By Patrick F. Cannon
Chicago has one three-star Michelin restaurant – Smyth – and two two-star: Oriole and Alinea. Alinea once had three, so must be doing a lot of soul searching and teeth gnashing! One thing they have in common is cost – all charge about $450 per person. Add the least expensive wine flight at about $150 per person and mandatory 20 percent service charge (tip to you and me) and you’re looking at nearly $1,500 for you and your spouse, sweetheart, or whatever.
Now, I’m old enough to have eaten at a good many Chicago restaurants that are long gone. It’s easier to name the survivors – Berghoff and the Italian Village come to mind. Another favorite German restaurant I favored, Zum deutschen Eck on Southport, is long gone, as is Agostino’s at State and Delaware. It was the first restaurant where I used valet parking. I later got a parking summons in the mail! I dropped it off at Agostino’s, and they duly paid it!
If you don’t mind a little degression about Agostino’s, I went to a business dinner there with the man who was responsible for setting up trade shows for the company I then worked for. He ordered Steak Parmesan, which was of course not on the menu. But they made it for him. It looked surprisingly good too!
I got to wondering what “fine dining” cost when I was young. Opened in 1964 in the DeKoven mansion on Dearborn just south of Division, Biggs was the place to go, and the first restaurant I remember with a fixed price menu. In the early 1970s, it was $13.50 per person. I remember one meal that started with lobster bisque, continued with rack of lamb, and finished with chocolate mousse (the first time I had any of them). Before you get too excited, that $13.50 would translate into nearly $120 today. Expensive sure, but $120 would get you well fed at a great many exceptionally fine Chicago restaurants today.
I’m not temped to spend $750 for a meal, but I have eaten at a great many legendary Chicago area restaurants over the years, alas all now closed. Perhaps the most famous was Les Francais in Wheeling. Once called the best restaurant in America, I ate there three times, once on someone else’s dime. My first Franch restaurant was Café de Paris, located in the Dearborn Park Hotel. It was famous for Duckling a la Belasco, flamed at your table! It was bit of a stretch for my wife Mary and I, but worth it!
Although then and now I eat most often in Italian restaurants, I do like French cuisine as well. Another favorite was Le Perroquet on the near north side. To save a buck, we used to go for lunch, always wonderful but a bit less expensive. Chez Paul, also near north, was another lunch favorite. I ate once at Everest, a wonderful French restaurant with an Alsatian flavor. It closed in 2020 because it actually lost its lease! The chef was the wonderfully named Jean Joho!
I can’t end without mentioning The Bakery on Lincoln Avenue. It opened in 1963, and cost about the same as Biggs. The chef had another wonderful name – Louis Szathmary. He was a bit rotund and had a snowy white walrus mustache. A Hungarian, the menu was more continental than French, with specialties like Beef Wellington and Roast Duckling. I remember once having stuffed roast pork. While you were eating, Chef Louis would roam the room, charming his customers.
I haven’t eaten at the Berghoff for a while. In the old days, the grumpy German waiters bought the food from the kitchen and sold it to you, for cash only. And the bar was men only until 1969. The Italian Village was opened in 1927 and has a legendary wine list. It’s just as good as it ever was and won’t cost you $750! Buon Appetito!
Copyright 2026, Patrick F. Cannon
