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28 | December 8, 2016 | The Homer Horizon dining out homerhorizon.com The Dish Adventure inspires Dancing Marlin’s menu Owner, chefs draw from experiences, creativity to craft changing cuisine Kirsten Onsgard Contributing Editor From Hawaiian shrimp trucks to Japanese street food, Dancing Marlin’s menu is a curated conglomeration of owner Ed Nemec’s culinary experiences. It is enough to warrant a running list of his ideas, culled from memorable meals and food trends. “I love bringing those flavors and those experiences from all over the country — or the world — to the Dancing Marlin,” If I have something amazing in Japan on the street, and I come back, I’m like, ‘All right, you guys, this is what I had. I don’t know how we’re going to do this.’” Thanks to Dancing Marlin’s seasonal evolutions and the occasional entrée tweak, Nemec incorporates these culture-fusing flavors into his American small plates restaurant beyond its namesake fish dishes. Dancing Marlin made its latest menu switch just this past Friday. Dancing Marlin has a few mainstay, “home run” dishes Nemec will not shelve, such as The Fig & The Pig ($11) — bacon stuffed with sausage, fig and goat cheese — and crab-stuffed peppers ($15). But even with these menu changes and no definitive style on which to fall back, Nemec said there are two things at the 3-year-old restaurant’s core: shareable dishes and unique takes on trendy global cuisine. “What can we bring to our guests that they just Dancing Marlin 20590 S. La Grange Road in Frankfort Hours • 4:30-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday • 4:30-11 p.m. Friday • 3-11 p.m. Saturday • 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (brunch), 3-8 p.m. (dinner) Sunday For more information ... Web: www.dancingmarlinrestaurant.com Phone: (815) 464-6646 can’t find anywhere else,” he asked. “And then make it shareable at the table, so that whatever comes out, it’s, ‘Hey, give me one of those,’ and, ‘Give me one of those.’” Seafood might be Dancing Marlin’s bread and butter, but this season includes heartier meat dishes, too — a counterbalance to the lighter summer fare. That means bratwurst and kielbasa seasoned, ground and cased in house by head chef. It’s a marriage of skill and flavor — “Jon loves to make sausage, and I love to eat it,” Nemec said — and, served sliced, is inherently shareable. The restaurant plans to eventually expand to apple and boar sausages. “We’re inspired by what our butchers say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this cut of meat that would be great in a sausage,’” Nemec said. Local restaurants and customers serve as inspiration for dishes, such as a roasted chicken, which is cooked sous vide and topped with a demi-glace and wild mushrooms. Nemec was wowed by a whole chicken at a Michelin-starred restaurant, which in part kick-started his drive to satisfy guests’ desire for a chicken dish. The challenge, he said, is to do things people have not had a chance to try yet. “We don’t want to do something somebody’s already done, or is kind of passé,” Nemec said. Dancing Marlin’s new, shell-on garlic shrimp is one of those. An homage to Hawaiian food trucks, it is a food throwing back to Nemec’s trips to Oahu, enjoying peel-and-eat shrimp on the beach. Dancing Marlin’s limited-time sea bass — as sweet and flaky as lobster, Nemec said — also is sourced from Hawaiian fisheries and shipped express to the restaurant. Other dishes making their debut include a New Havenstyle clam pizza, pear bruschetta and eight on-tap cocktails. Dancing Marlin also has 18 wines on tap, and is growing its budding Sunday brunch with breakfast standards, seafood and a bloody mary bar. But among these shifts is something even bigger: an expansion. Nemec said he is looking into opening a second restaurant in the suburbs — one that will be different while maintaining the ethos of Dancing Marlin. “For us to go to store No. 2, the key is, ‘Does all of this work? Does everybody get it?’” he said. “After three and a half years, we finally feel that we understand this.” For now, Nemec and his chefs are looking forward The Dancing Marlin’s chicken dinner is brined, cooked sous vide and pan-seared for a juicy center and crisp skin. It is topped with a cabernet reduction and mushrooms. Photos by Kirsten Onsgard/22nd Century Media The Japanese scallops at Dancing Marlin, 20590 S. La Grange Road in Frankfort, are seared, topped with yuzu pearls and served with potato cakes. to the next challenges, such as fish sticks and tater tots — without the jarred tartar sauce and ketchup — for the Lenten season this spring. It does not always work right away, he said, but he and his staff will be constantly tasting and tweaking. “That’s the beauty of what we do here,” he said. “It just really challenges us. We love doing that, that’s all part of the inspiration and what we do here.”
homerhorizon.com puzzles the Homer Horizon | December 8, 2016 | 29 crosstown CROSSWORD & Sudoku The crosstowns: Frankfort, Homer Glen, Lockport, Mokena, New Lenox, Orland Park, Tinley Park Crossword by Myles Mellor and Cindy LaFleur Across 1. Hot spring 4. Tricksters 8. High tech speakers 12. Southwest Asian 13. Herb 15. Not here 16. Little bison 17. Crudity 19. Disparage 20. Modigliani’s workplace 21. Fooled 22. Go through volumes 23. Buy or sell instruction on the stock market 28. Single cells 30. Real 32. Parsley bit 33. Member of a colony 34. Must have 35. Much recommended New Lenox Golf Course 39. PDQ 42. Choler 43. Heart link 47. Doctrine of inevitable social decline 49. Boredoms 50. Marshy stream 51. Sing loudly 53. Established 54. New Lenox middle school 57. “___ Traffic” 58. Relating to a replacement body part 62. Blue-pencil 63. Extent of loss 64. Choose 65. Word with dance or drive 66. Actor Mark of “The Full Monty” 67. Aplenty 68. KFC piece Down 1. Artificial tan source 2. With head held higher 3. When Purim is observed 4. Stork-like birds 5. Big underwater ray 6. Pretentious sort 7. Young herring 8. Farm call 9. Hold title to 10. SW Missouri river 11. Iris’ place 12. Buckwheat groats 14. Hawaiian necklace 18. Thug 22. Shankar lilt 24. Writer whose stories inspired “Guys and Dolls” 25. Go out 26. Mariner’s point 27. A Christmas hue 29. Cafe 30. Kenyan big game 31. Airport posting, abbr. 33. Gnawed 36. Pinch 37. Weep 38. Bloviate 39. Valentine’s Day period 40. A collection of antidotes 41. Porker’s place 44. Knighted British Indian author 45. Part of a horse-hitching device 46. Shrewd 48. Sack 49. Picks 51. Hawk 52. Decree 55. Most common in English 56. Congeal 57. Rat 58. After-school social 59. “Maggie” singer Stewart 60. Faded 61. Fox-like How to play Sudoku Each sudoku puzzle consists of a 9x9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3x3 squares. To solve the puzzle, each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. LEVEL: Medium Strike N Spare II (811 Northern Drive, Lockport; (708) 301-1477) ■9:30 ■ p.m.-12:30 a.m. Mondays: Quartermania ■Fridays: ■ Live bands FRANKFORT Pete Mitchell’s Bar & Grill (21000 Frankfort Square Road, Frankfort; (815) 464-8100) ■6-8 ■ p.m. Wednesdays: Free N’ Fun Bar Game. Sudoku by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan answers HOMER GLEN Mullets Sports Bar and Restaurant (14903 S. Bell Road, Homer Glen; (708) 645- 7000) ■7 ■ p.m. Wednesdays: Trivia LOCKPORT The Outpost Pub & Grill (14929 Archer Ave., Lockport; (815) 836- 8893) ■8 ■ p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays: Live DJ and Karaoke ORLAND PARK Dan ‘D’ Jac’s (9358 171st St., Orland Hills; (708) 460-8773) ■Thursdays: ■ Friday and Saturday: Whirlwind karaoke ■Wednesdays: ■ Open mic comedy night with host Ray Fischer TINLEY PARK JW Hollstein’s Saloon (17358 S. Oak Park Ave., Tinley Park; (708) 429- 7000) ■10 ■ p.m. Thursdays: DJ ■9:30 ■ p.m. Fridays and Saturdays: Live entertainment MOKENA The Alley Grill and Tap House (18700 S. Old LaGrange Road, Mokena; (708) 478- 3610) ■9 ■ p.m. Tuesdays: Karaoke NEW LENOX Little Joe’s Restaurant (1300 N. Cedar Road, New Lenox; (815) 463- 1099) ■5-8 ■ p.m. Tuesdays: Piano Styles by Joe To place an event in The Scene, email b.kapa@22ndcenturymedia. com.
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