On a recent Monday evening, the otherwise underpopulated dining room in the Sofitel hotel was inhabited by French speakers at no fewer than five tables. Our extremely capable server, himself a native of Lille, said it was an anomaly—that week for mysterious reasons he’d attended to an unusual number of diners hailing from the Basque regions of France and Spain. Was there a separatist shepherds’ convention in town?
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In any case, a quorum of European tourists skipping over Chicago’s entire anointed Michelin class for a relatively low-profile hotel restaurant would seem only a little less strange if they were coming to eat the food of former chef Martial Noguier—but he’s cooking around the corner at Bistronomic now. I can’t imagine what this says about the reach and reputation of new guy Greg Biggers, who was born in Alabama and has worked no further abroad than Philadelphia (at Morimoto) between stints at Tru and the late Tramonto’s Steak & Seafood.
But it’s not that Biggers isn’t capable of creating perfectly harmonious dishes like a nicoise salad with tiny purple potatoes, green beans, and pureed salsify every bit as rich as the scallop’s cauliflower bed or the stuffed guinea hen on cheesy thick polenta, garnished by chewy, coffeelike black garlic cloves and a floret of mitaki mushroom (which really does taste like chicken). So far it’s among my favorite fowls of the year.
20 E. Chestnut Street
312-324-4063
cafedesarchitectes.com
