Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy...

(I want to eat you.)

I'm recovering from porky goodness at The Publican on Tuesday night and I've now entered into a self-imposed pork moratorium for at least three days. I was invited to join the gals from Chicago Bites and another local foodie, Stephanie, and was more than happy to oblige.

Overall, it's a great space -- very open and airy which, of course, results in a pretty loud space. It's kind of got the "art full farmhouse" thing going on complete with long, narrow community tables, a few 2 and 4 tops and booths. It's not a particularly quiet, romantic date spot, but you could get cozy in a booth.The booths are kinda weird though....they're big, but they have doors on them. More like gates actually. It's almost like your dining in a stall or a pig pen. Maybe that's in keeping with the piggy theme? I loved the art work of giant pigs on the walls. I think the paintings were the size of Smartcars.

Make no mistake, The Publican is all about the beer and meat. We noticed that the male to female ration of diners was pretty high and we were the only party of all women. Beer + Meat + Lots of Men = Fun to Watch.

We had everything from pork rinds and three hams to grilled sardines and mussels. We indulged in oysters, beef tongue and roast chicken with frites. The three hams (from TN, IA and Serrano from Spain) served with grainy bread and goat butter was amazing -- it may have been my favorite and honestly, I would have been happy with a meal of ham, bread, butter and beer. Really? Is life better? But, then came the mussels, which we all agreed were better than Hopleaf. We also agreed that Hopleaf is a Belgian Beer Bar that serve food, whereas The Publican is a restaurant that serves Belgian beers. The mussels had a little kick, were nice and garlicky and the broth was divine.

Points to The Publican for being generous with the bread. A rustic farm loaf with butter arrived as soon as we sat, a still warm baguette was served with the mussels and the brown bread with the ham. We had the chef's choice of six oysters with two from three from Washington state, two from PEI and one from Rhode Island. I don't remember the two I had, but I liked them very much. The housemade crackers served with the oysters were so good, like little slabs of savory, buttery shortbread. The sardines were an unexpected dish for me. I knew I'd try them, but I really liked them. Three large sardines grilled and served over roasted potatoes and chilis with kick! With the head on (yum) and lots of little bones, I wouldn't eat all of the sardines myself, but sharing is good.

Beef tongue was tasty, albeit a Little texturally challenging for me. The chicken was perfectly cooked, but the frites with the chicken jus = heavenly.

My least fave part of the meal was the dessert. A waffle with rhubarb compote with honey butter. The waffle was a little too eggy for my taste. The compote was good and we all didn't even realize that we were eating the blobs of butter until it was almost gone. We couldn't figure out what was so salty. Ha! Food coma for sure.

It was all very good and the beer menu was outstanding if you're into Belgian beers like I am. I don't know alot about them other than to say that I like Belgian beers very much.

I can't do the dishes justice, so you should go check them out here. Tammy takes stunning photographs with her big, fancy camera. As a bonus, Tammy is my neighbor once I get moved in next week, so I'm very much looking forward to more tasty adventures with her and the other ladies.

If you're in Chicago and feeling a lil' piggish, get to The Publican. Three cheers for pork, beer and chicks!


(Oh, and you should follow Chicago Bites on twitter @chicagobites, Stephanie is @chemgk and as always, I'm @geg5150.)