The Parents Are Finally Meeting...

After lurking forever, I finally need some help of my own.

The time has come for the boyfriend's parents (who live out of state) and my parents to meet. His parents will be in town for his grad school graduation, and we already have reservations at Custom House and Gioco for extended family on Fri and Sat night.

I wanted the parental meeting, which will be on a Thursday night, to be somewhere on the more intimate side so everyone can talk and hear each other well. His grandmother, who isn't an adventurous eater, will be with us Thursday night as well. And given that Custom House and Gioco are in the greater Loop area, we thought somewhere more neighborhoody might be nice for the parental meeting.

I'd like to do something more on the upscale side, but not in the league of Tru, Spiaggia, etc..

I would have loved to take everyone to Blackbird, but I think it will be too loud. His out-of-town parents have already been to Spring, which could have been another good neighborhood option in the right price range. I then thought of Chalkboard, right in our hood, but our party is too large for them.

I'm currently leaning towards Bistro Campagne, also in our hood, which won't be too "out there" for Grandma's tastes, but I thought I'd see if folks had other thoughts for not-crazy-expensive, slightly finer dining places in Northside neighborhoods.

Thanks!

How about Sweets and Savories?

West Town Tavern?

www.westtowntavern.com

Sola could work, too. You might even get Dale Levitsky as your waiter! (though I guess that only matters if there are Top Chef fans in the family.)

Seconding Sola.

Nothing pertinent to add, other than that my memory of this particular event in our family is that it coincided with the appearance of my first grey hair. (Obviously, all ended well, as I've been happily married for some eleven years now...) Good luck!

Bistro Campagne is nice, although I think Sola would be the best spot in that immediate area. If you're willing to venture outside of that area, I would highly recommend North Pond. I don't think that you can beat the atmosphere and scenery and the food is excellent.

BR wrote:Bistro Campagne is nice, although I think Sola would be the best spot in that immediate area.

Sounds like the immediate area is Lincoln Square, where Bistro Campagne and Chalkboard are located. Sola is good too, but it's in North Center, about a mile down Lincoln. Oh, and if you've never been to Sola, the entrance is on Byron, even though the street address is on Lincoln. It's easy to miss it looking for it on Lincoln.

BR wrote:If you're willing to venture outside of that area, I would highly recommend North Pond. I don't think that you can beat the atmosphere and scenery and the food is excellent.

Great suggestion. It's also not overly noisy. If you're not familiar with North Pond, it's a very, very special place in Chicago. It's in the middle of Lincoln Park (in the middle of the actual park itself, not just the surrounding neighborhood of the same name). It faces its namesake pond, with the city skyline looming over the opposite shore. The front dining room has floor-to-ceiling windows facing the pond; the rear one, while not having the same view, is also intimate and delightful, with an open kitchen along the rear wall. The renovated building used to serve as the warming shelter for skaters on the pond. The food, from James Beard Award nominee Chef Bruce Sherman, is excellent, and features local and seasonal ingredients.

Another place I like, not yet mentioned and not too far from Lincoln Square (east of Lincoln Square), is Magnolia Cafe.

These are all good suggestions; you've got a lot of appropriate places to choose from nearby.

Thanks for all the great recs everyone! Hopefully this meal won't cause me too many grey hairs!

jesteinf wrote:How about Sweets and Savories?

Sweets and Savories was the first restaurant that came to mind. I love West Town Tavern and Sola, but, they are definitely on the loud side.

The restaurant we took our parents to for that first meeting no longer exists, but it was barbecue. With everybody rolling up their sleeves and digging in, it was impossible for anyone to be awkward.

Since you're already doing some fancy meals, consider going downmarket, messy and casual. If Smoque or Honey One don't appeal, perhaps Chicago-style pizza or Italian beef?

We have now been married more than two decades, so it worked.

Messy BBQ would be awesome; I actually think both sets of parents would love it, but i don't think Grandma would go for it. I just got a last-minute vote from one of my parents for Crofton on Wells. So we may end up there.

Thanks again to everyone for the great suggestions.

sl wrote:Crofton on Wells. So we may end up there.

Yuck.

If they'd like Crofton on Wells, they'll love North Pond.

"Yuck" as in you think Crofton on Wells is a bad choice? The boyfriend's parents have already been to North Pond, otherwise that would be a wonderful choice. Do you recommend against Crofton on Wells?

I had a very nice meal at Crofton on Wells recently. Its a nice, quiet, intimate restaurant on a nice stretch of Wells St. It may not have the charm and setting of North Pond, but its a very good restaurant. North Pond gets big Kudos of late because the chef (Bruce Sherman) is really at the top of his game these days. Of the two I'd pick North Pond, but if you want something different, I think Crofton would be a good alternative.

Personally, if my parents met my in-laws, I think a caged environment would be most appropriate (mostly to keep my in-laws from killing eachother), but in your case, Crofton might do the job.

I'd also like some clarification on the "yuck" re: Crofton on Wells. My family has consistently had excellent service and memorable food at Crofton. It's a great quiet, well-executed meal. In fact, my father has already asked for it to be his birthday meal again this year, even though we went last year and he took my mother for their anniversary just two months ago.

I'll third on positives for Crofton on Wells, clever, yet simple food with just a wonderful staff. It's in my (unfortunately extremely) short list of great service in Chicago restaurants.

Crofton & Wells, "yuck"....? I have been there a couple of times, and found the food decent, and the service good. I would hardly describe it as "yuck", but then again I wouldnt use that word to describe anything.

Just had a meal at Crofton on Wells for 9 on Saturday night. The ages ranged from about 30 to 82, and everybody loved it.

At the last meal I had at Crofton on Wells - and I can assure you, it will ALWAYS be the last meal I had there - the food was pretty good, but it was the absolute WORST service experience of my life. The staff was abusive to our party of eight (more specifically, got into an extended argument - yes, an argument - with one of my dining companions). Fortunately, we are good friends and we were able to laugh it off at the time. Crofton on Wells is now a running joke for us, any time we want to make a reference to really, really bad service.

There are so many excellent restaurants in the same upscale contemporary American genre - not just North Pond, but also one sixtyblue, Blackbird, Aigre Doux, Sola, Sweets and Savories, Custom House, Spring, Magnolia Cafe, Naha, MK - that there is no excuse to go to a place where the service is as bad as we experienced. I'm glad to hear others have had better experiences; maybe ours was not typical. But it was sufficiently negative to leave all of us with a highly negative opinion of the restaurant.

nsxtasy wrote:At the last meal I had at Crofton on Wells - and I can assure you, it will ALWAYS be the last meal I had there - the food was pretty good, but it was the absolute WORST service experience of my life. The staff was abusive to our party of eight (more specifically, got into an extended argument - yes, an argument - with one of my dining companions). Fortunately, we are good friends and we were able to laugh it off at the time. Crofton on Wells is now a running joke for us, any time we want to make a reference to really, really bad service.

I'm getting a strong feeling, just like in another thread I mentioned this in this morning, we're getting far from the whole picture of the story.

jpschust wrote:I'm getting a strong feeling, just like in another thread I mentioned this in this morning, we're getting far from the whole picture of the story.

That IS the whole picture of the story. I could tell you which staff person and what the subject of the argument was, but it's really beside the point, which is that the the issue itself was absolutely trivial, and the behavior of the restaurant's staff person was totally inappropriate and unacceptable. I can also tell you that Ms. Crofton was on the premises at the time, was reportedly informed of the dispute, and refused to make any contact with us or even make an appearance in the dining room.

How about Yoshi's?