Welcome 2025

I am hopeful that everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration. I know that for many it is a party, for others, an evening at home with friends or family, and for others an evening out ( and possibly a visit to the loop for the fireworks. The most important part of the celebration- getting through the night with no pain and looking forward to a great 2025.

Our last few New Year’s Eve’s have been a mix. Last year with some relatives who just moved back to the area ( an early evening with very little hoopla, but a great dinner). The year before, a visit to Lincoln Park Zoo for their “Zoolights”, a great dinner with friends ( broadcasters Steve Dale and Paul Lisnek et al) and this year, a visit to one of my favorite dining spots in Roscoe Village, Le Sud.

This French/Mediterranean dining space located in Roscoe Village at  2301 West Roscoe is unique and has a menu that will appeal to every diner.

The have something very special that can be an appetizer for a table of 4 or a dinner for two. The Grilled Seafood Tower: tiger shrimp, littleneck clams, buttered mussels, lobster tail, scallops, oysters, escargot skewers, caper aioli, chimichurri, cocktail sauce and lemon wedges.

We had it as our appetizer along with generous cocktails.

For our entree’s: Crab Spag: jumbo crab, garlic, shallots, fresh basil and parmigiana with noodles.  (me)

Filet Mignon: with smash potatoes  (Vickie)

Mediterranean baked salmon ( Coho salmon, dill yogurt, Greek salad) ( Jane)

Lamb Shank : braised lamb, red wine rosemary sauce, braised root vegetables & creamy Polenta ( Alan)

There was more than enough, but how can we pass up desserts that we love? Well, three of us couldn’t. Jane did ( but did sample mine)

We enjoyed a creme Brule ( Vickie), Bread pudding ( me) and Alan had one of their sorbet’s ( these are seasonal, but his appeared to be orange)

Needless to say, dinner was extraordinary. It was still only 11 p.m. So, we could either call it a nigh and go back to the suburbs, take a drive toward Montrose Harbor where we could find a parking place and see the Navy Pier fireworks show or be adventurous and head downtown towards the fireworks ( and as it turns out about a million other souls who decided to do likewise). We did get to the outer Drive and Erie , or at least close to the outer drive, at about 11:58 but we were at a standstill. No cars were moving anywhere and it was through reflections on the buildings windows that we saw anything. We heard it all, and then with about a minute or two remaining, the cars began to move- we did get to see the last 30 seconds of the show as we turned onto the inner drive and made our way towards the Kennedy so that we could indeed go home!

For the next hour or so, we worked our way down Ontario towards the highway realizing that despite not seeing the fireworks as planned, we had just had one of our best New Year’s Eve celebrations with our friends, Vickie and Al. A great dinner, and a night that we will always remember. I think 2025 is going to be GREAT!!!!

Again, the address is 2301 West Roscoe  phone 773-857-1985

website www.lesudchicago.com

They have a great outdoor seating area in the warmer weather, but a neat room for parties and have just added some pizza ovens!

Can’t wait to go back!