Chicago: RPM Seafood - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Restaurant Review

Chicago: RPM Seafood

The Sommelier Experience

by Liz Barrett • July 3, 2023

The bright and bustling dining room at RPM Seafood in Chicago. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

RPM Seafood, a bright and bustling riverfront seafood restaurant in Chicago, launched The Sommelier Experience in 2021. Executive Chef Michael Coté offers a new six-course menu each day, and the wine team has the run of the cellar to find pairings.

On a recent visit, Hama Hama oysters paired with Jansz sparkling rosé from Tasmania. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

A server greets each party of guests with a glass of sparkling wine, then escorts them through the kitchen, where a chef offers an amuse bouche to pair with it. On one night, it was a Hama Hama oyster topped with crème fraîche and American caviar to match Jansz sparkling rosé from Tasmania.

For Wine Director Joseph Lapi, the biggest pairing challenge is the surf and turf. “It’s always difficult to find one wine that goes with meat and fish or shellfish.” He chose a nebbiolo from Gattinara, the Vallana 2007 Boca, to accompany butter-poached Maine lobster tail with truffled Béarnaise sauce and grilled American Wagyu sirloin steak. Age had tamed nebbiolo’s hefty tannins, and the light-bodied wine was bursting with ripe black cherries, fresh earth and dried thyme. It paired equally well with the mineral-forward Wagyu sirloin and the sweet, rich lobster.

A highlight of The Sommelier Experience is the diversity of the wine pairings, ranging from mainstream—Bollig-Lehnert 2019 Riesling Kabinett Trittenheimer Apotheke paired with silky salmon tartare topped with crispy potatoes—to bucket list—Château d’Yquem 2006 with a nutty, chocolatey gianduja dessert.

The Sommelier Experience is available Tuesday through Saturday, with two seatings per night (6 and 8:30 p.m.).

317 N Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654

(312)900-9035

New American

rpmrestaurants.com

This story appears in the print issue of Summer 2023.
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TAGS Chicago Restaurant Review RPM Seafood

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

Corey Warren
Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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Patricio Tapia
Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.