New Frontier

Is West Chicago Avenue the city's new restaurant row? Perhaps.

Unlike the uber-trendy, ambiance-rich hot spots on Randolph, the eateries on Chicago offer a little more variety in terms of style, price levels and overall flair. Yes, there is still a slight shady factor, but it's definitely changing. With everything from bars and coffee shops to casual and upscale dinner spots, I'm really surprised that it's taken us so long to catch on.

Although we'd been to Flo several times, we didn't really pay attention to the Chicago Ave. restaurant scene until a couple weeks ago when we tried Mexique, a new Mexican-French fusion joint. Like any new restaurant, Mexique still has some kinks to iron out and the food is pretty unmemorable. For real. I can't even remember what either of us ate. Our waiter also had one of the worst faux-French accents I've ever heard; we were pretty sure he was just a dude from Bartlett or something. But, that was just funny. And really, it was not the worst meal--just nothing special.

The best part of the evening was going down Chicago Ave. seeing all these interesting places we'd never noticed before. As we walked out of Mexique, we noticed Natalino's. A cool, but not super-trendy, Italian place with nice outdoor seating space and really yummy looking dishes (we had total food envy). Jody and I both said we wished we had eaten there that night.

So this weekend we hit up Natalino's with Chris and Karen. And it didn't disappoint. While we didn't spend much time inside the restaurant, Karen took a look around and was pretty impressed. Next time we'll check out the interior. Instead, we opted to enjoy the perfect weather and went al fresco. Chris, Karen and I all got pasta dishes that were tasty and Jody enjoyed his non-PC veal marsala. Add to that good bread (warm with cheese melted on it) and an awesome sauteed calamari appetizer, and it was a hit. Good food, good ambiance, good company. That gets the (patent-pending) Schirel seal of approval.

Next up on our Chicago Avenue restaurant tour: West Town Tavern and Mercury Cafe. Oh yeah, and if Jody has it his way (which I know he will) you will likely find us at Five Star Bar on $.10 wing night.

So tell me...are we the last to know about everything going on on Chicago Avenue?