Bayless's Regional Mexican Reference
Frontera Grill is the room Rick Bayless opened in 1987 and used to introduce regional Mexican cooking to American fine dining. Forty years on, it remains one of the most important Mexican restaurants in the country and continues to set the standard the format aspires to.
The cooking is regional Mexican with proper sourcing: moles built from scratch, fresh masa for the tortillas, seasonal Mexican ingredients flown in to the kitchen, careful reproductions of regional dishes that most American Mexican restaurants do not attempt.
What to Order
Mole sampler — the kitchen rotates several moles built from scratch, and the sampler is the most useful introduction. Carnitas from the slow-roasting programme; seasonal seafood in considered preparations. The cocktail programme is one of the more serious in River North.
The Format
The dining room is colourful, well-staged, and unmistakably Bayless. The bar absorbs walk-ins; the dining room takes reservations. The energy is consistent.
Best Occasion: First Date
Frontera Grill is one of Chicago's quiet first-date wins. The cooking provides natural conversation; the cocktail programme rewards an adventurous order; the room is busy enough to feel alive without leaving you exposed. The Bayless lineage gives the evening a register most Mexican rooms cannot match.