As I was tootling around today between customers I happened to drive through Wheeling for the first time in a while and I saw something that made me smile. Four restaurants, one after another, bing-bing-bing-bing.
The first was Bob Chinn’s Crab House, a fair-to-middling fine dining seafood restaurant. Right next to Chinn’s was a brand spanking new Superdawg. The original Superdawg is just a couple of miles from where I live in Chicago. It’s a very 1950s vintage hot dog stand with curb service. The new store is several times bigger than the original place but it’s clearly the same old Superdawg, right down to Morrie and Florrie on the roof.
Next to Superdawg was Le Francais, a classical French restaurant at one time touted as the best French restaurant outside of France. I’d heard it was closed but it was hard to tell as I wheeled by.
Right next to that was Hackney’s, a small local chain that’s been a Chicago landmark for the last 75 years. It’s basically a gussied-up hamburger stand. A sit-down restaurant with a narrower menu than a family restaurant and not quite good enough to be called “fine dining”.
That’s Chicago for you.
La Francais closed?! Really? Wow.
I’d be interested in your view. Best Chicago eatery. As a general rule I avoid “best” ratings, its so amorphous and subjective. But right now I’m partial to Tru and in Lincoln Park – and I mean IN Lincoln Park, North Pond.
PS –
Was in Austin, TX recently. We were running late for a meeting so we stopped for lunch at what was literally a trailor cooking sandwiches. Psycho colors etc. Grateful Dead stuff.
Best grilled chicken sandwich ever. Period. We later learned this place is an Austin legend. Who knew?
I like both Tru and North Pond. Tru is an experience. Dining as theater. The last time my wife and I went to Tru we sat at the private table in the kitchen—great fun.
I don’t think there’s a better ambiance in Chicago than North Pond. The view of the city is simply breath-taking. The grub ain’t bad, either. Probably the center for use of locally-grown stuff in the Chicago area.
I think that Hackneys in Wheeling is closed as well. Don Roths too, although that was caused by a death in the family. RAM brewery ( locally crafted beers and good but expensive burgers) and restaurant has huge crowds has (I think ) put Hackneys out of business on restaurant row. Some other existing restaurants include Buca de Beppo, and Pete Millers.
The only time we’ve ever done the “table in the kitchen” thing was down in Naples at Sea Salt. I find it overwrought. However, if you ever get to Naples do attempt to get into Sea Salt.
Just an anecdote: I know everyone adores Charlie Trotters. We only went once. Good meal, but not great. But as some readers may know I have an extensive collection of Bordeaux wines. In all my years of going to fine dining establishments I’ve only had one bad bottle of wine that had to be returned. Just once. Guess where: Trotters. And the bastids tried to tell me “that’s how its supposed to taste.”
I’ve been out of the Chicago food scene for a while, but Grant Achatz’s Alinea is a life-altering experience. I was a molecular cuisine skeptic — I dislike theory and wasn’t sure science had a role in cooking — but two visits were both amazing.
Tru was good, especially on the front of the house. Drew’s wrong about Trotter (or at least the Trotter of a decade ago.)
I’d also say I had very good meals at Ritz-Carlton (a cut above the usual hotel food) and the Four Seasons (best lamb I ever tasted) and the Asian restaurant whose name I forget at the Peninsula. (Chicago is an amazing hotel city — those three, plus the Sofitel, and a strong bench. I’d bet on Chicago hotels over LA, NYC or SF.)
Le Francais I visited only for lunch IIRC a long time ago. Very much the old-school Froggie experience. Unfortunately that suit-and-tie, hushed tones thing is basically over. I kind of miss it, even though it was more a historical artifact than a living, breathing artist’s studio like Alinea.
Michael –
Re: Trotters On any given night, who knows? We went with friends in 1998, before leaving Chicago and moving to New York. Haven’t been back. But the wine experience was bizarre. It was corky – period. I suppose we shouldn’t hold a grudge and should probably go back. Maybe I’ll take my own Pavie Decesse and pay the corkage fee this time.
I’m not familiar with Alinea. Thanks. Will have to investigate. If I might be presumptious, Dave is correct. North Pond is just a cool experience. When you are in town you should give it a try. They change the menu frequently, so you can go over and over….. Lastly, and this is just Chicago-ite mafia stuff, the Firehouse is a worthy night.
I like your taste in hotels, but that’s all N Michigan Ave stuff. There are good ones at reasonable rates just north of Millenium Park. In particular, SwissHotel. Just so you know..
I’ve heard SwissHotel is good, but I like to be able to walk down the Mile when I’m in town. I spent 3 weeks with my family at the R-C and never found a single thing to complain of. Less time at 4 Seasons. Spent a week with my son at Peninsula when my daughter was first coming home from China during SARS and I think they edge the RC by a hair. For the money Sofitel is the place I’d default to: 85% as good as the RC/4/Pen at 60% of the price.
The thing I loved best about Tru (after the impeccable service) is that Tramonto has a sense of humor — the live beta swimming around in IIRC a ceviche, the staircase of caviar. (Trotter not so much.)
Alinea’s Chef Achatz is a fellow traveler with Ferran Adria of El Bulli, which a lot of people think may be the best restaurant in the world. (I haven’t been, it’s somewhere in Catalonia.) It’s not an uptight place but they’ll tell you how to eat a dish, and I resented that, until I tasted. From that point forward I obeyed without question.
Moto is bullshit, by the way, a lame Alinea wanna-be. All gimmick and no flavor.
Unfortunately my experience of NYC has been on one expensed business trip or another, and amazingly, publishers won’t pay for rooms at the 4 or the RC. (Cheap bastards.)
Here’s what pisses me off about you, Drew: I think we hate each other and yet I’m pretty sure we could have a good time together with tasting menus, whiskey and cigars. As long as we stayed off politics.
I’ve had the same experience at Trotters. My reaction at the time was that it happens. I like Trotters but, as I think I’ve mentioned before, the last time I was there I had to explain it to the couple we were with before they understood it.
“Here’s what pisses me off about you, Drew: I think we hate each other and yet I’m pretty sure we could have a good time together with tasting menus, whiskey and cigars. As long as we stayed off politics.”
LOL; seriously! You never know how it all comes across on this electronic medium. I always wonder what perceptions are.
Do we agree on politics? No way in hell; probably never will. Would we agree on my experience in business vs yours? No way in hell. Do I think you have an unwise and arrogant position on what you think you know about business and investment, versus real live practionioners like me; yes I do. (Notice I’ve never, ever, given advice on how to write.)
Would we have a good time? Sir, I think it would be an interesting, fantastic and riotous night. How many times have I said it: provocateur is my game – to generate traffic…..not who I am.
I don’t hate anyone; its a bad habit and life is way too short. And I hold you in highest regard. And I mean that seriously, as a recent backchannel with Dave would attest.
Drew:
All right then, it’s a date. We can talk wine, women and booze.
Wait, food was supposed to be in there somewhere.
How about women, women, wine and booze.
BTW – I gave up the cigars because an oral surgeon friend of mine said the poison combination is cigars (or cigs) and alcohol, especially hard liquor. And for some reason – he doesn’t know why; its just empirical – either one has risks but not overly so, but the combo is a recipe for a disaster.