Where to take New Yorkers

I have friends coming in to visit while at a convention in March. They want me to pick 2 restaurants for 6 of us to have dinner. Where do I take a couple of very savvy foodies from New York? I don't want Alinea or Trotters. I want food more along the lines of onesixtyblue or Vie. They do also like edgy and appreciate the beauty of a restaurant. Also, no steak houses. One more thing. Where to take 3 ladies for lunch in downtown area? How's the food at the Art Institute? Thanks in advance for opinions.

Jean

Jean Blanchard wrote:Where to take 3 ladies for lunch in downtown area? How's the food at the Art Institute?

Food at AI is serviceable but undistinguished, as you might expect. How about Russian Tea Time, Chicagoland's other Uzbeki restaurant? I haven't been, though it may provide a welcome splash of color after wading through Jasper Johns.

Russian Tea Time
77 East Adams
312.360.0000

Jean Blanchard wrote:Where do I take a couple of very savvy foodies from New York? I don't want Alinea or Trotters. I want food more along the lines of onesixtyblue or Vie.

Then why don't you just take them to one sixtyblue or Vie? Those are two of our very best contemporary fine dining restaurants. I've eaten at both within the past month and they're among our very, very best places. And, like you say, they're edgy and beautiful.

One other place you might consider, in the same contemporary American vein, is North Pond. The food there is excellent, and the setting in the park is exquisite and totally unique.

Jean Blanchard wrote:Where to take 3 ladies for lunch in downtown area?

I assume you mean in or close to the Loop, and the Art Institute in particular? Among nicer places, Custom House is outstanding. I like some of the Italian places too (Vivere and Trattoria No. 10) but if these ladies are part of the group from New York, it might not be the best choice, since there is so much Italian for them at home. Atwood Cafe is a nice place for American food. So is Park Grill.

Of course, there's always our famous, delicious deep-dish pizza which, unlike the previous suggestions, is something they can't get at home. Pizano's is close to the Art Institute and has great pan pizza. Phone ahead with your order to avoid waiting 30-45 minutes while seated for your pizza to bake.

For lunch near the Art Institute, I, too, wouldn't recommend the Art Institute. Russian Tea Time is a quiet oasis downtown, with quite good food. I'd also suggest Park Grille (11 North Michigan Ave.), which is in Millenium Park, a site you should definitely walk around in. From most of the tables in the Park Grille, you can see the ice scaters in the rink in front. While the Park Grille is located right in a huge tourist attraction, I've had several business lunches there, and the food has always been much better than expected. It's a nice combination of food and location.

Jean Blanchard wrote: They do also like edgy and appreciate the beauty of a restaurant.

Then how about Blackbird, for edgy, or Avec? Avec serves Mediterranean-focused small plates, communal-dining-style. Its wine list is fantastic. Avec is repeatedly written-up nationally as a favorite for foodies visiting Chicago.

I think Park Grill is an excellent suggestion for lunch, especially with the view of the ice rink right outside.

aschie30 wrote:Then how about Blackbird, for edgy, or Avec? Avec serves Mediterranean-focused small plates, communal-dining-style. Its wine list is fantastic. Avec is repeatedly written-up nationally as a favorite for foodies visiting Chicago.

Just don't go to Avec on a weekend, since they don't take reservations and waiting times on weekends can be excrutiating (unless you go very early or very late).

When you mentioned Art Institute I was going to mention Russian teatime also so I guess that's a third for you-

Going out- you can't go wrong with North Pond-
If you're taking them to Navy Pier you might want to consider Copperblue, which is a bit off the radar, but the food is great-

If you're going to do State Street shopping- lunch at the Macy food carnival on the seventh floor is always nice if you don't want to do a 2 hour lunch

Also I think many of the restaurants on Randolph are really nice- Red Light- does really wonderful fun things with food and is not pretentious.

I also LOVE LOVE Coco Pazzo cafe on St. Clair- the food is always wonderful and the atmosphere makes me feel like I've had a trip to Tuscany.

Or a fun girls thing could be tea at the peninsula- they have a chocolate souffle thing to die for.

I had an incredible lunch (again) at Blackbird yesterday. I think it fits either of your situations. Great for lunch, where it is suprisingly serene, and edgy at dinner time with its austere design and excellent cutting edge contemporary american cuisine.

I had the gioia burrata salad with braised white chanterelle mushrooms, haricot verts, red kuri squash and hazelnut oil as a starter and for an entree had a sublime grilled wild king salmon with edamame and lime vinaigrette. For dessert I sampled the mission fig beignet with bacon ice cream off of a friends plate. I know it has been said before but combining ice cream and bacon is genius food alchemy on par with chocolate and peanut butter imho. I think Blackbird will impress your foodie friends and delivers in the ways a great contemporary restaurant that has withstood the test of time should.

One of my favorite Ladies Who Lunch locations in Chicago is The Zodiac at Neiman Marcus. They have a generous selection of lunch salads, sandwiches, and light entrees, and all meals begin with piping-hot popovers and chicken consommé. Though it certainly isn't the most inspired menu to be had in this city, I've never been disappointed with a meal here.

It's a nice room, and if you get a window seat there are attractive views of the Water Tower, Water Tower Place, and the parking lot behind the pumping station.

The best part of the experience is that models troll the room wearing fashions and accessories that can be purchased in the store. Over the course of lunch, a model may stop by your table two or three times to inform you of what she's wearing. It's totally silly and not particularly obtrusive.

N.B. Like the store, The Zodiac doesn't accept Visa or MasterCard. Your choices are limited to your Neiman Marcus charge, American Express, and cold, hard cash.

The Zodiac

Hours:
M-Sat 11am-4pm
Closed Sundays

Location:
Level Four
Neiman Marcus
737 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611

Phone:
312.694.4050

Web:
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/info/ ... est=200051

Lunch near the Art Institute

Rhapsody
65 E Adams St
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 786-9911

Lockwood (new restaurant in the Palmer House)
17 E Monroe St
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: (312) 726-7500

nicinchic wrote:Lockwood (new restaurant in the Palmer House)
17 E Monroe St
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: (312) 726-7500

Anybody been there yet? I wonder what it's like. Some of the adjectives used to market it make it sound like it has very lofty ambitions. For example:

Palmer House Hilton website wrote:There is nothing ordinary about this classy, upscale contender as one of the most important dining emporiums ever to hit Chicago. Chef Phillip Foss does culinary magic inspired by cuisine from France and Italy, all with his own twist.

nsxtasy wrote:Anybody been there yet? I wonder what it's like.

There was a bit of a write of of it in the currect Chicago Magazine. Nothing I read made me want to go there any time soon. After all, it's just another hotel restaurant which, with the possible exception of Avenues, is generally not a good thing.

What about Sepia? Now there's a place that has me intrigued.

stevez wrote:There was a bit of a write of of it in the currect Chicago Magazine. Nothing I read made me want to go there any time soon. After all, it's just another hotel restaurant which, with the possible exception of Avenues, is generally not a good thing.

Actually, a lot of hotel restaurants are very good these days. This is a big change from, say, twenty years ago. The days when hotels regarded their customers as a captive audience who would eat anything given to them, even crap, are long gone. Now, hotels realize that they can make more money by hosting restaurants which can bring in locals as well as their overnight guests, to the extent that they have contracted with top chefs to run their restaurants and build up the reputation of the hotel along with the restaurant. Avenues is one example, to be sure, but there are plenty more - everything from NoMI in the Park Hyatt, to David Burke's Primehouse in the James Hotel, to Tramonto Steak and Seafood in Wheeling, and quite a few others. Even less highbrow restaurants, without the big name chefs (e.g. Atwood Cafe in the Hotel Burnham, or Aria in the Fairmont), are much, much better than hotel restaurants used to be.

Back to New York I kid, I kid.

If they aren't looking for something really fancy, I think you should show off some of the distinct Chicago things. So, Chicago-style pizza at Lou's. Or, take a trip up north to Pequod's. Perhaps a Hot Doug visit while you're at it.

HT70 wrote:If they aren't looking for something really fancy, I think you should show off some of the distinct Chicago things. So, Chicago-style pizza at Lou's.

Yes, that's why I mentioned Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, since they can't get it at home. It's also something that works for lunch as well as dinner.

Other than the (possibly unrelated) mention of the Art Institute, you don't state where (which city neighborhood or suburb) the visitors will be staying or spending their time, which might influence which places to consider. Wherever they are, there are undoubtedly locations of Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, Gino's East, Edwardo's, Bacino's, and/or Pizano's nearby, and IMHO any of these is a fine example of the species.

Yes, you also might consider bringing them to a nice regional Mexican restaurant. There's a lot of good places around Chicago -- I usually peruse the GNRs because they're quite well represented there. Our recent LTH dinner at Sol de Mexico was really great, and it's really a nice little restaurant, not a 'hole in the wall.'*

*Not that I have anything against "hole in the wall" restaurants, as we know some pretty darn good food comes from places that could be called that, heh.

Good idea. If you can them in, I'd take them to Topolobambo for Mexican. Blackbird is basically like a Manhattan restaurant and even looks like many of them.

GreenFish wrote:Yes, you also might consider bringing them to a nice regional Mexican restaurant. There's a lot of good places around Chicago -- I usually peruse the GNRs because they're quite well represented there.

I agree that our Mexican restaurants are worth taking out-of-town visitors to, because the creative and regional Mexican cuisine at some of them is not what you typically find in most other U.S. cities. Some visitors don't understand; they hear Mexican and they think it's another place with enchiladas and carne asada like they get back home. But if you show them the menus on the websites, they start to understand that we're talking about something different.

If the visitors are downtown, you really can't go wrong with Frontera Grill/Topolobampo or Salpicon. If they're elsewhere and they have a car, I think Flamingo's Seafood has the best Mexican food I've had outside of Mexico (IMHO better than Sol de Mexico, which I found fairly good but not spectacular). There are lots of other creative/provincial Mexican places, too, including some I have yet to try, such as Fonda del Mar and Tepatulco in the city, Xni-Pec in Cicero, Salbute in Hinsdale, and Fuego in Arlington Heights.

Then again, they're your visitors, and presumably you know what will turn them on more - delicious types of food they've never had before, or types of food they're familiar with but exceedingly delicious examples thereof. For example, if I were out of town and you asked me whether I wanted a delicious local specialty or a delicious contemporary American dinner, I would probably ask for one dinner of each. Not everyone would answer the same way.

Jean Blanchard wrote: One more thing. Where to take 3 ladies for lunch in downtown area? How's the food at the Art Institute?

Cafe Spiaggia:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=6096

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=161127

Cafe Spiaggia
980 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 280-2755
www.levyrestaurants.com
Reservations can be made on Opentable.com.

Russian Tea Time will not impress New Yorkers, I think. Neither (and here I am sailing into dangerous waters) will deep-dish pizza.

I'd go with Avec, Hot Doug's, TAC, Sol de Mexico, and any good Polish place.

Russian Tea Time will not impress New Yorkers, I think. Neither (and here I am sailing into dangerous waters) will deep-dish pizza.

I'd go with Avec, Hot Doug's, TAC, Sol de Mexico, and any good Polish place.

Agreed. I'd add Frontera (rather than Topolobampo), too, if your can snag a reservation, or reserve the small private room. There are NO good Mexican restos in NYC other that Los Dos Molinos, and that is specifically white-hot western New Mexican food, not the classical stuff that Mr. Bayless does so well. Also, the Thai food in NYC is pretty bad.
I'd avoid the pizza issue issue, too - why create unpleasantness?

Stick to Rhapsody for a place close to the AIC. It's never let me down yet. Park Grill is odious, as I have mentioned before, unless you plan to explain the concept of "clout" to your visitors. They might find it more interesting than the lunch.

When my relatives visit -- almost all New Yorkers -- the two cuisines they clamor for are usually Thai and Mexican, two cuisines which I do not believe are well represented in Manhattan. The usual suspects are Spoon Thai and Mexican (lately, Sol de Mexico, but have also done Topo, Fonda, Salpicon, Dorado, La Casa de Samuel, etc).

And keep an eye out for a Schwa reopening -- certainly edgy.

After that, there are the usual recommendations already floating in here -- Blackbird, One Sixtyblue, etc. I doubt you'll go wrong with those. One place not mentioned which I think would be real nice is Sweets & Savories. It's just a little different than the above. But I think Thai (translated menus of course) and Mexican would be the way to go.

I concur having lived in Manhattan for nearly ten years. Their Mexican and Thai options pale in comparison to ours. I would focus on one of those cuisines.

cilantro wrote:Russian Tea Time will not impress New Yorkers, I think. Neither (and here I am sailing into dangerous waters) will deep-dish pizza.

I am curious why you think NY'ers wouldn't be "impressed" with deep dish pizza? There are certainly many who have "Eat deep dish pizza" on their to-do list when they visit town. Why would New Yorkers be any different? While deep dish isn't popular in NY (or anywhere else, really), that doesn't mean that someone can't appreciate it.

More generally, what do we mean by "impressing" our guests?

When I have "food savy" guests coming in town, I try to take them somewhere where they will have a great meal. Sometimes that means focusing on a cuisine that isn't particularly popular in their neck of the woods. But, as nsxtasy said, sometimes it just means great execution of food that they could get in their hometown.

At the most basic level, to me, impressing my guests means that they are pleased with the experience. It doesn't mean that the meal is an audition, so to speak, or that the guest is supposed to say "Wow, this Chicago food really measures up well against what I can get in NY!". The guests aren't judges in a competition; they are here to have a good time. The quality of the meal shouldn't depend on what they could have gotten if they never left Manhattan.

sundevilpeg wrote:I'd avoid the pizza issue issue, too - why create unpleasantness?

What issue? Why is having pizza unpleasant? I realize that the OP may want something more upscale than pizza. But sundevilpeg and cilantro seem to imply something very different: that a NY'er, raised on "NY Style Pizza" would be offended, or wouldn't appreciate, a different style of pizza. That seems like a very strange generalization to make about a residents of one of the most culinarily diverse cities in the world. Having lived in the NY area previously, I can attest that many NY'ers love good food, whether it is "NY style" or not.

Deep-dish pizza (or stuffed pizza) seems to be one of those things you either like or you don't, no matter where you come from. My husband, who originally hails from the northwest (or "Pizza No-Man's Land" as I would call it) was excited when they originally moved here to sample the excellent "Chicago-style pizza," only to be disappointed by it in the end. It's just not really his cup of tea. He prefers a thin, crispy-crust with smaller amounts of sauce. I would generally agree; although occasionally, I get a craving for some deep-dish.

That being said, pizza is always a good "lunch" option that the visitors could try outside of the poster's company. You could recommend a few pizza options they could try (I personally like Lou Malanti's, but that's me). I think if you're going to take your friends out to dinner, I'd be more likely to choose a "nicer" place, especially since Jean specified that they enjoy that sort of thing.

nsxtasy's recs for Mexican places seemed very good -- especially if you're looking for more of a downtown place, Frontera/Topolobampo and Salpicon seem like decent choices. I also agree that Thai isn't a bad idea.

However, in my opinion, I would gauge the reactions / feelings of your visitors before you make any choices or reservations. When we were talking to a NYC couple about restaurants yesterday, I was surprised to hear what types of food they were / weren't interested in. It certainly narrowed down the number and type of recommendations that I made to them.

Darren72 wrote:I am curious why you think NY'ers wouldn't be "impressed" with deep dish pizza? There are certainly many who have "Eat deep dish pizza" on their to-do list when they visit town. Why would New Yorkers be any different? While deep dish isn't popular in NY (or anywhere else, really), that doesn't mean that someone can't appreciate it.

Okay, you forced my hand.

What I meant was simply that I have on numerous occasions taken friends and relatives (and myself, for that matter) -- people who weren't brought up on Chicago-style pizza -- to several of the most highly recommended herein Chicago-style pizza places. Everyone had a perfectly good time and agreed that there was no need to ever do it again. Perhaps the OP's friends will be different; I'm just relating my experiences.

With regard to your other point, I agree to an extent, but when you become used to a particularly elevated rendition of something, it's pretty hard to go back to a version that's merely good by default. I know that I'm no longer excited about eating at the best Thai restaurant in my friends' town (unless that town is LA).

cilantro wrote:What I meant was simply that I have on numerous occasions taken friends and relatives (and myself, for that matter) -- people who weren't brought up on Chicago-style pizza -- to several of the most highly recommended herein Chicago-style pizza places. Everyone had a perfectly good time and agreed that there was no need to ever do it again. Perhaps the OP's friends will be different; I'm just relating my experiences.

My experience has been exactly the opposite. I, too, have taken numerous visiting friends and relatives for deep-dish pizza, including those from New York, San Francisco, and other food destinations. In virtually every case, they not only enjoy it, but they express regret that they don't have it back home - and they usually insist on going back for it in subsequent visits.

This has been a good discussion, though. Getting back to your visitors, I think you really need to know your audience. Some people prefer to dine in nicer, more upscale restaurants, in which case our storefront Thai restaurants might not be the best choice. Some people prefer more spicy and adventurous food, which might make Thai or Mexican a great choice. Some people may just want what they're familiar with, and anything more ethnic than pizza might be too much for them. Some people don't want to go very far out of their way, so there may be an advantage to places that are close by. Maybe there are some other needs as well. Give all of that some thought, to come up with places they would enjoy most. One nice thing is, you have two dinners (you didn't mention lunches...?) to arrange, so that gives you the opportunity to do two different things, if you think that would appeal to them.

One other comment about North Pond, especially in case you haven't been there. What's really impressive and enjoyable is, as I mentioned, the setting. It faces its namesake pond, and the building used to be the place that rents skates to skaters in the winter. The Chicago skyline looms over the opposite shore of the pond. They've done a great job at remodeling it into a restaurant; one of the two dining rooms has floor-to-ceiling windows. And if you sit in the other dining room, you get to view the open kitchen along one side of the room. Some of the original architectural details are clearly visible (e.g. pillars covered with glazed bricks). The food is excellent, too, thanks to Chef Bruce Sherman, one of our very best contemporary American restaurants, with an emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients. New York City has its Tavern on the Green, but that is only in a corner of Central Park, accessible by car; North Pond is in the middle of Lincoln Park, and you have to walk there by foot from the valet stand or other entrances through the park to get to the restaurant. In this case, the exquisite setting, rather than its delicious food, is uniquely Chicago. I think it's a highly enjoyable and memorable experience.

I second the North Pond suggestion. It's quintessential Chicago - amazing location + local ingredients.
I also think Hot Doug's is perfect for a foodie (though not as centrally located)
And, if you are going to be spending time downtown or at south loop museums, why not go to opera or chinatown (lth or phoenix for something fancier)

another good option for downtown is the gage. i have been there a number of times for dinner and have really enjoyed it. i am sure lunch is equally good. if you have not been to park grill, don't be afraid of the over the top tourist look. there are tons of toursits but the burgers and sandwiches are excellent! plus, the ice might still be out and it is fun to watch the skaters.

i am always trying to impress my new york friends and think that mexican is the way to do. dorado and may street cafe are both great choices and BYOB. i would not recommend red light or opera if your friends have been to spice market in new york. it is the same type of over the top atmosphere, although i actually think red light is better!

rlguffman wrote:if you are going to be spending time downtown or at south loop museums, why not go to opera or chinatown (lth or phoenix for something fancier)

I avoid taking out-of-town visitors somewhere that is a specialty at home for them, where they get plenty of excellent food in that category back home. I wouldn't recommend taking New Yorkers to a Chinese (or Italian) restaurant for this reason.