5 Stellar Spots to Eat in Chicago, In keeping with Michelin-Starred Chef John Shields
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Only two Chicago restaurants have three Michelin stars: Grant Achatz’s Alinea and now, John Shields’ and Karen Urie Shields’ Smyth. Smyth received its third star in November for the chefs’ “sheer creativity” and “utterly unique” dishes. John actually worked at Alinea as a sous chef nearly 20 years ago, but Alinea Smyth is not. Smyth is informal, warm, earthy. The restaurant is inspired by the time John and Karen spent in Southwest Virginia, where they escaped to after their time working in kitchens in Chicago, and where they grounded themselves in nature and drew inspiration for years to come.
John, the executive chef, and Karen, the pastry chef, returned to Chicago and launched Smyth and the Loyalist, its downstairs brasserie, in the West Loop in 2017. Six weeks after opening, Smyth received its first Michelin star. In 2018, the restaurant was awarded two stars, and maintained those until 2023, when Smyth finally got its third.
While John says he certainly feels pressure now that he has three stars—all eyes will be on them—he also feels more free. Their style of cooking is off-beat, focusing more on emotion and memory than tricks, and Michelin rewarded them for that.
“We were able to do it kind of our way, and they [Michelin] believed in us,” he said. “Our staying power is, I think, in the creativity. The creativity comes from constant work. It sounds cliché, but it’s curiosity and trying to get better and wanting to learn constantly, which means you got to try new things all the time. You keep learning and you keep evolving. With what we’ve done thus far, there’s no reason to stop now.”
John says he has big plans for the new year—something else planned for Chicago or maybe elsewhere. “I’ve got a few pots on the burners right now,” he says.
The busy chef and father of two young daughters admits he doesn’t get out much anymore, but these are the places he still makes time for in the Windy City.
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Sawada Coffee
I love Brendan Sodikoff’s coffee place, Sawada. He’s got a ton of restaurants like Au Cheval here in Chicago. At Sawada, you can get Japanese coffee or a matcha latte, and you can do a matcha-coffee combo, which is amazingly good. They make their own doughnuts, too [at Doughnut Vault]. It’s literally connected to their barbecue place [Green Street Smoked Meats], so you can smell the barbecue while you wait for your coffee at a picnic table. Everything he does is super smart and super thoughtful and really delicious.
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Kasama
I haven’t done their tasting menu yet, but Kasama is doing some great things for breakfast. I’m a breakfast sandwich guy. I’m not much of a sweets guy in the morning. I’m like a late-night fridge kind of sweets guy. The breakfast sandwiches are super good and they do a ton of different pastries. [Chefs Genie Kwon and Tim Flores] bring their heritage into the dishes, and take their fine dining backgrounds and apply that great technique and use good ingredients. It’s amazing what can happen when you do those things.
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Elske
I’m sure a lot of chefs say this, but I don’t get out much. I also have two young kids, so I tend to go to places that I know are going to be consistent. At least I know my kids will eat it. My old standby is Elske, right here on the corner. [Chefs] David Posey, Anna Posey. They opened not long after we did, but it’s still innovative. They’re still changing the menu and doing new things and it’s always so damn delicious and fun. David makes these incredible McDonald’s-esque chicken nuggets and my kids love them. Then they’ve got these anchovies and olive oil with cured lemons that you put on their sourdough and it’s amazing. Then the desserts. If you go, you order all the desserts on the menu, which is usually five. No matter what, you get all five.
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QXY
Image Credit: Tim McCoy The place my kids really love is QXY. It’s a soup dumpling place in Chinatown, which is really popular among the culinary scene here. People go there all the time. The soup dumplings are all handmade. They might have 20 different types. And they’re frozen, so we’ll go there, have dinner and then we’ll grab a whole bunch of trays of frozen ones and bring them back home so we can have them whenever we want at the house. Again, for people with kids, convenience. Even if we can’t get in, we can bring dumplings home.
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Red Hot Ranch
I don’t stay up late. I’m an old guy. But recently we did the Michelin awards here in Chicago and I stopped into Redhot Ranch afterwards. It was late, but I’m talking like 10:30 p.m., so it’s not that late. It’s a great late-night spot that a lot of cooks go to. We got chocolate and vanilla milkshakes and we did a pound of the fried shrimp. We did onion rings and a couple of burgers. I was still in my sports coat. I was just there with my wife and kids but then we ran into Zach Engel, who owns Galit here in Chicago. He was there with his wife, doing the same thing.
Authors
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Alyson Sheppard
Alyson Sheppard writes a regular column on fine dining for Robb Report A former editor at Popular Mechanics magazine and contributing editor at Playboy.com, Alyson’s work covering food and beverage…
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Source: Robb Report