It seems like this city has an endless supply of steakhouses, something I certainly am not complaining about. Apparently the demand is there for more because a new batch of steak places has opened in the past year. One of the hot new places is Swift & Sons, which is where we kicked off the 2016 steak night season. Would the experience match the hype?

Jevon (our host) and Mr. Cole had to cancel thus the Magnificent 7 became the Fab 5. The roster was set so let the festivities begin. I arrived solo, the entrance is a bit confusing with Cold Storage on one side and the bar for Swift & Sons on the other. I found Zee German at the upstairs bar waiting for the group. Glick, Crenshaw and Mason followed shortly and the 2016 steak night season was officially underway. The bar was fairly empty however actor Terrance Howard known for the show Empire and his Oscar nominated role as a pimp in Hustle & Flow was at the bar. Actually he wasn’t, it was just Glick making another Jerry Sloan like celebrity sighting. In Glick’s defense this guy actually resembled Terrence Howard unlike the infamous Sloan sighting. It’s fair to say Swift & Sons is not a place where “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp”. Drinks were compliments of Crenshaw and Mason because of previous posting infractions.

Appetizers included tomatoes/burrata, Crab cakes and shrimp cocktail. All were good but nothing really stood out. I went with the bone in ribeye and it was perfect, one of the best steaks I have had period. I can’t say enough about the flavor of this steak. They offer a bunch of sauces to compliment the steaks and we ordered all of them for the table, these included: bordelaise, caramelized onion, anchovy-garlic butter, whipped lardo and oxtail marmalade. My steak was so good by itself that I didn’t indulge much in the sauces. Sides were mushrooms, creamed spinach ( I think) and a tartiflette potato with ham and caramelized onions. The potatoes were the stand out for me, they were a gooey delight and a nice compliment to the steak. For dessert we had the Boston crème pie and the cheese cake. The cheese cake was good but had more of a tangy flavor then I prefer. The Boston crème pie had great flavor but the presentation was way too arty, I’m not impressed by the artful, fru fru, bite sized way it is served up. Give me a big slab of those flavors. Someone else will have to comment on the wine since I prefer hard alcohol but based on the bill I would say it was expensive and a lot was consumed.

Overall I thought the service was attentive but not over whelming which is the right balance. The one minus on the waitress was when she said “I usually recommend adding some seafood to make it surf and turf”, really adding the most expensive thing to the entrée is your suggestion, it was a like a new version of recommending the seafood tower. Thanks we will pass on that reco, usually if you want surf and turf you will state it at the beginning and are not upsold. By the way we usually like to recommend a blow job after dessert, we will assume you are passing on that.

Dinner conversation included the Super Bowl, returning to Chop House, Kane Vs. Roenick, Christmas vacations and the New Year’s college football playoff disaster, why didn’t they play on Saturday? We also had our annual football playoff drawing, the results were as follows:

Steelers-Mason
Seahawks-Glick
Bengals-Hans
Broncos-Rick
Redskins-Crenshaw
Chiefs-Brad
Packers-Cole
Cardinals-Jevon
Patriots-Conway
Texans-Scotty
Panthers, Vikings-Not Picked

As always the winner eats for free. We didn’t have quorum so there was no one walking free. Thus I will capitalize on my football pool win next month. After dinner Crenshaw and I headed over to Bar Sienna for a night cap. Swift & Sons showed a lot of promise and is a worthy addition to the Chicago steak scene, I look forward to returning.

Cheers,
Joe Predicto

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