Ringing in the New Year with Culinary Entrepreneurs

It may not be the most original way to bring in the new year, but spending it at one of your favorite restaurants has its pluses.  Goosefoot, one of city’s most consistent fine dining establishments, has gotten so good at ushering in January 1^st with style that it’s now better choreographed than a Balanchine dance.

Elegant and immaculate with a mid-Centuries color palette, the dining room sparkled under a ceiling covered in celebratory balloons.  Each one emblazoned with well wishes for the new year.  Party hats and tiaras, whistles and paper horns were waiting for guests as they arrived for dinner.  Nina Nugent, chef Chris Nugent’s wife and commander of the front of the house, greeted arrivals with her usual mix of professionalism and warmth.  By 7:30pm, most of the twelve tables were already full.  The final one would be claimed at 8. 

One of Goosefoot’s charms is that it’s so personable.  The restaurant has been quite successful since it set up shop on a quiet stretch of Lawrence Avenue twelve years ago.  The husband and wife team make a point of connecting with their clientele and, over time, you gain an appreciation for what it takes to build a respected business from the ground up.

The New Year’s Eve feast stayed true to chef Nugent’s concept of dining well.  His approach has all the markings of someone steeped in traditions that salute gilded lifestyles.  Achieving this level of mastery requires a great deal of training and an unshakeable commitment to perfection.  An entrée can come in a hollowed-out eggshell like the roasted cauliflower soup did with shrimp and potatoes sitting under a truffle broth. The dish is a lot like it sounds; an experience that by sight and taste are curious and wonderful at the same time. 

If you count the house made chocolate bars you take home every time you finish a meal at the restaurant, there were sixteen entrees on the menu December 31^st. Pacing was a key part of the evening.  Every entrée was served simultaneously across the dining room and there could be long intervals between them. Goosefoot’s kitchen is a one-man operation.  No sous chef, no pastry chef.  There’s not even a dishwasher.  There’s only the chef. The wait times were evidence of the effort needed to prepare and plate 24 stunningly beautiful meals over a dozen times in five hours.  It became clear half way through the menu that if you wanted to leave before midnight, you’d be missing quite a few dishes on that glittering menu.  Best to relax and enjoy the show.  Fortunately, the restaurant is ideal for conversation and their playlist, leaning unapologetically on music you’d associate with Woodstock, is both classy and fun. 

Like many very high end restaurants, most of dishes featured as entrées are scaled to the size of an appetizer.  They’re meant to give an appreciation of the flavors of the food and the talents of the chef; both on the artistic and the culinary plane.  At Goosefoot, the food is very rich and incorporates plenty of sauces and broths that intentionally perpetuate a theme of delicious extravagance. Foie gras with cherry, goosefoot (a plant in the buckwheat family) and a tapioca crisp is followed by Maine lobster with sunchoke and meyer lemon.   Then there’s the diver scallop, a duck cassoulet and a serving of veal with polenta, egg, manchego cheese with aromatics enhanced by rosemary.  They’re all beautifully imagined and brilliantly prepared.  Characteristic of restaurants inhabiting Goosefoot’s territory, the heavier dishes are protein forward.  And you’ll never see chicken as a part of that mix.  On this night ringing in 2023, prairie style venison and high plains angus beef made up the what might be thought of as heftier offerings.  Served mid-meal when the delays in the pacing were most noticeable, the quality of both shown through with every bite; despite the fact they were served slightly cooler than they should have been.  At least one course was skipped.  No one asked why.  Many of the guests consider themselves staunch loyalists if not outright friends of the chef and his wife.  Because of their respect for Nugent’s acumen in the kitchen and their understanding of the incredibly hard work needed to make Goosefoot the success it became, they helped the restaurant survive the darker Covid years by supporting its takeout operation. The restaurant altered the type of food by focusing on, like a lot of restaurants, rustic comfort foods.  Keeping their penchant for the richness you can only achieve with butter and cream, there was still a decadent element to the fare. 

Having conquered Chicago, the team is contemplating picking up stakes and settling in a part of the country one of them considers home, New England, by the end of the incoming year.  A proud native of Brazil, Mrs. Nugent might be a little disappointed that Sao Paulo didn’t make the cut.  But at this stage of the game, not being a Portuguese speaker would likely be a hindrance to chef Nugent and his niche cuisine from seamlessly meshing into the Brazilian experience. The east coast is the ideal terrain for him to market what he’s mastered.

Both chef Nugent and his wife Nina have transfixing backstories.  She gave up a career in finance to take over management of the restaurant.  He and his brother had to grow up far too early because of health issues that plagued their parents.  Sacrifice, commitment, drive and belief in one another have brought them accolades and a Michelin star that will light their path to new adventures in 2024.

Goosefoot

2656 W. Lawrence Ave.

Chicago, IL 60625

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