The egg arrives in a milk crate. At Esmé, the Lincoln Park tasting-menu restaurant from chef Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo, the first bite of the night sits in a tiny handmade red crate: fermented white asparagus custard, chamomile beurre blanc, smoked trout roe and orange sabayon, layered one over the next. It is a nod to Hebru Brantley’s painting The Red Milk Crate, and it opens Once and Future, the tasting menu Esmé built around the Chicago-born artist’s work.
Chef Jenner Tomaska, on the right, cooks with chef de cuisine Gustavo Mejia, who has been with Esmé since it opened in 2021.
Brantley’s paintings and sculptures fill the dining room, his goggle-wearing Flyboy looking down from the walls and perched on stacks of crates, while the kitchen sends out eight to 10 courses that answer the art on the plate. Dinner is $265 per person on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and $295 on Friday and Saturday, and reservations are on OpenTable.
Esmé Chicago: a dining room that becomes Hebru Brantley’s gallery
Tomaska and Bravo opened Esmé at 2200 N. Clark St. in August 2021 with an idea that has become the house signature: every menu belongs to an artist. The paintings change, the plates change, the music changes, and the dishes are rewritten to tell that artist’s story. In its first five years the restaurant exhibited 20 artists, created 14 menus and gave more than $300,000 to charities and organizations, and this chapter carries the most recognizable name yet.
Brantley was raised on Chicago’s South Side, and his visual language pulls from comic books, anime, graffiti and the Harlem Renaissance. His best-known character, Flyboy, wears aviator goggles and draws on the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots in the U.S. armed forces. His work has traveled from Chicago murals into collections held by the Pritzker family, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, and George Lucas. Once and Future, presented by Artehaus Studios and Frame Chicago, opened at Esmé on July 30, 2026.
What you will eat: the milk crate, the puzzle box and the king crab
The opening run plays like a treasure hunt. After the egg, a custom puzzle box lands on the table. Pull open one drawer for a tomato tart of fromage blanc, green tomato tartare, caper salt and basil sorbet. Pull open the other for the marigold, a tempura-fried flower with peach, truffle and candy-striped and yellow beets cut into interlocking puzzle pieces.
Then the mains build. Watermelon is the showpiece: Norwegian king crab, compressed watermelon, heirloom tomatoes and finger limes over salsa macha and lemon verbena oil, with watermelon dashi poured at the table and a spoonful of tomato-kukicha granita that melts into the broth as you eat. Dover sole, a house staple, comes with zucchini and yellow squash, knob onion and sweet plantain purées, sea buckthorn and brown butter, on a plate by Charleston ceramicist Alexandra Vaga.
The rouget, crisp-skinned red mullet from the Netherlands, rests on a cloud-shaped plate by Depy Zepo that echoes Brantley’s recurring Girl on Cloud image, with fermented Jimmy Nardello pepper, plum, basil and beef tongue rillettes under a fennel nage. The Iberico course pairs pork belly, house-made sausage and Iberico loin from a family farm in La Alberca, Spain, with chicharrón, pea and fig purées, walnut jus and laminated cornbread with lardo and whipped fig butter.
Two Esmé signatures return. Clay, the restaurant’s most famous presentation, is squab cooked inside a clay shell with summer sausage, cherry, salsify and a cherry and foie gras jus, and the clay is cracked open at the table. Mother of Pearl, a course the kitchen rebuilds for every artist, is Japanese white sweet potato with kombu ice cream in a mother-of-pearl bowl by Chicago’s DTK Ceramics, topped with peanut miso, celery hot sauce, white chocolate and osetra caviar. It is offered as a supplement.
The course everyone films: an edible Flyboy
Just before dessert, a gilded frame arrives with a portrait of Flyboy inside. The frame comes from Frame Chicago, the plate from DTK Ceramics, and the portrait itself is edible. Put your spoon through it and you find passion fruit sorbet with fennel brittle, black sesame praline and clementine meringue underneath. It is the cheekiest moment of the night, and the whole table will want it on video.
Next comes the baba, a brioche cake finished tableside with peach purée, popcorn custard, bourbon syrup and brown butter almonds, with truffle as an optional supplement. The petit gâteau closes the menu on a sunflower plate Brantley designed himself, the flower a symbol of hope and optimism in his work: chèvre crémeux, apricot, a sunflower and vanilla Bavarian cream and chèvre ice cream. Mignardises send you home with mango and Tajín pâte de fruit, a dark chocolate bonbon with marshmallow and peanut butter ganache, and a sweet corn and blackberry petit four.
Who is cooking: Jenner Tomaska, Katrina Bravo and Gustavo Mejia
Tomaska runs the kitchen, and Bravo, his wife and partner, leads the creative direction and the artist partnerships. Chef de cuisine Gustavo Mejia turns each artist’s work into dishes and teaches the team the meaning behind every course. Mejia was born in Honduras, moved to the United States at 11, started as a busboy in Denver at 14, cooked at Alinea and joined Esmé’s opening team in 2021. His kitchen is built around specialists, from pastry to seafood, red meat and poultry.
The record behind the room is strong. Esmé earned its first Michelin star in 2022 and held one star in the Michelin Guide Chicago 2025. Tomaska is a Chef of the Year finalist at the 2027 Jean Banchet Awards for Esmé, Petite Edith and The Alston, and Petite Edith, the couple’s French bistro, is a finalist for Best New Restaurant. The winners are named on Jan. 31, 2027, at the Harris Theater.
Lincoln Park has another landmark tasting menu this month: the Charlie Trotter’s tribute menu runs in the original Armitage Avenue room through Nov. 22, 2026, a short ride from Esmé.
How to get a table and what to know before you go
Reservations are prepaid tickets for parties of one to six, with seatings from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The menu is $265 per person on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and $295 on Friday and Saturday, before tax and a 22% service charge that pays the team a living wage with benefits. Two wine pairings and a nonalcoholic pairing can be added ahead of time or at the table. Tickets are nonrefundable, and moving a reservation costs $150 per person plus tax and service. Parties of seven or more book by email with Bravo.
Plan on two and a half to three hours. With 72 hours’ notice the kitchen adapts the menu for pescatarian, vegetarian and gluten-free diners. There is no dress code. Enter the dining room at the corner of Webster Avenue and Sedgwick Street. Esmé has no valet, so take a rideshare or look for metered parking. Corkage is $65 per 750 ml bottle, one bottle for every two guests, for wines that are off the list.
Bar Esmé, with its own door on Clark Street, welcomes walk-ins for a more relaxed night of cocktails and wine. Order the Beet Generation, a milk punch of goat cheese, Kyrö whisky, beet and peppercorn crowned with honey whipped cream. On New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2026, the dining room serves a special tasting menu with wine pairing to ring in 2027, from $335 per person.
Esmé Chicago at a glance
- What: Once and Future, a tasting menu of eight to 10 courses paired with the art of Hebru Brantley
- Where: Esmé, 2200 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614 (Lincoln Park); dining room entrance at Webster and Sedgwick
- When: Wednesday to Sunday, seatings 5 to 9 p.m.
- Price: $265 per person Wed, Thu and Sun; $295 Fri and Sat; plus tax and 22% service charge
- Reservations: OpenTable, prepaid, parties of 1 to 6
- Bar Esmé: walk-ins welcome, entrance on Clark Street
- Contact: info@esmechicago.com
Esmé Chicago FAQ
What is the Hebru Brantley tasting menu at Esmé Chicago?
Once and Future is the current tasting menu at Esmé in Lincoln Park, built around Chicago artist Hebru Brantley. His Flyboy paintings and sculptures fill the dining room, and eight to 10 courses reference his work, from an egg served in a tiny milk crate to an edible Flyboy portrait hiding passion fruit sorbet.
How much does dinner at Esmé Chicago cost?
The Esmé Chicago tasting menu is $265 per person on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and $295 on Friday and Saturday. Tax and a 22% service charge are added. Wine and nonalcoholic pairings, the Mother of Pearl caviar course and a truffle add-on for the baba cost extra.
How do I book a table at Esmé Chicago?
Esmé Chicago sells prepaid tickets on OpenTable for parties of one to six, with seatings from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets are nonrefundable, and rebooking costs $150 per person plus tax and service. Groups of seven or more book by email, and Bar Esmé takes walk-ins.
Is Esmé Chicago Michelin-starred?
Yes. Esmé, at 2200 N. Clark St. in Lincoln Park, earned its first Michelin star in 2022 and held one star in the Michelin Guide Chicago 2025. Chef Jenner Tomaska is also a Chef of the Year finalist at the 2027 Jean Banchet Awards, with winners named on Jan. 31, 2027.
How long is dinner at Esmé Chicago, and is there a dress code?
Plan on two and a half to three hours for the full Esmé Chicago tasting menu, which runs eight to 10 courses. There is no dress code. Enter at Webster Avenue and Sedgwick Street, and take a rideshare or find metered parking, since Esmé has no valet.
Can Esmé Chicago handle dietary restrictions?
Esmé Chicago adapts its tasting menu for pescatarian, vegetarian and gluten-free diners with 72 hours’ notice. For other needs, email info@esmechicago.com before your visit. The dining room serves only the full tasting menu, while Bar Esmé on Clark Street offers a more relaxed menu of cocktails and wine.
Further reading
- Esmé official site
- Esmé reservations on OpenTable
- Esmé artists in residence
- Esmé FAQ
- Once and Future announcement, @esme_chicago on Instagram
- Esmé Partners with Chicago-Born Artist Hebru Brantley, Chicago Food Magazine (Oct. 16, 2026)
- Hebru Brantley’s Art Is on the Menu at Esmé, Haute Living (Nov. 6, 2026)
- All the Stars in the Michelin Guide Chicago 2025
- 2027 Banchet Awards finalists
- Hebru Brantley official site
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