Obélix

Sedgwick Street, Burgundy and White Tile: Obélix

River North has a quieter corner at Sedgwick, away from the loudest intersections, where a French dining room can still feel like a destination rather than a tourist line. Obélix opened at 700 North Sedgwick from the Poilevey brothers, Oliver and Nicolas, whose parents built Le Bouchon in Bucktown and taught Chicago a certain idea of French supper. This is the more dressed evening of that family. The Diamond guest who wants luxury, a la carte plates, and a night that can hold foie gras and Wellington will recognize the room: banquettes, black-and-white floor, a bar, and a kitchen that takes pleasure seriously.

The brothers named the house after the French comic figure who lives to eat. The joke stops at the door. The cooking is lavish on purpose: duck in its own section, foie gras in more than one form, beef Wellington, a soufflé that changes, tartlets of crab or caviar. James Beard nominations followed. Chicago Magazine put the restaurant among the city’s best new houses when it was young. The lineage is the important part. A family that has kept French restaurants in Chicago for decades opened another door and did not sell the name to another city.

The interior is polished and playful in the same glance. Burgundy banquettes, tile, mirrors, and light enough to see the plate. Two people can take a corner and make an evening of it. Service knows wine and knows when to leave a table alone. Lunch and brunch exist on selected days; dinner is the Diamond. You dress a degree above the street. You are received as if supper still required intention.

Order with appetite. A foie beginning—macaron, terrine, or the Foie-Co—explains the house before the savory course arrives. Aged duck breast is a signature of the bird. Beef Wellington is the signature of celebration. A soufflé should close the night if the kitchen is baking one. Two people should take two first plates to share, two principal plates or one Wellington and one duck, and the soufflé. Reservations release weeks ahead and disappear. Thursday through Monday are the dinner nights; Tuesday and Wednesday rest. The bar can rescue a walk-in if the book is closed.

The limitations are the limitations of a desired room. The reservation is work. The check is a luxury check. The cooking is rich by design; guests who want a garden plate of herbs should go to Homestead. Guests who want a dark American steakhouse should stay at Bavette’s. The family also runs Le Bouchon and La Sardine, both in Chicago. This award is Obélix at night, not the whole household, and not a tasting-menu temple.

Obélix is a Citywide Spotlight Diamond Destination for dinner because it is a Chicago family house raised to a luxurious French evening, a la carte, stand-alone on Sedgwick, and serious about pleasure in the older sense. Choosing this table over a national French chain is a choice for the Poileveys, for Wellington and duck, and for the amenity of a finished night: tile, banquettes, wine, and the comfort of being cooked for as if abundance were still a virtue.