The Grand Lux Cafe: Convenient Culinary Tourism

Meredith Ashton

Restaurant Review Part III

3 November 2016

The Grand Lux Café: Convenient Culinary Tourism

I expected the Grand Lux Café to blow me away with decadence. The very name bespoke lavish luxury, and the familiar-yet-foreign menu items promised an exhilarating exercise in culinary tourism. The Lux met my expectations for grandeur. All that the menu boasted arrived in even larger portion sizes than the online pictures, and the vast majority of the dishes tasted as good as they looked.

I initially questioned whether the Grand Lux could pull off their international, globe-trotting theme. How could a restaurant offering quite literally everything have a personalized atmosphere? I was pleasantly surprised to discover that after being in the grand dining room and chiseling away at the mighty appetizers, the restaurant did have its own ambiance. It was a large and noisy venue and the menu items were a bit scattered. However, the large windows overlooking the cityscape and the diversity of interesting entrees made for a dining experience unique to the Lux.

While I found the Lux to have a specific ambiance, I would not describe it as global cuisine. At first, I was skeptical that a single restaurant could truly offer the flavors of the world. The Grand Lux is a shining example of Long’s “familiar to exotic continuum” in the work Culinary Tourism. The restaurant offers a true food tourism experience, and the most prominent national flavor of all, surprisingly, is that of “traditional” American cuisine. Guests can sample “exotic” ingredients and dishes such as miso and kogi-style marinated short rib under the familiar structure of more traditional American cuisine such as burgers and ribs and salmon. For example, the Lux took an “exotic” ingredient such as miso and, in the case of my dinner, used it as a glaze for a salmon, a fish that many Americans consider edible and delicious.

The restaurant presents a very convenient type of tourism, the kind where American tourists can casually consume the cuisine of other countries while traipsing about the Midwestern city of Chicago. By striving to present “seductive flavor profiles” from around the globe, as the menu suggests, the Grand Lux does not succeed in authentically presenting any culture, aside from that of American culinary tourism.

After this assignment, I have definitely become more aware of my tourist’s gaze and the role that it plays in how I interact with my world and my food. In fact, I realized  that while at the Lux, I chose my dishes in regards to what would be “the most different.” I wanted to consume a truly radical experience apart from the everyday.

This is also a reason why guests attend restaurants: an exotic escape. As escaping from culinary tourism is nearly impossible, I think it’s important that if I am engaging in it, I do it with full awareness and intentionality. I visited the Grand Lux with the understanding that I was undertaking a global taste-test, but also that this “test” was primarily an American construct. Coincidentally, this construct happened to make for a pretty delicious dinner.

"Grand-Casual" Cuisine

Meredith Ashton

Restaurant Review

2 November 2016

“Grand-Casual” Cuisine

In 1949 Evelyn Overton made a cheesecake for her husband’s boss. It must have been one hell of a cheesecake, as this single dessert spawned The Cheesecake Factory, an international empire of chain restaurants fueled by customers’ love of ridiculously large portions. Evelyn’s son, David, designed the Grand Lux Café as a sibling chain to its famed counterpart, offering a slightly pricier menu of seafood and steaks than its more appetizer-and-burger focused antecedent. While pricier, the Lux most definitely stays true to the tradition of large serving sizes.  

Grand Lux Cafe Las Vegas

The first Grand Lux Café opened in Las Vegas in 1999 at the famed Venetian Resort, Hotel, & Casino, where it fit the Vegas vibe of excess and splendor. Inspired by extensive European touring, the menu features “seductive flavor profiles” from around the globe, blending the grandeur of Europe with the more casual American dining experience. Chicago’s Grand Lux, the third location to open in the United States, aptly holds real estate on the famed Magnificent Mile.

The Grand Lux embodies the spirit of its birthplace and founders, presenting an incredible feast for the senses as well as the stomach. The restaurant offers a fun dining experience for special occasions, but most definitely borders on the excessive for the everyday dinner.

Only a three hour train ride from Kalamazoo, The Grand Lux Café is an excellent place to dine, but perhaps on someone else’s bill. Typical entrees on the menu range between $25-$35 dollars, and the restaurant is considered to be “upscale-casual” dining.

While the restaurant’s website describes its dining as “casual,” in actuality the term applies very loosely to the Grand Lux experience. The large venue and extensive menu provide something for everyone, however, the only cohesion between the dishes and the décor seems to be the excessive decadence.

Indeed, it is a sensory experience to simply reach the dinner table. Guests begin in the restaurant’s large, street-level foyer with marble walls detailed in shimmering gold accents, the noisy din of the restaurant floating down from the floor above. While the business does not accept reservations, it is generally between a half hour to an hour wait for a table on a Friday night. From here, guests ascend to the restaurant’s main floor via escalator (much to the delight of the eatery’s younger clientele).  Here guests are greeted with an onslaught of rapidly moving waiters, the clatter of cutlery and customer chatter, and the tantalizing aromas wafting from the open kitchen.

Grand Lux Cafe Chicago

The Grand Lux boasts more than 500 seats, spread strategically throughout a handful of cavernous dining rooms. I suggest you take a minute and drink it all in—admiring the large, hand-blown glass light fixtures and chandeliers draped from the ceiling, illuminating the intricate murals of geometric patterns and classical cultural scenes. The decadent décor is dizzying. Fortunately, the restaurant contains multiple spaces adjacent to the central dining room that are more intimate, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Chicago’s evening skyline, with the pulsing electric signs and headlights from the street traffic below lighting the cozy-leather-lined booth.

The Grand Lux’s menu is both daunting and oxymoronic.

Self-described as globe-trotting “grand-casual” food, for the unprepared diner the  diverse selection can be overwhelming. The thick menu spans from salads to pizzas to burgers to steaks to desserts, with quite a few more “grand casual” cuisine options in-between. Dishes such as Asian Nachos, Korean Fried Chicken “Burrito,” Thai Fried Chicken, Monte Cristo Sandwich, and Indochine Shrimp and Chicken blur the line of traditional “American” cuisine by combining international ingredients and techniques with familiar dishes. The emphasis is clearly on constructing what is familiar, and in no way could the Lux’s “international” cuisine stand up to a restaurant focused on a single ethnic cuisine.

The Creamy Spinach & Cheese Dip arrives in a bowl the size of a soccer ball. In addition to its wide girth, the dish delivers in the cheesiness department, offering a rich and creamy mixture of spinach and various slightly salty cheeses. The spicy bite of the accompanying chunky salsa adds a surprising accent to the otherwise mellow dish. In comparison to the large allotment of dip, the chips are lacking in number as well as salt, which seems an odd area in which to skimp.

It was after the appetizer that our server, who had been polite but disengaged, was suddenly substituted for a younger, far more enthusiastic (and close-talking) waiter who filled our glasses after every few sips. The food came very quickly, with little thought to the pacing of the meal for the guests. We were still wading through the spinach dip when our entrees arrived.

Miso Glazed Salmon

The Grand Lux is known for their specialty meat and seafood dishes. The Miso Glazed Salmon with rice and stir-fried vegetables presents an interesting interpretation of the classic “American” dish with Japanese-inspired culinary elements. The fish arrives in a generous wedge covered in a sticky miso-caramelized glaze with stir-fried green-and-orange veggies artfully sprinkled around the base. Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans and barley malt. The salmon absorbs the sweet-and-sour miso flavor and is so perfectly cooked that it falls off the fork upon carving into the fish. The sauce ties the salmon together with the stir-fried veggies, which offer a light crunch to the fish, and the rice creates a lovely, although bland, base for the rest of the flavorful dish.

The Parmesan Crusted Pork Chop announces its arrival on the table with a heavy thud. The large portion of pork casually leans against a mountainous heap of mashed potatoes, roasted and butter-soaked Brussels sprouts, and well-cooked carrots. The garlic-buttered breadcrumb crust adds a delicious crunch to the tender pork beneath. However, the accompanying cooked carrots are reduced to a tasteless mush, which is a true tragedy compared to the rest of the dish.

 

New Orleans Beignets

 For guests with second stomachs, the Grand Lux has an in-house bakery from which customers can order directly. The New Orleans Beignets have a light and fluffy consistency—contrary to their heavier cousin, the donut. These fried dough-balls are sprinkled with confectioners sugar and, as with everything at the Grand Lux, it is difficult to just eat one. Fortunately for guests, this dessert comes in a heaping-full basket with an abundance of sauces for one’s dipping pleasure. While the chocolate sauce is solidified and the strawberry sauce a sickly sweet concoction, the yellow cream is the perfect compliment for beignet-dipping.

The Grand Lux is the place for a pleasant sensory overload: a fully-body dining experience. The fainter of heart, or those simply desiring a reasonably-portioned, lighter meal should look elsewhere. The Lux has definitely supersized since the days of Evelyn’s single cheesecake.

The Grand Lux Cafe: "Grand-Casual" Excess

Meredith Ashton

Restaurant Review

22 October 2016

The Grand Lux Café: “Grand-Casual” Excess

In 1949 Evelyn Overton made a cheesecake for her husband’s boss. It must have been one hell of a cheesecake, as this single dessert spawned The Cheesecake Factory, an international empire of chain restaurants fueled by customers’ love of ridiculously large portions. Evelyn’s son, David, designed the Grand Lux Café as a sibling chain to its famed counterpart, offering a slightly pricier menu of seafood and steaks than its more appetizer-and-burger focused antecedent.

The first Grand Lux Café opened in Las Vegas in 1999 at the famed Venetian Resort, Hotel, & Casino, where it fit the Vegas vibe of excess and splendor. Inspired by extensive European touring, the menu features “seductive flavor profiles” from around the globe, blending the grandeur of Europe with the more casual American dining experience. Chicago’s Grand Lux was the third location to open in the US.

Grand Lux Cafe Las Vegas

The Grand Lux embodies the spirit of its birthplace and founders, presenting an incredible feast for the senses as well as the stomach. The restaurant offers a fun dining experience for special occasions, but most definitely borders on the excessive for the everyday dinner.

The self-prescribed term “casual” is used very loosely to refer to Grand Lux dining.

The large venue and extensive menu provide “something for everyone,” however, the only cohesion between the dishes and the décor seems to be the elements of excessive decadence and portion sizes.

Indeed, it was a sensory experience to just make it to my dinner table. I started in the restaurant’s large, street-level foyer with marble walls detailed in shimmering gold accents, the noisy din of the restaurant floating down from the floor above. Next, I ascended to the restaurant’s mail floor via escalator (much to the delight of the little girl behind me—escalators are very exciting.) I was greeted with an onslaught of rapidly moving waiters, the clatter of cutlery and customer chatter, and the tantalizing aromas wafting from the open kitchen. While the business does not accept reservations, it was only a twenty minute wait for a table, which is excellent for a Friday night in Chicago.

The Grand Lux boasts more than 500 seats, spread strategically throughout a handful of cavernous dining rooms. I suggest you take a minute and drink it all in. If you’re like me, you’ll probably shamelessly spin in a full 360—admiring the large hand-blown glass light fixtures and chandeliers draped from the ceiling, illuminating the intricate murals of geometric patterns and classical cultural scenes. The decadent décor was dizzying. It was with a sigh of relief that I retreated into the haven of my little booth in an adjacent space set apart from the central dining room. This smaller room was more intimate, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Chicago’s evening skyline; the lightly pulsing electric signs and headlights from the street traffic below charmingly lit up our cozy-leather-lined booth.

The Grand Lux’s menu is both daunting and oxymoronic.

Self-described as globe-trotting “grand-casual” food, for the unprepared diner the  diverse selection can be overwhelming. Many items on the menu blur the line of traditional “American” cuisine by combining foreign ingredients and techniques with familiar dishes.  While, in general, the Grand Lux excels with its main courses, the accompanying side dishes do not receive the same level of attention and detail in the kitchen.

The emphasis is clearly on constructing what is familiar, and in no way could the Lux’s “international” cuisine stand up to a restaurant focused on a single ethnic cuisine.

The Creamy Spinach & Cheese Dip arrived in what could best be described as a large ceramic vat. In addition to its wide girth, the dish delivered in the cheesiness department, offering a rich and creamy mixture of spinach and various cheeses. The spicy bite of the accompanying salsa added a surprising accent to the otherwise savory dish. There were, unfortunately, hardly enough chips to finish half the dish, and neither were said tortillas salted, which seemed an odd area in which to skimp.

It was after the appetizer that our server, who had been polite but disengaged, was suddenly substituted for a younger, far more enthusiastic (and close-talking) waiter who filled our glasses after every few sips. The food came very quickly, with little thought to the pacing of the meal for the guests. We were still wading through the spinach dip when our entrees arrived.

Miso Glazed Salmon

The Grand Lux is known for their meat and seafood, so I gamely trudged through several pages of the menu until I found their specialty dishes. The Miso Glazed Salmon with rice and stir-fried vegetables presented an interesting take on a classic “American” dish with Japanese-inspired culinary elements. Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans and barely malt, and while I had enjoyed miso soup before, I was a tad skeptical about smothering it on a fish. It turned out to be freaking delicious. The salmon absorbed the sweet-and-sour miso flavor and was so perfectly cooked that it fell off my fork upon carving into the fish. The sauce tied the salmon together with the accompanying stir-fried veggies, which offered a light crunch to the fish, and the rice, while nothing noteworthy, created a lovely, although bland, base for the rest of the flavorful dish.

I’ll preface my description of the Parmesan Crusted Pork Chop with a confession: I am a lifelong vegetarian of nearly twenty years. As such, take it as you will when I say that the garlic-buttered breadcrumb crust added a delicious crunch to the tender pork beneath. It was one of the few meat dishes that I would like to try again. The accompanying cooked carrots, however, were reduced to a tasteless mush, a true tragedy compared to the rest of the dish.

New Orleans Beignets

For guests with second stomachs, the Grand Lux has an in-house bakery from which customers can order directly. I was intrigued by the New Orleans Beignets on the menu, and a quick internet search identified them as “fried squares of dough sprinkled with confectioners sugar.” In a serendipitous turn of events, I discovered that beignets are, in fact, just fancy donuts! I might even venture to say that they’re slightly superior to their rich cousins, as their light and fluffy consistency allows the guest to consume the entire basket of the round, powdered sugar dough-balls (or at least, that was my experience) after the enormous entrée course. While the chocolate sauce was solidified and the strawberry sauce a sickly sweet concoction, the yellow cream was the perfect compliment for beignet-dipping.

After the final dessert course, if you’re not absolutely stuffed to the brim with food, then you haven’t done the Grand Lux correctly. For me, it was a pleasant sensory overload soaked in creamy cheese dip and savory miso sauce, sprinkled with confectioners sugar. If you’re looking for a stimulating, full-body dining experience, then The Grand Lux Cafe is the place for you. As for the fainter of heart, or those simply desiring a reasonably-portioned, lighter meal, I would suggest looking elsewhere. The Lux has definitely super-sized since the days of Evelyn’s single cheesecake.

The Grand Lux Cafe: An "Upscale-Casual" Eatery?

Meredith Ashton

Restaurant Review Expectations

21 October 2016

The Grand Lux Café: An “Upscale-Casual” Eatery?

            The phrase “Grand Lux” inspires images of soaring white columns, well-dressed waiters bearing bow ties (and perhaps English accents), and a menu so extravagant it couldn’t possibly be written in a language as common as English. Conversely, the term “café” bespeaks sipping coffee and nibbling on fresh pastries at a quaint wooden table overlooking the French countryside. These two contrasting images are my first impressions of The Grand Lux Café, the restaurant I have chosen for my first (and hopefully not last) culinary review.

            With a little internet investigation, I learned that The Grand Lux Café was created by the founders of The Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant that I have visited with my family several times. My experience with The Cheesecake Factory can be summed up nicely by the phrase “luxurious excess.” It is soaring white pillars and chandeliers dripping with fake crystals and salads that towered so high I moaned thinking about eating the ensuing entrée course, let alone the famed dessert itself. I did, however, always find room for that Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake at the end of my Cheesecake Factory escapades. Drawing upon this past experience, I expect The Grand Lux to embody a similar excess of décor and portion size.

            Upon further research, I learned that the Café boasts an incredible diversity of international cuisine, calling itself “a world of food.” As such, I expect a menu overflowing with unique ethnic flavors, speaking to my desire for the exotic and unknown (all in the comfortable familiarity of an American chain restaurant, of course). I am hopeful that the plethora of international cuisines will serve as a gateway into new culinary dishes and experiences for myself and my readers. Because The Grand Lux is a national chain, I anticipate that the food, while foreign, will be created and marketed so as to be edible and familiar to Americans across the country. This bounty of other-but-familiar food has the potential to be overwhelming, especially as the sheer variety of cuisines will make it difficult to pick specific dishes from the menu for my review. In addition, the pictures online speak to the Café’s decadent architecture and layout. I’m thankful to have done a bit of initial research, as this will help me steel myself against the seduction of the Café’s impressive grandeur.

            It seems as though my initial contrasting images of the business were even more complex than I originally postulated. Any restaurant describing itself with the phrase “upscale-casual” is bound to blur the lines of traditional eatery expectations. Furthermore, I am both skeptical and curious to observe if the restaurant can pull off its theme of, well, representing the entire world. How can I, as either an avid eater or an aspiring restaurant critic, put a distinctive flavor to an establishment that claims to offer every desired taste and cuisine in the world? If I am truly preparing to review “a world of food, then I will strive to enter The Grand Lux Café with an open mind and an empty stomach.