Twain: Missouri BBQ & Taproom

A Critic Thinks Logan Square’s Twain ‘Confounds and Surpasses Expectations’ | Eater Chicago

"Chef Tim Graham reimagines Midwestern comfort cooking by mining community cookbooks from his hometown in Columbia, Missouri, producing a menu that deliberately confounds and delights. Playful, nostalgic concepts are refined into surprising compositions: ants on a log is elevated with duck liver mousse and bourbon-preserved cherries; bone marrow is described as pleasurable when paired with sloppy-joe sauce on bread; a tower of meatloaf arrives with nori-seasoned onion rings and glazed eel alongside red miso–whipped mashed potatoes. Simpler items, like an iceberg wedge topped with a thick “bacon steak,” sit alongside herb-scented dumplings larded with crispy chicken skin and a chicken-fat roux. Desserts continue the same bold approach—most notably an intensely bittersweet mud pie—and cocktails skew inventive and off-script, including a gin-based “Shrimp Cocktail” garnished with a whole shrimp." - Jeffy Mai