The Tortoise Club is a place where the staff will not only remember your name, but they’ll also ask about your recent business trip or how your sister’s wedding went over the weekend.
Its owners, lifelong Chicago residents Keene and Megan Addington, wanted to create a beautiful space with a classic 1959 feel—think martinis over lunch and live jazz music at night—that is modern and approachable. And that’s just the feeling you get when you step into the Tortoise Club.
The club, located just north of the river on State Street in the heart of River North, is just a short walk away from the Magnificent Mile, the Chicago Theater, and the brand new River Walk, is a great representation of the city itself—which is some of the motivation behind their new cocktail, the “Chicagoan.”
“When Keene came to me and said he wanted to make a cocktail that signified Chicago, I took that to heart,” said Kal Huettl, bartender and creator of the Chicagoan. Huettl, who grew up in Boston, opted to stay in the Midwest after college and got his start in the Chicago restaurant scene at Piece in Wicker Park before moving on to the Tortoise Club.
“I’m always looking around at what else is going on in the cocktail scene and I recognized that savory flavors are in vogue. I did a little research into Chicago and found that its name means ‘wild onion,’” said Huettl.
And what better way to represent its namesake than by adding a little bit of onion flavor into the drink itself.
“I obviously didn’t want it to be too pronounced, but I wanted the onion flavor to be approachable. It was pretty easy to cook them down, caramelize brown sugar on them, and add in a little bit of allspice,” said Huettl.
As for the base spirits, Huettl decided to mix a little bit of old Chicago tradition with the new—Leatherbee's Besk and KOVAL Bourbon.
“After adding the bitter flavor of the Malort-like spirit, I started to play off its grapefruit notes and used St. Germaine because it brings out some of the sweeter elements to the drink. I added KOVAL Bourbon because it is so grain-forward—you can definitely taste the millet.”
The Chicagoan is a bit more complicated than the other drinks Kal created for their cocktail menu, but he hopes that the recipe goes on to be replicated in cities outside of Chicago.
When it comes to the other cocktails on his menu, Kal tends to think about the acquired taste before anything else. Once he has his vision set, it doesn’t usually take too much experimenting to get it right.
But that wasn’t the case with the Chicagoan.
“This particularly one, having a framework that I was supposed to be working within, took a little bit more time to get the flavors to meld. I was little bit unsure of what was going to happen because its a little bit different, but I’ve been getting great responses so far. The idea has been so well received.”
Visit the Tortoise Club at 350 N. State Street, Chicago IL, 60654.
