Eating in the Windy City
Leave the coasts behind: America's hottest new dining destination lies smack in the heartland. Here are three of our favorite places to eat in Chicago's chic and creative restaurant scene.
L2O
Amid an interior of beige and white, coolly accented by ebony tables and white onyx cutlery, French chef Laurent Gras gives seafood a new sense of immediacy with a menu as precisely executed as it is unconventional. His ingredients are global and first-rate. Maine codfish, Spanish octopus, deepwater snapper from Japan. His dishes are modest in size yet generous in potency. Shrimp tartare is sprinkled with edible pansies and gold dust; a trifle is composed of caviar, salt cod and potato. That snapper is smoked over cherrywood and glistens with apricot oil.
L2O
Amid an interior of beige and white, coolly accented by ebony tables and white onyx cutlery, French chef Laurent Gras gives seafood a new sense of immediacy with a menu as precisely executed as it is unconventional. His ingredients are global and first-rate. Maine codfish, Spanish octopus, deepwater snapper from Japan. His dishes are modest in size yet generous in potency. Shrimp tartare is sprinkled with edible pansies and gold dust; a trifle is composed of caviar, salt cod and potato. That snapper is smoked over cherrywood and glistens with apricot oil.
TIME Magazine (August 6, 2009)