NL_120816

26 | December 8, 2016 | The New Lenox Patriot life & arts
newlenoxpatriot.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
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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
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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 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
The Dancing Marlin’s Chicken Dinner is brined, sousvide
and pan-seared for a juicy center and crisp skin. It is
topped with a Cabernet reduction and mushrooms.
Kirsten Onsgard/22nd Century Media
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
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.dancing
marlinrestaurant.com
Phone: (815) 464-6646
chefs are looking forward
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.