nsxtasy

Do both - Maxwell Street for lunch, Mercat a la Planxa for dinner! There are plenty of additional options on Sunday, too - lots of places that do a mighty fine brunch, and most of our nicer restaurants are open for dinner.

Yup. Frontera Grill is also an option; they're open for brunch on Saturdays, and waits are not typically excessive. XOCO is just around the corner, so you could just go and decide at the last minute which of the two you're more in the mood for. First I'll tell you about the best options; then I'll tell you what's close by. It will take you about 12-15 minutes to walk northeast to Fox & Obel, our premier gourmet food store. IMHO they have the very best baked goods and pastries in the entire city. You can buy them to go at the bakery counter, or you can go to the cafe in the rear of the store and get anything from a pastry to an entire meal cooked to order, and sit at a table to consume it. (The cafe isn't fancy, just your basic coffeehouse; you place your order and pay in line, then they bring it to you.) I particularly recommend their cinnamon swirl rolls, which are sheer heaven. They also have the world's best bran muffins, and in the cafe they do a nice Cobb omelet. It will take you about the same 12-15 minutes to walk west to our new French Market off the concourse of the commuter train station. Among the shops there is Vanille Patisserie, which has wonderful croissants and entremets. And there's a Lavazza shop for coffee. If you don't want to walk that far, Intelligentsia, our local coffee specialty brewer, has a shop two blocks from your hotel, on Randolph between Wabash and Michigan. Also close by... As decadent as I am (and keeping in mind that I am not a coffee drinker), if I wanted a pastry treat near State/Lake, I'd walk two blocks south to Beard Papa's for one of their yummy cream puffs. (They have coffee and yogurt too.) It's not very easy to find, because it's below street level in the Pedway (pedestrian walkway); when you go to 108 North State, you have to go inside the indoor mall and down the escalator.

Do you mean Royal Oak (singular), not Royal Oaks (plural)? Home of the...

Well, that's quite an exaggeration of what I said! In my experience, the restaurants that currently require credit card numbers with cancellation penalties for no-shows usually have their policies explicitly stated when making a reservation. Typically, they allow for cancellations with no charges if you give them at least a certain advance warning on your cancellation, usually 24 or 48 hours, which strikes me as eminently reasonable. A quick check of Chicago restaurants on Opentable shows that TRU charges $50/pp for no-shows or cancellations with less than 24 hours notice, at Charlie Trotter's it's $100/pp under 48 hours, at Everest it's $50/pp under 48 hours, at L2O it's under 48 hours with the charge not stated, and at Sixteen it doesn't state the charge or the time required.

Speaking as someone who rarely cancels reservations, in part because I recognize the adverse impact on restaurants in doing so, I think it's great that restaurants are developing ways to avoid that impact. Whether it's by charging in advance, or by requiring a credit card number with a policy for charges for last-minute cancellations. If your work obligations entail a significant chance of cancelling a reservation, I suggest making one at a restaurant with enough walk-in traffic that they will not suffer when you do so. And not feeling so entitled that every restaurant should be willing to suffer the entire financial burden when your work requires you to cancel your reservations there at the last minute (which I consider highly inconsiderate except in the case of true emergencies, which work requirements rarely constitute). I also think it's great that they will have pricing that varies by time of day and day of the week. Granted, some restaurants already do this with special pre-theater and other deals at off hours, but this makes your options and savings a lot clearer.

I almost visited Columbus last month. My advance research on another board turned up two recommendations: Bistro 310, which is a contemporary American bistro, and Smith's Row, whose cuisine leans towards Italian/Mediterranean.

Hi Nancy! Adams and LaSalle is in the middle of the Loop, Chicago's historical and commercial downtown area. Much of the dining in the Loop itself is geared towards those who work there, and consists of places emphasizing breakfast and lunch rather than dinner. However, there are still some excellent places in the Loop, and the good news is, almost all (except Everest) are open for lunch, often at lower prices than dinner. Furthermore, if you walk 10-20 minutes in any direction, your options multiply exponentially, particularly for dinner. Starting with the central Loop (around Adams/LaSalle) itself, there are several places that I think are quality, destination type restaurants. One is Everest, which is one of Chicago's high-end temples of haute cuisine. Chef Jean Joho serves French-Alsatian cuisine, but with a contemporary emphasis, not your traditional old-time French type menu. Food that will "wow" you, dish after dish. The wine list is enormous (over 1700 wines) and includes the best selection of Alsatian wines in the country. The service is the very best I have experienced in any restaurant, anywhere. The view from the 40th Floor of the Midwest Stock Exchange Building looking out over the city is magnificent. It's dressy (jackets required for gentlemen) and rather expensive, although less so that some of our other top restaurants; also note that they have a pre-theater special for 5:00/5:30 seatings, a three-course fixed menu for $50. Another very special place is Vivere. Vivere is the ground-floor restaurant in the Italian Village complex. The food is excellent; although it's Italian, it also has a contemporary American feel to it. Last time I ate there, I had a cream of carrot-ginger soup, followed by a roast duck breast that was one of the best ducks I've ever eaten. I'm not sure how they prepared it - sous vide, maybe? - but the doneness was uniform throughout (not the typical overdone outer and underdone center) and it was amazingly tender, reminiscent of the wagyu beef at Alinea. The decor is gaudy. They do a big pre-theater business, and you'll watch the place suddenly empty out around 7:30. There are some other worthwhile places in the central Loop, including Atwood Cafe in the Hotel Burnham, for contemporary American (although their chef recently left), Cibo Matto in the Wit, a new Italian place that I haven't yet tried but is getting favorable reports, and of course, places to get our delicious deep-dish pizza, including Pizano's on Madison and Giordano's on Jackson. Also within a few blocks walk is our new French Market. Keep in mind that it just opened a couple of months ago, and it's not fancy. However, it has several dozen food booths and these include some of the very best that Chicago has to offer. Highlights include the croissants, entremets, and French macaroons at Vanille Patisserie; the artisan chocolates at Canady Le Chocolatier; the cheeses at Pastoral; and the rainbow cookies at Delightful Pastries. All of the above are within a five-minute walk of Adams and LaSalle. Extending the radius to a 15-minute walk puts the following excellent places within reach: Topolobampo, Frontera Grill, and XOCO (Mexican) Blackbird (contemporary American) La Sardine (French bistro) Red Light (pan-Asian) Carnivale (Latin fusion) Mercat a la Planxa (tapas) Steve's Deli (Jewish deli) I know you're already aware that you can hop on the el to get to some of our better ethnic restaurants, such as Double Li in Chinatown, various Thai restaurants, the Vietnamese places on Argyle, etc. For breakfast, Adams/LaSalle is close to Lou Mitchell's, a conventional breakfast restaurant serving commuters for many decades. If you want something different, unique, and delicious, though, go to Bongo Room. Bongo Room specializes in pancakes, such as their pretzel pancakes with white chocolate sauce, and blueberry pancakes with almond panna cotta cream. Tip: A standard size order consists of three HUGE pancakes, but you can also order a one-third or two-thirds portion size at a reduced price, which enables you to try more than one item. Bongo Room's South Loop location is about a mile walking from Adams/LaSalle, or you can take the CTA Red Line south to the Roosevelt Road exit.

The restaurant opens at 3:30. I believe they offer a limited bar menu until 5:30, when the full dinner menu begins. When I went there recently, we had a 5:30 res, at which time they were mostly empty. They were starting to fill up by the time we left. We didn't observe any service inadequacies, but perhaps that was due to our timing.

I haven't been there. I like to try Indy's best in my frequent trips there, but the fixed menu is a turn-off for me. It got a nice writeup in the January 14 Dish column in Indianapolis Monthly. I do not know whether or not it is doing well (and it's probably too soon to say). I ate at Elements and enjoyed it. This past weekend I tried Meridian and Zest and enjoyed them both. Other places I have enjoyed include Oakley's Bistro (my favorite place in Indy), R Bistro, Oceanaire, Z's Oyster Bar, and Palomino.

I ate at Publican last month. Most of the food was very good, particularly the country ribs and the sweetbreads (I'm a big fan of sweetbreads, and these were among the best in town). Although they are known for meats, the seafood was quite good as well, notably the mussels, which were huge. The bread service was excellent - and interesting. The standard bread they brought to the table was a hearty type bread with a dark crust but a light middle. The mussels came with a traditional French baguette that was even better (also it arrived hotter than the hearty bread which was only slightly warm). Good stuff, both. The desserts (we tried all three) were uniformly dreadful and a real let-down for such an otherwise good place. The waffle was one of the desserts we had and it was just so bleh - just an ordinary waffle topped with butter and a little bit of honey and some golden raisins. It was not at all unusual in any way. I've seen waffles used by other restaurants as the starting point for some interesting dishes, both sweet and savory, but in this case it never developed into anything worthwhile. The other two desserts were a dry bland lemon-poppyseed cake, and a chocolate sorbet that was allegedly flavored with sea salt and caramel, which were imperceptible. Hire a real pastry chef, please! Also, like Kahan's other restaurants, it was really *really* REALLY NOISY. With three of us on each side of our table (private table for six - see below), those on one end could not hear those on the other end. Casual attire (e.g. blue jeans, and not necessarily nicer ones) is perfectly acceptable. Tip - About half the seating is at two long communal tables. If you have a preference, either for a private table or for the communal seating, you can indicate it when making your reservation (either over the phone or in the comments field on Opentable), and they will try to accommodate your stated preference when seating you. Here's more info on their seating. They have four-top booths along the west side of the room; I loved the way they have doors that close on the outside of the booth, because they reminded me of stalls in a stockyard. They have small tables on the north side of the room, which are primarily two-tops but they can push them together as they did for our group of six. And the rest of the room consists of communal seating, basically two loooong tables, with one in an L shape. Personally, I hate communal seating, although I can see how it might be enjoyable for a solo diner (as would the seatless high-tops in the center of the room). But the fact that you can express a preference for the communal seating or a private table makes it more palatable. Overall, I'm glad I tried it, but between the noise and the awful desserts, I don't have any desire to return.

Good call on Alinea. I ate at the Publican last month. I thought the appetizers and main courses were very good, but the desserts were absolutely dreadful (and we tried all three on the menu). The room itself is VERY NOISY (a problem with all of Kahan's restaurants). Overall, I'm glad I tried it, but I don't have any desire to return. Tip - About half the seating is at two long communal tables; if you have a preference, either for a private table or for the communal seating, you can indicate it when making your reservation (either over the phone or in the comments field on Opentable). For lunch, I highly recommend getting our local specialty, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, which is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! We have two types, the single-crust "pizza in the pan" at Uno and Due, Lou Malnati's, and Pizano's, and the double-crust "stuffed pizza" at Giordano's and Bacino's. I think both are superb, and way better than any thin-crust pizza I've ever had. And remember - unlike thin-crust pizza, this is a local specialty you can't get anywhere else, only while you're here in Chicago. Why not try it and decide for yourself? Tip - wherever you go for deep-dish, you can phone in your order ahead of time to avoid waiting 30-45 minutes while seated for your pizza to bake. Beyond pizza, there are plenty of other places to lunch. Rick Bayless's Mexican restaurants are great for lunch, because you can make reservations at Topolobampo without the usualy three-month need to plan for dinner, and its lunch prices are similar to Frontera's. And, like deep-dish pizza, creative provincial Mexican food is something you can't get back home. There are plenty more ethnic choices, including the places I mentioned above in River North: Nacional 27 (Latin fusion) Cafe Iberico (tapas) Quartino (Italian small plates) Sunda (pan-Asian) and in the West Loop: Red Light (pan-Asian) Carnivale (Latin fusion) La Sardine (French bistro) Also, Mercat a la Planxa serves excellent tapas in the south end of the Loop. If you go to Chinatown for Szechuan food, I greatly prefer Double Li to Lao Sze Chuan; the food is better (and more varied, not everything is over-the-top spicy), the room is pleasant rather than drab/dingy, and Ben Li is always friendly and helpful with menu selections.

For a lively crowd, I would instead recommend some of our upscale ethnic restaurants: Nacional 27 (Latin fusion) Cafe Iberico (tapas) Quartino (Italian small plates) Sunda (pan-Asian) All of these are lively, with excellent food. All are within a few blocks of where the OP is staying in River North. And all except Cafe Iberico accept reservations. If you want to go to the West Loop, here are a few lively places with good food that I recommend: Red Light (pan-Asian) Carnivale (Latin fusion) La Sardine (French bistro) All of these accept reservations too. There's really no need to get stuck waiting around at (or forced to hang around near) a place that doesn't accept reservations, when there are plenty of places that do, and whose food and atmosphere are every bit as good and as fun. Note that most of the nicer restaurants in Chicago accept reservations for free on Opentable.com which is an easy way to see at a glance where there is availability at any given time and day. La Sardine doesn't use Opentable but accepts reservations on its own website. Alinea, you have to call.

I agree with the recommendations for Rick Bayless's restaurants. My recommendation to a visitor from out of town would be Topolobampo or Frontera Grill rather than XOCO (which is more along the lines of street food and less unusual). Both have excellent food. Topo is more expensive for dinner and accepts reservations for the whole place and books up well in advance (three months for Saturday nights - reserve NOW on Opentable.com). Frontera Grill accepts only a handful of reservations and holds most of the room for walk-in traffic; waiting time to be seated can be lengthy, especially on weekends. You might consider either of them at lunchtime, when Topo doesn't generally book up way in advance and its prices are similar to Frontera's. I think there are better, more enjoyable places to eat than the three Kahan restaurants. Avec is the LOUDEST restaurant in Chicago, has the most uncomforable seats, it only offers communal seating, and its no-reservations policy is maddening. I also have found the food only so-so, although other people seem to be impressed. Blackbird has delicious food, although it too is incredibly noisy, and the banquette seating is so tight you'll be sharing your conversation with neighboring tables. The Publican does have excellent meat and seafood dishes, but the desserts are embarrassingly dreadful, and it's almost as noisy as Avec. If you go to Publican, keep in mind that over half the seating is communal (at loooong tables) but when making your reservation (either by phone or on Opentable) you can express a preference for the communal or for your own table and they will do their best to honor it. When I go out for contemporary American food, my favorite place in the city is Cafe des Architectes, with fantastic food from Chef Martial Noguier. Everything I've ever eaten there has been amazingly delicious. The fact that their 3-course prix fixe menu is so affordable ($42 every night, with a limited $29 menu Sundays-Tuesdays) is just an added bonus. Custom House changed chefs and revamped their menu a few months ago, and now calls themselves Custom House Tavern; I haven't been there since the change. For "must go" dining, there are two places I recommend, as they are so unique. Both are in Lincoln Park, a couple miles from where you're staying. First is Alinea, ranked one of the ten best restaurants in the WORLD. It's from Chef Grant Achatz, and it will blow your mind. Yes, it's expensive (figure $300 per person including moderate wine, tax, tip), and dressy (jackets for gentlemen), but it's unique and it's here. The other is North Pond, which uniquely represents Chicago for its setting, located in the middle of Lincoln Park (the park itself, not the adjacent neighborhood of the same name). It faces its namesake pond with the city skyline looming over the opposite shore. The renovated building formerly served as the warming shelter for skaters on the frozen pond in the winter. The food is contemporary American featuring local and seasonal ingredients from James Beard Award finalist Chef Bruce Sherman. Enjoy your visit!

Here are my two cents. I agree with the recommendations for Rick Bayless's restaurants. My recommendation to a visitor from out of town would be Topolobampo or Frontera Grill rather than XOCO. Both have excellent food. Topo is more expensive for dinner and accepts reservations for the whole place and books up well in advance (three months for Saturday nights). Frontera Grill accepts only a handful of reservations and holds most of the room for walk-in traffic; waiting time to be seated can be lengthy, especially on weekends. You might consider either of them at lunchtime, when Topo doesn't generally book up way in advance and its prices are similar to Frontera's. There are lots more great places close by. Within a five-minute walk, I recommend David Burke's Primehouse for steaks, Shaw's for seafood, Brasserie Jo for French bistro, Sunda or Aria for pan-Asian, Heaven on Seven for Cajun (you're equidistant from the Rush and Wabash locations; check the website as they keep different hours), A little bit further (within ten minutes walk), Cafe des Architectes (my favorite casual fine dining restaurant in the city), Vivere or Cafe Spiaggia for Italian, Mercat a la Planxa for tapas, and Nacional 27 for Latin fusion. Also within a five-minute walk, don't miss our delicious authentic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza while you're here! For the classic "pizza in the pan", the original locations of Uno and Due are still excellent (unlike their franchise counterparts). A block or two from the hotel are two places for double-crust "stuffed pizza" - Giordano's (Prudential location) and Bacino's (Wacker location). Wherever you go for deep-dish, you can phone ahead with your pizza order to avoid waiting 30-45 minutes while seated for your pizza to bake. Also five minutes away is Fox & Obel, our premier gourmet food store, with the finest meats, cheeses, and other basics, as well as the finest baked goods and other prepared foods. Don't miss the yummy cinnamon swirl rolls at the bakery counter! There's a cafe in the rear if you want to eat anything on the premises, from a cup of coffee to an entire meal prepared to order. While you're here, go to Garrett's Popcorn. You're about equal distance from the locations on Michigan Avenue and at Randolph and State. They have caramel popcorn (with or without cashews or pecans), cheese popcorn, or a mix of caramel/cheese. Yum! Here are two more recommendations that are a bit further away but worth the visit. Three miles north, '>North Pond uniquely represents Chicago for its setting, located in the middle of Lincoln Park (the park itself, not the adjacent neighborhood of the same name) facing its namesake pond with the city skyline looming over the opposite shore. The renovated building formerly served as the warming shelter for skaters on the frozen pond in the winter. The food is contemporary American featuring local and seasonal ingredients from James Beard Award finalist Chef Bruce Sherman. It's about three miles north of River North. Our new '>French Market, located just west of the Loop in one of the train stations, is worth a visit. Keep in mind that it just opened a couple of months ago, and it's not fancy. However, it has several dozen food booths and these include some of the very best that Chicago has to offer. Highlights include the croissants, entremets, and French macaroons at Vanille Patisserie; the artisan chocolates at Canady Le Chocolatier (whose main shop is in the South Loop, also not far away); the cheeses at Pastoral; and the rainbow cookies at Delightful Pastries. Enjoy your visit!

Fountain Square is a little over a mile southeast of downtown Indianapolis, and about a mile and a half east of Lucas Oil Stadium. Because mid-afternoon on a Saturday is an off hour at almost any restaurant, you shouldn't have any concern about a restaurant being full. Your main concern will be whether or not a restaurant is open at that hour, as many restaurants are not. Check website hours or call. As I replied on another board, you can dine in downtown Indianapolis and walk to and from the stadium... The ride from the airport is short (under 15 minutes) and there isn't much along the way. However, there are a lot of places to eat in downtown Indianapolis within walking distance of the stadium. So park the car downtown once, then go eat before the event. Stick to places south of Monument Circle (rather than places along Mass Ave or 10th/11th St) to keep them within a reasonable walk of the stadium. The Circle Centre is an indoor mall in that vicinity, and there are numerous restaurants there; they also have an inexpensive underground parking garage ( www.circle-centre.com ). The best places are on the same block as Circle Centre but with entrances on the street. My favorite is the Oceanaire ( www.theoceanaire.com ), widely acclaimed as the best seafood restaurant in Indy; I've also enjoyed Palomino ( www.palomino.com ) and 14 West ( www.14west.indy.com - warning, their chef recently departed).

The cover article of last month's Indianapolis Monthly was a guide to the best breakfasts around town. Click here.

Actually, Gino's East is the one that looks very different from Malnati's or Uno/Due - thanks to the yellow crust used at Gino's.

I don't know, sorry. Maybe someone else can advise. If you're doing it more than once, or making more than one pizza, you can experiment, doing it different ways and seeing how it turns out...

The deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati's is very similar to the deep-dish pizza at Pizzeria Due. So if you shoot for what you ate at Due's, you'll also be shooting for Malnati's. Incidentally, this is not a coincidence. One of the lead characters in the early decades of Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due was Rudy Malnati, Sr. His son Lou worked with his dad at Uno's starting in the 1940s before starting his namesake pizzeria in 1971. Rudy's other son (Lou's brother), Rudy Malnati, Jr., also started his own pizzeria, Pizano's, in 1991. Both turned into multi-location chains in the Chicago area. I'm not that fluent with pizza recipes; I live in Chicago, so I get it at the local Malnati's (when I want single-crust pizza in the pan) or Giordano's (when I want double-crust "stuffed" pizza). But I can tell you that all of the Chicago pizza places don't use much oregano, nowhere near what you'd find on your typical East Coast thin crust pizza. Malnati's has tomato sauce, not chunky tomatoes; the cheese comes melted together so I have no idea whether it was in the form of slices or shredded before baking. One way to avoid a soggy crust is not to slice it until you're about to serve it. If you're interested, you can use the Tastes of Chicago website to order frozen Malnati's pizza to be packed in dry ice and shipped to you. HTH

I agree with you that Sanford is simply wonderful, world-class in every way. However, as for Milwaukee "becoming" a bit of a food town, Sandy d'Amato has helped make Milwaukee "a bit of a food town" for quite a while now. He has been working his culinary magic at Sanford for over twenty years!

And, if we did, perhaps Steven can update his first post in this topic to indicate the city and, when also decided, the dates.

About the closest thing right in Sheboygan is Nino's Steak and Seafood, which has been there since 1970. But it's not all that different from an old-time American steak and seafood restaurant that you'd find anywhere in the country. One authentic supper club that I can vouch for is in Elkhart Lake, about 15-20 minutes drive west of Sheboygan (and the home of Road America, a major motorsports racetrack). It's called Dutch's, but going back decades until this past year, it was known as Bruce's (Bruce recently sold it), and I bet most locals still call it by its former name. Another supper club type place is in Plymouth, just south of Elkhart Lake, and is called the Depot (920-893-8212).

That's highly debatable. The American Club has been there since 1918, and it's almost thirty years since it was renovated into what it is today. The development of a wide variety of dining options in Sheboygan (aside from those at the resort), including higher-end and creative options such as Margaux, is a very recent phenomenon, almost entirely in the past ten years. Ten years ago, the best places in Sheboygan were the "supper clubs" featuring American comfort food, along with the usual pizza/Italian restaurants, and was no different from other similar-sized cities throughout Wisconsin. Around 15 years ago, the city of Sheboygan began a huge development of the harborfront area. That was a big spur to development elsewhere in the community, including downtown Sheboygan, which changed the image of Sheboygan from a run-down working-class town to a resort community on Lake Michigan. That development included the opening of some nice (but not particularly unusual) American restaurants, City Streets and Brisco County. What really put Sheboygan on the culinary map was the opening in 2002 of Biró (since closed), a contemporary French restaurant whose owner, Marcel Biró, also had a cooking program on public television, "The Kitchens of Biró". Rob Hurrie worked briefly at the American Club (so yes, there's that) before opening a deli and catering service in 1999, and it was only when he opened Margaux in 2005 that his contributions to the Sheboygan dining scene made their mark. Similarly, Stefano Viglietti founded Trattoria Stefano, a conventional Italian restaurant, in 1994, and it was in 2000 that he decided to bring authentic Neopolitan pizza to Sheboygan and opened Il Ritrovo across the street. So what really brought some fine, fine restaurant options to Sheboygan was a combination of, first, the economic development that attracted the upscale customers who would fill those restaurants, followed by the efforts of several entrepreneurs in starting up the restaurants that would appeal to that clientele. Not because of the longtime posh resort nearby.

One of my favorite restaurants anywhere is in Sheboygan: Margaux, serving contemporary American cuisine with global influences, from the gifted hands of Executive Chef/Owner Rob Hurrie. I go there about once a year, and every time it's been one of my very best dinners of the entire year, better than most restaurants in Chicago, where I live (we have quite a few good ones). Margaux 821 N. 8th Street Sheboygan, WI. 53081 920-457-6565 www.dinemargaux.com BTW, how come you're staying in Grafton? That's not very convenient, about 35 miles south of Sheboygan. There are decent hotels in and around Sheboygan in all price categories (including the ultra-posh American Club resort in nearby Kohler).

Have you been recently? ← My most recent visit (when I had the mussels) was a few months ago, which was after the original partners split up (I think some went on to start Amelia's in the Stockyards), and it was as good as ever.