Destination: Dinner

By Naperville Magazine
July 2023 View more Featured

By Phil Vettel

8 Restaurants that are worth the drive

No disrespect to our many fine local restaurants, but for some of us, summer means loading up the car and hitting the open road. So we’re taking a look at eight restaurants—all an hour’s drive or more—that are well worth your time and attention.

Whether as destinations in and of themselves, or delicious stopping points on the way to someplace else, these restaurants belong on your short list of local-ish dining spots. Over four days of driving, I discovered restaurants in four well-traveled areas, along with alternate restaurants located close by.

DESTINATION #1

Lark

60 S. Main St., Janesville, Wisconsin

Drive time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Janesville is a picturesque town just across the Illinois border, a place that thrived when GM employed thousands at an assembly plant but was shut down 15 years ago. It was a slow comeback, but in the last few years, residents report, Janesville has rebounded as a city with a surging riverfront downtown, dotted with cute retail shops, the Marvin Roth Community Pavilion that features free weekly live music, and a growing cluster of serious restaurants.

One of these is Lark, which opened in July 2017. “Insanity was the inspiration,” jokes Joan Neeno, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Richard. “My husband, a foodie, always dreamed of opening a restaurant. Back then, the town’s nickname was Chainsville—we didn’t have a lot of locally owned restaurants. We saw a need for a restaurant focused on seasonal and local food and not just burgers and beers.”

Neeno says she and her husband are “blessed” with chef Chase Williams, and it’s hard to dispute that. Williams’s menu shows uncommon range, pulling influences from India, Italy, Germany, the Middle East, and the Philippines. But it’s the local produce that shines brightest, from a bruschetta topped with local oyster mushrooms and lovage pistou to a pea-shoot salad dressed with pecorino cheese and a fried soft-boiled egg (think Scotch egg).

Main courses include a flavorful beef tenderloin with potatoes and asparagus, and a super-thick, cider-brined pork chop that’s the best pork chop I’ve had in a long, long time (this monster was so huge I got a second dinner out of it a couple of days later.)

Lark offers a daily prix fixe that’s a good value (three courses, $46). And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the superb cocktail program led by Lia Pennacchi (also the restaurant’s house manager), which lists more than 20 specialty creations. The wine list is smaller, but nearly every wine is available by the glass, and most bottles are priced at less than $40.

On your way out, stop next-door at the Lark Market, which has a nice supply of wines, cheeses, dips, sauces, spreads, charcuterie, heat-and-serve dishes, and other treats.

ALTERNATE SPOT

Cozy Inn

214 W. Milwaukee St., Janesville

This Cantonese and Hunan restaurant is more than 100 years old (it opened in 1922) and proudly calls itself the second-oldest Chinese restaurant in the country (the oldest, perhaps surprisingly, is in Montana). The interior is little changed from its early days, still low-lit and romantic, though co-owner Tom Fong says the round booths (which inspired the restaurant’s name) have been reupholstered. The menu ranges from old-timey egg foo yong, chop suey, and chow mein dishes (popular with longtime customers, Fong says) to spicy kung pao shrimp, General Tso’s chicken, and Hunan beef dishes favored by the younger crowd.

You can reach the 90-seat dining room only via a long, steep staircase (the restaurant predates accessibility regulations), but locals say the climb is worth it. When I snuck a peek at the dining room, a woman was by the register, waiting for her carryout order. “You eating here?” she asked me. “You should.”

DESTINATION #2

Deer Path Inn

255 E. Illinois Rd., Lake Forest

Drive time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Summer sees a lot of visits to this North Shore suburb, and not simply because the Chicago Bears hold its training camp here. Historically a town to which well-to-do Chicagoans fled to escape the city’s summer heat, Lake Forest is also conveniently close to Ravinia music festival (201 Ravinia Park Rd., Highland Park), Chicago Botanic Garden (1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe), and Lake Michigan beaches.

The historic Deer Path Inn, which dates back to 1929, is a destination unto itself, attracting large parties (weddings, reunions), family travelers, and dining enthusiasts. There are three restaurants on the property: the White Hart Pub, a proper English pub whose lunch and dinner menus include bangers and mash, cottage pie, and fish and chips; the Bar, a wood-paneled room with a casual menu and a highly creative cocktail program featuring thoughtful drinks in unique presentations; and the grand English Room, which includes the main room, a sun-drenched atrium, and a courtyard patio.

The English Room offers the most upscale dining experience; the menu includes such impressive dishes as grilled Spanish octopus with vegetables and spring-onion sauce, almond-crusted Dover sole with Champagne beurre blanc, and Alaskan halibut over cauliflower risotto. Some of the pubby fare from the White Hart (burgers, Cornish pasties and the like) are also available.

The English Room is also home to the Deer Path Inn’s afternoon tea service Wednesdays to Saturdays and its famed Champagne brunch (an elaborate buffet) Sundays.

The surprise (to me, at least), is that Deer Path Inn also has a serious and sophisticated sushi program. Overseen by a dedicated sushi chef, the menu features a variety of maki rolls, nigiri and sashimi platters, by-the-piece sushi, and a selection of a half-dozen sake. The toro tartare, which can be ordered with caviar if you’re splurging, is especially good.

Sushi service starts at 4 p.m. and is available in all three restaurants; the Bar even pours a fanciful Sushi Martini, served in a coupe glass topped with chopsticks and what appears to be a tuna nigiri (it isn’t).

ALTERNATE SPOT

Sophia Steak

181 E. Laurel Ave., Lake Forest

Glen Keefer ran the very popular Keefer’s steakhouse in Chicago’s River North neighborhood before joining forces with restaurateur Ryan O’Donnell to open Sophia Steak in Wilmette. The Lake Forest location is a virtual twin sister of the original location (though better looking, some say) and offers the same menu of wet- and dry-aged steaks and chilled seafood specialties (yellowfin tartare, hamachi crudo, lobster aguachile). Check out the day’s featured special, such as lamb chops (Thursday), roasted branzino (Friday), prime rib (Saturday), and fried chicken (Sunday).

DESTINATION #3

Bartlett’s Fish Camp

12 on the Lake, Michigan City, Indiana

Drive time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Close by the Michigan City marina is a casual, waterfront restaurant that’s just a few minutes from the Indiana Dunes National Park. It’s also an ideal in-between stopover for those traveling to and from southwest Michigan resort towns, and, in fall, for people returning from Notre Dame football games. (Fortunately, the restaurant has enough of a local following to sustain it in the
winter months.)

The dining room is done in oak flooring, pine paneling, and tasteful nautical art. An outdoor deck offers water-view dining when weather permits.

Bartlett’s Fish Camp (most everybody just calls it Fish Camp), sounds like a place you’d visit in search of perch and other lake fish, and to an extent that’s true. But the menu, by chef-owner Nicole Bissonnette (a well-known chef in these parts, going back to the days when she ran Bistro 157 in downtown Valparaiso), embraces shellfish of most kinds, octopus from the Mediterranean, salmon, and lobster. Lots of lobster, in fact—the crustacean shows up in Fish Camp’s Cobb salad, lobster mac and cheese (delicious, by the way), and, naturally, lobster rolls. Even the bouillabaisse—another menu strength—is made with an anise-scented tomato-lobster broth. “Lake fish isn’t always plentiful, so I like to have choices,” Bissonnette explains. “And I’ve been serving octopus for 20 years, going back to Bistro 157.”

Oysters are always a good bet here. Generally, you’ll find at least two varieties of raw oysters on the menu, as well as baked oysters Rockefeller and a couple of oyster shooters—one classic, in a Bloody Mary concoction, and one that isn’t really a shooter at all, but a beautifully dressed in-shell oyster perched above what’s essentially a mini martini.

Other good picks include the crispy crab cakes, perked up by a Chinese mustard aïoli, and the grilled baby octopus, with Spanish-style papas bravas. Apart from seafood, the menu includes skirt steak with chimichurri, a very good chicken schnitzel, and a couple of entrée-size salads.

ALTERNATE SPOT

Granor Farm

3480 Warren Woods Rd., Three Oaks, Michigan

Granor Farm is a working farm that seeks to broaden public understanding of organic food. To that end, it operates a summer Farm Camp for kids ages 5 to 10 (the campers grow and cook food). And twice a week, on Friday and Saturday evenings, the farm offers sit-down private dining in a beautiful, glass-enclosed greenhouse a few dozen yards from where the food is grown.

Chef Abra Berens (pictured), who this year was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Great Lakes award, assembles a multicourse menu based on the farm’s harvest that week. “We brainstorm the menu the weekend before,” Berens says, “and we harvest on Wednesday and Thursday.”

That tight time frame means menus aren’t announced in advance. I can tell you that there will be about seven courses, as well as a little snack to begin, and that it will be delicious. Wine pairings are provided by a local shop. Price is usually $142.22 or $164.10, reservations and nonrefundable prepayment is required, and any dietary issues must be conveyed when making reservations. An opening reception gives guests information—this is a farm that happens to serve occasional dinners, not a restaurant that happens to grow vegetables—and a brief walking tour (leave the fancy shoes at home). All told, allow three to four hours for the memorable experience.

DESTINATION #4

Chef Art Smith’s Reunion

700 E. Grand Ave., Chicago

Drive time: 1 hour

About a gazillion or so people make their way to Chicago’s lakefront, and specifically Navy Pier, each year. Navy Pier has plenty of dining options, but I’d steer you to this cute, comfort-food restaurant by chef Art Smith.

Smith is well known in Chicago circles, going all the way back to his days cooking for Oprah Winfrey to his more recent Chicago projects, Chicago Q and Blue Door Kitchen & Garden (Smith remains executive chef of both restaurants). His latest eatery, which opened at the west end of Navy Pier late last summer, is closely related to Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’, his restaurant in Florida’s Disney Springs.

The Reunion decor is rustic: wood-plank flooring in different widths, mismatched hanging lamps, banquettes upholstered in blue-jeans fabric (pockets and all). It’s an ideal place to enjoy such Art Smith Southern-cooking signatures as fried chicken (a must), shrimp and grits, fried okra, Frogmore stew, hush puppies, and hummingbird cake. Portions are hearty, and sharing is encouraged.

With 300 seats, Reunion can handle large parties (Sunday brunch is particularly popular), and the awning-shaded outdoor seating offers nice city views.

ALTERNATE SPOT

Piccolo Sogno

464 N. Halsted St., Chicago

One can debate whether Tony Priolo’s Piccolo Sogno (“little dream”) is the city’s best Italian restaurant. What’s inarguable is that Piccolo Sogno’s fenced, landscaped patio is the prettiest outdoor dining venue in Chicago. Another bonus: Piccolo Sogno has its own valet-parking lot.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve dined here, and my menu choices change only with the number of people dining with me. My advice: Never skip the fried squash blossoms. Get one of the four pizzas, and the peach and arugula salad if it’s available. Check the specials list for limited-time gems or go tried-and-true with the branzino al forno, mixed-mushroom risotto, spaghetti neri with seafood, or the fish stew. If general manager Alfredo Padilla is on the floor, put the wine selection in his hands. You won’t be sorry.

Photos: Jamie and Eric Photography (Granor Farm); Lark (Lark); Phil Vettel (Cozy Inn); Deer Path Inn (Deer Path Inn); Ballyhoo Hospitality (Sophia Steak); Joe Gonzalez/Blackbean Photography (Bartlett’s Fish Camp); Jamie and Eric Photography (Granor Farm); Art Smith’s Reunion (Art Smith’s Reunion); Piccolo Sogno (Barbabietole)