1. BEST VERSION YET

That’s what John Kessler calls Cellar Door Provisions in 2025, under owner Ethan Pikus and new chef de cuisine Alex Cochran—after his tells the story of his pleasures at, and sometimes frustrations at, the perpetually-under-the-radar Logan Square spot. Like him, I’ve had times when I was frustrated at trying to buy pastries (not ready yet, well past my idea of “breakfast time”) and whether I’d be allowed to buy their black-armor-plated sourdough. But when they had a multicourse prix fixe at a very reasonable price, just before COVID, I hit it a few times—I didn’t want a twenty-course tasting menu, I just wanted dinner, and their vegetable-forward dishes hit the spot. And so they do, even if it’s a la carte now, says Kessler:

Two of you can easily order half the daily evolving menu. You may start with Murder Point oysters (Alabama’s finest) kissed by flame and glossed with a buttery sauce of cured pork fat, sake, and fig leaf vinegar — a combo that makes glorious sense on the tongue. (It’s one of those “Do we need another order?” dishes.) Fat wedges of golden beets are roasted in (and served with) their skins in a horseradish cream. A creamy dip of fermented squash and garlic confit comes with an enormous carta di musica cracker for snacking joy, particularly when paired with a plate of gently pickled carrots, radishes, and piparra peppers.

On a similar note of giving places second and third tries, Kessler devotes his column to eating solo at a few spots: Void, Bar Parisette and Kyoten Next Door:

I decided to do something I love but don’t indulge in as often as I’d like: eat dinner alone at a bar. Three bars, in fact, at three restaurants I’ve liked but wanted to know better.

The first stop was Void, the Avondale spot that feels both like a Wisconsin supper club and the Italian red sauce joint your grandparents took you to. With nearly two dozen seats at the long bar, it wasn’t a problem walking in on a Thursday.

Read it to find out which places reward digging deeper.

2. TASTY MENU

Johns Food and Wine placed high on my top ten list last year, mainly for pasta; it seemed a top-notch example of above-casual food served in a casual way. Not the sort of place that needed to go in for the pomp and pretension of a tasting menu, and yet here they are, now offering one. Grimod at Understanding Hospitality was there the instant it started:

Enjoying a luxurious tasting menu at an otherwise bustling spot is, in this manner, a real treat. It dials down the seriousness that can characterize fine dining while amplifying a sense that one is out on the town, amongst the crowd, yet still covertly enjoying superlative fare. Plus, even at the peak of dinner service, the team never falters in their hospitality. Drinks are refilled, plates are cleared, and courses are fired in a prompt manner. Check ins are frequent (but also confident and friendly). Overall, there is an enduring sense that the restaurant is grateful to be hosting its guests and especially focused on making the tasting experience seamless. I am left with the sense that the restaurant is not just offering this menu because they can but, rather, because they are deeply motivated (across both front and back of house) to deliver an even higher expression of their craft.

3. DUDE, SWEET!

Steve Dolinsky dives into sweet steak sandwiches—a South Side thing that few northsiders have probably tried… um… including your humble narrator, I must admit:

“This is traditionally a South Side thing,” said Gregory Rounds, co-owner of Fitchy’s Home of the Hoagy. “Grew up with Sweet Steaks all over the South Side.”

“…we got one steak sandwich, add hot peppers, extra cheese…”

Rounds’ wife, Lakeesha, runs the business with him. The sandwich begins with ribeye, but flavors are compounded by the addition of Worcestershire sauce, then seasonings including garlic salt, then their secret homemade sauce, made from seven ingredients, including sugar and tomato. Then there’s fresh garlic, and more fine chopping.

Topped with a few slices of white American cheese, then a Turano roll, which gets steamed a bit, before everything gets turned upside down, and it’s over to the garnishes, which guests get to customize.

4. I DO… I CAN’T EVEN

Well, Valentine’s Day is past and we’re safer, but never completely safe, from someone proposing publicly in a restaurant. At the Trib, Lisa Shames talks to chefs about how to do it well:

“There have been times that guests wanted us to hide the ring in the mignardise course,” said [Oriole] executive chef/owner Noah Sandoval. The final course is presented in a ceramic white orb, which is deconstructed at the table with the ring hidden inside.

Because of the West Loop restaurant’s open kitchen, Sandoval and his culinary team need to play it as cool as the front-of-the-house staff. “I have to go around the kitchen and tell everybody to quit staring at them as they’re going to know,” he said. “I have to make sure everyone behaves and doesn’t ruin it for them because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

5. ROSA YOU’RE MY FRIEND

At Time Out, Maggie Hennessy reviews—no, sings the praises of—Erick Williams’ Cantina Rosa:

If you order the Daiquiri Tropical at Cantina Rosa—which I highly recommend doing—you may become convinced you’ve bitten into a fantastical mashup of a fresh peach and a passionfruit, so balanced and purposeful is each component of this magical sour. I closed my eyes mid-first sip and floated elsewhere, my feet still firmly planted inside this beautiful, Mexican-inspired Hyde Park bar from chef and restaurateur Erick Williams.

6. KYRGYZ, KAZAKH AND CO.

One of the things we’d occasionally debate amongst ourselves in LTH days was, what’s the most common, but least appreciated, cuisine on the Chicago scene? Polish was probably the most frequent answer, my alternative was often Ecuadoran—but these days I’d say it’s Central Asian. Stumara, a Georgian restaurant in Wheeling, won a Jean Banchet award for heritage restaurant, and there’s lots of Georgian up that way—but officially that’s not even Central Asia, apparently (though I’d say the food is awfully close). Thus spake Wikipedia: it’s Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzebkistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Those are the countries that Titus Ruscitti eats from in a post about five relatively new Central Asian spots, the most interesting (and the most curious name) being Sorry Mommy in Rolling Meadows:

…We started with the ‘Da Pan Ji’ aka “Big Plate Chicken” which we all agreed was a winner. This Uyghur dish had a very nice spice profile that seeped into the potatoes, tender bone-in chicken, and the toothsome made in house noodles with just the right texture. The ‘La Zi Ji’ aka Dry Chili Chicken was also a winner with crisp chunks of fried chicken mixed with peanuts, chilis, and fresh dill which worked surprisingly well. I forget the name of the crispy eggplant dish but it too was a hit. They seem to do noodles well judging by an order of the stir fried Lagman noodles which were texturally some of the best I’ve had in Chicagoland. I’ll have to further explore their kebab offerings as a ‘Beef Roulette’ was texturally unique with that smoky taste and smell that usually comes from the use of charcoal but I forgot to ask about that. Manty passed the dangling test (they were soft and sturdy) but I always feel like they could be a bit more spiced up as far as flavor but even still I thought these were pretty good with some of the spicy sauce rubbed on. This place has definitely changed my look on Central Asian cuisine and that’s likely due to the food we had from here being influenced by China as much as it is Russia.

7. GHIN RUMMY

Several years ago, there had been some excitement about a Thai place in Pilsen called Ghin Khao. John Kessler and I went to check it out… and honestly, we were kind of left wondering what all the excitement was. (Read between the lines of what Kessler ended up writing.) But now Michael Nagrant makes the case again:

Chef Nova [Sasi] studied at Le Cordon Bleu of Chicago, but there is no tweezer food at Ghin Khao. Presentations are rustic, garnished with lettuce shreds or a ubiquitous, but toasted rice topped fish sauce and lime-spiked jaew or dried-chili dip.

Jaew like bacon makes everything better. I don’t even need protein to dip it in, but if I do Nova’s juicy smoky pork shoulder is perfect. Although the protein you will prefer at Ghin Khao is his flaky tempura-fried “grandma’s” pork belly. Our table loved it so much, that despite housing like nine other dishes, we ordered a second helping for dessert.

If there’s any nod to Nova’s culinary training it’s that the greens, often wilted and pale at many mom and pop Thai spots, are bright and crisp, likely a result of blanching and shocking, a technique fine dining spots often deploy, but understaffed and small restaurants generally do not.

8. ARTICHOKE HOUSE

The Infatuation likes Il Carciofo a lot, giving it 8.3:

Chicago is filled with Italian spots serving mattress-sized scallopini or deconstructed lasagna, but Il Carciofo is one of few to embrace the simplicity of Roman cuisine. There’s some pretty good antipasti to kick things off, like sweet and sticky lamb ribs. But you’re here for the perfectly al dente housemade pasta, charred pizzas, and other dishes with only a few ingredients. In each bowl of gnocchi or crispy panino, you’re able to thoroughly savor the quality of the tomatoes, guanciale, or cheese fresh off a red-eye from Italy.

9. PIZZA STORY

After Spacca Napoli won the audience-voted Best Pizza category at the Banchet awards, Courtney Kueppers wrote a profile of owner Jonathan Goldsmith for WBEZ—with some news no one was expecting:

This hometown recognition was special to Goldsmith, and it came at the exact right time.

Last July, doctors discovered cancer in Goldsmith’s stomach. It was a cosmic gut punch for a man who has spent two decades sending customers out the door with delightfully stuffed bellies. Three days after the Banchets, Goldsmith underwent surgery to remove the tumor in his abdomen, which had been successfully shrunk during rounds of chemotherapy.

“I was getting a little tired this summer, and a little whiny. I was ready to stop,” said Goldsmith, an affable former social worker with salt-and-pepper hair. “To have the recognition from within the community itself … it felt good and, in some ways, needed.”

10. LISTEN UP

Joiners Podcast: Jenner Tomaska of Esme and the upcoming The Alston.

The Dining Table: Sol Ashbach, of Little Bad Wolf and Gretel and the upcoming, and ambitious, Wolf and Company.

The Road to Why: Sarah Grueneberg and Rob Mosher of Monteverde are the guests on this podcast from Northern Trust about entrepreneurship and wealth management.