Lettuce Entertain You with a new Hat Dance

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 1, 1988 by Carolyn Walkup

Lettuce Entertain You with a new Hat Dance

Melman's newest endeavor offers unique Mexican concept

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Richard Melman's well-known restaurant group, has converted the former site of the briefly fashionable Cucina Cucina to a new Mexican-style night spot that defies easy categorization.

The Melman group acquired the site last year from Roger Greenfield, as his mini-empire was collapsing, and reopened it here as Hat Dance in January.

Before falling into bankruptcy, Greenfield's collection of high-profile restaurants included, in addition to Cucina Cucina, Dixie Bar & Grill and Coyote Grill.

The 185-seat Hat Dance retains no hints of Cucina Cucina, nor does it resemble any other Mexican restaurant in town.

No sombreros, sarapes, or mariachi bands playing "La Cucaracha" or "Cielito Lindo" are seen at Hat Dance.

Yes, there are margaritas, tacos, chilies rellenos, and carnes asadas. But the food is not exactly what U.S. tourists would find in Mexico, or what Chicagoans have tasted in the many Mexican restaurants here.

As with most Melman restaurants, if something has been done elsewhere, LEYE avoids doing it again. The creative team may borrow bits and pieces from its research of other restaurants, but it uses them only as a starting point for its own concept.

Hat Dance managing partner John Buchanan, who first envisioned the concept seven years ago, said he had trouble in convincing Melman to do a Mexican restaurant because he thought Mexican food was too spicy.

Melman gave the Hat Dance project his approval after several chefs prepared a tasting lunch for his benefit.

Extensive research in Mexico further showed Melman that many Mexican-American restaurants merely scratch the surface of Mexican cuisine and design.

Hat Dance goes several steps beyond authenticity to adapt the food to Chicagoans' tastes.

"I will not be concerned if a knowledgeable critic comes in and says, 'This isn't authentic,'" Buchanan noted, since the food at Hat Dance is intended to taste good and look appealing.

"I have no objections to giving it a twist to make it more interesting," he said.

Three rehearsal dinners for some 1,000 LEYE employees were instrumental in refining the recipes, Buchanan said.

As a result of employees' candid comments, chef David Schy and his staff altered their original preparations of a number of dishes. They took the arugula out of the citrus salad, removed the head from the whole-roasted fish, intensified the chicken stock in the sopa de lima (chicken and lime soup), and retained everything in the pork chops adobado (grilled chops with orange zest, chile arbol, honey, spices, achiote seeds, smoked salsa, and corn pudding).

Buchanan expects the pork chops and the chile relleno (poblano pepper stuffed with chicken, olives, raisins, onions, and tomato-cinnamon broth) to become signature entrees.

A major twist to authenticity is the international influence in the raw bar, which began as a ceviche bar.

Besides a variety of marinated raw fish ceviches, the raw bar offers beef ceviche; shrimp, clam, and oyster cocktails with Mexican seasonings; various kinds of sashimi, such as tuna sashimi with wasabi sauce, avocado, and sturgeon caviar; and tartares, including sirloin tartare with Mexican herbs and capers.

Other variations are the house salad--mixed lettuces, chayote squash, radishes, tomatoes, and pepitas--and handmade french fries with chile-lime salt and Hat Dance ketchup.

Chef Schy--who previously worked for the short-lived Coyote Grill, also owned by Freenfield--researched Mexican cooking by working in five restaurant kitchens in Mexico earlier this year. LEYE corporate chefs Russell Bry and Tim Cushman also participated in creating the menu.

Buchanan predicted dinner checks would average about $15. Raw bar items are priced from $2 to $6 and entrees are $8 to $15.

The bar serves several specialty drinks, including Limon Borracho (tequila, limeade, triple sec, and Sprite) and tequila with Bull's Blood chaser (a shot of tequila followed by one of spicy sangrita, tomato juice with citrus zest). Estaben's Classic Margarita is the creation of local disc jockey Steve Dahl, a Hat Dance partner.

Beers are mostly Mexican, except for two Japanese and two U.S. brands. The initial wine list contains 18 bottled wines and only a few house wines by the glass.

The decor, suggestive of ancient and modern Mexico, is predominantly white and beige. Softly accenting the surroundings of the large multi-level dining room and bar are impressions of ancient Indian gods and pyramids, flora and fauna, colonial period architecture, and turn-of-the-century cantinas.

So subtle is the entrance that it doesn't display the name "Hat Dance" so that it's visible from the street. Instead, a neon sign contains this literary snippet, intended to attract attention: "She lifted the steaming tortilla to her voluptuously sullen lips, allowing the adventure to loll in her mouth for a moment and then . . ."

However, such clever touches do not distract Buchanan from what he thinks is Hat Dance's most vital element: "If this restaurant is successful, it's going to be because the food is good."