ADDRESS: 500 N Clark St.CUISINE: seasonal American with Mediterranean rootsCHEF/CO-OWNER: Carrie NahabedianCO-OWNER: Michael NahabedianPHONE: (312) 321-6242WEBSITE: www.naha-chicago.comOPENED: 2000PER-PERSON DINNER CHECK AVERAGE WITH BEVERAGES: $75SEATS: 100 in the dining roomAVERAGE WEEKLY COVERS: 1,000BEST-SELLING DISH: whatever is in season, currently soft-shell crabs
“You can tell the seasons just by looking at our menu,” says Carrie Nahabedian of her 9-year-old Chicago restaurant, Naha. “If you’re a regular here, the menu evolves right before your eyes.”
Naha’s contemporary American cuisine reflects Nahabedian’s classical French and Californian experiences as well as her Mediterranean heritage.
What distinguishes Naha in the Chicago fine-dining scene is that it is, at heart, a family restaurant. Nahabedian partnered to open the restaurant with her cousin, Michael Nahabedian, a restaurateur who previously opened Chicago’s Café Absinthe and Green Dolphin Street. Naha’s interior decor was designed by Michael’s brother, Tom.
“My cousin Michael and I, and his brother Tom, we always wanted to do something. It was just a matter of when,” says Carrie Nahabedian.
The “when” came in 1999 while she was working as executive chef of the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. During a visit to her native Chicago she learned that chef Gordon Sinclair was planning to retire and close his restaurant, Gordon, which occupied the location that was to become Naha.
“One day I was in Chicago doing an event, and Charlie [Trotter] whispered to me: ‘Gordon is retiring. You should try to get that space,’” she says.
Tom Nahabedian created an open, airy space that was modern and exciting but still timeless and calming.
“There is a mix of wood and concrete,” says Michael Nahabedian. “On busy nights it can be loud and boisterous. It’s definitely an exciting room to be in. But it also has this feeling of—I hate to use the word zen-like, but it really is. It has a very calming effect when you walk in.”
Naha’s dedication to creative use of top-quality ingredients even extends to a list of signature cocktails like the Spring Ahead, made with tequila, freshly squeezed apple and celery juice, lemon juice, organic agave juice and a bit of absinthe to give it a licorice finish, says Michael Nahabedian.
Carrie Nahabedian’s bold yet classical approach to fine dining has garnered awards and media accolades for the chef, who was nominated three times for a James Beard award, which she won in 2008.
“Carrie Nahabedian is bold and brassy and has never given into fussy-foamy preps,” says Penny Pollack, dining editor of Chicago magazine. “Rather she applies her talent to an array of complex flavors and successfully marries meats and fruits or meats and fish on one plate as the inspiration strikes her.”
Carrie Nahabedian says she always has been inspired by history, especially the history of food, which makes her cuisine an educational experience for herself, her cooks and her clientele.
“I’m particularly proud of the fact that we use some ingredients that other people are not necessarily accustomed to. It’s an education for your staff and for your clientele,” she says.
“A few weeks ago someone commented that he counted like 132 separate ingredients on the dinner menu and said ‘How do you keep track of that?’ I said, ‘I never really think about it. How do you keep track of anything? There are 500 working parts to your car, but do you ever think about that? You just put the keys in the car and you go.’”
Menu Sampler APPETIZERS Large scallops from the Gulf of Maine roasted with vanilla bean, citrus and spices, glazed Belgian endive, ruby red grapefruit, candied rind and chocolate mint $20.00 Seared foie gras, rhubarb jam, Seedling Farm blueberries, mâche and banyuls gastrique $26.00 Organic carnaroli risotto, veal sweetbreads, foraged stinging nettles, Italian greens and confit green garlic $17.00 Lake Ontario “smelts” lightly fried with lemon, parsley and “salted” capers, “pimenton de la vera” $12.00 ENTRÉES Pan-roasted Great Lakes whitefish, butter poached native lobster and roasted Michigan-grown asparagus, with cremini mushrooms, buttered wheat berries, red wine lobster jus and herb salad $34.00 Whole-roasted “dressed” squab, foie gras and crisp potato cake scented with Armenian rose petal marmalade and licorice root, preserved cherries, white icicle radishes, pink peppercorns and watercress flowers $39.00 Roast Becker Lane pork chop, 3 Sister's Garden white corn polenta and red rib dandelion with French shell beans, boar bacon, candied shallots and tomato jam $38.00 Wild Alaskan halibut with a “fondant” of cracked blue crab, little turnips and Thumbelina carrots, king trumpet mushrooms, celery root “mousseline” wilted pea vines sweet pea flowers and freshly juiced carrot broth $33.00 DESSERTS A Spanish-inspired dessert of bread pudding, saffron ice cream, candied orange peel, crème fraîche and bacon $12.00 Parfait of spring rhubarb, buttermilk panna cotta, lime granita and vanilla “espuma,” white chocolate and almond grissini $12.00 Lemon nougat glace meringue “cake”, candied Buddha’s Hand lemon and chamomile citrus sorbet $12.00 “Oeufs à la neige” and locally grown strawberries with olive oil ice cream, polenta custard and balsamic caramel $12.00
