Charlie Trotter's restaurant space returns

Charlie Trotter’s presence will continue to be felt on Armitage Avenue after all, as alumni from his celebrated kitchen are teaming with family members to create a nonprofit organization to be based in the former restaurant space.

With Trotter’s son Dylan and mother Dona-Lee Trotter among the family members and chefs present Thursday morning in front of the adjacent Lincoln Park townhomes that housed the late Trotter’s world-renowned, self-named restaurant for 25 years, Moto chef-owner Homaro Cantu announced the establishment of the Trotter Project. This “alumni-driven initiative” will seek to provide culinary and nutritional education particularly to students and neighborhoods in need, to create a new restaurant online ratings system and to host culinary events in the tradition of its namesake.

“Very few chefs gave back to the community as much as Charlie did,” Cantu, the new organization’s board chairman, said in an interview prior to the announcement. “That’s what we want to focus on here: bringing excellence into areas that maybe could use it.”