Top Ten Dishes 2011 #10: The Porchetta Sandwich at Market Grill

By Ian Froeb on Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 7:00 am

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I'm counting down my ten favorite dishes from the restaurants that I reviewed in 2011. The top dish will be revealed on Tuesday, December 27, and look for a slideshow featuring most of the winners on Wednesday, December 28.

Jennifer Silverberg

Chef Jonathan Olson in the kitchen of Market Grill

Chef Jonathan Olson needed to balance his ambitions against consumer expectations as he reinvented the menu at Market Grill. He did a fine job: There's tasty fare to be found in that middle ground. Porchetta is a famously indulgent pork dish, and Olson doesn't hold back on the fat, wrapping a boned-out pork shoulder in pork belly and then slowly roasting it. But rather than make this the centerpiece of an entrée, he piles slices of the tender, luscious meat between halves of a housemade bun and serves it as a sandwich. The lone condiment, a sharp rapini pesto, provides the perfect counterpoint, sparing the diner an otherwise inevitable pork coma.

- from "Eighty-Six the Pork 'Wings'" December 15, 2011

Market Grill (728 Lafayette Avenue; 314-436-7664)