CHICAGO Nightwood in Chicago, where a custom rotisserie laden with chickens, rabbits or pork racks turns over a live fire at dinner, attracting patrons to the seven-month-old upscale restaurant in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Jason Hammel, executive chef and owner along with his wife Amalea Tshilds, described the couple as “big fans” of cooking foods slowly at low temperatures. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“We love braising, confit and the rotisserie,” Hammel said, noting that the latter is a particularly good way to cook low and slow over an open fire. The menu, which changes daily, taps local and regional sources for the likes of wood-grilled Wisconsin trout with braised kale and roasted potatoes, priced at $22, and spit-roasted half rabbit with pâté, wild mushrooms, cauliflower and glazed carrots, priced at $32. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
The 4-foot rotisserie, which the couple designed and commissioned a local metal fabricator to build, is a striking visual element of the restaurant’s centerpiece, an open kitchen with a three-sided Jade cooking suite. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“It’s off-the-charts cool,” declared Hammel, who with Tshilds also owns the popular decade-old Lula Café in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The duo spent three years getting Nightwood off the ground. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
One of their notable ideas was to wrap a 12-seat counter around the open kitchen. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“We wanted a place where diners could watch the food being prepared with an unparalleled level of openness,” Hammel said. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Some patrons jump at the chance to sit at the counter; others prefer a table in a more sedate section of the 100-seat restaurant. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“I would sit there in a heartbeat,” Hammel said. “It’s really fun to see the drama going on.” —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Counter guests get an eyeful of the motor-driven rotisserie, which slowly passes spitted meats through the heat plume of a bed of burning hardwoods. The temperature is highest when the meat is at the bottom of its revolution nearest the fire and lowest at the top, averaging out to a moderate overall temperature and gentle cooking rate. The result is succulent food as well as entertainment for the counter guests. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“People get a kick out of watching stuff spinning on the rotisserie,” Hammel said. “It has brought us a lot of attention.” —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
The grill beneath the rotisserie is handy for preparing quick-cooking items, such as the Wisconsin trout, and for adding color and smoky nuance to rotisserie-cooked items at service, such as a chop cut to order from a rack of pork. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Nor is there any lack of firepower or versatility in the suite’s other components. They consist of three French-top cooking elements, two open burners, a fryer, a flat top and three “high-mass” ovens built with heavy heat-retaining metal plates. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Hammel said it is unusual to have live-fire cooking equipment in a suite, mainly because it requires costly custom design and installation. But due to the constraints of the kitchen—the 7-foot-by-6-foot suite was shoehorned into place past structural pillars—there was no other place for a wood-burning piece. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“This is a super-small space, and we were trying to channel in all that cooking equipment, including three ovens,” he said. “It’s planned to the quarter of the inch.” —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Also in the open kitchen is a cold suite for garde manger and pastry work. It has a double-sided worktop refrigerator with drawers on either side. The drawers hold the entire mise en place for both hot and cold foods, keeping the kitchen uncluttered, Hammel noted. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
Not in evidence are the thermal circulators, induction cooktops and other high-tech gizmos common in many upscale kitchens. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“Nightwood is an old-school restaurant,” Hammel said. “We’re doing very traditional cooking with traditional techniques.” —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
He noted that the suite affords improved visibility to the chef de cuisine and his six-person crew. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“You can see every plate being made because you’re only a few feet away from any cook,” he said, noting by contrast that in a linear cooking setup, the chef might be 12 feet away from a station, he noted. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
The proximity also makes for a calmer and quieter kitchen. —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at
“You don’t have the usual screaming, like ‘How long on that chop?’ because you can see exactly how long it’s going to take,” Hammel said. “It’s an unbelievable kitchen to work in. You couldn’t ask for anything more.” —What goes around comes around. It’s a truism at