Bringing culinary stones to the West Loop

The hottest Rolling Stones-inspired food joint this side of an ice cream parlor named Moo's Like Jagger, Nellcôte's namesake is the French Riviera mansion where Exile on Main Street was recorded, an homage the Old Town Social team bore out by loading the old Marche space with a stately, curved, Italian marble grand staircase, towering wrought iron gates from Nice, an entryway lined with live lavender, and a wall of early '70s Gibson & Fender tube amps.

They're actually producing their own flour in a custom-built stone mill, turning local wheat to into Neopolitan 'zas (fired in an imported, wood-burning oven) with combos from Fontina/ black truffle/ sunny-side egg to mortadella/ pistachios/ ricotta, and fresh pastas including orecchiette w/ fennel, orange, and a loin & sausage duo of rabbit, a popular protein at many a beggar's banquet.

Once fully carb-loaded, you can move on to venison au poivre (bacon, porcinis, red wine-poached duck egg), halibut brandade (soft scrambled eggs & sturgeon caviar), and even dry-aged rib eyes drizzled with bordelaise and sided by white asparagus and sweet 'n sour onions, which actually make you cry with their gentle disposition, then get frustrated with how emotional you always are.

A full bar anchors the center with its 24 drafts, while the kitchen'll provide the crack team of mixologists with house bitters, syrups, mixers, and even a whiskey-aided, bourbon barrel-aged summer fruit preserve known as Bachelor's Jam, frequently gotten from their own stones, at the risk of Sticky Fingers.