Stumara in Wheeling, Elevated Georgian cuisine - Must try!

Photos uploaded thanks to the extraordinary ronnie_suburban.

I adored dining at Stumara, and it earns my most enthusiastic recommendation. Stumara is a destination restaurant located in Wheeling. It’s worth the trek from the city. If you come before 7 p.m., you can stop in Pirosmanius, a small deli maintained by the same owners, which shares a wall with the restaurant.

Our meal started with Pkhali - vegetable pâtés bound with pureed walnuts served with savory donuts, similar to beignets. Then slices of tender eggplant stuffed with caponata-like eggplant puree, rolled and dusted in a black “dirt” derived from walnuts. Other courses included cooked spiralized beets in a mild creamy horseradish puree served cold, beef cheeks in a creamy walnut sauce served on a comforting corn-derived white sticky pillow that reminds me of West African fufu, and baked chicken with flavorful lacquered skin that is served flooded with a generous amount of garlic cream sauce tableside. My favorite dish is lamb sausage lettuce wraps with tender herbs.

Service is welcoming and enthusiastic.

Stumara
Elevated Georgian cuisine
Georgia, a former Soviet republic, is at the border of Europe and Asia, and is home to the Caucasus Mountains.
847 W Dundee Rd, Wheeling
Thanks Mike Gebert, Fooditor.com, for putting this amazing restaurant on our radar.
See the Fooditor article here:
https://fooditor.com/the-buzz.../buzz-l ... ly-8-2024/

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I am taking words from Cynthia's thoughts: Wheeling is a hot bed for Georgian food.

We were at a competitor on for a lunch a few months ago. Prior to that, I went to another Georgia restaurant and deli just the month before with Cynthia.

Fun!

Merle and I had dinner there a couple of weeks ago for her birthday. They were still in their soft opening stage and hadn't finalized their menu. We made a meal out of Khachapuri with cheese and spinach, lamb skewers, and chicken skewers. Everything was quite tasty. Note - the meat dishes take quite some time to prepare.

We were one of two tables occupied at around 5pm. We had ample time to chat with our server. His family is from Ukraine. He wasn't aware of Kitchen House Cafe just down the street.

We accidentally walked into Pirosmanius before Stumara. Their deli items looked quite good. Based on our meal at Stumara, I'll need to go back and give it a try.

Dundee Road in Wheeling = Count Me A Fan!

If they don't know about Kitchen House, I wonder if they know about Aragvi Georgian Bakery and Restaurant in Palatine -- but also on Dundee Rd.

As for Pirosmani, as Cathy2 notes, we visited a while ago -- before Stumara opened -- and I've been back a couple of times as I'm a big fan of the Pkhali (aka "salad balls").

Eater article = https://chicago.eater.com/2024/7/18/242 ... s-wheeling

In the spirit of this thread, what’s the best or better in realm of deli/prepared food. After a year of being in Queens often, I won’t. I’m mostly happy I won’t, but I’m gonna greatly miss the stores, especially the giant Gastronom for Russian, Uzbek, etc foods.

Stumara is chugging along nicely. Merle and I stopped by there at around 5:30 last Saturday. While the restaurant was maybe 1/2 full, we were asked if we had reservations. We didn't. They said that they could seat us as long as we were out of there by 6:45. No problem!

They now have laminated menus. Nice artwork was hung along the walls. Merle had Pork Skewers with salad and I had a Georgian burger with fries. Both were good. The only hiccup was the five minute or so delay between the arrival of my burger and her skewers.

We'll return.