There’s an urgent matter we need to discuss.
As you probably guessed, it’s about the recent shake-up in French power.
... but mainly, it’s about your dinner.
So please welcome Chez Moi, the new bistro replacing the 40-year-old Café Bernard, now open in Lincoln Park.
It was a bloodless coup. The original chef (Bernard) returned to France to become a flower farmer (as one does). But the power vacuum allowed the well-regarded Alsatian chef from the former Bistro 110 to begin a benevolent reign over your onion soup.
There were some casualties, naturally. Red Rooster (the next-door bar) and the dated decor were both sacrificed to the cause. In their place: wire globes surrounding glass chandeliers, industrial-pulley light fixtures over the bar, oil paintings hauled from a Bordeaux café and a potbellied stove hauled from the basement (it once heated the speakeasy here). So... you can cross “creating a live version of a Renoir café scene” off your bucket list.
But mainly, this is the sophisticated-without-being-stuffy corner place you’ll pull out of your pocket when you’re entertaining parents, bosses, college roommates and/or wayward NATO delegates over bottles of châteauneuf-du-pape and steak frites and duck confit. But we can also see you just dropping in with a friend for mussels and champagne at the front bar.
After all, Madame Sarkozy may need some cheering up.
As you probably guessed, it’s about the recent shake-up in French power.
... but mainly, it’s about your dinner.
So please welcome Chez Moi, the new bistro replacing the 40-year-old Café Bernard, now open in Lincoln Park.
It was a bloodless coup. The original chef (Bernard) returned to France to become a flower farmer (as one does). But the power vacuum allowed the well-regarded Alsatian chef from the former Bistro 110 to begin a benevolent reign over your onion soup.
There were some casualties, naturally. Red Rooster (the next-door bar) and the dated decor were both sacrificed to the cause. In their place: wire globes surrounding glass chandeliers, industrial-pulley light fixtures over the bar, oil paintings hauled from a Bordeaux café and a potbellied stove hauled from the basement (it once heated the speakeasy here). So... you can cross “creating a live version of a Renoir café scene” off your bucket list.
But mainly, this is the sophisticated-without-being-stuffy corner place you’ll pull out of your pocket when you’re entertaining parents, bosses, college roommates and/or wayward NATO delegates over bottles of châteauneuf-du-pape and steak frites and duck confit. But we can also see you just dropping in with a friend for mussels and champagne at the front bar.
After all, Madame Sarkozy may need some cheering up.
