As many of my friends know, I have an aversion to restaurant chains.
To me, they are impersonal, uninspirational and serve usually mediocre and bland if not over-sauced fare. I mean, let's face it, your chefs and servers in these chain restaurants don't really care about the food and how to improve the restaurant and the food. If I ever do go into an Appleby's, Chili's, TGI Friday's or anything else out there, it's not of my own accord and I couldn't do anything to prevent it. I would rather go to an unproved run-down looking local joint any day.
Which brings me to last night's little surprise... Shaw's Crab house. I know that it's not your run of the mill chain restaurant with locations all over the country with frozen fries coming straight from a box. But they are a huge restaurant institution, with a dining room, oyster bar and a regular bar in two locations, one in the suburbs in Schaumburg and owned by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (which owns 33 restaurants, some really chain-like with multiple locations like Maggiano's and some definitely not chain-like like Everest or Tru). And anytime, the management of a restaurant goes above the duties of managing just one restaurant, I tend to see them more like a chain, as in the case of Shaw's.
I had been avoiding Shaw's since my arrival in Chicago, preferring to go to smaller places like Davis Street Fishmarket for my fix of oysters (which from my previous posts about oysters you might have guessed are some of my favorite food and I get a craving for it quite often). However, with the limitation of time and distance (due to our 8:15 tickets to Juno at the downtown AMC) and my huge craving for oysters the whole day yesterday, we decided to give Shaw's a try. Another thing that added in our decision was the happy hour oyster special - 1/2 off oysters from 4pm to 6pm. How in the world could I resist that??
Instead of the main dining room, we opted for the oyster bar, of course. It was pretty full, I am guessing due to all the oyster affectionados swooping down like vultures for the oyster happy hour. We had pretty good oysters. They were very fresh but not the best, which might be due more to the type of oysters that we had gotten - Island Creek and Kumamotos. Both tasty but not quite as briny and flavorful as what I had wanted... (I think I was craving the ones we had in Korea... I'll have to find out what varietal it was...) But definitely better than most of the oysters that I have gotten in Chicago. The king crab legs were absolutely delicious too. Perfectly cooked and seasoned, so I was licking my fingers and sucking on the shells in the end. But what won me over more than the food, was actually the atmosphere - the whole room centering around the huge oyster bar, with a ton of retro charm.
Did this change my view on chain restaurants?
Most definitely not. Just made me think that Shaw's is not a chain restaurant. And I can't wait to go back for the next "oyster" happy hour!
PS. How do you like the photos taken with my new Nikkor 50mm f/1.8? Still experimenting, but I likey likey so far!!
21 E Hubbard St
Chicago, IL
(312) 527-2722
1 comment:
Great pictures! I am surprised to hear you've never been there. I've always loved Shaw's. Another one I like is Mon Ami Gabi, I even like it almost as much as Le Bouchon. Lettuce Entertain You does not do a bad job, not at all. I just had brunch at Cafe Ba-Ba-Ree-Ba for Easter, hadn't been there in years and I was blown away.
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