If you’re the way we are here at Resy, you’ve been spending the past weeks thinking every day about your favorite restaurants. What do we miss most about them? What are we most looking forward to returning to, as they begin to fully reopen for dining? Yes, there’s plenty of takeout and delivery to enjoy, groceries and wine to buy, and lots of other ways to support the restaurants we love. But nothing beats the experience of being in a restaurant, enjoying the dishes you adore.
We’ve compiled a list of favorite things about dining in Chicago we’re hoping to get back to soon.
- Poring over the excellent wine list at Giant while waiting for the Dungeness crab tagliatelle with chili butter.
- The ultimate Italian beef order: big beef, wet, with hot peppers, at Al’s Beef.
- A perfectly seared New York strip and a glass of Gamay at the ever-cozy, German-meets-French Boeufhaus (and don’t forget the short rib beignets).
- The comfort of Monday-night farm dinners at Lula Café, along with afternoon drinks at the bar — especially the Missed Connection: charanda, celery root, Montenegro, and espresso bitters.
- The bomb margaritas, the vodka and meatball pies, and the lovely husband-and-wife team behind it all (that would be Zach and Rachel Smith) at Pizzeria Bebu.
- How everything always feels effortlessly perfect at Avec, from the wood-clad space to the Mediterranean plates.
- Slurping frozé and Negroni slushies on Saint Lou’s Assembly’s backyard patio, with a side of biscuits for good measure.
- Income Tax’s wine list, which happens to be one of the finest around. (Aged Muscadet FTW.)
- Everything tiki at tropical destination and cocktail oasis Lost Lake.
- The creamy egg tarts that took five years to perfect, and the housemade linguiça sausages, at Fat Rice.
- Anything that Sarah Grueneberg touches at Monteverde, but especially the ‘nduja arancini, lemon-thyme tigelle, and cacio whey pepe.
- Chef Paul Virant’s negiyaki at Gaijin, a flaky scallion pancake studded with bacon and eggs.
- Starting a meal at Galit with a full spread of tehina hummus, salatim (the selection of salads), and all the pita.
- Knowing that it doesn’t get any more classic (or delicious) than steak-frites and wine at Bistro Campagne.
- Ordering way too many dumplings and crispy chung yao bing (Chinese scallion pancakes) at the counter at Lao Peng You.
- The very cheesy and crispy carne seca cheese crisp — aka the “Sonoran quesadilla” — at Old Pueblo Cantina.
- Split-Rail’s unmissable fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits brushed with chile maple butter.
- The Aunt Alice sandwich from Steingold’s — a perfect and simple combination of smoked fish salad, lettuce, shaved onions, and tomatoes.
- The aura of fun that pervades Bar Biscay, rounded out by txakoli poured from porron, dry fino sherry, and every bit of seafood.
- All Together Now’s pizza and pét-nat parties, and their treasure trove of Domaine Guiberteau from the Loire.
- What may be one of the best burgers in the city, ordered medium-rare, juicy and melty, at Rootstock.
- The buttery croissant at Cellar Door Provisions. ‘Nuff said.
- The incomparable Milanese torta and churros for dessert at Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill.
- Three words: Maine lobster dumplings, which arrive in a pool of jade butter at S.K.Y.
- Crispy lechón, croqueta tots, and the sweet owners of Filipino-Cuban wunderkind Bayan Ko, industry couple Raquel Quadreny Lawrence Letrero.
- Wontons in chili oil paired with either a spritz or a chilled glass of Day Wines white from Oregon at the counter at Chef’s Special Cocktail Bar.
- The definition of comfort: hot chocolate, doughnuts, and mac & cheese at Mindy Segal’s Hot Chocolate.
- The Portuguese wines and bacalhau dumplings stuffed with salt cod brandade at Porto.
- Ramen night at Moneygun, with a bowl of that Parmesan and porcini shio broth, and a Cosmo.
- Indulging in silky beef tartare and Champagne at the very moody Cherry Circle Room.
- All-day lunch turning into dinner at the bar, and running into industry friends, at Café Marie-Jeanne.
- Raclette grilled cheese, and the thoughtful wine list at Bad Hunter, with its focus on small French producers like Paul-Henri Thillardon in Beaujolais.
- Madeira in copious quantities at the secretive and twinkly Milk Room.
- Sharing a plate of halloumi and agnolotti, while admiring the beautiful glassware at Good Fortune.
- All of the housemade charcuterie and the mushroom gougères at Flat & Point.
- The intimacy of the eight-seat counter, and the sushi mastery on display, at Omakase Yume.
- The best mozzarella stick in town, at Roots Pizza.
- People-watching on Utopian Tailgate’s 10,000-square-foot rooftop.
- The simple pleasures of onion dip, root beer float, and pierogies at Daisies.
- Superkhana International’s radical Indian cuisine, where the butter chicken supreme and Bombay sandwich pair beautifully with a glass of Jo Landron Atmosphères sparkling wine.
