Chicago Fine Dining Restaurant suggestion needed

I am going to Chicago the last week of June for a reunion Fri-Sat. I will be there until Tues night. Every yr my dear friend and I go out to eat at a upscale restaurant one night during my stay. Last year we went to Tru. I really wanted to go to Blackbird this yr as that's one of my favorite places...however, I am only available to dine out on Sunday night and many of the restaurants are not open, including Blackbird, on Sunday.

I have done some research and found a few that are open Sunday. Two of them I have eaten at before and liked, but I am thinking about trying something different. Here's my list of upscale restaurants open on Sunday night in Chicago...I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences with them, and could give me some advice on where to make a reservation:

MK's (I have been here before)
Farenheit (I have also been here before)
Season's
Spring
NoMI
Vermilion
Custom House

We are both very open to different ethnic foods and prefer trendy over stuffy. If anyone knows of any others please feel free to share...thanks in advance for your help!

I spent 2 weeks in Chicago playing in the 1973 US Open Chess Championships. As my memories fade the only advice I can give you is to avoid the Denny's in Gary IN.

I was going to say Charlie Trotter's - and wondered why it wasn't on your list.

Then I actually read carefully before I typed. Yeah, he's closed Sundays.

I am going to Chicago the last week of June for a reunion Fri-Sat. I will be there until Tues night. Every yr my dear friend and I go out to eat at a upscale restaurant one night during my stay. Last year we went to Tru. I really wanted to go to Blackbird this yr as that's one of my favorite places...however, I am only available to dine out on Sunday night and many of the restaurants are not open, including Blackbird, on Sunday.

Maria,
Although Blackbird is not open, Avec -- their very appealing wine bar/tapas bar next door -- is open on Sunday and well worth a visit: good, innovative wine list and tasty food. The down sides are that it's usually very crowded, they don't take reservations and you can wait for a long while before being seated at a communal bench.

MK's (I have been here before) <--- eaten there and liked it
Season's <--- good food, but probably not worth the price
Spring <---- love it, better than MK and Blackbird IMO (swimming pool ambiance is too cool)

We are both very open to different ethnic foods and prefer trendy over stuffy. If anyone knows of any others please feel free to share...thanks in advance for your help!

If you like ethnic food, Arun's in the far NW serves possibly the most interesting and enjoyable Thai meal outside of Bangkok (12 course prix fixe, no choices). Alinea is also open on Sunday and is arguably the hottest fine dining establishment in Chicago. Grant Achatz, the chef/owner, was battling cancer, but he's in remission so it should be a fantastic experience if you can get in.

Cheers from Chicago's most outlying suburb!
Mark Lipton

[Robin Garr]

Cheers from Chicago's most outlying suburb!

You're in Louisville!?

Like you, I have heard nothing but great things about Season's, Spring and NoMI but Nomi is the only one I have been to and it has always been wonderful. Any other day, please consider Les Nomades http://www.lesnomades.net/ absolutely wonderful French cuisine.

Paul

I like Blackbird as well.

If you go the "ethnic" route, avoid Topolobampo. It is one of the most overrated restaurants in Illinois.

If you like Italian, Spiaggia is great and open on Sundays (or at least was when I was there on a Sunday night a little while ago).

Does Patchen still post here? He has excellent taste and could recommend some hidden gems, I'm sure.

[Robin Garr]

If anyone knows of any others please feel free to share...thanks in advance for your help!

Maria, the gang on the Louisville Restaurants Forum has been raving about Sepia, and it's open on Sunday. Here's a link to their reservations page on Opentable.com which includes some info about the restaurant:
http://www.opentable.com/rest_profile.aspx?rid=13429

Chicago is such a great food city. I miss traveling there on business.
Maria, my favorite place there is Kevin. Last time I went there was on a "girls' trip" to the city. Everything we put into our mouths was amazing. http://www.kevinrestaurant.com/

Thanks everyone for your replies!

Carrie - correct me if I am wrong, but that article says Kevin closed down on March 1st.

Well, dang! That shows how out of touch I am.
I did a little searching after seeing your post and it looks like he has been concentrating on the Shikago restaurant that he and his brother are partners in. Sounds like it has a different feel.
Enjoy your trip!

Spiaggia is nice, the cafe for lunch is less stuffy but makes for a lovely meal. Also, Green Zebra is an unusual mostly vegetarian place I like. La Sardine is a fun French bistro kind of place. We ate at Xni-Pec a couple of weeks ago. It's not particularly high end (although not inexpensive) AND it's not in a very trendy neighborhood (it's in Cicero) but it's authentic Mayan cuisine and one of the most delicious and unusual Latin American meals I've ever eaten. Aria is fairly elegant, expensive but high end comfort food. Boka is fun (they serve Bugey Cerdon) and eclectic and in a near north theatre district. Carnivale is very trendy huge pan-Latin, very noisy but fun. Kind of expensive for what you get though. Everest is at the top of the chicago mercantile (?) exchange - it's very expensive and dress-up, kind of old school but very good food and nice wine list in a beautiful dining room. Chef Jojo also has a bistro which I love called Brasserie Jo. A friend who was born and raised in France tells me Brasserie Jo could be in Paris. Lula cafe is very trendy, very creative. Speaking of very creative, there's a place around the corner from us that's only a couple of years old called Sola - the chef is an amazingly creative woman with asian/hawaiian fusion sort of flavors - nice wine by the glass list. PM me if you go there, it's my wife's favorite place and we can walk over to meet you. MK is expensive, sleek, excellent. One-Sixty-Blue is also sleek and expensive and excellent - it's partly owned by Michael Jordan but don't let that put you off. We've have several very good meals there. I'm sure there are others but these are the ones I've been to that I can think of off the top of my head.

Howard,

And those restaurants you mentioned are open on Sunday nights? Maria stated that she is only available to dine out on Sunday night. It would be a shame if she arrived at a place like Everest only to find that it is closed on Sunday nights.

Maria's pretty sophisticated. It would be unlikely that she would show up at Everest without calling to make a reservation first. Turns out Everest is only available for private functions on Sundays.

Maria's pretty sophisticated.

I know that, Howard, but thank you for the reminder.

With the exception of Everest, are all of the other restaurants you recommended open on Sunday evenings? No sense wasting her time calling around for reservations if some of those establishments are closed the only night she can dine there.

All except Everest, one-sixty-blue, and La Sardine are open on sundays. I did not check MK but Maria said she had already been there. I rarely find restaurants closed on Sundays here. You have to watch out for Monday night though.

Vong's Kitchen is a Thai/Latin fusion place. It's a Lettuce Entertain You Group restaurant in a great location near the Mag Mile. My daughter and I had a nicely creative and very good meal there recently. Coobah is another fun place near us. It's based on Cuban cuisine but reaches out into South and Central America flavors without being dogmatic. More as I think of them

Thanks Howard for all of those suggestions! I completely forgot about one-sixty-blue, I really love it there, and I know my girlfriend hasn't been. Everest is one of the few high end restaurants that I haven't tried yet and I was disappointed that they weren't open Sundays either. I forgot about Vongs too, haven't been there yet. I am compiling a list of places and sending off to my friend and letting her pick one. I'll let you know if we end up at Sola. If not, I will be out to Chi-town in October for a few for a wedding and maybe we can arrange an off-line then. I would love to meet up with you and your wife.

Dave R - thanks for looking out for me!

So many places...so little time! Thanks everyone for all the suggestions so far.

If you are interested in trendy places, take a look at the lineup from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. This is a restaurant empire owned by Richard Melman. Most are in Chicagoland. They are NOT cookie cutter; each one is unique. Last I knew he did operate the Pump Room, an old, old Chicago fine dining establishment. The rest of the group changes so you may want to google it.

If you are interested in trendy places, take a look at the lineup from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. This is a restaurant empire owned by Richard Melman. Most are in Chicagoland. They are NOT cookie cutter; each one is unique. Last I knew he did operate the Pump Room, an old, old Chicago fine dining establishment. The rest of the group changes so you may want to google it.

He was actually involved with Jean Banchet in the all-too-briefly surviving La Mer, too.

I had the good fortune to eat there on their first anniversary. Everything was half price - including the wine list. I saw an opportunity that might not come my way again. I spent $250.00 on the meal. For two.

Thanks Mike! I am a big fan of the Lettuce Us Entertain You restaurants...in fact our favorite Chicago restaurant, Ambria, (which sadly closed last year) was a LEY restaurant. Last yr we tried Tru and I wanted to do Everest this yr, but it's not open Sundays.

Thanks Mike! I am a big fan of the Lettuce Us Entertain You restaurants...in fact our favorite Chicago restaurant, Ambria, (which sadly closed last year) was a LEY restaurant. Last yr we tried Tru and I wanted to do Everest this yr, but it's not open Sundays.

Cindy and I ate at Ambria when it first opened, almost 30 years ago. Great meal. At the time it was very pricey, really an expense account restaurant. But the decor was stunning.

Last year we ate at Mon Ami Gabi out at Oakbrook Center. Nice, trendy. Interesting touch was that the wines were served from a rolling cart, like a dessert cart, that had both bottles and glasses.

Cindy and I ate at Ambria when it first opened, almost 30 years ago. Great meal. At the time it was very pricey, really an expense account restaurant. But the decor was stunning.

Despite all the praise I've seen heaped on Ambria over the years, our one (and only) experience there was very disappointing: service was miserably bad (the sommelier wouldn't give us the time of day, for whatever reason), the cooking uninspired and the atmosphere overly stiff. To top it all off, a large potted plant fell on a young couple seated fairly close to us (the only diners there younger than us), causing near-chaos in the dining area. We won't be mourning Ambria's passage, I think.

Mark Lipton