Love Letter to Evanston from David Morton

This letter appeared in Huffington Post this week from David Morton and it's something you should read if you live/lived/planning to live in Evanston.

A devoted and proud Evanston, IL, resident, David Morton was raised in the restaurant industry. Son of legendary restaurateur Arnie Morton, he experienced first-hand the creation, design, and execution of some of the most iconic restaurant brands and events of the past 30 years, including Morton's Steakhouse and Hard Rock Café. In 2009, David Morton and Chef Michael Kornick launched DMK Restaurants, which now includes Fish Bar, Ada Street, two locations of County Barbeque, DMK Burger & Fish, Henry's Swing Club, and three locations of DMK Burger Bar. David and his wife, Jodi Morton, own 2to5 Design, a residential and commercial design firm that, among other projects, created the design for DMK Restaurants. David and Jodi love living in Evanston with their three children.

Dear Evanston,

If you were all mine and only mine, I would have named you 'Heavenston'. Maybe not for your looks, but for the way you make me feel.

Leaving the northeastern corner of the city behind, meandering byways of iconic Sheridan Road, I first meet your nicely patinated cemetery to the west, and majestic Lake Michigan to the east. I continue straight, and drive off the cliff. No, not off of a real cliff, we soar off of an emotional one. The moment that I find myself flying, I know I'm back home, back in your cradle, the idyllic enclave at the edge of nature and Chicago.

I love you Evanston because of the company you keep: artists, actors, professors, entrepreneurs, hippies, techies, and even a few suits. These are the people that I can call my neighbors. They're the kind of people you find all over Evanston. Imagine Venice, California meets Manchester, Vermont; or Wes Anderson married to Martha Stewart. Admittedly, it's kind of hard to picture.

I love your nature, Evanston. Every morning a sunrise crescendos over Lake Michigan like a private concert for me and my wife, Jodi. Just before the pitch blackness fades from the sky, we venture a few short steps out from our front door. By the time we're at the beach, the orchestra members have taken their seats, still fine-tuning their instruments. Eventually the lights dim, the conductor takes her place, and instruments are in their final pose, ready to be played. Witnessing it makes us feel small, but connected, alive and aligned.

I love your body, Evanston. Peppered with turn-of-the-century architecture, parks, boutiques, and one-off restaurants, you give me the feeling that I would imagine only Mick and the guys felt when they were recording Sticky Fingers. The feeling like what had come before you was great, yet there was still an opportunity to add one note to make a chord feel a little better. That's certainly how we felt when we embarked on restoring our old Tudor. A great house built like a fossilized T-Rex, all of the magnificent bones hovering in place with none of the essential internal organs: no running water, no modern electrical systems and, of course, no air conditioning. The beautifully paneled walls were painted green at some point, the old oak floors were carpeted or covered with synthetic plastic tiles, and all but one chimney had completely collapsed. "OK, we'll take it." We technically own it, but don't think of it that way. We believe that we're just borrowing something from you, adding notes to a beautiful melody and waiting to pass it on to your next lover.

I love to travel. That's where I go to eat, to read, to frolic and dream. I love you, Evanston, for letting me travel home to you daily.

Love,
David

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When did Evanston get Hip? When Lisa D. moved here, of course!

1,900 people sent me this article when it posted on the Chicago Crain's blog and granted they missed a few gems (Temperance), they got it right. Evanston is getting hipper by the minute and it's got everything to do with food! Thank you to all the chefs and entrepreneurs who have taken the risk and gambled on Evanston, it's working! I also think we're uber hip because we finally have a parklet, thanks Hewn!

From Chicago Crain's Blog on Aug. 7, 2014

When Amy Morton opened Found Kitchen and Social House in Evanston in 2012, weekend wait times for a table averaged two and a half hours. The farm-to-table concept was soaring in Chicago, but it was still new in the North Shore suburb.

“It was an empty canvas,” Ms. Morton says. “There was a huge void.” While a few restaurants, including Quince at the Homesteadand Union Pizzeria, were offering more contemporary dining, Evanston locals often went to Chicago for a night out. Now, Ms. Morton says, Evanston has become a dining destination for Chicagoans.

“People from the city are just coming here on their own, it's really something,” she says. “We've been open a year and a half, and in the last year we've seen so many things open.” She deadpans: “It is the next little Brooklyn.”

Brooklyn may be a stretch, looking at the gleamingly clean streets of a town where spitting on public property is illegal. But it's hard to ignore the precious tinge that the artisanal movement is batting around the city: whole-hog meat shops where the owner can name the farmer who raised each cut (Homestead Meats); loaves of bread made by hand from local grains and sold in compostable packaging (Hewn); restaurant bars that serve liquor from distilleries within biking distance over old Johnny or Jim (Found).

Since the start of 2013, nearly two dozen new restaurants and breweries have opened in Evanston, and the artisanal, local-food movement influences many of them. There are two new restaurant/breweries (Peckish Pig, Smylie Bros. Brewing Co. ), a brewery with a tasting room (Temperance Beer Co.) and a home brew shop, Brew Camp. A nanobrewery,Sketchbook Brewing Co., is slated to open this month.

A sampling of the restaurant openings includes David Morton and Michael Kornick's DMK Burger and Fish; Dollop Coffee Co. and Hoosier Mama Pie Co.; the fast-casual Lyfe Kitchen; seasonally focused restaurant Farmhouse; and, most recently, Boltwood, co-owned by former Publican chef de cuisine Brian Huston, which joined the farm-to-table clan in July.

And more is in the works: the Wood Shed, a restaurant serving wood-fired pizzas and smoked meats, is scheduled to open this fall on Central Street.

Debbie Evans, who, along with her husband, Jamie, owns the Peckish Pig, sees the Evanston renaissance as an outgrowth of the artisanal movement in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. “People are realizing how important it is to have great food and how accessible it really is, without breaking the bank. Evanston has caught on, and it's spreading like wildfire,” Ms. Evans says.

The brewery collaborates with other new, locally minded businesses. One is Hewn, which makes a “spent grain” bread incorporating grains used by Peckish Pig and Temperance in the brewing process.

Hewn co-owner Ellen King says working together is part of the fun. “We're all local in the community and our kids all go to school here and we're all having fun with our businesses,” she says. “It's honestly like a perfect storm of everybody following their passion and keeping it in their community.”

Johanna Nyden, Evanston's economic development division manager, says the food and drink renaissance there is simple to explain: In Evanston, as elsewhere, diners are demanding more. “I think 20 years ago when I was here the coolest thing that came was like a Bar Louie. But now, that doesn't cut it,” she says.

—Kate Silver, Follow On Dining on Twitter at @CrainsLife.