We asked readers what Chicago restaurant they’d make the setting for a new TV show, just as the final season of the show “The Bear” was released Thursday. Here’s what you told us, lightly edited for clarity:
“The Billy Goat, but during the 1980s when every newspaper writer hung out there.”
— Vince LiFonti
“White Palace Grill. It drips with Chicago! The real Chicago. Working class, head hung low, slumped over their food, piece of bread in one hand and a fork in the other, speaking to others or themselves in mumbled tones about politics, sports or the glory days of the city. You could just span that place with a camera, and it’d come out as a great gritty movie.”
— P. Teodo
The bygone “Sally’s Stage because they had the waitresses on roller skates and … a big mechanical bull in the front window.”
— Craig W. Berent
“The Athenian Room. The dimly lit, tightly squeezed atmosphere has got to be a breeding ground for some serious food drama. They get you in and out quickly and with massive amounts of food. It looks like a grimy dive, but, wow, the food is incredible. The service is young and quick, and remembers everything. … It has a local feel: Cash only and a short menu that all frequenters know by heart. … It’s quintessentially Chicago and surprisingly phenomenal.'”
— Louise Imber
“Lula has a fascinating story of community ties, sustainable foodways, neighborhood development and longstanding beloved deliciousness. The chef [and] owner tells some of it himself very beautifully in the introduction to the cafe cookbook.”
— Anna Kornbluh
“The old Cité restaurant at the top of Lake Point Tower. Went there quite a few times back during the dot-com boom of the 1990s and thought it was so fancy and elegant.”
— Craig Holland