The menu subtitle to Wally & Agador's is "Gourmet Cafe & Take-Away." Keep that in mind as you read on. There are but four tables in this postage-stamp-size space, so we are not talking restaurant by any stretch of the chairs. If you stand at the counter at this lower-level space or near one of the deli cases, you will get up close and personal with the guy making your sandwich. But you know the old saying: "Good things come in small packages."
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
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Parking: No
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Sandwiches are the thrust of the menu, but I did manage to snag a few delicious surprises that went "gourmet" and far and away beyond sandwiches.
But sandwiches first, of which there are a dozen choices, some of them carrying a name you might recognize: Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Elton John, Esther Williams. Also there is one sandwich named "Wally" and one named "Agador." It so happens that Wally and Agador are chef-owner Michael Lachowicz's dogs. Lachowicz is no stranger to the stove and preparing good eats; he operates Restaurant Michael in Winnetka (where many of the gourmet food creations served here are prepared). Also, his resume includes stints at now-departed restaurants like Les Deux Gros and Le Francais.
Should you order the "Marilyn Monroe," you will become enamored with the combination of chicken liver mousse and duck pate with a schmear of Brie, all of which was layered onto a toasted baguette with Dijon mayonnaise and frisee. Delicious was the operative word, but "sandwich" did not do it justice.
Ditto for the "Mama Cass" sandwich. Stacked between slices of toasted multigrain wheat bread were layers of shaved Black Forest ham, Gruyere, slices of heirloom tomatoes, butter lettuce and a Dijon mayo. Great sandwich.
"Rosie's Mambo Italiano" is an Italian sub sandwich taken to a level that rises above gourmet. Lurking between slices of a toasted baguette were loads of thinly shaved prosciutto, Taleggio cheese, slabs of roasted red bell peppers, hunks of grilled scallions and leaves of fresh basil. Amazingly good. Sandwiches come with a small bag of good, not great, homemade chips (they need to be crispier).
On to the "take-away" part of the operation. The curried grilled chicken salad was absolutely delicious in every way. Ditto for the mango chutney, which I paired with one of the heat-and-serve "Dinner in Minutes" entrees from the refrigerated case (in this instance, the grilled salmon). It started with two pucks of grilled salmon encased in plastic. At home, I followed the directions on the package, dropping the packets in boiling water, then waiting 10 minutes. I opened and served. (This is a version of a French cooking process known as sous-vide.) The meal was delicious. And what a deal for $8: two hunks of delicious grilled salmon that I had on my plate in minutes. And with the mango chutney, the meal was perfectly complete.
I plan to go back to Wally & Agador's and take home "Le Francais chicken liver mousse," the chilled Provencal ratatouille and the fallen chocolate souffle. Truly a gourmet meal to go.
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