“ I ’m not really dependent to be in this article , ” Brian Fisher says before accept another sip of Ovum Riesling . It ’s one of several natural wine-coloured that is on the list at the newly openedEntente . The eating house is the first to have the 34 - year - erstwhile chef ’s name moderate the bill . He ’s terrified . My presence , under the veiled guise that I ’m rounding up Chicago ’s up - and - coming chefs , does n’t serve calm his nerves . The wine , though , does . “ I just do n’t finger like I ’m there yet . ”

Gallus gallus liver hair gel top with concord grape fix and sign - made bread that taste like a grown - up monkey nut butter and jelly sandwich betrays his " not really qualified " statement . Then again , Fisher has always permit his food do the talking – from now - close Maverick in San Francisco with Matt Brimer ( presently executive chef atHaven ) and Joshua Pinsky ( presently executive chef atMomofuku Nishi ) to his most late Erolia minutilla as consulting chef atWicker Park’sSaved by the Bellpop - up . The thaumaturgy now is find his voice , after playing 2d fiddle to some of the country ’s best chefs for the past decade . The most overshadowing of which is his former boss , wise man , and , in a lot of manner , a reflection of himself : Michael Carlson .

“ He comes off a little burly , but he ’s a teddy bear , ” Carlson says of Fisher . “ He start out rather shy , and that does n’t hold rightful to too many people who come through here . As he bloom as a chef , he also became more upcoming with his personality . He ’s just a tiptop - heavy hombre in every facet . ”

Brian Fisher

Jim Vondruska/Thrillist

“ you may see passion and true curiosity with everything [ Fisher ] does . He knows his shit and is pretty small when asked about what he does . It ’s this humbleness that make it leisurely to operate with or for him . ” - Won Kim of Kimski

Fisher spent four years in Carlson ’s closet - sized kitchen at Schwa – an almost unheard of amount of time , unless you have “ executive chef ” in your statute title – working his elbow room up from line cook to chef de cuisine of the Michelin - asterisk restaurant . It was the creativity , camaraderie , and Carlson that kept him there for so long . Fisher ’s fellow Captain Cook became his adoptive fellowship ( his female parent died when he was young and , since then , he ’s bounced from city to city , until he found the sensory faculty of house he was looking for in the culinary manufacture ) .

“ I would n’t be here having this conversation with you if it was n’t for Carlson . I owe everything to him , ” Fisher says . Carlson taught him more than the skills he needed to feed his own kitchen , but also the grandness of hospitality . “ One of the first things he ever said to me is , ‘ There ’s no reason that someone who does the same occupation we do ca n’t come and eat here , even if they ca n’t afford it , ’ ” Fisher says in reference to Carlson ’s habit of let cooks from other restaurants eat at Schwa for complimentary . “ multitude do n’t give whoreson away at restaurants – it ’s the antithesis of what we should do – and that ’s when it reach me : It ’s not about money , success , and renown . It ’s about doing something really well and share that with people who give a fuck . ”

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Halibut at Entente|Matt Meschede

Fisher probably would have stay at Schwa another four age if Carlson had n’t showed him the threshold . Not in a " pack your tweezers and go " way . More a mama bird push baby Bronx cheer out of the nest move . “ you may only hope the best for the little birds when they leave the nest , ” Carlson tell . rather of flying , Fisher barricaded himself in his apartment for a month . He was afraid , he hark back , so accustomed to his mean solar day - to - solar day routine at Schwa that he did n’t know who he was as a chef or a person without it . It took fellow chef and friend Won Kim ofKimskito get out him out of his reclusion and back into the kitchen .

Together they cooked a pop - up dinner at atHaywood Tavernthis past January . It was an opportunity for Fisher to put the thought he had been playing around with in his head for the past few month onto plates . It was a shit show , according to Fisher – cooking for a full dining room in an unfamiliar kitchen with constituent that he had to expect his chef friends to arrange on his behalf .

“ I was raging and ready to not do it by the third twenty-four hours of homework , ” he recalls . But Fisher pull through and pop the question Chicago its first taste ofhisfood – everything bagel with spice - cured Salmon River and cream cheese spuma , pork cheek pozole with hominy and Persea Americana , and cereal grass milk served as a gelatinlike bar . It was a huge success , according to Kim , “ you’re able to see passion and true curiosity with everything he does . He knows his bastard and is pretty humble when expect about what he does . It ’s this humility that makes it gentle to puzzle out with or for him . ”

brian Fisher

Jim Vondruska/Thrillist

Despite all but swearing off pop - ups after the one - night dinner , Fisher ended up back in the temporary eatery biz five months afterward , when a friend at Goose Island threw his name into the ring to create the menu for an accurate replica of The Max diner inSaved by the Bell . “ I grew up watching the show and I thought it would be fun , ” he says .

So , he agreed to launch the kitchen of the throwback diner – cherry-red vinyl group booths , linoleum tables , atomic number 10 pink lights , the works . The conception of dishes such as Snow White and the Seven Dorks ( Lebanese seven - spiced chicken wings ) , Preppy BLT ( pork belly , Kewpie mayonnaise , gem lettuce , and tomato ) , and The Kelly Kapowski ( prosciutto , Gruyere cheese , mayonnaise , and table mustard sandwich with spiced maple syrup ) happened under less wholesome circumstances . “ I got really gamy and I think , ‘ If I were to go to a diner right now , what would I eat ? ’ That ’s precisely what ’s on the fare , ” Fisher says . “ I ’m pretty sure people take care at me like an dickhead for doing that . ”

His next move had to be a big one , into a real restaurant , where he can serve his food to a bunch of eager dining car , who are there to eat up it and not just goggle at vintage photos of A.C. Slater . That ’s where owner Ty Fujimura comes in . A collaboration dinner at Fujimura ’s restaurantArami , followed by a series of post - shift sake deliveries to Schwa , led to a friendship between the restaurateur and chef . When it come time for Fisher to open his own station , he approached Fujimura with a concept that walk the short letter between fine - dining restaurant and neighborhood hangout , with playfulness nutrient and a vibrant bar yet faultless service . “ The stars totally aligned , ” Fujimura says . “ He was looking for a slur , I had a spot and wanted to do something different . ”

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Saved by the Max|Jim Vondruska/Thrillist

A dewy-eyed bowl of Carolina Gold rice is upgraded with drib of duck’s egg ball yolk and truffle shavings , while volaille breasts are brine in chai tea leaf and served alongside curry and coffee bean . The simpleness adds another layer to Fisher ’s intrigue . It ’s fancy food for not - so - fancy eater .

There ’s a curveball in this equating , and that ’s the eatery ’s location : 3056 N. Lincoln Ave . It is formerly the family of Fujimura ’s restaurant Ani , a sister spot to Arami in West Town that lasted two old age . There ’s a Starbuck ’s on the corner and Jimmy John ’s across the street . It ’s not on the dot a mulct - dining destination . Hell , it ’s not even a regular dining destination . It ’s a dead zone between hustle Belmont and the more vibrant block of Lincoln that is home toDelilah’sandBarrelhouse Flat . It stand for the team must tardily build combine with a clientele that might not know what “ born wine-colored ” is ( essentially wine made with small interference , unreal component , or chemicals ) or desire to rust sweetbreads . Fisher toes the business by using familiar component with elevated grooming and presentations , while Fujimura pull in certain the stave is educated about every element of every dish antenna as well as every vino on the lean .

The words “ approachable ” and “ dim-witted ” are apt in describing Fisher ’s food at Entente . There ’s a hamburger , but there ’s also duck with smoked blackberries and miso yogurt . The grinder salad is a sliced head of cabbage with the shopping centre cut out . It looks like a donut . The lettuce round is garnish with a mosaic of bacon , gorgonzola , and croutons with green goddess stuffing fill the yap in the middle . A mere bowl of Carolina Gold Timothy Miles Bindon Rice is upgraded with drops of duck’s egg bollock yolk and truffle shavings , while chicken breasts are brine in chai teatime and served alongside curry and java . The simpleness adds another layer to Fisher ’s intrigue . It ’s fancy nutrient for not - so - fancy eater .

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Carolina Gold at Entente|Matt Meschede

Will this delicate rest of high - end food in a casual restaurant with footer ingredients transformed by epicurean techniques read to the diner , or just provide them in a disoriented culinary haze ? Will they care about food for thought that looks like it should be serve on snowy tablecloths alongside a nursing bottle of wine that costs as much as your snag , but instead is offered a la carte for about $ 18 dollars per plate ? Will they even know who Brian Fisher is ? Therein lie the source of the uncertainness that sustain cower its agency into our conversation in between tracks of Chance the Rapper ’s “ Coloring Book ” album . We ’re on our second glass of wine and Fisher is still trying to calculate out who else is on my imaginary “ practiced new chef ” listing . I turn his curiosity on him , require him how he compares himself to other Chicago chefs .

“ I do n’t , ” Fisher says ( although his harping on the other chef on my radar suggests otherwise ) . “ If I were to do that , I would never do anything . I would be too wrapped up in my own head , too nervous . If I were to sit and equate myself to other people , I ’d in all probability kill myself . ” Enter pastry dough chef Mari Katsumura , quite literally , with a plate of lime green gel that look like muck but tastes like benny , soy , and nasturtium . Like Fisher , much of her career has been delineate by the household - name chefs she influence for . These names let in Curtis Duffy atGrace , Ryan McCaskey atAcadia , and Dana Cree atBlackbird . Their menus , both savory and sweet , were not entirely their own , dictated by the chefs who they report to , until Entente . Together , her and Fisher are stumbling across the finish line that is having open up their first eating house .

“ I have emphatically never knead with anybody exactly like Fisher , ” Katsumura says . “ He ’s a free liveliness , very driven , A-one - originative – kind of like a savant , still - genius eccentric of cat – things just organically come about and you do n’t really know where they come in from , but they are so brilliant and perfect . ”

brian fisher

Jim Vondruska/Thrillist

As Carlson taught him , being a great chef has less to do with what ’s on the menu and more to do with how multitude feel while deplete it . Fisher ’s favorite moments at Schwa were the mo after the meal , when satisfied diners made their way back into the kitchen to partake in a pellet or beer with the faculty . eve , filled with gula and nimiety , flex into parties , Fisher withdraw . It ’s an atmosphere Fisher strives to replicate in the Entente kitchen . “ That ’s always been my favourite affair about kitchens – that hour you drop bullshitting at the closing of the dark , just bullshitting and talk about food for thought , ” he says . “ That ’s where some of the proficient ideas come from . ”

An hr has passed since we sat down at what will be the chef ’s table , made from a single slice of a fallen tree , the jagged edge of the bark still intact . I ’m no more convinced that I can make the suit for Fisher being Chicago ’s next great chef than he can for himself . Carlson calls this trait in Fisher “ seriousness . ” I call it a bloody hard audience , so I turn off my registrar as a farmer comes in with a boxful of crosshatch chilies . Fisher picks up a green one and immediately begin spitballing ideas : hot sauce or green curry or green curry hot sauce . He orders the last of this season ’s supply before turning his attention back to me . “ I do n’t desire to be in an article about me , ” he suppose as I attempt to squeeze one last drop of wine-colored from my empty glass . “ That would be strange , very unknown . ” Sorry , bud , it ’s all about you , and the great unwashed are definitely go to give a fuck .

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