Chicago: Ruxbin

Remember your first post-college apartment? It probably wasn't very big, or in the best part of town. You most likely decorated it with a combination of IKEA and repurposed junk you salvaged from your parents' basement or the street. To anyone else, it might not have looked like much, but its significance derived from the fact that it was a space to call your own, free from the influence or control of others, a place where you could do as you wished. Ruxbin is much like that apartment. Located in the up-and-coming Noble Square neighborhood of West Town in Chicago, Ruxbin appears to be Chef Edward Kim's first independent venture into the Chicago restaurant scene, an establishment where he calls the shots in the kitchen, and exerts creative authority over his locally-sourced and continually changing menu.

It is a true labor of love, evidenced by the quirky but charming details that give the restaurant its trendy-industrial atmosphere and scrappiness. A queue of sexy, chunky spotlights are, upon closer inspection, fashioned out of deconstructed church pews. The slats on the backs of the banquettes are actually seatbelts taken from abandoned cars in a junkyard. Scattered, yellowed book pages had been screened onto the ceiling, their antique-y softness a perfect backdrop for the HazMat-orange ceiling beams.

In lieu of bread, Ruxbin serves popcorn sprinkled with nori.

Calamari bokkum: korean chilies, peanuts, baby potatoes and sesame

Chicken and waffles: roasted breast, dark meat "carnitas", cumin cheddar waffles and apple walnut compote

Ruxbin's dishes too, like the proverbial phoenix, seem to have risen from the ashes of their much humbler roots. An appetizer of calamari bokkum, a nod to Mr. Kim’s Korean heritage, is a marriage of the flavors of various banchan, the traditional small plates that accompany most Korean meals. Smoky peanut and sesame oil, sweet gamja jorim (Korean spicy potato), fiery chilies and vinegary marinated cucumbers mingle in a way that seems both familiar and new. The waffles in an entrée of chicken and waffles are injected with cumin and cheddar, while the chicken is treated to meticulous seasoning and roasting, rather than frying. The traditional maple syrup is replaced with the subtle sweetness of an apple-walnut compote. Tying it all together is a milky cinnamon-scented citrus vinaigrette.

Pan seared trout, bulgur wheat tabbouleh, asparagus, dates, basil

Crispy eggplant, roasted beets, cucumber, honey-cardamom yogurt

When Mr. Kim isn’t concentrating his energies on gussying up old favorites, his talents are directed at producing simple dishes with flavors that pop. A pan seared trout entrée boasts a perfectly crisp and seasoned skin, and is accompanied by a nutty bulgur wheat tabbouleh with a prominent onion flavor. The crunchy fennel and red onion salad (a side to the chicken and waffles) is superb. The only hiccup of the evening was a salad of crispy eggplant, beets, cucumber and yogurt – the eggplant wasn’t so much crispy as it was slightly chewy, and the dish seemed confused, as if the ingredients didn’t quite know what purpose they were supposed to serve.

Then again, one can hardly expect perfection the first time around, and Mr. Kim doesn’t miss the mark by much. At the end of the day, Ruxbin delivers what it promises – sincere, nuanced fare with integrity and not too much pretense. It isn't overly ambitious, but the kitchen's guileless forays into the unexpected make it clear that the evolution of this neighborhood spot is just beginning.

Ruxbin

851 North Ashland Ave.

Chicago, IL 60622

Phone: (312) 624-8509

Best dishes: Chicken and waffles, pan seared trout, calamari bokkum

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

Things to know: No reservations taken; BYOB