Where to Eat Before or After the Chicago Marathon

The 2021 Chicago Marathon is just over two weeks away, here is where to carbo-load before the big day (or perhaps where to enjoy a luxe post-marathon meal):

The Signature Room at the 95th

Located atop 875 N Michigan Ave, this Windy City restaurant offers American cuisine, seasonally changing cocktails and panoramic views of Chicago’s skyline, Lake Michigan, and beyond. Offerings include:

• Pull Apart French Bread grass fed butter | roasted garlic
• Buttery Whipped Potatoes
• Olive Oil Roasted Potatoes | fried rosemary
• Waffle Fries | black truffle mayo
• Surf & Turf crispy herb risotto | garlic brown butter sauce
• Signature Top View Brew golden wheat ale | Crystal Lake Brewing  

The Smith 

The Smith’s “Red Sauce Sundays” is priced at $45.00 for two. Diners will receive a Chicken Parmesan, Caesar Salad, Rigatoni alla vodka, Parmesan garlic flatbread, and finish the meal out with rainbow cookies. Their a la carte menu is also available during this time and diners can choose from a variety of pastas.

PB&J 

The West Loop hangout specializes in its namesake areas: Pizza, Beer, and Jukebox. Diners can order Neapolitan style pizzas and a TouchTunes Jukebox in the the West Loop. Specialty pizzas include options such as Elote Pizza, Loaded Baked Potato Pizza, Burrata and Balsamic Pizza and many more.The expansive menu also features a "Not So Secret" PB&J portion. 

The Press Room 

This wine bar is located in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. The small restaurant serves familiar food, wines, and classic cocktails. Chef Noah serves up pasta dishes made in-house daily. He notes his key and the main ingredient is flour that is milled and grown in the Marche region of Italy where the wheat has ideal growing conditions, Paolo Mariani Flour. Chef Noah prefers to use this flour as it isn't overly processed and is freshly milled and shipped right away, allowing it not to lose its nutritional value. On the menu, diners can find a variety of pasta dishes including:

• Gnocchi Sardi - eggplant, sun-dried tomato, corn, melrose peppers, sesame

• Tagliatelle Pork Sugo - braised pork, tomato, hazelnuts, sherry

• Squid Ink Chitarra - crab, calabrian chili, capers, lemon

Wood 

The six-time Michelin Bib Gourmand winner located in Chicago’s Northalsted area offers a range of shareable plates on a frequently rotating menu for dinner and Sunday brunch, focusing on season locally grown produce, house-butchered meats from responsible Illinois purveyors, housemade charcuterie, and bread from the wood-fired oven. Chef Devin Kreller makes his pasta in-house daily and utilizes leftover ingredients, bones, and cuts of meats for his sauces. Diners can choose from a variety of pasta dishes including: 

• Tomato Pasta Primavera - hand-made campanelle pasta, smoked tomato butter, haricot verts, wax beans, slow-roasted tomatoes, parmesan

• Hand-Made Torchio Pasta - braised lamb ragu, summer squash, castelvetrano olives, preserved lemon, parmesan, chili, pistachio

• Porcini Radiatore - house-made pasta, wood oven-roasted maitake mushrooms, Tuscan kale, roasted garlic truffle butter, parmesan cream, fines herbes, mushroom bread crumb

Funkenhausen 

At Funkenhausen, Chef Mark Steuer draws inspiration from his Charleston, South Carolina upbringing, and German heritage to create dishes that revisit the meals of his childhood but are reimagined with modern twists. His food combines Southern and German flavors to create a mash-up of cuisines, cultures, and memories. In addition to typical German and Southern dishes, diners can order Chef Mark’s version of pasta:

• Summertime Spaetzle - featuring Sungold tomato vodka sauce, braised pork, pesto, swiss chard and pickled chard stems, topped with parmesan

BLVD Steakhouse

BLVD Steakhouse boasts Filets, Porterhouses, Ribeyes and New York Strips.

Rose Mary

Chef Joe Flamm’s Rose Mary’s Rigatoni — ricotta, buffalo butter, mint, and peas. 

You should also consider the Spaghetti, not only because it’s a classic, but because the dish is loaded with duck confit, rapini, parmigiano and chile flake.

Also, Chef Joe Flamm has a 32oz Bone-in Ribeye on the menu with split rub, charred ramps and hot paprika oil. 

The Dearborn

For brunch, signature dishes include a brunch-friendly take on The Dearborn’s tavern-style pizza – a crispy crust topped with asparagus, goat cheese, prosciutto, grilled scallions, poached egg and truffle oil. Diners will also want to try their Pastry Chef Julianna Westgor’s cinnamon roll monkey bread or the beignets served with Nutella dip and raspberry jam. For dinner, diners can order their signature Tavern-Style pizzas that come in a variety of offerings. Additionally, diners can order Roasted Airline Chicken Breast served with boursin, spinach & grilled artichoke stuffing, housemade parmesan gnocchi, seasonal mushroom, fava beans, spicy chicken sausage, and natural jus.