I’ve got an office nearby that I’ll be visiting. Any recomendations for solid food with a good wines BTG list ? Italian, seafood, grill etc. Pretty much open to most cusuine.
Fred,
I’ve lived here for 40 years. I’m sorry you need to come for our food and wine.
Safe travels.
It isn’t nearly as bad as it was a few years ago. You will have three ‘brand’ options in downtown: Hugo’s Frog Bar (Which is part of the Gibson’s steak empire) - but your list will be dominated by Cali cab and it is a steakhouse with some fish dishes. Food is B to B+, but that’s about it. Comfortable. A few block south is the competitor to the theme, Sullivan’s steak house. Same type of food but not as much fish though a matching Cali-cab dominated list. Another block or two south of Sullivan’s is likely your best bet for wine but your worst bet for food. We had a new Hotel Indigo go up on the southern side of the DuPage river (which runs thru downtown). On the street access portion of the hotel (Water street) is a wine bar called Sixty-Four. It lives up to its name and you will have 64 wines ranging from adequate to quite good on tap using a key-card system granting you 1/3/5 ounce pours. The food is small plates and the kitchen is above average. Cheese and meat platters along with hot foods with a Spanish tapas vibe but not quite all the way there.
You could find safety at Catch 35 where the food is above good but never great and not a tremendous value. But, the wine list has had some good items on it in the past. I’d only make that my destination if it had to be seafood.
We do have a very solid Italian restaurant on Jefferson Street right in the heart of town - https://www.miafrancesca.com. The wine list may be thinner than you want but generally good/very good pairing options. This is a multi-location establishment name, the one in Naperville on Jefferson (we have 2 here) is Francesca’s.
We have a few others, but, frankly, they are more along the ‘brass and fern’ model of dining and you won’t find anything essoteric or unusual. If you seek wine, 64 is the choice. If you seek food, tell us what you would truly like and we’ll help you choose the cleanest dirty shirt.
I grew up in Naperville and live a bit west of there now. Listen to Chris he gives excellent advice. Your options are limited especially on wine. If you are willing to drive you have the entire city of Chicago not too far away. There are some good Mexican options (no wine) in Geneva also. There is also a little restaurant in Geneva that I enjoy. https://preservationgeneva.com
Thanks Chris. I saw a bunch of these online and then several when I headed downtown. For some reason I picked Rosebud instead of La Franscesca. Their wine list was a little better but was not a big fan of the food. Oh well, downtown is pretty neat and got to walk around a bit after dinner. I’ll probably stay in Chicago next time.
