Chris Nugent
Goosefoot
When you aren't working, where do you go for fine dining?
One night I would like to go to Les Nomades. I've never eaten there except for when I interviewed there seven years ago. My wife has eaten there but I haven't.
Where do you head for a divey or casual dinner?
Either HotChocolate or Urbanbelly. I love both of them. Phat rice at Urbanbelly. Dessert at HotChocolate. Mindy [Segal] is an outstanding pastry chef. You can't go wrong there.
Do you have a favorite new trend?
Chefs moving forward and taking chances and risks. Obviously there is this whole Grant [Achatz] thing with Next and Aviary. And everything that's happening in Chicago. I'm very proud to be part of the culinary scene here.
Has anything in the foodieverse really surprised you over the last year?
I was surprised to see Bill Kim was going onboard with Cornerstone [Belly Q]. Amazing and well deserved. Surprising because his whole goal was to start a small, and he did. And it was very surprising and pleasurable—in a great way. He deserves it. He works hard. He is at his restaurants [Urbanbelly, Belly Shack] all the time. He is very dedicated to the food world, and he helps people. He does Common Threads. He's not doing it for PR. He does it because he wants to.
Has anything disappointed you?
I stay away from negative things. If something does disappoint me, I always look at the positive aspects and move forward. You can get upset, but that takes up some of your energy. I would rather move on.
What do you predict will be the next big change on the restaurant scene?
I definitely see some chefs going out on their own, just like I did. Taking a risk. I think you will see a new wave of smaller places opening up over the next few years that are very chef driven. Whether they have wine lists or don't have wine lists, they will be very small.
Dave Beran
Next
When you aren't working, where do you go for fine dining?
I pretty much always eat at Maude's. I go there literally once a week. I live right by it and I really like the food. I don't really go out for fine dining.
Where do you head for a divey or casual dinner?
Could be the same answer. I live a block from Next, so I don't really travel far outside of it. I went to Hot Doug's yesterday. I think I've been there twice in the last month or so.
Do you have a favorite new trend?
Not so much a trend, but what has really struck me is that a lot of casual, affordable restaurants have opened up and they are all operating on a very high level. For a while, there was this huge influx of restaurants that were opening and opening and opening, but they really didn't have a lot of substance. But lately everything that's opening, I have been excited about, and they are casual and affordable and approachable.
What is your least favorite trend?
There are a lot of new trends, and it seemed for a while a lot of the new places were kind of cookie-cutter. But that's not happening anymore. For the most part, I am pretty happy with the restaurant scene.
I know one that drives me nuts. When you go into a place that's playing loud, clubby music that just doesn't fit the scene or the vibe of the restaurant.
Has anything in the foodieverse really surprised you over the last year?
What surprised me was how many chefs over the last couple of years who came from really high-end places opened supercasual restaurants. Look at Matthias Merges from Trotter's. He opened a very casual place [Yusho]. It's exactly an example of what I was saying about high-quality approachable places. Takashi [Yagihashi] is the same way with Slurping Turtle. Paul Kahan, obviously with Blackbird and Avec, and now he opened a butcher shop [Publican Quality Meats].
What do you predict will be the next big change on the restaurant scene?
We will be doing something, like with the Paris menu or the childhood menu—we have ideas and other places start to play off them; that's one way a trend starts to evolve. Also totally organically. We opened Next, which was initially a time-and-place concept—although now it's all over the board—and then without any knowledge of [Next], someone like Heston Blumenthal in London [The Fat Duck] focuses on historical dishes. He will have a dish from the 1700s and talk about the history of it. Basically, any dish that has a time and a place in England, he will have different preparations on it. Even José Andres [Jaleo, Café Atlantico, among others]—I saw an article on him recently. He also mentioned the idea of doing dishes based on historical moments. I could see that becoming a trend.
Ryan Poli
Tavernita
When you aren't working, where do you go for fine dining?
I would go see Dave Beran at Next, for sure.
Where do you head for a divey or casual dinner?
Michael Kornick's Fish Bar.
Do you have a favorite new trend?
There is a lot of Italian opening right now. A lot of people making homemade pastas. Spaces like Balena or RPM. I don't know that it is a trend. More like a return. A lot of chefs are getting back to cooking with great ingredients again and not trying to manipulate too many things.
What's your least favorite trend?
Maybe sushi. I think sushi can chill out for awhile. There was a time when maybe five or six sushi restaurants were opening every month. We need to chill with sushi and explore more flavors and different countries.
Has anything in the foodieverse really surprised you over the last year?
Nothing surprises me anymore. Chefs come and go and they leave. They make different decisions and they open restaurants and you just kind of go with it.
Has anything disappointed you?
I'm tired of doughnuts. I just don't go crazy for them. I'm not going to wait in line for a doughnut.
What do you predict will be the next big change on the restaurant scene?
I think fine dining is definitely making its way back into our house. I think it's not going to come back with the decadence it had a few years ago. People are going to want finer experiences and longer dining experiences, and [I think] that chefs will be clever in how they bring them back.
Phillip Foss
EL Ideas
When you aren't working, where do you go for fine dining?
Nobody does it like Alinea, that's for sure. But there are so many new places that I would like to check out. I would like to check out Goosefoot, but still, nobody does it like Alinea.
Where do you head for a divey or casual dinner?
Probably Maude's for the roast chicken. Very few people do a good, solid roast chicken like Jeff Pikus.
Do you have a favorite new trend?
I would have to say, maybe it's a little self-serving, but taking some of the pretentiousness out of fine dining.
What's your least favorite trend?
It drives me nuts when people, kids, who are practitioners of modern cuisine don't have a foundation in classical cuisine. They don't know how to cook. Everything goes into their thermocirculator and their sous vide bag.
Has anything in the foodieverse really surprised you over the last year?
I like what Anthony Martin is doing over at Tru. That he is putting it back on the map. I wish [Richard] Melman would rename some of his concepts and take away some of the stigma that they have. Tru has been around for so long, and it's still Tramonto's name on it essentially. But Anthony Martin is doing some phenomenal things over there.
Has anything disappointed you?
I don't know if I had great hopes for it, but it was pretty interesting to see James Toland at The Black Sheep crash and burn. The drama behind it was pretty engrossing.
What do you predict will be the next big change on the restaurant scene?
I think we are going to see a trend, kind of what's happened with Chef's Table out in Brooklyn, where Michelin is going to pay more attention to restaurants that are breaking the mold for the fine-dining set. Where it‘s not going to be based so much around service. I think their [Michelin's] star system has already shifted a bit to be set up more around cuisine instead of service or décor.
Paul Virant
Perennial Virant
When you aren't working, where do you go for fine dining?
I'm going to pick some place I haven't been to and some old standbys. Blackbird. I've been there multiple times. It's always good. It changes depending on the chef, but it's always good. I've been to Sepia only for a drink but not really for a full meal since Andrew [Zimmerman] came onboard. Sepia is on my list.
Where do you head for a divey or casual dinner?
That gets tough. Casual is the new black. The list gets longer. I've got to go with Avec. And I'm a big fan of Urbanbelly. And let's put Lula in there as well.
Do you have a favorite new trend?
I love—maybe this doesn't really relate to the dining part of it—but I love how much attention there is behind the bar. All the riffs on the classic cocktails. It's like wide open world of new learning.
Has anything in foodieverse really surprised you over the last year?
Not really, but maybe nothing phases me. I was a little surprised that One Sixtyblue closed, but at the same time I'm excited about Bill Kim's project over there. The Asian barbecue joint that Mr. Kim is opening. If I'm downtown, it's kind of on my way home. I can swing out west on Randolph and stop in.
Has anything disappointed you?
[On a personal level,] there's always mistakes. I just try to forget them all. In my kitchen, we are all human. We all make mistakes.
What do you predict will be the next big change on the restaurant scene?
Now it looks like everyone is doing diners. It's like even going a little more casual.
I, personally, am still looking for a farm to really have, to be a part of the full circle of food production. But that's me, personally. I think it would be great. l do think we are going to see more which relates to that topic. More urban agriculture, which is going to provide more opportunities for local food and for people and for restaurants and for chefs through organizations like City Farm and Resource Center, and Growing Power. There's a bunch of others. Just little projects of people doing really cool urban agriculture stuff. Vertical agriculture.