Vie Restaurant- 1 Michelin Star

So I was asked by my fellow co-workers Anistar and HeeJu to go to dinner with them before I left Chicago. I agreed and they selected the restaurant Vie (http://www.vierestaurant.com/) The restaurant is described as seasonal, contemporary American cuisine. The chef is Paul Virant, he has worked at such Chicago restaurants as Charlie Trotters, Black Bird, Everest.
The restaurant is in Western Springs, IL so we took the bus down to union station and then took the Metra to Western Springs. A note about the restaurant, Mondays are half off bottles of wine.
We decided to get the eight course tasting menu.
Amuse-wood-grilled laughing bird shrimp, dill vinaigrette, hard cooked egg.
first-Pan roasted diver sea scallops, caramelized salsify, thyme, royal trumpet mushrooms, preserved lemon butter.
Second- House smoked and seared black cod, spanish olived oil potato puree, grilled fennel and pickled snow peas.
Third- Caveny farm "American buff" goose pate, perigold truffle, semolina bread, pear butter, goose cracklings, swiss chard.
Fourth- Crispy anson mills rice flour gnocchi, creamy celery root, pea shoots, perigold truffle.
Fifth-Butter roasted turbot, crispy bone marrow dumpling, roasted parsnips, baby leeks, baby leeks, bordelaise sauce.
Sixth- Mint creek farm goat bolognese: slow cooked goat and house made sausage, cavatelli, perserved tomato sauce, hend of the woods mushrooms, kale, prairie fruits farm kaskaskia.
Seventh- Wood grilled dry aged ribeye and braised burgundy snails, fried vie toast, wilted spinach, garlic and parsley butter, candied hillside orchard chestnuts.
Eighth- prairie fruits farm "Little bloom on the prairie", cranberry jam, cornmeal crackers.
Sorbet- Lemon lavender sorbet
To finish- Moist chestnut cake, dark chocolate mousse, coffee caramel, chestnut sable cookie, chocolate coffee ice cream sandwich.

Wow where to begin, our server was great made great recommendations for wines. The restaurant really took care of us also, we got a glass of Champagne when we sat down on the house. After the dinner we met chef Paul and everybody from the kitchen when we took a tour and even got a nice little parting gift from the sous chef. The owner then gave us cocktails at the bar and beers to take on the train ride home.
The food was great, the only thing we agreed on was the snails were sweet with the ribeye and it brought the dish down a little. The fish was cooked perfectly with every dish. I can see why they got a star.

The Bristol

Last sunday I got a call from two friends from work Kyle and Ric the other intern, kyle had been talking about going to the bristol and I looked at the menu online and it sounded good.
We arrived around 815 and were seated promptly at the communal table. The restaurant was still really busy for a sunday night. Kyle had been there before he said atleast six times so he knew what to order, for the appetizers we got duck fat fries served with house made ketchup and garlic aioli; and roasted bone marrow with shallot jam and toast. The shallot jam was just amazing, we were told when people stage at the restaurant, that's the recipe they ask for, but the chef won't give out the recipe.
Moving on to pasta selections we chose the raviolo stuffed with ricotta, egg yolk and surrounded by brown butter and the other pasta dish we chose was the daily special for the night. Both were really good, for the next course we wanted scallops, but those were gone for the day so we decided on quail, the quail was over seasoned and also over cooked, the squash that accompanied the quail though was great.
For dessert we chose the apple basque cake, chocolate sabyigon, and panna cotta, the basque cake was so moist, it might have been the best cake I have had at a restaurant, the chocolate dish was served with house made nutter butters, the chocolate we guessed was 85% cocoa was seasoned with sea salt. The panna cotta was what rick really wanted to order it was OK, nothing special.
Overall I can see why the Bristol didn't get a Michelin star.