Cabra

Cabra puts a Peruvian-inspired menu on the rooftop of The Hoxton in Chicago’s West Loop. Chef Stephanie Izard leads the restaurant with Boka Restaurant Group partners Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm, and the house explicitly organizes its food for sharing. The rooftop and city views give the meal a distinctive setting, while the cooking provides enough contrast to keep the occasion from relying on the view alone. Its identity is an interpretation of Peruvian flavors through this kitchen, rather than a promise to reproduce every preparation in a traditional form.

The dinner menu moves between ceviche, composed salads, empanadas and grilled dishes. Bass ceviche combines sweet potato, leche de tigre and crisp cancha; shrimp ceviche uses ají panca and avocado. A mushroom ceviche brings peppers, cipollini onions and smoked dashi into the same part of the meal. Crab causa pairs whipped potato with huacatay and crisp tempura pieces. These preparations give a table ways to compare acidity, potatoes, seafood and vegetables without repeating one dish in several versions. A goat empanada or chicken-thigh skewer adds a warmer preparation alongside the colder plates.

Larger choices include pollo a la brasa with fingerling potatoes and ají verde, or steak and salmon saltado served with crisp tater tots, peppers, tomatoes and onions. Vegetable sides allow the table to build contrast around those mains. Picarones, sweet-potato doughnuts with spiced gastrique and puffed rice, extend the Peruvian references to dessert. Cabra adds a four-percent surcharge that may be removed on request. It suits friends or a couple who want a rooftop dinner with a menu designed to pass between diners. The most coherent order pairs a fresh or acidic preparation with something grilled or crisp, allowing the shared meal to develop its own rhythm.

Sources: Cabra Chicago: restaurant, services and contact · Cabra Chicago: team and approach · Cabra Chicago: dinner menu embedded on its website · Cabra: Google Maps listing