FULL CIRCLE

Situated in the center of downtown Evanston, LeTour is a jewel in the crown of North Shore dining options. A collaboration between longtime Evanston resident and restaurateur Amy Morton and James Beard Award-winning chef Debbie Gold, the brasserie shifts from the steak focus of Morton’s restaurant-family legacy to a lighter, Moroccan-accented menu in an effervescent atmosphere.

LeTour, “the circle” in French, is physically, and metaphorically just that. Located in the rotunda of a 1960s former bank building at 625 Davis Street, the curvaceous space represents a full circle in Morton and Gold’s partnership, bringing them back to the shared love for Mediterranean and French cuisine that first connected them 30 years ago.

Prior to winning a James Beard Award as Best Midwest Chef for her work at The American in Kansas City, Gold spent years cooking in France, which led to helming the kitchens at Mirador, Morton’s first restaurant. The two came back together at Found after Gold’s Tied House closed due to the pandemic. When they learned that Found’s lease would not be renewed, the duo began realizing the new endeavor that would become LeTour.

Fine but not too fancy, the food is approachable, with a something- for-everyone slant that shifts seasonally. With Gold just back from a trip to Morocco, that means new dishes like Lamb Mechoui (roasted lamb shoulder with cumin and salt), pomegranate and walnut roasted beets, and an anise/saffron couscous soup will be making appearances soon.

The wine list is predominantly French with signature cocktails such as Deb’s Darling (Giffard Crème de Pêche, and French sparkling wine) and the Marrakesh (sparkling rosé, Bigallet China- China bittersweet orange liqueur, Dolin sweet vermouth, citrus peel, and rosemary).

If feeling swell with holiday cheer, you could begin dinner with the extravagant Les Fruits de Mer platter filled with oysters on the half shell, tiger prawn, diver scallop, lobster tail, and snow crab, or one of three caviar options served with crème fraîche and toast points. But we chose to restrain our evening’s start to the delicately saline East Coast oysters with their classic accompaniments— mignonette, lemon, and Tabasco.

Our appetizer order included two more highlights. First, Gold’s rosy schmear of Madeira and white wine-enriched duck liver mousse with Publican Bread’s oven-crackled sourdough. Second, a tender plinth of house-made focaccia underlaid with prettily piped chèvre and topped with sundried tomato tapenade and a delicate overlay of microgreens. Both made for a well-balanced and flavorful segue to our mains.

On an earlier visit, we had savored two dishes epitomizing classic French perfection—Gold’s Steak Frîtes, a sliced bavette strip steak with red wine demi-glace and hand-cut thin and crispy fries and her skate wing, bathed in brown butter, with a scattering of almonds, capers, and roast cauliflower florets. So tonight, we turned our focus to “Les Mains,” three Morocco-influenced specialties—Tagine of Chicken, Vegetable Couscous, and Lamb Couscous.

Each was golden with the yellows of saffron, ginger, turmeric, and cumin but the vegetable version was our surprise favorite. Tender roast fennel, onion, and golden and red beets came mounded with chickpeas and raisins in the fragrant semolina, topped with a frizzle of fennel fronds.

The chicken tagine, LeTour’s best-selling entrée, featured braised breast, leg, and thigh meat with Castelvetrano olives, apricot, preserved lemon, and couscous.

The lamb rendition, the heartiest of the three, enjoyed an added depth of flavor from little rounds of merguez, an earthy, harissa- spiked lamb sausage, that was included with the pieces of lamb shoulder.

LeTour desserts, also created by Gold, range from a Basque “Burnt” Cheesecake with mixed berries and vanilla sauce, to a brandied-cherry bittersweet chocolate mousse, to our favorite choice, the Mille Feuille or “1000 Layers.” With little poufs of vanilla mousseline between the titular crispy pastry sheets, the fanciful stack waits to be cracked into shards and spooned up with the cream. You may nudge your dining partner for a little more than your share.

An unusual and unexpected pleasure punctuated the end of our meal: Persian tea service. Steeped upon order and then served tableside from a tall silver teapot, the mint tea is poured from a great height by your practiced server, aerating the tea, which you are then invited to sugar and sip from decorative glasses.

While we sipped, we admired the tangerine walls full of pop art that gave credence to our seating section’s Warhol Room moniker. As in her other restaurants, Morton has designed the space to include areas with different looks, levels of intimacy, and ambiance. Tables curve along south-facing windows for cozy tête-à-têtes, banquettes face the bar for animated evenings, a large private dining room suits celebratory occasions while the outdoor firepit seating area is an inviting spot from which to watch the bustle of Evanston’s Fountain Square.

The night we visited, the room filled with a mix of diners: a mother-daughter group after a shopping expedition; Northwestern college couples on date night; and next to us, a reunion of elderly chums. Altogether? Lovely circles of friends.

LeTour is open for brunch/lunch on Friday from 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and dinner on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 4:30 – 9:00 p.m., Friday from 4:30 – 10 p.m., Saturday from 5 – 10 p.m., and Sunday from 5 – 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit letourevanston.com.