Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House

The Restaurant

Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House opened on Main Street in 2007 as the suburban younger sibling to the Gibsons Restaurant Group's flagship at Rush and State in Chicago's Gold Coast. The downtown Naperville location, two doors from the Riverwalk's southern access stair, brought the Gibsons template to DuPage County intact: white-tablecloth dining, the giant W.A. Bianco bread loaves at every table, an extensive raw bar, and the cold-pour seafood case at the entrance that doubles as a menu and a piece of theatre.

The food does both halves of the name. Frog legs come Provencale (garlic and butter), Pontchartrain (with crab and shrimp), or Diablo (a hotter Cajun preparation), and remain the dish that gives the restaurant its sticky local nickname. The fish side runs an unusually deep daily list: Florida red grouper, Alaskan halibut, Dover sole, Lake Superior whitefish — most of it flown in five times a week through the Gibsons supply chain. The dry-aged Gibsons steaks are also available, and the bone-in ribeye remains a popular alternative for the table member who has no interest in fins or amphibians.

The bar is what gives the room its energy. The Gibsons-tradition martini — six ounces, served with an additional sidecar of leftover pour on ice — has become a Naperville Friday-evening institution. The wine list is broad and built for business dinner pacing, with the Caymus and Stags Leap Napa cabs that suburban steakhouses are obligated to stock, plus a deeper-than-expected California chardonnay and Oregon pinot bench. Service is professional, well-paced, and trained to read a business-dinner table.