SOUTHERN COOKING

For Thinking People

You don’t have to go “Bubba” or forget your waistline when you venture into America’s pre-eminent regional cuisine. Nor do you have to pay supper club prices for food that’s cooked from fresh ingredients and prepared the way you want it.

This is Southern cooking that’s meant for urban Yankees. From comfort food to vegan entrees and from Cajun/Creole to piedmont BBQ, we serve three meals a day (most days) starting with biscuits and grits and ending with baked cobblers and seasonal pies. And with the exception of sliced or gluten free breads, we make all of our food right here.

Some traditions we’ve kept: like choosing your own sides and a casual hospitality that favors friendliness. Other traditions like the lard, added sugar and processing—we’ve left behind.

This is the progressive South we grew up with. Come taste it for yourself.

HISTORY

Wishbone Restaurant opened in late June 1990 on the near west side of Chicago at the corner of Grand and Wood with 28 seats, 8 stools, the cooking of Chef Joel Nickson and whimsical artwork of our mother, Lia Nickson. The intent was simple: to serve a healthier take on Southern cooking with all fresh ingredients, sophisticated technique, no pretension or country kitsch . . . and diner prices.

We called it Southern Reconstruction Cooking and used our childhood family dog, the toothy smiling poodle, as our masthead.

Within months we expanded to dinner service and quickly became a popular eatery for all the artists, photographers and businesses that had sprung up along the Carroll industrial corridor and Wicker Park. A year and a half later (after expanding to a back room for a total of 55 seats), we opened a second location at 1001 W. Washington Blvd. in a converted Goodyear Tire garage. With 175 seats and central placement between Chicago’s north and south sides, Wishbone became a dining room for the widest array of locals and tourists of every color, class and background found in the Midwest.

At the end of 1999, the staff from the original small Wishbone was moved north to a larger restaurant bordering Roscoe Village and West Lakeview. With many of the same recipes, a few of our original kitchen staff, lamps by brother Greg and more artwork by friends, we continue our mission to bring community together. From new families to gay couples, young, old, entrepreneurs, musicians, workers . . . and even select politicians . . . they come for the surprisingly good food at honest prices. And, of course, for our longtime waiters, runners and bartenders.

Some know us only for brunch; others for weekday lunch-- and for dinner, many of our regulars come for the fresh fish, bbq and desserts that are prepared, smoked and baked daily by Wishbone staff.

So don’t let our size fool you: we still take few shortcuts or compromise ingredients with our extensive menu. Under the direction of Chef Jon Trubow, “Northbone” now offers new specials and appetizers for every meal and this summer we’ll be opening a new Southern Cafeteria/Picnic ground (with the name “Yonder”) right at Madison and Wabash in the Maller Jewelry Center. So stay tuned!

For them that knows the difference, we may be the only place in Chicago where you can get Fried Chicken the old fashioned way, cooked in cast iron skillets with light canola oil. And what other restaurant offers more than 12 different sides to choose with your entree?

So y’all come down! Either with your reading at our counter or with family and friends at our spacious tables. We offer private parties in our “Adult” dining room, occasional shows and great offsite catering for parties and meetings.

What makes us really special, however, is our patrons. We thrive on character and diversity.  And that is the real Chicago.