Bastille Day Dining Guide 2015
Fresh off America's birthday, it's time to celebrate another national pastime. Bastille Day is July 14, a day honoring the beginning of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. And there's no better way to commemorate a good storming than with frites, rillettes, and all things French.
Chez Moi: Double up on Bastille Day goodness with a brunch prix fixe and a dinner prix fixe at Lincoln Park's Chez Moi. The cozy French bastion is offering special menus and dishes from July 12 through July 14 in honor of the summer holiday. The Sunday brunch menu includes petit French toast, steak frites, salad, and creme brulee, all for $17.89 per person and $14 for kids younger than 10. Bottomless mimosas are an additional $14.99. Come back for dinner to partake in a la carte Bastille specials like steak frites, beef Bourguignon, grilled salmon Nicoise salad, and for dessert, a parfait of honey yogurt, raspberry coulis, and fresh blueberries.
LM Restaurant Group: One of Chicago's preeminent French restaurant groups definitely merits a visit on Bastille Day. For the holiday, Brasserie by LM and Troquet River North will both be offering prix fixe menus as part of the first annual Chicago French Restaurant Week, which smartly falls on the week of Bastille Day and runs July 13 through 19. Brasserie's prix fixe features salmon rillettes and coq au vin along with a glass of Domain De Pajot or Chateau La Bouyere. Over at Troquet, the menu skews a little more casual with a Merguez sausage sandwich, followed by mini Nutella mousse, paired with your choice of Basil French 75, house red wine, house white wine, or Kronenbourg 1664.
Bistrot Margot: Also running from July 13 through 19 is a special prix fixe at Old Town's most charming French stalwart, Bistrot Margot. The closest thing to a real life version of that restaurant in Ratatouille, Bistrot Margot's Bastille Day menu goes for $35.78 per person and contains items both classic and contemporary. On Bastille Day proper, expect specials on wine and Champagne as well.
Bistronomic: This Bastille Day, get thee to the Gold Coast's Bistronomic to partake in a special three-course gluten-free Bastille Day menu, available July 13 through July 19. As an homage to the year of the Bastille storming, a time when flour was scarce and people had to survive sans bread, the prix fixe menu features options for each course, starting with a duo of country pate and chicken liver mousse or an oven-roasted summer carrot salad. Entrees include a beefy duo of NY steak and tartare or Faroe Island salmon. And for dessert, there's a classic floating island with poached pear or baked Alaska. The dinner menu costs $39 per person and reservations can be made by calling the restaurant.
- Matt Kirouac