The Door Worth Opening

Success does not come through quality, truth, or hard work. These things are often foundational to winning, but they are not the linchpin. What matters most is how you tell your story.

As a storyteller, you’d think I’d know that. But I learned it, because, like so many, I’d fallen in thrall to the TikTok schtick and the Gram gab that I almost believed, like so many still do, that a certain newish restaurant in Chicago was fundamentally changing the game.

This place was supposedly revolutionary in their rejection of luxury ingredients. They were focused on hyper-seasonality and changed their menu every day. They had personal relationships with their purveyors. They were huuuuge. No one else did what they did.

Due to seeing a lot of evidence to the contrary, I didn’t totally believe that, but I did spend a lot of time focused on that restaurant and what it was trying to achieve. My attention came at the expense of others. I wrote two reviews of the place in less than a year, something that almost never happens given how much ground there is to cover in Chicago food.

The reason that place sucked up all the oxygen is because its owner had all the things the people desire in a public figure, money, education, drive, intelligence, privilege, ego, and most importantly, a gift for charming chatter.

This piece is not about that restaurant. It’s about a place that was doing all the things that restaurant claimed to be doing alone. It’s about a joint that has been at the top of its game in Chicago for a decade but doesn’t quite get the love it should.