Selection of Moody Tongue beers at The Bar.
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Culinary brewery Moody Tongue debuts bar and dining room By Rob Kachelriess and Melinda Sheckells / Photography by Jordan Balderas Moody Tongue continues to disrupt the craft beer scene in Chicago, stretching the limits of what’s possible in combining food with brew. The brewery has a new home in the South Loop that includes two spaces, The Dining Room and The Bar, allowing guests to choose between two distinct culinary experiences. “I’ve always based my food around the spirit or libations that are going to be served with it,” says Jared Wentworth, the executive chef behind the culinary program. “For this, I wanted to get back to my beer roots and really put together food I felt had influences of what I like to eat when I drink beer.” The Dining Room is an intimate space for just 28 diners with two seatings each night (6:30 and 8:30 p.m., Tuesday–Saturday). It’s a minimalist environment with a concrete floor, floor-to-ceiling downtown view and lights directed toward the table to spotlight the food. Guests enjoy 12-course tasting menus with dishes paired with Moody Tongue beer, including a few created specifically to match the food. The price is $155, with pairings covered. Beer also frequently finds its way into the food recipes. Wort, a liquid base used in brewing, is used as a consommé with Maine lobster, matsutake chawanmushi, apple and squash. Barley wine is employed in a serving of scallop and foie gras with Tokyo turnip, leek, guanciale and melon. 80 slmag.net
“My brewing philosophy is founded in the use of cooking techniques and the best quality ingredients, and my goal is always to showcase exciting flavors and aromatics. We recently created a Juiced Lychee IPA, for example, which we showcase in both The Bar and The Dining Room,” says Jared Rouben, who founded Moody Tongue with cousin and business partner Jeremy Cohn. “It’s a luxury to work with someone like chef Jared because he brings dishes to me that inspire me to create specific beers. But also, what has really been exciting, are the ingredients he has introduced to me.” “I try to switch up things as they come into season and as we get bored of them,” says Wentworth, a nine-time Michelin starred chef. “I’m one of these people who’s very anti-’What’s your signature dish?’ I hate that. So we try to cook with the seasons and what gets us excited.” The collaborative relationship between chef and brewmaster carries over from the creation side to the presentation side as well. A good example is the gose, a German-style beer with salt added in either the brewing process or after the beer is created. “Chef made a salt stone, which we actually incorporate tableside and stir (in the beer),” says Jared Rouben. “That’s something I never would have thought of without Chef ’s guidance.”
