Janet Franz

White tablecloths? Gone. Massive cheese cart? It's history. With Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook, chefs Sarah Stegner and George Bumbaris have put their two decades at the upscale Dining Room...

A fondue dinner is a lot of work. First you have to decide what to order: Just cheese? Cheese and meat? Cheese, salad, meat and seafood? Cheese, salad, meat, seafood...

I'm really getting to like Lincoln Square--or, shall I say, North Center, as the area is officially if unpoetically known. It has the Sulzer Public Library, the Old Town School...

Searching among the eclectic storefronts (a Guatemalan eatery here, a gelato shop there) on Roscoe Street on a recent Wednesday evening, we almost missed Turquoise, a 4-month-old Turkish-Mediterranean restaurant burrowed...

Redstone American Grill in Oakbrook Terrace has something of a split personality. It's the quintessential suburban restaurant, set in an office park with loads of parking, yet offers valet service...

Despite its fussy name, Acqualina is an unfussy kind of place. The outside of the Lincoln Square spot is marked only by a basic brown awning with its name in...

It's hard to write about Mitchell's Fish Market without remarking on its location in The Glen, the "lifestyle community" that sits, sprawlingly, in Glenview on the former site of the...

Thyme Cafe is a charming little restaurant just waiting for Wicker Park to embrace it. Only two tables were occupied during most of the Wednesday evening we spent there, with...

South City Tavern, the latest venture from restaurateurs Roger Greenfield and Ted Kasemir (Bar Louie, Red Star Tavern), is "Cheers" with a Southern drawl--friendly, but not without its foibles. During...

I happen to live, in my city neighborhood, within walking distance of at least four Middle Eastern restaurants, and consider a couple of them favorites--casual places to go at the...