Why mince words? Anyone dining at Sparks who skips the hummus -- scratch that, the spectacular hummus -- needs to have their head examined, pronto.
It's far more complex than the average supermarket chickpea purée. Smooth and supple, with a potent garlic kick and teasing traces of tahini, it's garnished with a splash of fruity olive oil and a shake of pungent smoked paprika. Chef/co-owner Jonathan Hunt picked up the winning formula while cooking at a Greek restaurant in Zimbabwe, and the addictive results were born to be liberally scooped up by wedges of warm, chewy house-baked pita. Just thinking about it is enough to make a person lightheaded. And hungry.
The pitas are pretty special, too. Possessed of an appealingly sturdy pull, the white-flour pocket breads are baked in small batches all day. Hunt uses them as a foundation for a handful of sandwiches, stuffing them like so many Thanksgiving cornucopia with delicious fixings, including feisty house-made lamb sausage and oven-roasted, pepper-tossed pulled chicken. They're big, they're sloppy, they're paired with a crunchy slaw, and they're terrific.
Like nearly every dish on the menu, the pitas are baked in the restaurant's wood-burning oven, which is also the source of the Sparks name, inspired by the small-scale fireworks popping and crackling inside that glowing hearth. Having loved the experience of cooking with wood earlier in his career, Hunt wanted to own a restaurant where a stone-hearth oven was the kitchen's centerpiece and primary cooking instrument.
He picked one up on the used market -- it had been broken in at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Sacramento, Calif. -- and began fueling it with slow- but hot-burning red oak.
It's a great gimmick for hanging a menu on, especially when it's as eclectic as this one. Naturally, there are pizzas. The crust is a bit of a hybrid, thin but not cracker-like, and not particularly crisp but not wildly chewy, either. What it does have is a lot of olive oil, which imbues it with a deeply golden cast. Turns out it's an effective platform for some uncomplicated topping combinations, starting with a roasted roma tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and other topshelf building blocks; the tastiest combo pairs colorful cherry tomatoes with pretty ribbons of prosciutto.
Hunt adds a half-dozen rustic, ever-changing entrees at dinner, using that oak to insinuate a bit of smoke into the proceedings. The roast chicken is a delight, its skin crisp and irresistible, the meat melt-in-your-mouth juicy. The delicacy of Wisconsin farm-raised trout plays nicely against the big flavors of feta and green olives. Another memorable turn was a thick, juicy pork chop, seared into a semisweet caramel on the outside and rich porkiness inside, paired with an unbeatable combination of toothy cannellini beans, chewy Swiss chard and a gentle tomato broth; truly, a tailor-made summer supper.
Some attention, please
