Marisol
GO HERE: to see what all museum restaurants should aspire to. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) brought in chef Jason Hammel—of Chicago’s beloved farm-to-table trailblazer Lula Cafe—to run its ambitious coffee bar-slash-takeaway-slash-brunch/lunch/dinner restaurant. Expect a thoughtfully sourced menu of very beautiful food from chef de cuisine Sarah Rinkavage, set against the backdrop of a wall mural from the legendary artist Chris Ofili.
ORDER THE: epic veggie cheeseburger at lunch—it will change your entire outlook on veggie burgers. Hyper-seasonal salads (like roasted beets with strawberries and radicchio) and handmade pastas (like bucatini with salmon roe or rigatoni with baby squid) star at dinner.
THE VIBE IS: definitely still a basement museum restaurant, albeit a very well-designed one. This is the ideal place to come when you need a break from museum-hopping or shopping on Michigan Avenue.
IN CASE OF (VERY RARE) NICE WEATHER: Grab a grilled ham-and-Comté sandwich and coffee from to-go bar and head to a nearby park (or to the beach!).
GETTING IN: shouldn’t be too hard; this place is built to accommodate the museum-going throngs and takes reservations. Note that both the MCA and Marisol are closed on Mondays.
—Julia Kramer
