"When Texas-based butcher Kriss Abigail returned to her native Chicago for a pop-up in September 2021, she assumed that her unusual event — a live axis deer butchering demonstration in front of a crowd followed by a seven-course meal with alcoholic and booze-free pairings — would be a one-off. But as she and her local collaborators, bartender Stella Miller (Alpana) and actor-slash-general manager Caroline Shaul, looked around the room that fall, it struck them: This could be a thing. Seven months later, the intangible energy they sensed has evolved into a full-blown following for their Buckwild Babes collective, which this week gathered for its second affair, At Meet Your Meat: On the Lamb, held Monday, April 18 inside quirky brewpub Orkenoy in Humboldt Park. Handsaw at the ready, Abigail deconstructed a lamb (sourced from Paddington Family Farm) before a crowd of rapt attendees in restaurant’s back room, before ushering patrons into the dining room for a meal by personal chef and caterer Jacquelyn Lord (the Dinner Belle). Each of Lord’s courses paid tribute to a part of the lamb, from heart to shank to rack, including an especially noteworthy leg of lamb, tender and sliced thick enough to maintain its texture, served with root vegetables and a rich and garlicky aji verde, all brightened with thin slices of zingy pickled radish. Spring weather is still a touch-and-go situation in Chicago, but this week at Orkenoy, Lord delivered on seasonality to great effect." - aimee.levitt
