Dinner Date

I can’t remember the last time a server—working in a packed suburban restaurant, on a Saturday night, in the middle of frenzied dinner rush—asked me if I’d like to spend a little more quality time with my cocktail before discussing my food order. Patience, in the restaurant world, is usually a financial liability. The fewer

How exactly do you say “opa” in Spanish? I’m asking because there’s a bartender from Bar Poca Madre, a sleek new Mexican restaurant in Burr Ridge, standing next to our table, holding a shot of tequila, a lighter and one searingly hot platter of cheese. Hmm, this looks familiar. A block of cheese. A flammable

When word reached my Instagram feed last year that chef Paul Virant planned on shuttering his farm-to-table miracle, Vie, in Western Springs, I didn’t take the news particularly well. Restaurants come and great restaurants go, but I’d argue Vie was one of the most remarkable suburban restaurants of the last two decades. Although Virant immediately

Normally, when preparing for a new restaurant opening, I return to my dusty treasure trove of tasting notes from reviews past. I speed read through old Microsoft Word documents and try to decipher old chicken-scratch musings that I scribbled on printer paper and fraying reporter’s notebooks. The goal? Reacquaint myself with a chef’s oeuvre and

Chef Cristian Orozco is walking toward our table, cradling an edible relic from his childhood with both hands. He’s placed his special dessert in a small wooden box and is trying to make sure it remains perfectly level. His eyes are ricocheting up and down—dish to floor, floor to dish—as he navigates the narrow walkway

I have become, to the delight of some and horror of others, an exceptionally nosy diner. If I’m not chewing; I’m snooping. Once seated, I will immediately begin flipping over tableware—bread plates, ramekins, chopstick holders—searching for the names of designers and manufacturers. I run my fingers across the seams of napkins, looking for tags. And