The Berkshire Room to Roll Out New Upscale Bar Snacks Menu, 1/28

CHICAGO -- The Berkshire Room - a craft cocktail lounge from The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group located at 15 East Ohio Street inside the ACME Hotel Company in River North - will roll out an entirely new upscale bar snacks menu on Tuesday, January 20 from executive chef Chris "Chip" Davies and executive pastry chef Chris Teixeira.

The new upscale bar snacks menu is more substantial in offerings than the opening Berkshire Room bar snacks menu. The menu is broKen Down into five sections: "Dealer's Choice Bar Snacks", "Dealer's Choice Meats & Cheeses", "Mini Sandwiches", "Bigger Bites", and "Desserts". A PDF of the new menu is attached to this press release.

The "Dealer's Choice Bar Snacks" and "Dealer's Choice Meats & Cheeses" sections of the new upscale bar snacks menu focuses on mimicking the popular "Dealer's Choice" cocktails at The Berkshire Room (where patrons pick a spirit base, a flavor profile, and glassware).

Now patrons can select from a trio from seven upscale bar snacks offerings in the "Dealer's Choice Bar Snacks" section for $6 from Davies that mimic the many flavor profiles of the Dealer's Choice cocktails (smokey, spicy, fruity, herbaceous, etc) such as Tobacco Onion Dip with Poppy Seed Crackers, Pickled Grapes, Candied Peanuts & Almonds, and Bourbon Cured Olives. Guests can select their own offerings or ask their bartenders or servers to pair the snack selections to what they are drinking.

Also, Davies will offer a Dealer's Choice "Meats & Cheeses" where he will showcase five rotating artisanal charcuterie offerings sourced from around the country and five rotating artisanal cheese offerings sourced from around the country where patrons can pick either three or five of the offerings that are all served with house accouterments and crostini. Guests can select their own offerings or ask their bartenders or servers to pair the meat and cheese selections to what they are drinking.

Many of the "Mini Sandwiches" and "Bigger Bites" sections feature Davies' riffs on Southern cuisine meant to compliment the 400 American whiskies, ryes, and bourbons that line the back bar at The Berkshire Room. Menu highlights from these two sections include Cider Braised Pulled Pork Slider (with pickled fresno pepper slaw & BBQ aioli on a potato bun), Pimiento Cheese (with Jamón Serrano, bourbon soy mash & herbed crackers), Fried Chicken Skins (with smoked bleu cheese & house hot sauce), Pimiento Cheese Stuffed Arancini (with salsa verde), and Grade A Foie Gras Torchon (with black truffles, bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, preserved white grapes & crostini).

Teixeira has also amped up the dessert options at The Berkshire Room - expanding his original singular dessert to five dessert offerings. Highlights include Frangelico Butterscotch Pudding (with bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup, candied hazelnuts & crème fraiche whipped cream), Key Lime Panna Cotta (with oat crumble & key lime caviar) and Truffled Chocolate Excess Cake.

Davies was promoted to executive chef for The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group after former executive chef Chris Curren and the restaurant group mutually parted ways on January 8. Davies is now the executive chef at both Homestead On The Roof and The Berkshire Room.

Davies - who joined Homestead as the chef de cuisine when Curren took over the restaurant over the summer- jointly collaborated on the opening menus at Homestead with Curren. Davies has been reworking portions of the Homestead menu over the last few months and all of the savory menu items on the new Berkshire Room menu are his creations.

Prior to joining Homestead over the summer, Davies, 31, was a sous chef under Ryan McCaskey at Acadia, the chef de cuisine at Blue 13 under Curren, an opening sous chef under Dirk Flanigan at Henri, and was a line cook under John Manion at Branch 27. Before arriving in Chicago, Davies was a sous chef at Olea in Portland and cut his teeth as a line cook in his native Seattle.

Davies and Teixeira are both jointly running the West Town Bakery & Diner kitchens.

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