The Restaurant
Le Colonial opened in July 2022 inside a historic two-story Romanesque structure at 655 Forest Avenue, built in 1901 to serve as Lake Forest's combined fire and police station. The restoration — by Chicago restaurateurs Rick Wahlstedt and Joe King, the partnership behind the original Le Colonial on Rush Street since 1993 — kept the building's exterior masonry and bell tower while transforming the interior into a deliberate evocation of Saigon in the 1920s: emerald banquettes, mahogany louvred panels, lacquered black-and-white tile, hand-painted wallpaper of palm fronds, and a curving brass staircase that leads to an upstairs bar lounge with shuttered windows facing the Market Square colonnade.
The kitchen runs the same French-colonial Vietnamese menu the Rush Street flagship has held for three decades. Signatures include the cha gio crispy spring rolls with shrimp and crab, the bo nuong xa lemongrass-grilled beef skewers, the ca chien Saigon — pan-seared whole red snapper with a ginger-lime glaze — the bo luc lac shaking beef with garlic and watercress, the goi cuon summer rolls with shrimp and basil, and a tasting selection of small plates that the kitchen will pace as a sequence for the table. The dessert programme finishes with a coconut crème brûlée and a Vietnamese coffee profiterole that has been on the menu since 1993.
The wine list reads to about a hundred and eighty labels with a deliberate Burgundy and Loire focus that pairs into the lemongrass and ginger spectrum of the menu, and the cocktail bar — accessible from the upstairs lounge as well as the main floor — holds a Saigon-leaning programme of rum, lemongrass, kaffir lime, and Chartreuse drinks. Service is captain-led and unhurried; the staff narrates the menu's French-Vietnamese lineage without over-explaining it. The upstairs bar lounge, with its bell-tower window views over Market Square and its softly lit banquettes, holds the quietest engagement and anniversary tables in Lake County. For Lake Forest's most cinematic dining room, Le Colonial is the answer.
Why This Is Lake Forest’s Proposal Pick
Le Colonial is the Lake Forest proposal room because the architecture does the work the menu cannot. The 1901 firehouse, restored to a Saigon-1920s atmosphere of palms and lacquer and brass, reads as a stage set the moment the door closes behind you — and the upstairs bar lounge holds the city's quietest tables for the conversation that matters. The Rush Street pedigree, three decades old, lets a guest feel they are dining at a Chicago institution that happens to have settled on the North Shore. The French-Vietnamese menu, paced as a tasting for the table, removes all decision-stress from the evening. And the Market Square setting, with the post-dinner walk under the 1916 colonnade lit by the Edwardian gas lamps, is the closing image the night will be remembered by. For Lake County's once-in-a-lifetime moment, Le Colonial is the address.
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