The 2025 Finalists for Chicago's Local Food Awards, the Jean Banchets

Get more recipes, food news, and stories by signing up for our Deep Dish newsletter.

Even as the restaurant business continues to grapple with challenges augmented by changes since the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago remains a city with an outstanding dining scene. The local Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence, named after the Le Francais chef who helped put the Chicago area on the culinary map, recognize the talent on display here from counter-service and pizza joints to fine dining shrines of gastronomy. 

The finalists for the 2025 Banchets have been announced, including in a new category spotlighting pizza, that food that Chicagoans love to debate. (Yes, there is a deep dish-style spot represented.) Winners will be revealed in a ceremony at Venue SIX10 on January 26, 2025; tickets for it go on sale on November 19. 

Roland Liccioni, who retired this year from a distinguished career as chef at Les Nomades and Jean Banchet's Le Francais, will be honored with the organization's highest honor.

Here are the finalists.

Best Heritage Restaurant

Stumara - This restaurant opened earlier this year in the northwestern suburb of Wheeling, and spotlights the continent-straddling cuisine of the country of Georgia as well as its wine.

Soul & Smoke - D'Andre Carte and Heather Bublick started to grow their barbecue catering business during the pandemic and received acclaim along the way. Now they have locations in Evanston, Avondale, and the West Loop.

New Village Gastro Pub & Karaoke - A Korean restaurant in Northbrook focusing on drinks and bar food that is hard to find at other restaurants in the area, New Village was named one of Chicago magazine's best restaurants this year.

Ocean Grill & Bar - Like New Village, Ocean Grill & Bar in between Pilsen and Chinatown allows you to feast on sea snails, alongside plenty of other seafood prepared in a Vietnamese manner. And it was also a Chicago magazine best restaurant this year. (The Banchet nominations in general have a good amount of overlap with that publication's list.)

Best Neighborhood Restaurant

Bungalow by Middle Brow - Begun as a brewery, Middle Brow opened a pizzeria featuring sourdough crusts that earned it a nod as Chicago's best pizza from Chicago magazine. It has also recently started producing wine.

Daisy's Po-Boy and Tavern - Erick Williams is one of the major forces in the Chicago dining world (he won Chef of the Year at the Banchets in 2022), and his New Orleans-inspired casual restaurant has become a mainstay in Hyde Park. 

Kie-Gol-Lanee - While this spot is located just off the stretch of Vietnamese restaurants on Argyle Street in Uptown, it's a Mexican restaurant specializing in Oaxacan dishes like mole. It just expanded to a second location in Logan Square. 

Le Bouchon - A stalwart of Bucktown, Le Bouchon is a French bistro that was taken over by its original owners' sons, who have now built their own acclaimed restaurant empire, with Obélix, Taqueria Chingón, and Mariscos San Pedro, whose pastry chef was also nominated for a Banchet.

Rising Chef of the Year

John Dahlstrom, Nettare - Nettare, in West Town, is everything: a cafe, restaurant, bar, and even a bottle shop. Dahlstrom worked at the hidden gem Table, Donkey and Stick, and has an ambitious palate: he acquiesced to our request to devise a dish featuring cicadas earlier this year. 

Madalyn Durrant, Bar Parisette - We mentioned Table, Donkey and Stick in the preceding write-up on Nettare; Bar Parisette is a new French bistro and wine bar in Logan Square from that restaurant's owner, Matthew Sussman. Durrant was previously at another under-the-radar spot, Webster's Wine Bar. 

Mike Satinover, Akahoshi Ramen - Satinover has obsessively perfected his ramen recipe for years, chronicling his experiments and failings on Reddit. Now he finally has his own restaurant in Logan Square to show off the product of all that work.

Chris Jung, Maxwells Trading - Jung came from Momotaro to join acclaimed restaurateurs Erling Wu-Bower and Josh Tilden in this West Loop venture that mixes up the the influences the three encountered growing up in Chicago for a personal take on American food writ large.

Bar of the Year

Nine Bar - Lily Wang and Joe Briglio took over much of the space of Wang's parents' restaurant, Moon Palace, to create a speakeasy spotlighting Asian liquors and flavors in Chinatown. It was named one of Esquire's Best Bars in America this year.

Bisous - This French-tinged retro bar on Fulton Market was another of Esquire's Best Bars in America and is by the force behind another popular bar, Sparrow. 

Sepia - Many people might not think of Sepia as a bar first, given its Michelin star and perennial nominations for James Beard Awards for its food. But the pioneering West Loop spot has creative drinks to match its food.

Golden Years - Bisous is inspired by '60s Paris; Golden Years in Ukrainian Village aims to recreate the '70s with drinks featuring orange juice, brandy, and other mainstays of that decade. 

Best Counter Service

Migos Fine Foods - Chefs Brian Jupiter and Azazi Morsi have worked together at Jupiter's Frontier, but decided to open the rare chef-driven halal spot, featuring both Southern food and tacos, in Portage Park this year. 

Ragadan - Danny Sweis' parents immigrated from Jordan to run a diner in Oklahoma City, and Sweis combines those two things in his casual Middle Eastern spot in Uptown, with both burgers and falafel sandwiches.

Santa Masa Tamaleria - This new restaurant grew out of a pandemic take-out operation headed by husband and wife Danny Espinoza and Jhoana Ruiz and serves both its namesake tamales and tacos, all with a focus on masa and flavorful fillings. We visited during a globetrotting tour of northwest side Dunning's restaurant scene.

J.P. Graziano Grocery - The oldest restaurant on this list by far, J.P. Graziano has been around since 1937 and watched the West Loop become a dining mecca around it, maintaining its excellence in sandwiches all along. 

Best New Restaurant

Cariño - Located in a tiny spot in Uptown, this tasting menu restaurant features both a Mexican-inspired prix fixe option and a late-night taco "omakase." 

Brasero - John Manion brings the wood-fired, Latin American-inspired cooking of his El Che Steakhouse & Bar (nominated for Restaurant of the Year) to West Town with Brasero.

John's Food and Wine - This Lincoln Park bistro is one of the most discussed restaurants of the year, not just for its well-reviewed food and sommelier, but also because it does away with servers for a fast-casual style of service – with much more ambitious food.

Oliver's - Another spot inspired by a long-gone decade (retro is in), Oliver's aims to bring Hollywood glamor to the South Loop with a 1930s-style speakeasy from a restaurateur who just became the CEO of Chicago's legendary Alinea Group.

Sommelier of the Year

Jelena Prodan of S.K.Y., Valhalla, Apolonia - Last year, this restaurant group received three Banchet nominations and won one (for pastry chef Tatum Sinclair). This year, they have two nominations.

Kat Hawkins of Miru, Tre Dita, St. Regis Bar - These luxury Lettuce Entertain You properties are in one of the most striking locations in Chicago: Jeanne Gang's undulating St. Regis building on the Chicago River. 

Patti Robison of Acanto - Acanto is an Italian restaurant from the owner of The Gage that manages to please both tourists visiting Millennium Park across the street and locals who find themselves looking for a rare nice meal downtown after the Art Institute.

Scott Stroemer of Galit - Last year's Banchet Restaurant of the Year, Galit is a decorated Middle Eastern restaurant in Lincoln Park with a Michelin star and James Beard pedigree.

Best Hospitality

Brindille - Carrie Nahabedian is one of the most respected figures in Chicago dining; Brindille is the French restaurant she opened in River North with her cousin Michael Nahabedian as a successor to their acclaimed NAHA. 

Dear Margaret - There are plenty of French bistros on this list, but what about French Canadian? That's what the intensely seasonal Dear Margaret in Lincoln Park is, and no, they don't have poutine. It was named one of America's best restaurants by The New York Times in 2022.

Jeong - This serene West Town restaurant from Dave Park and Jennifer Tran serves a tasting menu of Korean flavors inflected with French technique, and was nominated for Restaurant of the Year at the Banchets last year.  

Anelya - Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim won national plaudits for their Korean-American restaurant Parachute in Avondale. Where that honored Kim's Korean heritage, Anelya celebrates Clark's Ukrainian grandmother, after whom the unusual restaurant with a unique beverage program and drinking snacks is named. 

Best Design

Brasero - The open space of this Latin American restaurant was created by Siren Betty Design and inspired by Brazil in the 1970s. It's the only restaurant nominated for Best Design not in the urban core of glittering skyscrapers.

Tre Dita - David Collins Studio designed the marble-filled, luxurious interior of this Italian restaurant with stunning views of the Chicago River from its location inside Jeanne Gang's St. Regis tower. 

Bazaar Meat - Celebrity chef and philanthropist José Andrés' Spanish-ish steakhouse in the Bank of America Tower has soaring windows open to the Chicago River and streetscape as well as an enormous octopus sculpture.

Perilla Steakhouse - Designed by AvroKO, this multi-level Korean steakhouse sits in the new L7 hotel by the Korean conglomerate Lotte Group. Yes, two of the restaurants up for Best Design are explicitly steakhouses, while the other two also spotlight decadent steaks. 

Pastry Chef of the Year

Bo Durham of Mindy's Bakery - Mindy Segal (the Mindy of Mindy's Bakery) has herself received plenty of praise for her pastries; now her longtime right-hand man is up for his own for his work at her Wicker Park bakery. 

TC Lumbar of Elske - Elske is also up for Restaurant of the Year, and co-owner and pastry chef Anna Posey has been nominated for a James Beard Award, but now the attention turns to another pastry whiz at the Scandinavian-inspired West Loop restaurant. 

Antonio Incandela of Mariscos San Pedro - This Mexican seafood restaurant in Pilsen hasn't been open long, but Incandela has spent years proving himself at other restaurants in the group, like Obélix – so much so that he is a partner in Mariscos San Pedro.

Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader and Ben Lustbader of Loaf Lounge - Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader's chocolate cake is one of the most famous desserts around, thanks to its appearance in the hit series The Bear, but the pastries at her and her husband's Avondale spot are more than superficial, as evidenced by their continuing popularity.

Best Pizza of the Year

Pistores - This little-known shop in River North serves up crusty, square Detroit-style pizza and has won several influential admirers.

Milly's Pizza in the Pan - Sometimes heralded as the next great pan pizza (sorry, Pequod's), Milly's makes very few pies every day for its Uptown and Berwyn locations, so order ahead if you want to try its deep dish-adjacent food.

Spacca Napoli Pizzeria - A Ravenswood stalwart of the Neapolitan-style pizza, Spacca Napoli has even won praise from the late admired Los Angeles critic Jonathan Gold, an enviable endorsement in the world of food.

Robert's Pizza and Dough Co. - This Streeterville restaurant has achieved a place on a list compiled by Italian critics of the best pizza in the United States (so has Spacca Napoli), but this year it even made the same organization's list of top pizzas in the world.

Chef of the Year

Otto Phan of Kyōten - Kyōten is an omakase spot serving very high-end sushi in Logan Square (a less expensive version exists next door) and was nominated for Restaurant of the Year last year. 

Sarah Grueneberg of Monteverde - She won Best Chef: Great Lakes at the James Beard Awards in 2017, and her Italian restaurant with handmade pastas in the West Loop is still a Chicago favorite; it was Chicago magazine's number one restaurant in their rankings this year. Try a recipe from her vegetable-focused cookbook.

Stephen Gillanders of S.K.Y., Valhalla, Apolonia - This is Gillanders' second year in a row being nominated for this award. Tatum Sinclair of his restaurant group won pastry chef last year; perhaps this is his year, as he relocated Valhalla and prepares to move S.K.Y. from Pilsen to Lincoln Park.

Kevin Hickey of The Duck Inn - Winning Chef of the Year would be an anniversary gift for Kevin Hickey, who opened his quintessential neighborhood restaurant in his native Bridgeport ten years ago to serve inventive twists on the dishes and cuisines he grew up eating.

Restaurant of the Year

Avec - Another universally beloved spot (number four on Chicago magazine's best restaurants), the Mediterranean-ish Avec in the West Loop has been delighting Chicagoans for years with stuffed dates and focaccia even as it expanded to a second location in River North, shuffled personnel, and saw the closure of its neighbor from the same restaurant group, Blackbird. 

El Che Steakhouse & Bar - John Manion's newest venture, Brasero, is up for two awards, so this is a big year for him and his group. El Che is a Latin American-style steakhouse in the West Loop with a noteworthy all-South American wine list.

Elske - Especially admired by those in the hospitality industry, Scandinavian-inspired Elske in the West Loop offers both a la carte and tasting menu explorations of seasonality and humble ingredients like root vegetables.

Rose Mary - Joe Flamm's Croatian-Italian mash-up in Fulton Market draws on both his heritage and his time spent at the acclaimed Spiaggia.