Sous Rising

If you love food, and you want to share an amazing eating experience with others who share the same passion, GET A RESERVATION! You will NOT regret it, I promise. Whatever I say in this review will not do the experience justice.
The price for the food is high, however that’s because you get 22 courses, all of which are unique, imaginative, and best yet, delicious! In my opinion, that’s what really sets this restaurant apart from others. You get the beautiful presentation, but everything actually tastes delicious. We went over a week ago, yet I still vividly remember most of the dishes. The potato soup was to DIE for, as was the truffle salad.
It’s hard to believe that they are able to run such a successful dinner with so few people. Jake and his sous chef Mike work so well together in the kitchen. They time everything perfectly so you have breaks between courses, but are never just sitting waiting for your next dish. Alexa, Jake’s wife, is also amazing. She introduces each course, and explains exactly what you are eating and the best way to eat it. Between all 3 of them, they serve a 5 star dinner with 0% stuffiness.
My husband and I were both blown away, and would highly recommend.

I recently celebrated a milestone birthday here, and I can honestly say that the only downside to the extraordinary food you will experience here is that everything else you eat for the rest of your life will seem small and shabby by comparison.

Amazing. Delicious. 22 courses of yum. Sous Rising is an experience you’ll never forget.

I had stopped Unilocaling for various reasons. But Sous Rising compelled me to write again…
I first experienced Sous Rising a year ago. Over this timeframe, my various meals there left me in awe of what wonderfully unique experiences every night had been. I felt exhilarated experiencing the journey and progress Sous Rising is taking.
All told, I’ve probably had about 50 dishes at Sous Rising over the past year. So I won’t do the Check, Please! routine of ‘I ate this & I ate that’. Instead, let’s talk about what I usually look for when dining out. Dishes that make me want to try at home, dishes that make me think, dishes where I’ve had to pick my jaw off the floor. So, a ‘Soup & Salad’ where the salad came in granita form. It challenged preconceptions, and was perfect for a hot summer night. Cupcake with trout roe served in a paper bag. I remember recess, and wished Mother threw in some tobiko on my cupcake. Onion Paper & Flax Chips. An imposing still-​life of flora as table centerpiece, and magically, your amuse bouche is right in front of you the whole time. Flavors of Tom Yum. A curl of ‘noodle’ that embodied a whole culture. Potted Duck. Very on-​trend. Also, how can I eat duck again without a mouthful of fibrous begonia with it? Chef Jake has the perfect mix of creativity and technique. The only word to describe is ‘genius’.
Alexa, Mrs. Chef, on the other hand, is the other genius. She takes care of EVERYTHING else beyond the kitchen. The way she manages business before the actual dinner puts some restaurant PR and front-​house people to shame. Dinner is at their charming apartment, and you are welcomed like an old friend. Alexa is so alert to everyone’s needs during the meal, another one word that comes to mind is ‘ninja’.
One more thing… the kitchen is spotless after having churned out 18 dishes for the evening! Chef Jake’s discipline and dexterity is jaw-​dropping.
Why 5 stars? The Sous is rising. He’s unstoppable.

Chef Jake is a mastermind. Hands down one of the most memorable and best dining experiences in Chicago and really anywhere in the US!
Incredible service, incredible experience, and not even sure what all I ate but was impressed with every bite. Ask Chef Jake for his dried tomatoes, I would live off of them. You get so many courses and none of them are boring, you just get surprise after surprise. You leave full but not hurting at all.
Chef Jake and Alexa are so humble and make you feel so welcome. They cater to any allergies and present magnificent food with a story. If you are a foodie, you will be impressed. If you are a person who just likes food, you will go here and want to go again and again and tell all your friends about it.
Highly recommend it for a special occasion or to impress someone. I can’t rave enough and make Sous Rising a must in Chicago!

Wow. Where do I begin? Dining here is such a fantastic experience on so many levels. Eating with 8 strangers (who all love food!) for over 3 hours, being served a high-​end, elegant meal in such a personal and intimate setting is amazing. Not to give it away, but a perfect tom yum bite, the best potato soup you’ll ever eat, and a killer tamarind taffy are some of the highlights. It’s BYOB which is cool too, so you can bring your favorites! Also I am a vegetarian, and we had heard about Sous Rising, but weren’t sure if in this small setting they could accommodate a vegetarian. Not only did they accommodate me, they blew me away with each variation they made especially for me :) And though the food is elevated, it is also laid back and really fun. Chef, Mike and Alexa are so down to earth, you can’t help but laugh and have a great time during your visit. What more can I say? I hope you all decide to dine here and experience an evening at Sous Rising!

Unique, fabulous and out of this world flavors… and that doesn’t even describe this experience!
My boyfriend surprised me on my birthday and I couldn’t imagine a better dinner date! You get to watch the chef (Jake Bickelhaupt) finish and plate all of his fabulous 18 courses! You can ask him anything about his process and even get cooking tips!!! Its a pure heaven for a foodie. Comparing this to some of most well rated and best known places like Moto or Alinea, Sous Rising is a much deeper tasting experience, with less theatrics and more passion!
Ambiance
The space is a cozy well decorated living room of an trendy urban apartment with a complete houseguest feel. It is a communal table which actually makes evening super fun. You quickly get to know everyone and because these people aren’t your clients or co-​workers but just a bunch of food loving strangers — you can just be yourself and laugh all night!
Food
OMG!!! Outstanding!!! It was obvious that the every course was carefully designed and everything, combination of flavors, textures presentation was perfectly balanced and each plate is a 100% polished piece of art. Our favorites were the Potato Soup, Tom Yum Bite, Corn, Potted Duck and Pecorino extravaganza (left me breathless) Of corse the most unique (and super delicious was the 24 hour Beat… We both agreed that everything else was awesome as well!!!
Service
Impeccable! You are never going to get this cozy in a restaurant! You are basically hanging out with the chef and his wife Alexa (who is also passionate about the food) She is warm, welcoming and super attentive. Everything is spotless and perfect, they have gorgeous stemware and a decanter for your fancy red bottles!
I strongly recommend it!!!

My experience was fantastic! Here is my lengthy review:

A 5-​star experience. Chef Jake and his wife Alexa do a phenomenal job of welcoming you into the comfort of their home and providing an absolutely unbelievable meal. From start to finish, every course impressed us and was executed perfectly. Portion size, presentation and order of the courses were all flawless. This experience and food quality is up there with any restaurant in Chicago and we’ve been to all of the best. Our only complaint is that they have one seating a per week which means we have some time before we’ll be there again. I could go on and on about everything we liked, but just trust me it’s a must try restaurant for anyone that likes fine dining. We can’t wait to go back to Sous Rising and eventually to Dyne, as Chef Jake no doubt has a successful restaurant opening in his future.

It’s often a compliment to say that dining at a restaurant feels like being a guest in someone’s home, but in the case of Sous Rising, you literally are a guest in someone’s home — and that’s just one thing that makes this dining experience unique. Sous Rising is an «underground» restaurant that is actually the living room of Chef Jake and hostess (and Jake’s wife) Alexa’s apartment in an undisclosed location in Uptown. The space accommodates a maximum of eight diners who share a communal table, with the open kitchen on one side and a rounded bank of windows on the other, so everyone has something interesting to see. Jake and Alexa’s apartment is nicely decorated and comfortable, with just the right urban vibe — especially if the night is warm enough to enjoy an apéritif before dinner on the balcony in back. While we talked amongst ourselves, we also kept up a running conversation with Jake in the kitchen and Alexa as she poured the wine. Wine and alcohol pairings are bring-​your-​own, and if you dine as a group it’s fun to share and sample the various pairings that each person or couple brings. We dined with a group that took over the restaurant for the evening, but I imagine that four couples would have a similar experience once everyone began talking and the wine began flowing. A preliminary menu provided by e-​mail a few days in advance helps guests select just the right white or red (or beer) to pair.
This unique atmosphere enhances the dining experience, but the food is truly the star of the show. When all was said and done (and eaten), everyone agreed that the dishes at Sous Rising could have been served at some of the best restaurants in Chicago, including places like EL Ideas, goosefoot, Elizabeth, and even Next. Our eight savory courses, followed by an amazing dessert and several dessert bites, were nearly flawless. Indeed, at the end of the meal, when Chef Jake asked which course we liked the least, we all had to stop and think before coming up with a dish to diss. The menu comprised a well-​thought-​out progression from amuse to «soup and salad,» several seafood courses, pork belly, risotto, duck, lamb, and finally desserts. Combinations of ingredients, flavors, and textures often sounded unusual on the menu, but somehow worked on the plate and palate, such as a mini-​cupcake topped by a sliver of white chocolate, pink peppercorns, and (wait for it) trout roe. Plating and presentation were whimsical and inventive — the trout roe cupcake arrived in a brown paper bag, like a school lunch that you’d never dream of trading.
As the only chef in the kitchen, Jake might have been forgiven if pacing, quality, or temperature had been inconsistent, but each course arrived at just the right time without ever rushing us or making us wait, proteins were perfectly cooked, and everyone was served together as if a team of sous chefs had coordinated their plating. The result was like a relaxed dinner party among a small group of friends, who found ourselves wondering how soon we could all get together again in the same place. That might be the best compliment of all for Sous Rising: It didn’t feel like just another restaurant to check off our list of places to try, but like a special place that would only be around for a brief time, which we were lucky enough to experience before Jake and Alexa move on or open a «real» restaurant. If and when they do, we all hope it will be in Chicago.

Just back from an amazing underground dining experience at Sous Rising. My only prior underground dining experience was with Iliana Regan’s One Sister (which has since shuttered due to her opening her own restaurant — Elizabeth). I dined with a group of seven people who I had met through Facebook — primarily Next Restaurant’s page (I had only met one of the other six people face-​to-​face in the past, serendipitously at Elizabeth). All seven of us consider dining out to be a hobby and despite having frequented Chicago’s top establishments we were all extremely impressed with the quality of the food and overall experience tonight.
Sous Rising commenced this spring and is operated by a married couple, Jake and Alexa. Jake is the chef and spent time working at Alinea, Charlies Trotters and Schwa; more recently he has returned to school and is aspiring to eventually open his own restaurant; while in school he operates underground dinners out of his Uptown apartment. Alexa is his wife and does front of house duties; while she does not have a restaurant background she is an excellent hostess and server. Dinner is served literally inside Jake and Alexa’s dining room just a couple feet from the kitchen (so you can observe all the action and ask questions). While the neighborhood is a tad sketchy (I arrived a bit early and decided to hang outside for a bit — while waiting outside a passerby inquired if I would like to purchase some antique knifes and had a few choice words for me when I declined). Nevertheless, once inside the apartment is extremely nice, comfortable and pleasantly decorated; their is a linen tablecloth, lots of candles, cloth napkins — it has the intimate feel of a chef’s table experience at a high end restaurant, yet with a relaxed and casual ambiance. Jake and Alexa are good people, very friendly, down to Earth and passionate. The dining room table comfortably seats eight and Chef Jake typically serves dinner about four times per month and prefers a group of six to eight (either private groups or small groups served as part of a communal table).
Sous Rising has a Facebook page and a blog (
); you can sign up for e-​mail updates about reservations via a link on their Facebook page. Meals are approximately twelve courses and cost $ 120 (including tip); Sous Rising is BYOB. The exact location is secret and you will be e-​mailed the details the day before your dinner; a couple of days in advance you will receive a tentative menu to assist in your quest of choosing wines or beers to pair with the cuisine. The meal has to be prepaid (via Paypal or a credit card); Jake and Alexa can be reached via e-​mail once you make your reservation if you have any questions. They also are open to doing pop up dinners at other locations (even your own residence) depending on the logistics involved.
Due to Sous Rising being such a small entity, they are not generally able to make substitutions or accommodate dietary restrictions. The food is gourmet and you can see the influence of the fine dining establishments Jake has worked at, but he is quite creative and his own personality shines through. There is a whimsical, playful aspect that permeates each dish without sacrificing the quality of the ingredients or the technical precision with which each dish is prepared. Just about every course is not only fun, but delicious.
Pacing of the meal is pleasant; neither rushed nor too long a gap between courses (our meal lasted a bit over three hours). Portions are typical for a tasting menu; a combination of bite size courses and more substantial portions that add up to a decent sized meal — expect to leave satisfied but not stuffed. There was not a single dud last night and we all joked with the chef about returning the next morning for breakfast! Six of the courses really wowed me including the Soup n; Salad (the soup was potato and bacon with bay leaf suds and the salad was frozen with a granita texture — the cold and hot and different textures played well of one another). Another favorite was the Gin n’ Shellfish (mussels and scallops with a five different tasty purees for dipping served with a delicious, refreshing Hendricks’ Gin based cocktail). The next homerun was the pork belly, cooked perfectly and accompanied by grapefruit segments, raw honey, caramelized fennel and sage pudding. The duck course was my favorite (three preparations of duck — rillettes, breast and liver). Perhaps the most playful was a trout roe cupcake served inside a brown paper bag; awesome taste and fun mixture of sweet and savory. Finally the main dessert — Flavors of Root Beer & Orange Dream was mind blowing.
Sous Rising is truly a phenomenal dining experience and is the total package; extremely delicious food, lots of creativity, whimsical experience, nice ambiance, more than reasonable pricing and run by good people. I will definitely be back in a few months when the menu turns over.