LINCOLN PARK – Charlie Trotter’s will reopen in its Armitage Avenue brownstone 11 years after the acclaimed chef’s death, his son said in an interview with Block Club on Tuesday.
While plans are in the early stages, “I believe the restaurant will be reopened this year,” Dylan Trotter said.
Before then, the famed Lincoln Park restaurant is welcoming diners in for a two-week span starting Wednesday — diners lucky enough to have snagged a reservation for the Trotter’s tribute menu from Next, the restaurant owned by another Chicago culinary giant, chef Grant Achatz of the Alinea Group.
The dinner series, which is fully booked, runs Wednesday through Jan. 26 at Trotter’s, 816 W. Armitage Ave. The cost is $325-$335 a person.
Achatz and Dylan Trotter collaborated on the pop-up dinner series to preserve Trotter’s legacy and “repair the broken relationship” between Achatz and his one-time boss, Achatz said.
Charlie Trotter’s, 816 W. Armitage Ave., on Jan. 14, 2025 — ahead of a brief reopening with Michelin-starred restaurant Next. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Charlie Trotter opened his eponymous restaurant in a converted brownstone on Armitage Avenue in 1987.
During its tenure, Charlie Trotter’s was widely regarded as the premier restaurant in Chicago, and among the best and most influential in the world. Many of the trends that came to shape modern American fine dining originated in Trotter’s kitchen, from wine pairings to vegetable-oriented tasting menus, Achatz said.
Trotter was one of the first American chefs to weave Asian minimalism into classic fine dining, which had been dominated by French cuisine. He used little cream or oil in his cooking, and he prioritized sustainability, famously banning foie gras from his kitchen in 2005.
An archival photo of the late chef Charlie Trotter. Credit: Provided by Dylan Trotter
“My dad never prepared the same menu twice,” Dylan Trotter said of his father’s constantly evolving tasting menus. “He viewed cooking like improvisational jazz.”
After Charlie Trotter closed his restaurant in August 2012 — less than a year before his death at age 54 of a stroke — the property sat empty for years. At one time, it served as the home base for a culinary education nonprofit created in Trotter’s name and memory.
Achatz — chef and owner of three-Michelin-starred Alinea and one-Michelin-starred Next, among others — first honored Trotter by featuring the Trotter’s tribute menu from September through New Year’s Eve at Next, 953 W. Fulton Market.
In November, Achatz approached Dylan Trotter about bringing his father’s restaurant back to life in the space where it all started. Dylan Trotter agreed.
With 12 cookbooks and thousands of unique dishes to Trotter’s name, capturing the essence of the venerated chef in a 10-course menu was a tall task for Achatz, who briefly worked at Trotter’s in 1995.
A table setting at Charlie Trotter’s, 816 W. Armitage Ave., on Jan. 14, 2025 — ahead of a brief reopening with Michelin-starred restaurant Next. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
The Next at Trotter’s tribute menu features osetra caviar, red kuri squash soup, eggplant and potato “Cannelloni,” rutabaga gnocchi, Chilean sea bass, poussin with chicken gizzard, Trotter’s famous venison and pastry chef Nancy Silverton’s panna cotta. For dessert? A truffle ice cream and warm, liquid-center chocolate.
“I wanted to recreate items with some significance to me,” Achatz told Block Club. “I was familiar with many of the dishes I put on the tribute menu while working the vegetable station at Trotter’s.”
Achatz was fresh out of culinary school when he discovered Trotter’s first cookbook at a Barnes & Noble in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The young, ambitious chef became fixated and sent letter after letter to Trotter until he was finally hired, Achatz said.
“I wouldn’t be in Chicago without Charlie Trotter,” Achatz said.
The kitchen at Charlie Trotter’s,816 W. Armitage Ave., on Jan. 14, 2025 — ahead of a brief reopening with Michelin-starred restaurant Next. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
But working at Trotter’s was far more difficult than Achatz had anticipated. Trotter was known for his exacting manner and work ethic. In 2003, he was sued by two of his employees over allegations of improper compensation and labor violations.
Achatz walked away after only a few months, suffocated by the intensity of the kitchen.
“When I left, he said that I would never amount to anything,” Achatz said. “He told me that he wouldn’t tell anybody that I worked [at Trotter’s] and that I’d never make it in this industry. It lit a competitive fire under me.
“He had a darkness to him. I think you have to if you want to be the best. I’ve certainly carried that with me into Alinea.”
Dylan Trotter recalled Trotter as an attentive and generous father.
“He would get a basket of wiffle balls and a bat and take me to an empty parking lot on Sundays,” Dylan Trotter said. “He wouldn’t stop throwing them until the parking lot was full of wiffle balls. He’d even take time off a meeting in the morning to go play basketball with me in Oz Park. He’d be playing basketball in a full suit and tie.”
An archival photo of the late chef Charlie Trotter. Credit: Provided by Dylan Trotter
Dylan Trotter recounted an instance in which his dad invited a military veteran who had lost both legs overseas to dine at the restaurant. Trotter paid for the man’s meal and hotel room, Dylan Trotter said.
In 2005, Achatz opened Alinea a few blocks away from Charlie Trotter’s. In an interview with the New York Times shortly after Alinea opened, Trotter referred to Achatz’s style of cooking, coined molecular gastronomy, as “nonsense on stilts.”
Despite this, Trotter wrote letters congratulating Achatz when Alinea received accolades from the press, and he was an ardent supporter of Achatz during the chef’s well-documented stint with stage four tongue cancer, Achatz said.
Jessica Stevenson, lead captain, wipes a plate clean at Charlie Trotter’s, 816 W. Armitage Ave., on Jan. 14, 2025 — ahead of a brief reopening with Michelin-starred restaurant Next. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
In 2010, Alinea was the first restaurant in Chicago to receive three Michelin stars; Trotter’s got two. Two years later, Charlie Trotter’s was shuttered, and a year after that, the chef died.
Today, Achatz is devoted to educating younger chefs who “have tunnel vision for the present” on Trotter’s legacy.
Alinea Group CEO Jason Weingarten echoed that sentiment.
“The heyday of Chicago was in the ’90s. You had Michael Jordan, Oprah and Charlie Trotter. And we want people to understand how important his legacy is,” Weingarten said.
An archival photo of late chef Charlie Trotter and his son Dylan Trotter. Credit: Provided by Dylan Trotter
Dylan Trotter has archived much of his father’s and the restaurant’s memorabilia. With the Next team, they have been able to restore Trotter’s to much of its former glory in a matter of weeks, making cosmetic updates as needed.
“I wanted the paint to be a little darker, so I mixed a shade of maroon in,” Dylan Trotter said. “And we had to replace the carpet, which fell into disrepair, and we have some new chairs, but I want to transport people back in time to some of their fondest memories.”
Four original Trotter’s chairs remain at a table in what Dylan Trotter has dubbed “Charlie’s room,” the most painstakingly recreated dining area in the restaurant.
While still in development, fully reopening Charlie Trotter’s could happen in 2025, Dylan Trotter said.
“We have got to start somewhere, and sometimes it’s OK not to have a plan. Sometimes it’s good to not know every last detail. It’ll come together over time,” he said. “I’m just taking it day by day. We’re just going to see what happens [Wednesday].”
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