PROOF POSITIVE

I can’t remember the last time a server—working in a packed suburban restaurant, on a Saturday night, in the middle of frenzied dinner rush—asked me if I’d like to spend a little more quality time with my cocktail before discussing my food order. Patience, in the restaurant world, is usually a financial liability. The fewer the fewer tables you turn, the fewer credit cards you can swipe.

Not so at Proof No. 5 in Wheaton, where our server seemed content to let us sip our aperitifs the way the Italians do—slowly, languidly, theatrically.

It’s shrewd strategy because Proof No. 5 is run by Bourbon Belly Hospitality, which operates two stellar west suburban cocktail lounges: Barrel + Rye in Geneva and Maize + Mash in Glen Ellyn. Both have become meccas for single-barrel bourbon lovers.

Proof No. 5 pays homage to the glories of the brown stuff in its own way—its 1.5-ounce bourbon, rye and Japanese whiskey pours are stellar—but this is the most eclectic and adventurous cocktail list Bourbon Belly has ever assembled. Proof No. 5’s bar team has raided the company’s entire liquor cabinet, spiking vodka cocktails with shishito syrups, pouring exotic saffron and walnut liquors and whipping up a creative adaptation of the classic Cuban cocktail the bishop using rum, lime juice and a clever Cabernet reduction.

Management must also realize that the longer guests nest in this stunningly appointed dining room—almost Caravaggio-like in the way it throws long shadow and creates pockets of golden light—the more likely they will just keep ordering food from a menu that’s every bit as daring and unpredictably creative as its tipples.

At first glance, the food offerings look almost too eclectic for their own good, as if the kitchen were auditioning to open up the group’s first international food hall and settled for a single dining room menu. During our visit, there were bulgogi buns topped with gochujang aioli, Philly cheesesteak empanadas made with a homemade “Cheez- Wiz” and a flatbread topped with goat cheese, apricot-pepper jelly and speck.

Bourbon Belly Culinary Director Eric Olson, who oversees the menu with executive sous chef Stuart McLuckie, says the definition of American cooking is so diverse and all-encompassing that pretty much everything is fair game. As a result, many of Proof No. 5’s dishes were born from encouraging his kitchen staff to throw out ideas and then working collectively to gussy them up. “We wanted,” he says, “to really push our creativity.”

They’ve done just that. Sometimes, the addition of the simplest accent flavors can have a profound effect on a familiar dish. I’m a big fan, for instance, of sumac berries, which Proof No. 5 grinds down into a fine powder—imagine an earthy lemonade flavor—and then sprinkles this magical fairy dust on Mediterranean chicken skewers set atop couscous and feta.

I’m also a sucker for exotic compound butters paired with a hunky slice of really good bread. Olson’s team serves its focaccia with a brilliant mâitre d’ butter made with lemon, shallots, herbs and a hint of a white wine reduction. If the Greeks ever decided to experiment with flavored butters, it would end up tasting just like this.

Proof No. 5 represents Bourbon Belly’s first attempt at running what I’d call a casual finedining restaurant. And it absolutely looks the part. You have to love what the team has done to the place. This is my personal definition of tall, dark and handsome. Sprawling SOHO loft ceilings. Lots of dark grays and black tones. Thin shafts of light stream in from skylights, back windows and the retractable doors in the front of the restaurant. The result is a space that feel almost spectral yet undeniably romantic—a special occasion restaurant with affordable date-night prices.

Given how many different genres and cultures Proof No. 5 is playing with, the kitchen’s hit rate is exceptionally high. You can’t help looking at the dining room’s showpiece art installations—a clever mashup of modern portraits with various vegetables and flowers concealing their faces—and not sense that many of Olson’s vibrant platings were designed to pair with those colorfully brushstrokes on the walls. I know some chefs claim that white walls make their food pop, but I’ve always believed that darkness imbues colorful dishes with a beautiful otherworldly luminescence.

Proof No. 5’s gnocchi, for instance, reads like Olson wreathed his dumplings with everything he had left in his walk-in fridge. There are almost too many elements to keep track of: the gnocchi, Romanesco florets, an alabaster colored fenugreek cream, za’atar fried chickpeas and three different carrot preparations. It’s a stunning edible geodesic dome of bright colors and jagged shapes.

The brilliance of the dish is that it tastes like a deconstructed cream of cream of potato soup. The fenugreek cream acts as the base flavor, the gnocchi act as the starch and the remaining elements provide lilts of sweetness and spice. Every scoop seems to yield a different combination of flavors.

If you’re looking for a starter to pair with one of Proof No. 5’s spicier cocktails—as we did—the kitchen’s tuna crudo comes stacked with plenty of Latin American goodies: dimples of chimichurri cream, pickled Fresno chiles, candied orange peel, cilantro and tajin, the Mexican table’s chile-lime seasoning that’s sprinkled on everything from nuts and fruit to the rims of margarita glasses.

If there’s a throughline to the menu, it’s that all the creative little flourishes that brighten the cocktail list seem to be extended to the menu. The bar and kitchen are always playing chicken and egg, with one team launching a new treat and the other trying to create an equally unique pairing.

We were particularly impressed with our seafood entrees. Rather than pairing a plank of salmon with boring old mashed potatoes, the kitchen turned to the Mediterranean, whipping up a skordalia— a Greek garlic dip that’s so thick and creamy here it has the mouthfeel of mashed spuds—and dressing up its salmon with Aleppo oil and a wonderful artichoke and corn relish.

The house grouper is served with polka dots of sauce Choron (a tomatoey Bearnaise), andouille dirty rice and lemon balm leaves. You might think that adding a Southern-style chow-chow to all this would be too much, but the acidity it brings to the dish counterbalances the dish’s richness. The result is like enjoying a high-end Southern fish fry if it were prepared by a classically trained French chef. Who could argue with that upgrade?

Suffice to say: It all works. I could drink—and eat here—all night. And on our most recent visit, we almost did. The time flew by. And so did more orders, more drinks. And sitting there, in the dark with food and cocktails that literally and figuratively glowed in the dark, we were in no rush to leave, often glancing back at a neon sign on the far wall that red, “You’re like really pretty.” Looking back at our Proof No. 5 experience, I’d say that pretty much sums things up perfectly.

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Cocktails

In addition to 1.5 ounce pours of some smart bourbon, rye, scotch and Japanese whisky selections, you can’t leave Proof No. 5 without sipping one of their signature cocktails.

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Proof No. 5 is located at 214 West Front Street. in Wheaton, 331.808.5150, proofnumberfive.com.