I am not sure what to make of 200 East Supper Club. The menu is one of those something-for-everybody arrangements that make my head explode. I guess you'd call it "Italian-American," a genre of cuisine I thought died years ago. Steaks, chops, pasta, seafood, chicken, ribs, fish, pizza ...
Even the name is old. "Supper Club" smacks of Wisconsin restaurants of yore that would plop a relish tray on the table as soon as you sat down. I have no problem with restaurants revisiting the past, but to box yourself into a time warp is downright foolish.
The location is splendid (one block off North Michigan Avenue at Chestnut), the room has character (though the gentleman's library atmosphere is boring and needs to be updated).
Can this restaurant be saved? Does it want to cut the number of dishes by half? Does it want to polish, refine and put a modern spin on some of the chicken and pasta dishes?
And then there is the supper club idea. The supper club appendage to the name has to do with the live entertainment offered, and you get the good with the bad, which is pretty much how it goes with the food.
The good on the menu starts with three Melrose peppers stuffed with spicy Italian sausage and cheeses with a pleasing marinara sauce draped over the top. The bad includes "sausage caprese," an appetizer that screws up an otherwise nice caprese (fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, chiffonade of fresh basil) by plunking chunks of spicy sausage on top, the sausage doing its best to drown out the flavor of everything else on the plate.
Also good is the Caesar salad with its crisp romaine lettuce, good croutons and lightly applied dressing. Had there been an anchovy or two, the salad would have gotten the "Hail, Caesar" salute. Bad was the minestrone, which was nothing more than mushy vegetables in a wimpy broth that tasted like canned soup.
The linguine with white clam sauce was one of the worst I've ever had. The pasta was overcooked to the point of gummy. There was enough garlic to make the singer over in the corner start singing "Witchcraft." The clams (a few cherrystones in the shell and some chopped among the pasta) were insipid. The broth/sauce had no real flavor.
Some pasta redemption came in the form of baked rigatoni. This pasta had some "bone" to it, the marinara sauce was quite good, and the overall balance of cheeses -- romano, mozzarella, ricotta -- kicked in a good amount of flavor.
220 East Supper Club calls it "Brickhouse Chicken, Hey, Hey." In Italy, this dish is called pollo al mattone, or chicken under a brick. It's a whole chicken, deboned and pan-seared with what the menu called "special seasonings." That's valid right up to the point of those seasonings, which boasted too much lemon (if, indeed, that was the special seasoning). Yes, the chicken was whole, splayed on the platter, the meat decently moist. It coulda been a contender had no seasoning at all been used. All this style of chicken needs is a glaze of really good olive oil.
A dessert one night was a chocolate layer cake, which had three layers and a lot of chocolate, but it tasted like cake that had been processed in a factory.
The good news is that if you are in the neighborhood, say shopping on Michigan Avenue or taking in a play at Drury Lane across the street, the four-course dinner for $21.95 is a good deal (provided you choose well). Go with the Melrose peppers, the Caesar salad, baked rigatoni and, for dessert, the ice cream sundae. The meal won't evoke any special memories, but at least it won't melt your credit card.
Pat Bruno is a local free-lance critic and author. E-mail brunoeats@aol.com. Listen to Pat Bruno talk about food and wine Tuesdays at 6:23 p.m. and 10:23 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 7:53 p.m. on WBBM News Radio 780-AM.
