Glencoe Will Finally Get an Ambitious Restaurant

Tyllie Barbosa Photography

Glencoe has a charming little downtown that includes the excellent Writers’ Theatre, but dining options haven’t allowed for a one-stop high-culture evening.

After a suburban location of the artisanal Italian spot Terragusto failed to make the ribbon-cutting phase, Guildhall (694 Vernon Ave., Glencoe, 847-835-8100), opening March 19, promises actually to bring food ambition to the North Shore suburb.

Owned by the hedge-fund head Alec Litowitz and the former Homemade Pizza Co. CEO Eric Fosse, Guildhall is carting in 150 seats to a former hardware store decked out by the restaurant designers du jour, 555 International (Girl & the Goat, Embeya, Balena). The European-influenced American menu, designed by Christian Ragano (NoMI, Tru, Rambutan), features dishes such as a pork chop with toasted farro, burnt carrots, Marcona almonds, whole-grain mustard, and pickled carrots or a market-catch crudo with citrus, jicama, Granny Smith apples, and espelette peppers.

In other words, a more vanguardist menu than many suburban places, but Guildhall won’t go all city-crazy. “We are positively taking reservations, and there will be bread on the table,” Ragano says.

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