In Chicago speak, Marisol’s name seems to circulate most recently within the art-inflected culinary scene. It all started with Marisol Restaurant at the MCA. And now, in its latest iteration, a Marisol sandwich featured at EXPO Chicago, held Sept. 19-22, 2019 at Navy Pier. Both aesthetic/foodie features are the doing of chef Jason Hammel, who established his stellar standing at the knockout Lula Cafe in Logan Square and then continued his acclaim at Marisol Restaurant. Lending his insight to Hannah’s Bretzel and its Chef Series, he schemed The Marisol Sandwich as a special for the 2019 art fair.
The fast food-meets-fine art menu item paired free-range chicken, Marisol’s green goddess aioli (a 21st-century translation of the original 1977 recipe for “natural food salad dressing” which Marisol shared with the MoMA Artists’ Cookbook), Pecorino Toscano cheese, hydroponic butter lettuce, sliced Granny Smith apples, chopped macadamia nuts and fresh dill. If you missed this special sandwich, don’t fret: Marisol the Restaurant serves a similar medley in salad form on a daily basis at its fine-dining roost on the ground floor of the MCA.