The menu at Etc., the new Loop place from Lamar Moore, serves as an archive of the celebrated chef’s culinary life experiences. Seasoned fried chicken skins, served with steak tartare, nod to the Southern gas station snacks he used to eat while traveling as a chef for the Bears. A whole fish, dressed with a sauce that includes soy sauce, ginger, and Thai chiles, reflects the time he spent cooking at the Peruvian restaurant Tanta and the seafood giant McCormick & Schmick’s. His deviled eggs are based on the relish-loaded versions his mother and grandmother made when he was a kid, but with twists: cornichons, truffle oil, and caviar, which, he says, “flex on my steakhouse background.”

The longtime Chicago chef (most recently at Bronzeville Winery), who has also worked in Las Vegas and San Jose, is striking out on his own for the first time with Etc., which opened in December. “I make food that expresses what Southern food means to me,” says the Beverly native, who in January was named a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for best chef in the Great Lakes region. Take the purple heirloom corn grits. “People are used to seeing grits with shrimp or catfish. I make an oxtail patty, pan-sear it, and serve it with red wine demi-glace and crispy onions.”

Brunch is in the works, a savvy move considering Etc. has resonated as a neighborhood spot. “I walk down the street and people know who I am,” says Moore, a frequent culinary show competitor. “You feel different when you own it.” 404 S. Wells St.