Devon Seafood Grill Beckons a New Era
Change is afoot at one of downtown Chicago's quintessential destinations for seafood and steaks. The surf & turf-friendly Devon Seafood Grill recently welcomed a new executive chef, christened a new Oyster Bar, innovated the cocktail program, and unveiled a new menu. That's a lot of news. Let's sift through all the details you need to know:
The chef captaining the kitchen at Devon Seafood Grill is John Cosnotti, a chef whose eclectic resume has seen stints all over the map, from Kansas City to the Virgin Islands. Those colorful experiences, which ran the gamut from barbecue to Italian cuisine, have equipped him well to preside over a menu focused on both seafood and meat. While Cosnotti works on fine-tuning a new chef tasting series for the restaurant, he's added an arsenal of new dishes to the menus, from beef carpaccio and coconut curry mussels to umami-packed roasted mushrooms with truffle butter and smoked paprika fries with espelette pepper rouille. And that's just for starters. Entree entrants include lobster pot pie, shellfish bouillabaisse, rack of lamb, Kansas City strip steak, and spaghetti di nero, among others.
Along with the appointment of Cosnotti, another major new component in place at Devon is the Oyster Bar, a casual and boisterous new bivalve-inspired experience in the first floor lounge. Like other hip oyster bars in town old and new, Shaw's Crab House and Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House among them, Devon joins the ranks with an upbeat lounge atmosphere focused around menu items divvied into categories like "raw," "less," and "more." Raw options include oysters on the half shell (naturally), Count Neck clams, lobster claws, tuna tartare, shrimp ceviche, and shrimp cocktail. "Less" items range from cheddar-peppercorn biscuits (eat your heart out, Red Lobster) and mini lobster rolls to smoked salmon flatbread, corn flake-fried oyster sliders, gumbo, and goat cheese bruschetta. Then there are even "More" options, like achiote-grilled shrimp tacos, black Angus burgers, pretzel-crusted trout, fish & chips, grilled panzanella, and shrimp and white cheddar grits.
In brunch news, Devon's Oyster Bar offers brunch every Saturday and Sunday with items like doughnuts, biscuits and gravy, chicken and waffles, steak and eggs, quiche Lorraine, smoked salmon latkes, and Belgian waffles.
Mosey downstairs beyond the Oyster Bar to find Devon Downstairs, which affords a more formal dining experience with the newly implemented, aforementioned menus.
Another fun, interactive new facet at the Oyster Bar is a cocktail like no other. The Porthole Cocktail, dubbed in honor of the 1958 film, The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, is a unique cocktail made and served in a vessel that allows guests to watch and taste as the cocktail evolves by the minute. It's part beverage, part science project basically. The cocktail goes for $23 for two glasses worth, with infusions changing weekly. Examples include the Can't Stop Thyme made with Grey Goose Le Citron, St-Germain, elderflower liqueur, fresh thyme, and lemon; and Orange Sage with Grey Goose, lime, freshly squeezed citrus, fresh sage, and housemade ginger syrup. In other drink news, Devon offers weekly drink specials available all day: Mondays and Wednesdays are $7 cocktails including Bourbon Basil Smash, Eastsider, and Strawberry Basil Mojito; Tuesdays are $7 martinis; Thursdays are $7 house wines; Fridays are $7 X-Rated martinis; and Sundays are $5 Bloody Marys, bellinis, and mimosas.
- Matt Kirouac