Chicago Restaurant Week: How To Eat Your Way Around The City

Photo by Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

January ushers in the official unleashing of the bone-chilling cold and winds that Chicago is famous for, but it also welcomes an event created to counteract winter: Chicago Restaurant Week. This annual eating celebration might sound like an excuse for endless grazing but it’s really a festive way to build cold-busting fat in warm and chic environments.

From Jan. 27-Feb. 9, over 350 restaurants will offer special prixe fixe menus that entice diners with deals and special dishes. The 10th annual event features $22 brunch, $33 lunch and $44 dinner menus (excluding drinks and gratuities).  From Andersonville, to Hyde Park and Ravenswood, you can sample specialties from every corner of the city. Reservations are recommended because Restaurant Week brings out crowds of hibernating locals. Here’s a quick guide for Restaurant Week highlights all over Chi-town.

Andersonville: Big Jones

It’s all about Southern comfort food at this trendy eatery. Big Jones supplies creative takes on Southern staples like fried chicken, gumbo and shrimp and grits. Only dinner is included for Restaurant Week so head here for a late evening serving of crawfish etouffee, fried green tomatoes and the addictive skillet corn bread.

Uptown: Demera Ethiopian Restaurant

Feel the warmth of gracious Ethiopian hospitality at this popular, Michelin recommended spot.  Demera is decorated with Ethiopian art work, wooden tables and bright linens so that it feels like you're in the dining room of an Addis Abeba house. The menu reflects the country's different regions and ethnic groups and the restaurant week dinner offerings include Azifah Selatah, lentils sauteed with onions and jalapeno with a lime vinaigrette, Doro Wat, a delectable serving of lemon marinated chicken stewed in a spicy sauce and Ye-Beg Wot, pieces of cubed lamb stewed in a special Demera sauce. Ethiopian food is eaten with spongy, tangy, injera bread so don't ask for utensils!

The Loop: The Berghoff

The Berghoff is a Chicago institution, established at the turn of the 20th century as a men-only saloon where Berghoff beer and free corned beef sandwiches were served,  Surviving prohibition, The Berghoff was the first Chicago restaurant to get a liquor license and it evolved into a welcoming, family- run, German eatery which it remains today. Selections for restaurant week lunch and dinner include Kartoffelsuppe Mit Thuringer, a Munich style potato soup with smoked Thuringer German sausage, Wiener Schnitzel A La Holstein,a dish of breaded and fried veal cutlets with fried egg, anchovies and German potatoes and potato pierogies.

Hyde Park: A10

This Michelin rated treasure features Italian fare from the Cote d’Azur region that critics and diners rave about. For the dinner prix fixe menu, focus on A10 ‘s beet root salad, squid ink fettucine and cheese board with fried Brussels sprouts, beer honey and toast. Don’t miss the cranberry panna cotta for dessert!

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