Rose Mary
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The Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now
The gist: Former Spiaggia executive chef and Top Chef champ Joe Flamm’s first restaurant is an homage to Italian and Croatian coastal cuisine—lovingly dubbed “Adriatic drinking food.” Named after his two grandmothers, Rose Mary’s inviting space sparkles thanks to glossy azure tilework and the bustling open kitchen’s eye-catching charcoal hearth.
The food: The seasonally-driven menu showcases Flamm’s mastery with pasta (think: duck confit lasagna). But that hearth also churns out stunning roasted vegetables like coal roasted beets with smoked beet vinaigrette and pistachio, not to mention show-stopping seafood dishes (grilled clams with lobster butter!). Don’t skip the pillowy gnocchi with beef cheek pašticada or the pork ribs doused in a sweet-sticky chile agrodolce and an earthy cabbage-yogurt relish. Wine director Sarah Traynor knocks it out of the park with her well-curated Mediterranean-heavy wine list featuring a healthy selection of Croatian wines—even an entire section dedicated to pet-nats.