Food (amazing)

I know, I know. This is supposed to be a blog about movies.

But man does not live by film alone. Sometimes you've just got to eat.

Which is why we found ourselves at SugarToad restaurant in Naperville, Ill. We are in Chicago for my wife's high school reunion and a memorial service for a dear cousin. We couldn't let a trip to Chicago go by without a visit to SugarToad, the newest restaurant run by Jimmy Sneed, who shook up Richmond cuisine with his famous The Frog and the Redneck.

He isn't interested in foodie fads, Jimmy said, he just cooks his own food. If anything, he is cooking it even better than ever. We dined with the always-fun Stacy Sneed (who also works at the hotel that has the restaurant) and with the bright and creative Helen Reed, who designed SugarToad and the Richmond restaurant Carena's, and who just won two awards for designing Gibson's Grill and The National.

First came appetizers, including the familiar crab cakes and sweetbreads (I'm afraid I finished Stacy's off her plate, and I am not ashamed. Sweetbreads -- they're not what you think -- are always great, and these were simply heavenly). For my entree, I had the bison hanger steak, which I had not had since The Frog and Redneck. It is an absolutely gorgeous piece of meat, fork tender, pan-seared and beefier tasting than the beefiest hunk of beef. It was served with a thin drizzle of some sort of shallot-based sauce. I'm guessing that's not the technical name.

For her part, Mary Anne got the sole, which she said was the best sole she's ever had -- and that includes the Dover sole that swam in butter at La Petite France and the extraordinary Dover sole she had just had a couple of weeks earlier at the Palace in Cincinnati. I managed to wrest a small piece from her and she was right. It was amazing.

Desserts: We shared four. A white chocolate mousse did not compare to the others -- creme brulee (good, but not the work of art that that supremely gifted woman used to make at the Frog and the Redneck), tapioca pudding (exactly as good as the version at the Frog) and a bread pudding that was unutterably divine.

I should not find it necessary to ever eat again, although I suppose I will, someday, out of boredom more than hunger.

Incidentally, because the memorial service was just 15 minutes away, we also stayed that night at the Hotel Arista, which houses SugarToad. I don't know how many stars the hotel has -- four? five? six? -- but it deserves them. It drips with luxe. It sparkles with class. It embodies comfort. I just wish I knew why it was standing on the open plains, in the middle of nowhere.