“Start with our fries,” says Brendan Sodikoff, Gilt Bar’s young owner. Sodikoff claims he spent two months trying every potato, every technique, every salt, and every seasoning before he “got there.” His fries set the philosophy for his River North restaurant, which he describes as “simple American food at popular prices”: Take something as basic as a potato and question everything about it. Apparently, along with fries, marrow bones roasted in a wood-burning oven, then served with red-onion jam and toasted country bread, and pork liver and foie gras toast with gray salt and pickled onions also pass for simple in Sodikoff’s book. 230 W. Kinzie St.; 312-464-9544.