"Mike Sula thinks Frunchroom is a quaint Jewish-Italian deli that 'make[s] you realize how lucky we still are to live in Chicago.' The 27-seat Portage Park café offers a 'surprisingly deep menu' of meats and sandwiches. During breakfast hours, cured fish ooze with salmon oil and are 'just salty enough to be like cured sashimi' while smoked salmon is prepared pastrami style with a crust of pepper and herbs. Lunch yields chicken liver mousse that’s rich, the 'liver bass note harmonizing beautifully with fat and acid and flakes of Maldon salt,' and 'spicy and funky' Andalusian chorizo. Seasonal dishes include charred asparagus with strawberries and blue cheese in a balsamic reduction, which Sula calls 'a riot of flavors, gorgeously balanced.' Sandwiches are full of 'extraordinary takes on familiar standards,' such as a grilled cheese that leaves slicks of butter, raclette, and caramelized onions 'trailing down the chin' and a BLT 'simultaneously airy on brioche and saturated with butter, bacon fat, and basil aioli.' And for the sweet tooth, there’s a selection of rococo doughnuts, pastries, and shakes that 'emerge from the kitchen impossibly thickened.' Frunchroom is still flying under the radar but Sula predicts 'long lines in its future as word gets out about [chef Matt] Saccaro’s original, idiosyncratic vision for a neighborhood deli.'" - Jeffy Mai
