In a city that is no stranger to Italian concepts, have Lettuce and Funke truly sought to redefine the genre? Should Chicagoans really wrangle for reservations and pay a premium to experience this vision? Or do you only encounter the same steak and pasta, garnished with a bit of that Beverly Hills glitz, that local diners have enjoyed for generations?
Service
You cannot say you have eaten at Le Francais or Charlie Trotter’s in their prime, but you feel no fear in saying Smyth is the greatest restaurant Chicago has ever seen. And, by all accounts, the Shieldses are only getting started.
Reviewing restaurants with respect to “reality” rather than “hyperreality” means enveloping oneself in the insecurities of an audience that has little to no experience with “fine dining.” It means preserving the magic, educating the consumer when necessary, but never letting one’s cynicism infect the experience (let alone the political axes one has to grind). A critic should challenge their reader without ever blowing smoke up their ass.
If critics of the screen and stage can single out individual actors for praise and criticism, then why can’t restaurant critics?