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Everyone lauds Hopleaf for its beer selection, but what about the man in the kitchen?

Monday Mar 17, 2008.     By Karl Klockars

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Everyone knows that Hopleaf, one of the premier beer bars in Chicago, is the place to go for just about any Belgian ale you can imagine, as well as dozens of domestic craft brews and other international beer choices. But the kitchen at Hopleaf shouldn't be overlooked. It puts out some of the best mussels and frites in the city and elevates "bar food" to places that plates of wings and jalapeno poppers could never go.

Ben Sheagren is the Executive Chef of Hopleaf, and he spoke with us about his menu and all those tons and tons (literally!) of mussels.

Everybody thinks about Hopleaf's beer first, food second, and the kitchen has kept somewhat of a low profile. Is that intentional?
Well, it's been a bit of an evolution. In the course of the two years that I've been here, when I first took over the kitchen things started to get considerably busier. We had an appearance on "Check, Please!" and some other pieces of publicity that really started to send business through the roof. Prior to that we were very busy and we were happy with the amount of business that we did; at that point I would have described us as being a little more low-key and with an intention to be so.

As the kitchen has grown to share more of the stage with the bar and the beer list,I would say there has been a considerable amount of room to explore different areas...I don't want to say it was a more conservative menu [before] but it wasn't nearly as close a second to the bar. I like to think more and more we're attracting a broader base of clientele, from foodies looking for their three courses to bar patrons just looking to absorb the alcohol.

There are a lot of influences on the menu, despite a Belgian theme to the bar. How do you decide what's going to fit the menu?
There are a number of factors that come into the decision-making process. I started off with a clear impression from the owner Michael that he wanted to keep a foot in the Belgian realm. But there wasn't a serious emphasis put on it. I wasn't made to feel as though I had to pick up a bunch of Belgian cookbooks and reproduce recipes that were considered traditional.

So as I took cues from the Belgian area, and focused our cooking with beer and looked at what had been done prior to my taking over the kitchen, I felt more and more comfortable placing my roots in more of a comfort food area than specifically Belgian. Belgian food almost across the board could be defined as comfort food. There's very little pretension in Belgian cuisine; it's mostly what you'd consider a homestyle cuisine. So it made it pretty easy for me to lift that philosophy and place it in the Midwest.

After your famed mussels and frites, what is the second favorite thing on the menu?
I would have a hard time narrowing down to one. The ham sandwich over the years has held the crown pretty consistently, but I think there has been a bit of a shift in the sandwich menu. We have four sandwiches that I'm going to have a really hard time rotating any one of them off. They all share popularity pretty well, between the brisket and the cashew butter and jam, and now we've got the duck rueben. Since it's been introduced two or three weeks ago, [it's] actually sold out every other sandwich with the exception of maybe a night or two.

The sandwiches have always been a popular spot on the menu, but over the course of the two years that I've been here, I've brought back three or four dishes now, including the Scotch Egg. Which, every time it comes back, it's an overwhelming success. How can you go wrong?

Scotch eggs [a hard-boiled egg cased in sausage meat and bread crumbs, then deep fried] are popular again.
I've seen the scotch egg popping up more and more in different places, and mine is the only one I've seen with the soft yolk center, and I serve it on creamy mashed potatoes, so it's kinda a no-brainer. You get the messy warm gooey mass of sausage and egg and potato; it's hard to go wrong.

What do you like to drink after your shift?
Seasonally speaking, I tend to be pretty predictable. I stick with the brown ales and even go for a porter or a stout in the fall and winter. Right now, I'm drinking the Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale a lot, the Meredsous is an old favorite. Maudite from Unibroue has been a favorite…Then in summertime I lighten up and go for the occasional wheat beer or stick with the Belgian ales. The Atomium is one of my long-standing favorites from that family.

How many pounds of mussels do you think you've handled in your career?
We average about 800 pounds a week, overall. Obviously it's a team effort; I actually handle as few as anybody on the staff. But 800 pounds a week for two years, let's see: That's 4,000, 8,000...plus I'll throw in a loose 1,000 from the past 10 years prior to the Hopleaf…

Let's do the math: 800 pounds, times 52 weeks, is—about 41,000 pounds.
Wow! Times two, that's...

In two years, that's around 83,000 pounds. That's a respectable number.
That's up there! Yeah, I could probably compete with just about any chef with that number, I guess.