The Gold Coast’s most irreverent steakhouse, Maple & Ash, is always full of surprises.
Take the seafood tower, that dramatic monolith of steakhouse culture. With his usual playful exuberance, chef Danny Grant turns the classic tower on its head by trading ice for fire, cooking a range of frutti di mare (clams, oysters, scallops, lobster and the like) over the restaurant’s coal-fired hearth, instead of serving them raw. When the bounty (available in “pro,” “baller” or “choose-your-own-adventure” servings) arrives tableside, an aromatic bath of garlic-heavy brown butter and chili oil hits you with a heady steam cloud, inviting ravenous revelry.
But wait. The seafood towers have been on the menu since the restaurant opened last year, you say. Here’s the secret: Ask for the “pasta back,” a new off-menu upgrade for those in the know. After you’ve devoured enough of the shellfish to clear out a little space, a server arrives at your table and unceremoniously dumps hand-rolled, perfectly al dente conchigliette pasta into the buttery broth, where it soaks up all the potent, briny flavor the seafood left behind.
For $10 per person, it’s like getting a whole new dish. It’s also a welcome affront to bread — after all, who wants a boring stack of slices when you can have pasta drowned in butter sauce?
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That’s a rhetorical question.
Maple & Ash, 8 W. Maple St., 312-944-8888, www.mapleandash.com
[email protected]
Twitter @joeybear85
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