Glenn Keefer to Open Sophia Steakhouse Restaurant in Wilmette | Eater Chicago

"Led by longtime River North restaurateur Glenn Keefer and Ballyhoo Hospitality partner Ryan O’Donnell, this suburban Wilmette steakhouse marks Keefer’s return after a five-year hiatus and leans on decades of steakhouse experience while pushing past tired clichés. The menu centers on steaks — from Delmonico ribeyes to petite filets, hangers, and New York strips — cooked in an 1,800-degree infra-red broiler and finished with compound butters, but also includes seafood (a shrimp cocktail and other chilled raw items), a cheeseburger, chicken pot pie, and rotating daily specials like Dover sole on Fridays and fried chicken on Sundays. Beverage plans emphasize local preferences for light beer (Coors on draft alongside potential craft options from Sketchbook, Three Floyds, and Revolution) and a cocktail list of classics with modern touches, such as a black Manhattan made with rye, Averna, and chocolate chili bitters. The 5,200-square-foot space, designed by Michael Del Piero Good Design, features an a la carte dining room for about 140, a flexible 50-person event space that can be split into two rooms, a 22-seat black granite bar with roomy tan leather booths and natural wood floors, a 24-seat sidewalk café, and 10-foot tri-fold doors to blur indoor-outdoor dining. Slated to open in spring 2020, the project draws on a long mentor-mentee relationship between Keefer and O’Donnell and aims to serve the North Shore community while avoiding a predictable steakhouse formula." - Naomi Waxman