Captain Brunch
Ryan McCaskey gets back to basic brunch at the South Loop’s Acadia
At Ryan McCaskey’s South Loop restaurant Acadia, a clean, neutral backdrop lets chef/owner McCaskey’s eclectic fare take center stage. A 20-year industry vet, he’s studied a range of global cuisines under notable chefs such as Char
lie Trotter, Rick Tramonto and Thomas Keller — and that experience is apparent on the menu, which features options like a Stonington lobster paired with puffed potatoes, trumpet mushrooms and a sour cream pastry ($38) and Columbia River salmon with caponata, cuttlefish noodles and squid ink vinaigrette ($30). This month, McCaskey launches his first ever brunch menu. Here, he fills us on in what we can expect, his love for the South Loop and his devotion to the Grateful Dead.
Splash: Tell us about the Acadia brunch.
McCaskey: It’s a three-course prix fixe [$35 a person], with four or five options in each category, like cured salmon and johnny cake with caviar, cremé fraiché and a salad or a mushroom tart. Back in the ‘90s, there was always a quiche or tart at brunch. So I’ve taken that idea, but am making it super composed. The tart will have a bunch of spring ingredients on one plate, like scapes, mushrooms and ramps. I’m not trying to reinvent brunch, I just want to serve an approachable brunch in a nice place.
S: How have you seen brunch change in your years in the business?
M: Back in the day — and I’m dating myself here — there were three brunch places everyone knew about: the Bongo Room, the Breakfast Club and Hillary’s Urban Eatery. Now it’s just become a part of dining in Chicago. For us, it’s not going to be breakfast burritos or anything. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but our mission is upscale and very classic. S: Why open Acadia in the South Loop?
M: I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 13 years, and I love it. I look back at people before me, like Michael Foley with Printer’s Row, or Donnie [Madia] and Eduard [Sei
tan] with the West Loop. They were pioneers [in new areas]. So I look at this as taking a risk. If I can build something great here, it can be a flagship for the South Loop. Maybe Wabash will be a restaurant row one day, who knows?
S: We hear you’re a big Grateful Dead fan.
M: I was exposed to them in my first restaurant job. I was a pancake cook at the Greenery in Barrington, and all of those guys would go see them when they played. It rubbed off on me. I was at their last show ever at Soldier Field. A year before I opened the restaurant, I knew I had to get it out of my system, so I traveled with Further [former Grateful Dead musicians Phil Lesh and Bob Weir’s current jam band] for about a year. It was unbelievable. I was building the restaurant while I was on tour, so I would be in a hotel room, getting back to my architect, and then I would have to leave because the set was starting in 10 minutes. There’s so much camaraderie in that scene, and in my old age now, I’m drawn to that.