Rootstock is a Very Good Restaurant

TL;DR

We went to Rootstock and had a fantastic meal last night. They’re consistently one of my favorite restaurants in the city. The agnolotti on the menu right now is outstanding, and if you see it this week, I think you should try it. Pictures, in order: Cute wine shot (post-sip), greens, bread & butter, oysters, roasted sturgeon, and agnolotti. That + six glasses of wine came to $240 after tip.

More, if you feel like indulging me:

A few years ago, my wife and I were lucky enough to visit both the South of France and Paris. I had always heard, as I’m sure most of us have, that French food is the pinnacle of Western cooking. Going in, I assumed it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype. Long story short—it did. The food we ate that summer was vibrant and exciting. It felt seasonal, always perfectly seasoned, and the flavors were never dull.

Can I confidently say I’d prefer the food I had in France over, say, the food I’ve had in CDMX or Tokyo? No. But can I confidently say it embodies a style of cooking I really, really love? Absolutely.

I’m not sure if Rootstock, located on a dark and quiet corner of California and Augusta, considers itself a “Modern French” restaurant. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. For my money, I haven’t been to a restaurant that more closely resembles the food we had during that summer in France. Lucky for me, I live a short walk from what might just be this near-perfect restaurant. We had dinner there last night, and it was fantastic.

I’m not sure there are too many things I love more than taking a short walk through a cold, snowy night and warming up inside a dimly lit, small Chicago restaurant. Lucky for us, Chicago has quite a few these days. Bar seats. Always.

Rootstock is a wine-focused bar, and their selection is varied and impressive. I particularly like that they carry quite a few (maybe even exclusively?) natural wines. Everything we drank was delicious and bright. No “notes of tobacco” and nothing described as “obtuse.” Perfect (for us- YMMV).

We start most of our meals at Rootstock the same: Greens. Oysters. This time we added bread and butter. The greens are simple—tossed in olive oil, lemon juice, some sort of salty Italian cheese, and plenty of salt. Not enough places season their greens. Rootstock does. Rootstock is a very good restaurant.

The thick-cut sourdough was served with whipped Tulip Tree Foxglove butter doused in toasted sesame seeds and honey. A surprise hit. Sweet, salty, savory, creamy, crunchy goodness. I could eat way too much of this stuff. Also, look at that plate!

The oysters were oysters. I like oysters. You like oysters. Order oysters.

Next, and here's where the meal really kicks into high gear, the roasted sturgeon. Served on top of poached leeks, roasted sunchokes, uni, hazelnut purée with wine, and topped with sunchoke chips, this dish was hitting on all the senses. The crispy chips played foil to the melty leeks and grounded the oceany sauce that cradled our flaky fish. I must confess—I couldn’t really tell you where the uni went in this dish, but our best guess is that it was worked into the sauce, as there was a lovely oceany creaminess at the bottom of the bowl. This dish was a huge success and yet, somehow, was slightly outshined by the pasta course.

The agnolotti was, in a word, spectacular. Served as one long piece of filled pasta, this banger of a dish was adorned with black truffle, braised burdock, pear molasses, and crushed Marcona almonds. Oh, and it was filled with Rush Creek Reserve, which maintained a delicious custardy texture while delivering funky, earthy notes to the dish. The burdock and truffle complemented these earthy notes beautifully, while the pops of pear provided a much-welcome punch of sweetness and a little bit of acid. Hazelnuts are crunchy. Crunchy is good. The dish, as whole, was very good. I won't be surprised if it ends up being one of my favorite dishes of 2025. Nice start to the year.

An overall delicious meal that left us full, happy, and feeling as lucky as ever to live in a city as full of incredible food as Chicago.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.