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From Nation's Restaurant News
December 6, 2004
By Carolyn Walkup
Highland Park, ILL. - The wealthy string
of suburbs along Lake Michigan north of Chicago, known
as the North Shore, is seeing a spurt of new restaurants
in a market that has been tough to master.
A couple of local restauranteurs who grew up on the North
Shore recently opened unrelated casual restaurants
with fine-dining sensibilities geared to their demanding
neighbors. Since the restauranteurs are already familiar
with the needs and tastes of the clientele, meeting those
criteria has been less of a challenge for them than for outsiders
who don't know the market nearly as well.
The two entrepreneurs are Gabriel Viti, proprieter of Miramar
Bistro in Highwood, and Jim Lederer, a Highland Park native,
owner of Bluegrass in that suburb, which borders Highwood.
Both establishments are fresh concepts for the North Shore
and are exceeding their owners' expectations after being
open several months.
Viti, who also is chef-owner of the fine-dining Gabriel's
just across the railroad tracks from Miramar, created a casual
bistro that serves Mediterranean-style cuisine in a building
he bought a few years ago. Named for a seaside Cuban town,
Miramar is a lively late-night hangout for North Shore singles
and couples who enjoy its vintage Havan-theme decor, Cuban
cocktails and musical entertainment.
"There was no place to go for the bar-and-cigar crowd
on the North Shore," said Viti, a Highwood native whose
family came there about a century ago. "Now there is
something going on here."
"I want to transport people to a vacation," Viti
said. "it's a gift we give them. At 11:30 last Friday
night, I saw a seafood tower and daiquiris on one of the
tables. For a restauranteur that's what you want to see."
Despite Miramar's Cuban theme, the classically trained and
well-traveled Viti chose to serve the French and Mediterranean
cuisine he knows well. "Im not in love with Cuban dishes," he
said. "You can only do black beans, yuca and plantains
so much.
"There are a lot of Cuban dishes with pork, like stews,
but I didn't feel like people would go for it. I love it
in Havana, but it didn't feel like something that would translate
to Highwood, " he explained...
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