Salad Days

At long last the temperature here in Chicago is forecast to hit 80 degrees today. Yeah!  So my appestat automatically dials down to lighter fare.

And that means only one thing.

Salad.

Whether it’s Caesar, chopped or spinning, I love salad.

It’s my favorite course of any meal, and if you share my passion for great Green Goddess, vibrant vinaigrette and thrilling Thousand Island, grab a chilled salad fork and dig in.

My never-ending pursuit of the perfect salad must begin in the heart of America’s salad bowl- California.  It seems to me that more legendary salads have been born there than in any other locale.

I’ll start by paying tribute to my all-time number one personal best- the Cobb Salad.

Created by restauranteur extraordinaire Robert H. Cobb, founder of Hollywood’s famous Brown Derby, this classic recipe contained romaine lettuce, head lettuce, chicory, watercress, chicken breast, bacon, tomato, avocado, and Roquefort cheese.

No too revolutionary in the ingredients list.  But Bob’s big idea was in the chopping.

When chopped and served with a great dressing- or two- it’s a culinary masterpiece.

Mr. Cobb can be proud that his namesake has gone on to feed generations of skinny women everywhere at lunchtime.

Now let’s take the Rolls and valet park it at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Home of the famed Polo Lounge and the McCarthy Salad.  (Named for Neil- not Charlie.)

The Polo Lounge added beets to its bowl and served it with a “Lorenzo” dressing.  It’s a worthy descendant of the the Cobb.

All Salad Politics Are Local Update: Remember Cesar Chavez and the grape boycott?  The Beverly Hills Hotel had been under justifiable fire because its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, has heinous anti-gay policies. Many charities and Hollywood big shots had shunned the hotel for this reason.

However Hollywood Reporter recently wrote “The siren call of those McCarthy salads at The Polo Lounge is just too tempting.  Less than a year after Hollywood loudly boycotted The Beverly Hills Hotel, after its owner the Sultan of Brunei, implemented the anti-gay Sharia laws in his country, some industryites are creeping back.”

Up to you and your conscience now, I guess, if you want to make green peace with them.

Okay here’s a place that won’t test your principles.  Because it’s gone away.

My favorite favorite restaurant of all time in the United States- Chasen’s.

It was the home of the world’s BEST vinaigrette dressing.  It was a powerful heady brew- mixed up in a wooden bowl and redolent with nameless spices and odd and ends that I could never quite recognize, but adored all the same.

It had a big, bold taste that could stand up to the cracked pepper- spooned, not twisted out of a mill- by the waiters at table side.

Chasen’s even let me create my very own salad- chopped watercress, avocado and artichoke hearts- and it was divine.

(But then that vinaigrette would have made cardboard taste terrific.)

From my dearly departed Chasen’s it’s only a quick seven minute drive to La Cienega Boulevard and…

Lawry’s The Prime Rib.

Also home to the spinning salad bowl.  I love this salad.  Although it’s not chopped, it too has beets, sourdough croutons and a terrific dressing.

I know that Lawry’s is famous for its prime rib.  Me?  I come for the salad bowl and stay for the Yorkshire Pudding.

But if you can’t get out to Cali, here’s a DIY version that’s pretty darn close.

Back in the day, the Racquet Club in Palm Springs also made a heck of a fine chopped salad. With some kind of citrusy dressing.

Here’s my friend Joan Arenberg and I there in 1982.  I know what I ordered for lunch that day.

Photograph by Henry X Arenberg

Now let’s fly across country.

On the East Coast, a couple of salads really stand out.

If you’re in Florida, head to Ybor City near Tampa and check out Columbia Restaurant.

Columbia has been operating since 1905.  And for me their Cuban-influenced salad- filled with chopped ham, olives, cheese and tasty spices- is the reason why.

A few husbands ago, I lived in Baltimore, Maryland.  Back then, it was a pretty dull restaurant scene.  (Unless you liked crabs.)

One way my then-husband kept me happy was Chiapparelli’s salad. Yum.

These days, closer to Chicago, I have a problem.  So many of the great salads that made me go limp as old lettuce are no longer around.

They exist only in my memory.  And maybe yours.

Remember Al Farber’s?  The classic steak house in the Belden-Stratford Hotel on Lincoln Park West? Although famous for its char-crusted steaks, they really understood greens.

Their Roquefort dressing won prizes, their tomato and onion salad was a poem and their Thousand Island heavenly.

(And speaking of Thousand, remember the old Erie Cafe’s version?  It was terrific, but these days, E.J’s Place in Skokie comes pretty close.)

Don Roth’s Blackhawk might have been the inspiration for Lawry’s spinning bowl.  They do share most of the same ingredients, and the Blackhawk did it first.

And though I usually don’t go in for bottled dressings, nostalgia forces me to confess that I have a bottle of it in my fridge right now.

I know a guy who gets all misty-eyed just at the thought of the “Do-It-Yourself” salad at the old Prime Rib.

And the Black Angus used to work wonders with Green Goddess as I recall. Today G.G. is pretty darn good at Northbrook’s Di Pescara.

As long as we’re on the Lettuce Entertain You bandwagon, I still like an old favorite- the Maggiano’s salad.  The crispy prosciutto and red onions really stand up to the zesty house dressing.

And Hole in The Wall in Northbrook tosses a mean Italian salad bowl, too.

They say that Christopher Columbus brought lettuce to the New World.

But who was the genius who remembered to bring the ranch, creamy garlic, poppyseed and Russian dressing to our shores?

I tip my salad tongs to that guy.

I think he deserves a day to celebrate his truly important discovery.

Now where did I put that salad spinner?