributing Reporter

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MICAH MAIDENBERG/Staff Jam, 937 N. Damen



Dining
The horde of people lining the curb outside of Jam on a recent Saturday made for a scene of subdued chaos. Some of the tumult makes its way into the storefront, where close quarters and an open kitchen make for a constant bustle.

The rush hits the right note for Ukrainian Village’s newest brunch spot. Jam offers amped-up, beautifully plated breakfast and lunch classics, few of them topping ten dollars. The menu’s flourishes are often pig-inspired — pork cheeks in the egg sandwich, crisped pork belly in the benedict — but there are also pickled plums on that sandwich, and lime leaf in the French toast.

The space is tight, and the wait staff has to step lively to avoid customers traversing the slim corridor between the dining room and the ATM, but the design of the room emphasizes an airy openness. Jam’s walls are silver, the chairs clear plastic. Lovely fixtures over the lights cast lacelike shadows on the walls, and the tables are laid with bright yellow, similarly intricate coverings. Tables line the wall in a tight row, but they aren’t so close as to make the dining communal.

The meal starts with an amuse-bouche, an unusual and welcome touch for a restaurant that closes long before dinnertime. But what was touted as an olive oil muffin, layered with stone fruit jam and a wedge of ripe peach, tasted instead of cornmeal. The time between order and delivery of the food stretched longer than it should have, prompting a server to deliver a slab of meltingly warm coffee cake, lined with pecan streusel, “to make your wait easier.”

Jam’s kitchen is completely exposed, laid out behind the front counter in the way of an espresso bar, and the food it turns out steers well away from the “pile” aesthetic of many brunch restaurants. Biscuits & Gravy ($10) was composed in such a way as to seem almost healthy — a slice of biscuit and a heap of thick gravy, fragrant and earthy with mushrooms, was accompanied by a soft-fried egg and a bed of French green beans.

Amish chicken ($10) was deliciously tender, comprising three thick medallions of tender chicken and a warm quinoa salad, softly vinegary and strewn with wilted spinach and poached tomatoes. The aged goat cheese promised by the menu was missing, but the dish was more appealingly light for its absence. A side of fingerling potatoes was underdone ($3), but the coffee was hot, strong and Metropolis.

On a warm day in late summer, the whole experience, from wait to check, was relaxing. But if the buzz doesn’t quiet down by winter, Sweet Cakes bakery next door will have to start turning away refugees from Jam’s waiting list. In the meantime, bring a newspaper and claim a spot on the sidewalk.


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