Nightwood, Scofflaw, El Ideas Make LTHForum's 2013 Great Neighborhood Restaurants List

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 19, 2013 4:30PM

Philip Foss and the El Ideas team in action. (Photo credit: Anthony Todd/Chicagoist)

Venerable culinary resource and website LTHForum announced their 2013 Great Neighborhood Restaurant Award winners this morning, adding to a list already teeming with local restaurant and shopping riches.

The marquee names on the list are Nightwood in Pilsen; El Ideas; red-hot upscale gin joint Scofflaw; and Vera, Mark and Liz Mendez’s palace for Spanish-inspired small plates and wine. Each restaurant is deserving of inclusion although we’ve expressed surprise in the past that Nightwood, with its commitment to seasonable ingredients and an ever-changing menu, hadn’t made the list before.

Lincoln Square restaurants dominate this year’s inductees. Monti’s earns a spot on the GNR list for its Philly cheesesteak, easily the best in the city and among the best beef sandwiches in Chicago, period. Two Korean spots, Dancen and Da Rae Jung, also made the cut. Chinatown’s Go 4 Food earned a spot on the list for its “wide range of Cantonese seafood, from mammoth oysters to scallops on the shell.” New England Seafood Company in West Lakeview was noted for its fresh-sourced product.

You can view the complete list of GNR inductees here and check out an interactive map of the complete list of GNR recipients here.