Barry Bursak has taken a long, convoluted path since his hippie days in Haight-Ashbury, but he’s carried a bit of the 60s metaphysic most of the way. For more than a year now he’s owned a nifty River North restaurant where, in addition to pursuing the usual entrepreneurial goals, he’s out to make a point: cuisine can be haute and ecologically correct at the same time.
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When Bursak first left the Haight in 1971, he opened a shop in Milwaukee selling medicinal herbs–no cannabis, he assures me. But the health department shut him down anyway, suspicious of what it considered the unlicensed sale of possibly dangerous pharmaceuticals. He switched to herbs and spices for cooking, which led to selling coffees. After his partner bought out that business, Bursak took up selling organic grains, then moved on to kitchenware, and eventually became a supplier to Crate & Barrel, a business he kept up on and off over the years.
The crash of ’87 spelled the end of that citadel of indulgence and helped Bursak rethink his life. Always environmentally conscientious, he says, “I really yearned for being part of the solution.” In 1991 he opened Home, a restaurant at Wells and Superior, his first attempt at serving organic, environmentally sound foods. But he couldn’t find enough certifiably correct product in those days to offer it consistently, so he sold out to a partner after a year and returned to the design field. By the end of ’96 he was ready to try the restaurant business again, and it was time for Earth.
A tasting supported his statement. Only one dish gave any suggestion of “health” food–a zesty salad appetizer of five different spring shoots, including wheat berries for body and radish sprouts for piquancy, all in a yogurt-and-pink-peppercorn dressing ($4.95). The rest of the menu could conceivably be served at any fine dining spot in the area.
Earth, 738 N. Wells, is open for lunch Monday through Saturday from 11:30 to 2:30, for dinner Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 9, and Friday and Saturday until 10. Call 312-335-5475.
