Starting in mid-February, prepared-meats lovers can head to Tête Charcuterie (1114 W. Randolph St., West Loop), a restaurant that will smoke, cure, and encase meats for plates following the local-seasonal-sustainable troika.

Thomas Rice and Kurt Guzowski, business partners on Tête and chefs both, met at Courtright’s in Willow Springs. They say the idea for Tête got in their heads from looking at France’s charcuteries, the businesses where they sell the products Americans more commonly term charcuterie. The pair plan to conjure one of those French storefronts, opening Tête with more-familiar items, such as coppa, fennel sausage, chorizo, mortadella, and the garlic-cured sausage Rosette de Lyon, and branching out to exotic specimens such as the fromage de tête that inspired the name.

Plates will come with traditional accompaniments, such as boudin blanc with savoy cabbage kraut, verjus, and celery root purée. Rice and Guzowski plan to offer dinner six nights a week in an open, reclaimed-wood-and-exposed-ductwork dining room with no TVs. That is, an atmosphere appropriate to a tête-à-tête.