Best Restaurants For Wine 2018: Lake View Has 2 Award Winners

CHICAGO, IL —Cheers, Lake View! Wine Spectator, one of the world's leading authorities on wine, has assembled its 2018 list of the Best Restaurants for Wine, based not only on the breadth of vintages in their cellars but also how well wine is paired with entrees. Two restaurants in Lake View were named on the list.

The lifestyle magazine on wine and wine culture gave awards across three categories — Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award, which went to only 91 restaurants around the world. Wine Spectator experts inspect all candidates for the Grand Award to evaluate both quality of the dining experience and the cellar.

Two restaurants in Lake View were named in the magazine's Award of Excellence category:

• Coda di Volpe, at 3335 N. Southport Ave., is named after a white grape variety that is indigenous to Italy's Campania region. Coda di Volpe's wine list received a Jury Prize from Fine Wine journal's World's Best Wine Lists in 2017. According to Wine Spectator, the restaurant's wine list offers around 115 selections (inventory: 1,050 bottles), and of course it's greatest strength is Italian wine. The popular eatery serves Southern Italian dishes, which include handmade pasta, house-cured meats and pizza made in a wood-fire oven.
• Tied House, at 3157 N. Southport Ave., opened its doors earlier this year next to Schubas Tavern. The restaurant offers around 160 selections of wine and houses around 1,500 bottles, according to Wine Spectator. Overseen by Wine Director Meredith Rush, the wine list's greatest strengths are its varieties from France, California, Italy and New York, according to Wine Spectator. The restaurant's kitchen is helmed by Top Chef Masters competitor and James Beard Award winner Debbie Gold.

In Illinois, 93 restaurants made the prestigious list of 3,759 restaurants worldwide with outstanding wine selections.

The Grand Award is given to restaurants with world-class cellars and wine lists that typically feature 1,000 or more selections, a breadth of top producers, and outstanding depth in mature vintages and selection of large-format bottles. Restaurants in this category are also evaluated on the presentation of the wine list and the harmony with the menu.

In Chicago, no restaurants won the Grand Award, but 31 received the Best of Award of Excellence.

Wine Spectator's 2018 Restaurant Award winners range from neighborhood wine bars that serve small plates to opulent palaces with star chefs and elaborate tasting menus. Getting a mention on the list is a pretty big deal for the restaurants.

"A Wine Spectator award tells our guests — current and potential — that our program has been vetted by a panel of experts and deemed amongst the best in the world," Erik Segelbaum, corporate wine director for the Starr Restaurants group, said in a news release.

Segelbaum, whose restaurants won 16 Wine Spectator awards this year, said they tell "wine-loving guests that visiting one of our restaurants is time and money well spent." The awards are well regarded domestically and internationally, he said.

"There is no doubt that Wine Spectator reviews and awards are held in the highest regard in the domestic and international community," he said in the release. "Awards of this nature show our wine-loving guests that visiting one of our restaurants is time and money well spent."

The restaurants recognized by Wine Spectator are in all 50 U.S. states and 75 countries.

Click here see all the Grand Award winners.

Click here to peruse all winners by metropolitan area.

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