The other day I stopped off at my make-do bar — the one that has an English ale on tap I like and plenty of free parking nearby. It’s usually not busy, except today it was packed for pub trivia night. I got the last bar stool, and when the clue was “What European car manufacturer’s name means ‘I roll’ in Latin,” I so wanted to lean over to the team next to me and whisper, “Volvo.”
Engaging in group activities in a closed space makes for a fun time and a clever way to socialize without having to organize a party. I’m noticing how much this ethos has inflected fine dining in Chicago lately. Today’s tasting menu restaurants often encourage diners to interact with other parties. Many, like West Town’s Atsumeru, start things off like a cocktail party, with a drink and a round of canapés. There, guests descend the steps to a basement bar, settle onto bar stools, and engage in conversation with the chefs and perhaps other guests. A similar prelude starts a dinner at Lincoln Park’s Esmé, where guests sip Champagne and nibble snacks at standing bar tables.
This kind of cocktail hour also kicks off a meal at Class Act, which I reviewed in this month’s issue. Guests huddle around three small tables and help themselves from communal plates as they sip a cocktail. You’re close enough to others that not engaging in conversation would be almost rude. Once the meal begins, everyone sits around one large table, and over the course of the evening the conversations turn from sotto voce discussions with only the guests seated alongside you to cross-table storytelling. This is the best part of the experience here. It’s also fun to retreat with your date afterwards and talk about the people you just shared a two-to-three-hour meal with.
Chef Trevor Teich, whose last restaurant was the Michelin-starred Claudia, has reemerged with a new venture called Chef’s Table at Astor Club. This Gold Coast club (the former Maxim’s de Paris) opens its dining room to members only, but the private dining area transforms three times a week into Teich’s playground.
Up to eight people sit around one table and indulge in an elaborate (and quite delicious) $325 feast that doesn’t skimp on luxury ingredients. Foie gras, lobster, truffles, caviar, oysters: it’s a dream bougie bacchanal. The night I visited with a friend, we sat with a couple in their 50s who went to high school together, went their separate ways, reconnected later in life post-divorce, and now were insanely hot for each other. Teich’s fiancée rounded out the party.
Only a year ago Feld in Ukrainian Village seemingly made a break with tradition by setting up its dining room so the guests all faced a central kitchen and each other. After surveying your fellow diners from afar, everyone decamps to the back patio after dinner for s’mores around a fire pit. And that’s when the conversation starts. I remember one time when my friend turned to another woman with that time-honored conversation starter, “I love your dress…”
Sweet Endings
Here’s a trend I can get behind 150%: Meringue desserts are back. My favorite new dessert is the pavlova at Lincoln Park’s new Ox Bar & Hearth. It comes with raspberry sorbet and sage cream, and the mix of crisp and icy textures is all I want after a meal. Creepies has a rotating meringue cake on its menu: fall’s raspberry number has given way to one with salted cherry sherbet, stone fruits, buttermilk, and mace. And Valhalla may be the place that started it all — Tatum Sinclair’s marbled pavlova, with black sesame mousse and seasonal fruits, closes out the tasting menu.