Classic Tables: Blackbird

[Ed.'s note: Michael Sheerin has since left the Blackbird kitchen to prepare to open his own restaurant. And Lynn House has joined the team to mastermind the mixology program.]

Chicago dining has changed so much in the last decade that it's easy to forget how revolutionary Blackbird was when it opened on December 1, 1997.

The setting for Paul Kahan's creative, upscale cuisine was highly unusual at the time: A small, stark white box that tended (as it still does) to get frenetically loud during the dinner rush.

Twelve years later, Blackbird remains just as relevant, despite the proliferation of restaurants of its ilk. Credit is due, in part, to chef de cuisine Michael Sheerin, who drives the restaurant forward while Kahan is busy breaking (more) new ground (on Big Star, a taqueria and booze joint set to open November 9).

Sheerin spent three years at New York's experimental wd-50, and his technical prowess imbues the seasonally driven menu with unexpected textures and tastes, like chewy, puffed forbidden black rice nuggets that accompany roast squab ($32).

A dish of Slagel Farm chicken with smoked potato salad, semi-candied figs and radicchio ($30) is intensely, gutsily smoky--and yet the flavors come together beautifully, in a way that's deliciously evocative of a summery Southern barbecue.

Brand new pastry chef Patrick Fahy is another of Kahan's smart picks. His corn dessert--with a creamy corn custard, maple sherbet and moist, buttery, addictive cornbread ($10)--shows that he gets what Blackbird's dishes are all about: seasonal and smart cooking, with at least one element that you want to eat over, and over, again.

Blackbird, 619 W. Randolph St. (between Jefferson and Desplaines streets); 312-715-0708 or blackbirdrestaurant.com