Three-way

For some, pine conjures the scent of a season marked by freshly cut trees intended for decorating. For Curtis Duffy of Avenues , pine goes hand in hand with fly-fishing. “Growing up in Colorado, we’d catch trout then cook it up over a campfire,” he says. “[So] I started bringing in trout from Michigan and then spring spruce cuttings from there as well.” Duffy infused olive oil with the pine-tree tips, then used that to poach the fish. But now that he’s moved on to a new season, he dehydrates the pine needles, turns them into a powder and folds that into a meringue that dresses a sphere of port-poached rhubarb, the bottom half of which is semi-frozen, the top a puree. (108 E Superior St, 312-573-6754)

It seems Duffy isn’t alone in his pine association—Marianne Sundquist of In Fine Spirits recently added a dish to her menu called “Camping in the North Woods,” in which pan-seared Lake Superior whitefish is drizzled with a vinaigrette made from Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur and plated with smoky bacon-maple polenta. “I wanted this dish to be a retreat from the city,” she says. “To transport diners to the wilderness where the fish came from.” To get there faster, double up with the North Woods cocktail, a bourbon-and-cider concoction laced with the same pine liqueur and clove bitters. (5420 N Clark St, 773-334-9463)

Jason Hammel of Lula Cafe is a sucker for a good story behind his products, and it doesn’t get much better than envisioning an Italian woman foraging dolomite mountains in spring to pluck new buds from the tips of pine trees, then storing them in glass bottles for months until they release an intoxicating syrup. Hammel drizzles just a bit of that molasses-thick herbal syrup (a.k.a. mugolio, or oil of mugo pines) on fall flavors like black futsu squash, roasted parsnips, bitter apple and chestnut-potato arancini. (If you want to try mugolio for yourself, Zingerman’s sells it mail-order at zingermans.com.) (2537 N Kedzie Blvd, 773-489-9554)

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