Lardon Is the Perfect Place to Feel at Home When You’re Still Figuring Out Chicago

Then there’s the charcuterie. Lardon’s in-house curing program relies on whole-animal butchery and local sourcing, and you can see the evidence yourself on the way to the bathroom: sausages and pork shoulders hang in organized rows, quietly doing the work of aging, deepening in flavor and texture as they go. It’s grounding, a reminder that the delicious things on your plate didn’t arrive by magic.

While lunch was a good introduction, dinner is where the place really clicked for me. The menu is short, which I love—it implies someone edited with intention. I went with friends and we shared almost everything: fat, briny mussels with grilled bread that was clearly designed for sopping up the shallotty, buttery sauce; a roasted squash salad with lemony arugula; a wood-grilled bavette steak frites that was simple, sharply seasoned, and exactly what a freezing night calls for. Plus, obviously, another cheese and charcuterie board, because when a restaurant’s strength is that clear, you double down.

I ordered a Negroni on tap and my friends had wine—cherry-forward Olivier Pithon “Mon P’Tit Pithon” Rouge—and we lingered longer than planned, which is always a good sign.

What caught me off guard at Lardon was a faint sense of recognition, the feeling of brushing up against an earlier version of myself. It took me straight back to Casellula, the tiny cheese and wine bar on 52nd Street in New York City, where I spent my early twenties behind the counter. The place was cramped in a charming way, with low lighting, an antique jewelry case crowded with cheeses, and a soundtrack that was always a little too loud. I spent nights slicing wedges of washed rind, sneaking bites of Alpine cheese when no one was looking, and absorbing the rhythms of people who cared intensely about food without taking themselves too seriously.

It was also where I started noticing the women who would come in alone after work, book or magazine tucked beside their glass of wine, perfectly unbothered. Until then, I’d never seen dining solo modeled as something to aspire to. Casellula rewired that part of my brain.

At Lardon, 17 years later and in a completely different city, something about the room tugged on that thread. Maybe it was the way the bar felt lived-in without being precious, or the casual competence of the staff, or the fact that no one seemed in a hurry to move anyone along. It wasn’t a grand epiphany; more like a small, grounding click in my chest: this feels familiar in a good way. A reminder that a place can make space for you before you fully make space for yourself.

Lardon is a room where you can exhale, take stock, and settle into the moment without performing anything. A place where belonging isn’t announced, it’s absorbed, quietly, while you’re eating something really good. Lardon helped carve out the first edges of home in a city I’m still learning. And honestly, that’s plenty. Especially when it’s this cold.