Bluprint

Photo: Martha Williams

Location, location, location. That’s the first rule in making it in the restaurant biz. So how it’s taken this long for the Merchandise Mart to open a real restaurant is beyond us. Somehow we’ve never thought that the visiting Italian reps from Alessi designs would be too impressed with the Great Steak and Potato Company.

But they would be by Bluprint, the new contemporary restaurant on the Mart’s first floor. Given that it’s within an escalator ride of thousands of upwardly mobile creatives, most with sophisticated tastes and the dough to afford them, Bluprint was a shoo-in for lunch business before it even opened. But not content to rest on the convenience factor alone, a lot of effort was put into the menu. Executive chef Doran Payne also serves as Rhapsody’s talented toque; chef de cuisine Sam Burman sports stints at Tramonto’s Steak & Seafood, Avenues and TRU; and executive pastry chef Christine McCabe’s résumé spans from Charlie Trotter’s to Carnivale.

If those names don’t mean a thing to you, just know that the place looks good, too. Beautiful zebrawood snakes throughout one part of the dining room to form mod booth seating illuminated by glowing backlit panels, while floor-to-ceiling blue glass sets aside another eating area. Cool-toned slickness  prevails. Those booths are prime seating for dinner, but at lunch, high-topped communal tables are perfect for getting down to business. In fact, during our recent lunch, one end of our 20-seat table looked like a fabric store there were so many designer sample swatches piled about.

Getting down to our own business, we devoured the shortrib potstickers starter, pouches that held tender beef so flavorful, the dipping sauce was obsolete. Ditto for the big, fat, chilled shrimp, supremely fresh and interestingly matched with tempura mango sticks. The sweet-and-salty mango soon got upstaged by crunchy housemade bread-and-butter pickles that were the perfect foil for pulled pork that was truly tender, but a tad too sweet. And while we were psyched about the combo of panned eggs, salami, tomatoes and fontina on sourdough, the sandwich arrived two bites into our apps, so the egg was cold and the cheese no longer gooey by the time we could get to it. True, the place was slammed, but lunch service was a bit of a disaster all around.

Dinner service, on the other hand, couldn’t have been better. We had plenty of time to enjoy our starters, the highlight of the meal. Hamachi tartare on banana cake sounds strange, but the ultrafresh fish meshed perfectly with the dense cake and a cinnamon-soy sauce. Rock crabmeat with red bell pepper nage and avocado was so refreshing we didn’t mind the Jamiroquai tunes snapping us back to early-’90s land, which is unfortunately where we remained for the sliced, seared leg of lamb entrée. Its bed of fregola was blah and a peppery jus overpowered  the artichokes, resulting in a basic meat-carb-sauce dish that seemed boring compared to the starters.

Standard chicken breast was saved by pancetta-dotted polenta and a delicious violet mustard. But if we had to do it over, we’d clean our plates rather than save room for dessert. The allure of McCabe’s sweets was lost on us—gritty sangria terrine, dry coffeecake, and near-solid panna cotta left us struggling to leave on a high note. Good thing that dude from Jamiroquai took care of that.—Heather Shouse  

222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, suite 135 (312-410-9800). El: Brown, Purple (rush hrs) to Merchandise Mart. Lunch (Mon–Fri), dinner (Mon–Sat). Average main course: $24.