#72 - Indie Cafe with Dr. Loosen Riesling and Orin Swift SB

I've blathered on about Indie Café in Rogers Park enough here. It's great food, fresh and clean, BYO, great staff and always a spectacular time.

Wine pairings at Indie, though, have been a bit dicey.

Nothing ever hit all the right notes. Japanese and Thai, especially dishes with a little heat, need a bit of sugar and acid to cut through the spice while still revealing the wine's flavors and simultaneously allowing the food to shine. We've done that in the past but nothing ever wowed us.

Last night, Dr. Loosen Riesling was the answer.

Food: Indie Café

Nam Sod - Spicy ground chicken salad special

Salmon Special Appetizer

Spicy Tuna Maki

Crab Rangoon

Spicy Blu Crab

Mexico City - tuna and whitefish maki

Green Tea Ice Cream

I've run out of adjectives to describe the wonderful combination of goodness and cheapness for Indie. Great stuff for the 40th time will have to do. With two cups of coffee and a special Ginger Dragon Drink, the bill was $65. C'mon!

Wine: 2009 Orin Swift Veladora ($22 - Binny's) and the 2008 Dr. Loosen Riesling ($12 - Trader Joe's!)

The Orin Swift is mostly sauvignon blanc with a bit of muscat and semillon. There was a hope that the muscat would help. It didn't.

Typical California sauvignon blanc, a little big with a cornucopia of tropical fruits (a bit too much, actually) and some grapefruit with a lot of grass. Not too bad by itself. Pleasant enough. Brought half the bottle home and drank it later. All pineapple juice.

The Loosen Bros. QbA Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Dr. Loosen Riesling (freakin' German wine labels!) was #62 on the WS Top 100 and is available at Trader Joe's (Lakeview one at least). We cracked it pretty quick after realizing the ordinary nature of the Orin Swift.

Shimmering and sprite-like in the mouth, a touch of lime and background apricot-mango-something flavors. Deft touch of sugar, letting it alternate between off-dry-like and a straight-up bargain riesling with its standard sugar. Light on its feet but the strength to let its personality come through.

Great little wine. Simply great wine for $12.

Pairing: 91 We found a wine for Indie!

We opened the Orin Swift first and started with the salmon special appetizer. It worked. Good stuff together. The crab rangoon followed by the spicy tuna app put the Orin Swift to bed, though. Terrible finish.

After cracking the Dr. Loosen and trying it without food immediately on our palate, we knew it was going to work. Just had that nice lift to it, jumping all over the place while keeping its core goodness and retaining its center. We were shocked how well it did, though.

With the food, it was just right. Held up to the spice, played with the tuna and crab in great ways and, most importantly, worked great with the soy sauce, something that has been impossible to make happen at Indie for us.

It enhanced the food by cleansing the palate but left the good essences of the food around to linger while bringing the right touch of fruit and sugar to make everything wash down in great ways and not be too heavy.

We found a good wine for Indie. It's $12. You can eat like a king for $60. So...under $100 for a great night out (if you take out the Orin Swift).

That's something that's becoming increasingly rare in the city.

#35 - Indie Café With Loimer Riesling & Sparkling Italian Malvasia

I've proselytized from the highest mount about the wonders of Indie Café in Rogers Park before.

In fact, it was just two months ago, our third post here at Food With Wine. Best value in the city and it's not even close.

Last night was no different.

Food: Rangoon, Cucumber, Spicy Tuna, Spring Roll, Sweet Potato, Tilapia in Cashew and more Tuna

Crab Rangoon

Cucumber Salad

Spicy Tuna Appetizer

Vegetable Spring Roll

Sweet Potato Tempura

Tilapia Curry with Cashew Sauce

Spicy Tuna Entrée

Siracha Side

Ginger & Wasabi Side

I'm not going to describe the food and just say what I said last time: Criminally cheap and clean, well-prepared food. On the former, this is how criminally cheap: $60 for the entire meal.

Wine: 2004 Loimer Riesling Langenlois ($13 - WDC) & 2005 Colli Di Parma Sparkling Malvasia (Below $10 - Binny's)

We had no expectations with either wine going in.

Never had a sparkling Italian malvasia. Couldn't find any information on this particular one, probably due to the utter baseness of it all. The label had the producer written in small type but simply said "Malvasia" in big letters, never a particularly good sign; like a Burgundy simply writing "pinot noir" on the label. It's a sign that it was destined for the simplest of markets.

Bubbles were dying, fruit was subdued. A little peach maybe with a touch of apple. Found an old milk quality on its own. Initially hated it but I came around to "that's not terrible" fairly quick. Not good. Just not terrible. Hanging on for dear life but not terrible.

If I drank the 2004 Loimer Riesling blind, I would have swore it was a sauvignon blanc and would have fought you to the death over it. Shows what I know.

A lot of grass at first followed by citrus fruit resembling grapefruit and tangerine. Off-dry. Mrs. Ney nailed it. It tasted like a somewhat well-crafted sauvignon blanc from a region not known for sauvignon blanc. Like the malvasia, I was mildly put off at first and then came around to it.

Pairing: No thanks, but not awful

The malvasia was pretty useless with the food but fun to try. One funny thing did happened. With soy sauce, it tasted like baby diapers. Not like I make a habit of eating baby diapers but you know. Didn't finish the bottle, but I'm not less apt to try another, better sparkling malvasia in the future.

The Loimer, on the other hand, worked well enough. For rieslings and grüner veltliners, Loimer serves a purpose. They're just good enough and cheap enough to feel like you're getting your money's worth - a good entry-level label for both to see if you want to continue in that vein. Then go to Prager because they're magically delicious.

BYO & $60 = great little meal.

Indie's a place where you can try such things without feeling like the pairing ruined the experience.

The food's too good and too cheap to really care.

#3 - Indie Café & '06 Gross Sauvignon Blanc Sulz

Monday night is our Friday night in the Ney household.

Quick and good Monday dinner options are sparse in the city but there's a few we like.

Kuma's is always on the table. We're fans of Semiramis. Avec always gets the seasonal visit and Blackbird, our favorite restaurant, is made that much better by being open on Monday.

But one of the best values in the city on any day is Indie Café on Broadway, just south of Granville: Criminally cheap, nice atmosphere, pleasant staff, fresh ingredients and clean, well-prepared food.

It's Japanese and Thai, something you think would suffer from trying to be all things to all people but never does. It's a universal North Side favorite.

Pairing wine with sushi can be mildly difficult, mostly because you never know which direction you're going to go in until you get there. But some basic rules apply.

At its most basic, white wine is the norm, but a nice case could be made for rosés and a fruity sparkling. You want something dry or off-dry with a nice crispness and something that brings acidity and nice, bright citrus fruits to the party.

Riesling and Grüner Veltliner are the typically recommended selections. An Albariño would be nice - though I've never tried it with sushi - and Italian whites, especially often-neglected Southern Italian varietals like Falanghina and Greco would probably be great (haven't tried those either with sushi). In the end, delicate whites are going to get gobbled up so bring something with a spine that's not Chardonnay. Don't even let red enter the discussion.

We went with an Austrian Sauvignon Blanc just for poops and cackles.

Food: Rangoon, Wonton, Tuna, Duck and Salmon

Crab Rangoon

Chicken Wonton Crisps

"Mexico City" Maki - Tuna, whitefish, cucumber, avocado, jalapeño, chili, tempura...

Hawaiian Duck Curry

Ginger Salmon with soy sauce and scallion

Usually, we go a bit more in the raw vegetable vein at Indie with more dishes ordered as well. Essentially, we ordered what we wanted to eat, pairing be damned.

I finished it off with green tea ice cream, of which I could eat a bucket. Just leave me alone in the corner with an entire bucket. Don't bother me. And I don't even really like green tea.

Wine: 2006 Gross Sauvignon Blanc Sulz - $11 Wine Discount Center

We never had an Austrian Sauvignon Blanc before and figured what the hell. They're a bit rare.

By itself, it has the typical grassy notes you get from a Sauvignon Blanc but with a little more delicacy found in a New World style. Kinda between a New Zealand and a Sancerre in weight and intensity but with a pleasant oily finish, a cross between olive oil and motor oil. Light herbs in the background with a fruit note that was probably honeydew and grapefruit (I don't know) with enough acidity. Nothing spectacular outside of a nice change of pace.

Pairing: Fair to middling, leaning towards bad

Interesting with the maki, oddly intriguing yet short with rice and curry. No on the duck and hell no with soy sauce. Fine with the crab rangoon and the best with the chicken wonton.

Bit of a mishmash but the unique oily quality was marginally worth the trip.

Wouldn't do it again.