After yet another two-month intermission, we are back at Oriole and ready to uncover how this most beloved of restaurants embraces the fall bounty…
Seafood
One month later, I am back at Smyth—and thoroughly ready to take my first taste of fall as imagined by chefs John and Karen Shields…
What is the Smyth team obsessed with today? Where might they be going? And what pleasure is there to be had along the way?
Oriole has embraced a more challenging path, yet it feels like the rewards of the process are now finally starting to flow…
North America’s “number one” restaurant is completely untethered to any kind of orthodoxy or expectation…
My last meal at Oriole left me feeling that the restaurant was undergoing a bit of an identity crisis…
With this visit to Smyth, I feel like I am finally regaining some sort of rhythm…
What does the team have in store for my tenth visit?
Whatever ends up happening, this is a key moment in the restaurant’s history that is worth perceiving and preserving…
Ten years after Oriole’s debut, I cannot think of a tougher or more rewarding test for a restaurant that has earned its place in Chicago’s all-time fine dining pantheon…