First Look: Province

It’s a double-edged sword. When you’re executive chef at a long-running, well-known restaurant, everybody knows who you are, if not by name, then by your style of food. And that’s just the trouble: Everybody knows you by only that style of food. So it’s really no surprise that after a decade at Nacional 27, Lettuce Entertain You’s Nuevo Latino concept, Randy Zweiban (pictured) was eager to strike out on his own at his now month-old American cafe, Province.

"I’ve always dreamed about having my own restaurant, and I felt like at Nacional 27 that I was sort of in a box, sort of having to cook food that was only inspired by those regions," he says. "I wanted to be in a setting where I could do modern American food and use [Latin] flavors as a complement to it—not just have that be the only thing that I did."

Confesssion: We’re as guilty as anyone of putting the guy in a box. When someone’s been cooking at the same place for so long—and doing it so well—it’s hard not to compartmentalize a bit. But our preconceptions had an unintended benefit: They made Province that much more surprising.

The name says it all. At 49, with decades of experience behind him, Zweiban finally has his own Province—and his own province. His West Loop domain is a casual spot, the sort of versatile space where you can grab a burger after work or plan a second date on a Friday night. It’s also a green place, designed top-to-bottom with sustainability in mind, from the cork floors and tabletops to the all-draft beer list from Indiana brewery Three Floyds.

Now that he has a free hand in the kitchen, Zweiban goes out of his way to acquaint you with his flavors. The dinner menu is designed for extensive sampling, with dishes divided into six main categories: bites, raw, soups and salads, small, big and bigger. Though the setup has free-for-all potential, servers work hard to control the progression and pace so the experience feels more like a multicourse meal than a never-ending snack.

A penchant for blending American with Spanish and South American flavors shows up from the get-go in bites ($3 each) such as fall squash taquitos and pork bocadillos, little sandwiches of Cuban pulled pork, pepper jack cheese and Creole mustard aioli on melt-in-your-mouth toasted brioche buns.

The raw section showcases oysters, sashimi and ceviches ($7-$8), including a sable ceviche made with cold-smoked fish that provides a nice counterpoint to briny green olives and faintly sweet papaya. Soups and salads ($7-$8) include a popular blood orange and herbed goat cheese number, while small courses ($7-$9) bring on one of the best dishes we tried: sweet, subtly spiced shrimp over creamy organic grits ($9).

Though Zweiban starts strong enough, he’s really in his element by the time you reach the big and bigger dishes. Tender, slow-cooked beef cheeks arrive in a rich veal and red wine reduction spiked with a hint of cocoa ($13), and salmon is slow-cooked in a low-temp, steam-injected oven, then seared to form a crisp crust on top before it’s drizzled with tangy red wine mojo (half-portion $12, full $22). If you only have room for one big dish, make it the lamb shoulder, braised for 10 hours and served in a reduction of its own juices over a mix of cornbread, homemade chorizo and Chinese eggplant (half-portion $12, full $22).

It may be Zweiban’s Province, but we’re glad he’s willing to share.

M. Kathleen Pratt is the Metromix dining producer. kpratt@tribune.com

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