We're heading out for an extended weekend in metro Chicago. Here's what we hope to do:
First, we cannot return to the area without a trip to Kaufman's in Skokie for fresh onion bialies with chive cream cheese and peppered sable.
If we have time, though, we may go for breakfast at The Bagel.
And, of course, there's Walker Bros. The Original Pancake House. We are going downtown to see a play. Dining possibilities:
Terzo Piano, at the Art Institute of Chicago
Sushi or salad on the 7th-floor terrace at NoMi
At this point, we doubt that we will get to the following spots but we can wish....Maybe you, reader, will have time/money for these.
Lunch or dinner at Blackbird, There's a new chef here but it's still under wing of executive chef/partner Paul Kahan, so we're happy. Great Taste's favorite Chicago restaurant is currently offering a three-course lunch special for $22. Blackbird is quintessentially modern ("form follows function") Chicago--spare, unpretentious, yet dramatic, in a drive-up convenient yet vaguely mysterious location on the Near West Side. New American cuisine is never too rich or gimmicky, but original, seasonal, and top notch.
Toto, we're not in Minnesota anymore. Everest, on the 40th floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange, has to rival some of the best restaurants in the world. Cuisine is Alsatian French. No detail overlooked, but this place makes it all look brilliantly easy. I don't recall if there is a dress code but this is one dining room that you probably don't want to enter in your best pair of jeans. Dress up--really up, feel special, splurge.
Everest's casual sister is Brasserie Jo. If you took several of Paris's top brasseries and rolled them up into one ideal spot, then you'd get something close to Brasserie Jo--minus Parisian "je ne sais quoi." Chef Jean Joho's French dishes match the atmosphere.
GT gets nostalgic at Berghoff Cafe. When The Berghoff on Adams closed a few years ago Great Taste went into mourning. How could this writer ever come back to her hometown anymore--State Street Marshall Field's became Macy's....What was left? (And, our favorite Chicago area hot dog spot closed. Too sad!) Then a Berghoff family member opened part of the restaurant again. It's not the same sort of movie- quality Old World meeting hall (with waiting line snaking out the revolving door at lunch) but most original dishes are still featured; thus Berghoff Cafe is probably the one remaining restaurant in the Midwest with some excellent traditional German fare.
(Note: Why does one have to now go to Manhattan for Teutonic food? Cafe Sabarsky in the Neue Gallerie is superb. But, gee, I grew up on this stuff...Do American culinary school chefs uniformly frown on it?)
Russian Tea Time: A two-minute walk from the Art Institute (if traffic light is in your favor), and delicious change of pace from American, Italian and Steakhouse restaurants that tend to dominate the Loop area.
For more of a scene, head to Randolph Street west of the 90/94, one of Great Taste's fave renovated districts that is also on the main thoroughfare leading to the United Center, home to the Bulls and Blackhawks. (Sports teams and hipsters....Well, this is Chicago.) There are numerous good to outstanding restaurants on Randolph west of the highway, all fun and some posh. A few:
one sixty blue:
Red Light:
Marche:
If Great Taste is a good time manager and keeps calm about traffic, more tidbits will follow. We need to get into the 'hoods for many of the groovy ethnic spots. Please email if there are particular restaurants or areas you'd like for GT to visit!
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