Chicago, well spent.

At Kindling, the live-fire restaurant at the base of Willis Tower, James Beard Award winner Jonathon Sawyer turns his 13-foot hearth into a chef’s table once a month. Nothing But the Meats runs Friday, Nov. 20, 2026, followed by a Feast of the Seven Fishes on Dec. 18 and a New Year’s Eve menu of caviar cones and Wagyu filet Oscar.

Boka, the Michelin-starred Lincoln Park restaurant that launched Boka Restaurant Group in 2003, gives Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026, to game: an eight-course tasting menu cooked with butcher and chef Rob Levitt and Alain Ducasse alum Doug Psaltis, $225 per person with an optional $165 wine pairing.

Sapori Trattoria, the red-sauce Italian dining room at 2701 N. Halsted St., celebrates 25 years in Lincoln Park from Nov. 10 to 15, 2026, with $2.50 tiramisu, a night of throwback dishes and prices, free bubbles on the weekend and a carbonara that feeds neighbors in need.

Dear Margaret Chicago brings chef Ryan Brosseau’s French-Canadian cooking to Frontier in West Town for Tourtière Night on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026 and again on Dec. 9: a pork meat pie, a green salad, cider-braised turnips and maple crème brûlée for $70. Here is the dinner, the cook behind it and the pop-up series that keeps Dear Margaret at the table.

At Esmé in Lincoln Park, chef Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo have turned the dining room into a Hebru Brantley gallery and the tasting menu into his storybook, down to an edible Flyboy portrait you crack with a spoon. Here is what you will eat, what it costs and how to book.

Chef John Hogan, the Everest, Savarin and Keefer’s veteran, joins the Poilevey family at Le Bouchon in Bucktown on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026, for a one-night celebration of Alsace built around choucroute. Here is the night, the chefs, what to order and how to get a table.

Pitmaster Dominique Leach welcomes Batter & Berries executive chef Ken Polk to Lexington Betty Smokehouse in Pullman on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, for a multi-course South Side & Friends dinner rooted in Southern family cooking. Here is the night, the chefs, what it costs and how to get a seat.

Brasero Chicago, John Manion’s wood-fired South American restaurant at 1709 W. Chicago Ave., cooks steaks, seafood and cheese bread over an open hearth. Here is what to order, what to drink, when the bar pours its best deals and how to get a table in West Town.