A brand new American restaurant called Lili is making its debut in West Town, located at 1934 W Chicago Ave.
Executive chef Dan Weiland has created a name for himself through various Chicagoland restaurants such as Forbidden Root, Trenchermen, avec, and Blackbird. Now he’s ready for his next venture: opening his own restaurant with his wife. Lili will move into the building at the corner of Chicago and Winchester Avenues in Spring 2023. Although the space will continue to be used as West Town Market, The new restaurant will occupy the rear unit behind the market, according to Weiland.
Weiland has previewed this new restaurant through his limited pop-ups throughout Chicago, the first occurring on September 11, while the next one will be sometime in October. The 6-course tasting menu introduces some of the flavors expected to be featured at Lili, including ratatouille and goat cheese tart, dried olive, herbs, and villa manodori. Other pop-up dishes include house burrata with charred tomato sauce, pickled watermelon rind, and fried bread; nordic trout with black rice, bacon jam, vadouvan curry corn broth; and malted hanger steak with bagna cauda beef fat butter, and a celeriac Kennebec potato puree.
When the new restaurant opens, customers can expect attention to seasonality and wonderful ingredients. Although Lili won’t open until early next year, the restaurant has used its Instagram to demonstrate its use of fresh ingredients and the inspiration behind each dish. An example was shown at the beginning of the month when the owner made some fresh Mozzarella and a charred tomato sauce with some sweet cherry tomatoes and finished with fresh herbs from the garden. Chef Weiland recommends drizzling olive oil and vinegar and serving it with garlic toast.
