Cafe Marie-Jeanne, run by husband-wife partners Michael Simmons (chef) and Val Szafranski (front of house), is, Simmons says, “the very definition of a mom-and-pop; except neither one of us is a mom or pop.”
But “mom-and-pop,” or some young and modern iteration thereof, fits the restaurant reasonably well. It’s an intensely personal operation, one whose easygoing attitude and excellent kitchen work make the 16-month-old Humboldt Park spot a neighborhood treasure.
Simmons and Szafranski are putting in extra-long hours to make it all happen. The restaurant opens at 7 a.m. weekdays (Simmons and Szafranski “sleep in” and open at 8 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays), locks its doors at 10 or 11 p.m. and serves most of the menu all day long. Breakfast omelet at 9 p.m.? No problem. Duck in the morning? It might take a few minutes, but you’ll get it.
Don’t ask for Marie or Jeanne at the door; a Marie-Jeanne is a large-format bottle, holding the equivalent of three standard bottles of wine. “The name conveys the spirit of shared good times and conviviality,” Simmons said. “Most of the (large format) bottles have masculine, tough-guy names like Nebuchadnezzar and Jeroboam; this is beautiful and feminine, and it sounds pretty when you say it.”
The wine list, a short but carefully chosen selection (hat tip to sommelier James McLennan), doesn’t offer any bottles in the Marie-Jeanne size (“they’re hard to find, and people who have them won’t give them up,” Simmons said), so think of Marie-Jeanne as less a state of wine and more a state of mind.
The single-page menus (one for breakfast/brunch/lunch, one for dinner) offer a handful of dishes; the rest can be found on the wall-mounted chalkboards, which list cheese and charcuterie offerings and daily features. “The regular menu doesn’t change much, except maybe for a soup or vegetable side,” Simmons said. “The chalkboard makes it easier to throw new items up there; if we get a late delivery, we can offer it right away.”
On the chalkboard, look for oysters and razor clams, the latter served raw in the shell or plancha-grilled with drips of olive and chile oils. (Raw seafood items typically arrive over ice, inside cool-looking fish tins.) You may also find grilled sardines with salsa verde or sauteed mushrooms over toast, with an egg-thickened sauce — visually a mess, but great eating.
Regular menu strengths include hollow curlicue fusilli col buco noodles supporting tender octopus, cured Provencal olives, chopped finocchiona and Spanish sofrito sauce — a delightful Mediterranean excursion.
Star dishes include the smoked chicken, served in quarter- and half-portions ($12 and $18, respectively; get the big portion), cut into large pieces and offering crisp lacquered skin and fine, smoky flavor, aided by herbes de Provence. Duck frites, which began as a special, has worked its way up to signature status. Served on a large platter, the dish mixes sliced breast and roasted leg-thigh pieces (a half duck overall) with duck pate (foie gras available) and plenty of duck-fat fries.
From time to time Simmons brings in dry-aged beef, serving it in massive portions (30 ounces or more), intended to serve the entire table and priced at or near $100. We were somewhat disappointed with our 45-day rib-eye, heavily charred on the outside but extremely rare within (I’d requested medium-rare). The steak had great flavor, but the meat required the sort of knife assistance that Marie-Jeanne’s meager flatware could not provide. We did enjoy the accompaniments — compound herbed butter and bone marrow — and because the steak was served in thick slices with the bone detached, for once I requested a doggy bag that was, in fact, doggy-bound.
Dessert is not a kitchen strength, but there are a couple of nice bites at the end, and there are always those fine cheeses. There’s a fun cake-and-ice-cream play on affogato, served in a Delft cup and saucer with minty ice cream, marasca cherries and espresso, and a nice almond financier with honey and delice de Bourgogne cheese.
The dining room, which can be impenetrably dark in the evening (I’m talking can’t-see-doneness-level dark), is positively cheerful in the daytime. Late morning and early afternoon can be the best times to visit, when sunlight floods the space and there is room (and free Wi-Fi) to get some work done while noshing on pastries, sandwiches or a meat-and-cheese assortment. I love the breakfast sandwich option, consisting of egg, cheese and any two of nearly three-dozen toppings, ranging from the expected (lox, various smoked fish, bacon, duck confit) to the novel (calf brains, shad roe and, lately, softshell crabs). Sandwiches are served on toasted country wheat bread or English muffin, and servers can advise newbies on killer ingredient combos.
Szafranski runs a laid-back but precisely functioning front room, abetted by very good service. For locals, Cafe Marie-Jeanne is a dream.
For visitors, well, my advice is to build 15 extra minutes into your travel time to find parking. Besides housing the cafe, the corner of California Avenue and Augusta Boulevard also is home to Haywood Tavern, Spinning J and The California Clipper; factor in side-street parking restrictions, and the area can get pretty crowded. As the weather improves, expect more traffic.
“A lot of people are moving into the neighborhood,” Simmons said. “Every week, we see new faces. We’re trying to see if we can figure out valet parking, but that’s down the road. But we’re also hoping that our clientele doing a lot of eating and drinking are taking cabs.”
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
pvettel@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @philvettel
Cafe Marie-Jeanne
1001 N. California Ave.
773-904-7660
Tribune rating: Two stars
Open: Breakfast, lunch dinner Wednesday to Monday
Prices: Main courses $12-$35
Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V
Reservations: Strongly recommended
Noise: Conversation-challenged
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
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