Chicago - January 27, 2006

Catch the Wave

Sola Restaurant Opens

Imagine if restaurant reviews were written in surfer cliche.

Simply wicked braised endive was served alongside bodacious black cod. And we’ll be back for the totally righteous rack of lamb.

Hmm. At least we’d know a winner from a wipeout.

If owner/chef Carol Wallack’s work at Deleece is any indication, we’ll be raving about Sola, the new contemporary American spot that she opened yesterday. The menu is filled with South Pacific twists that play off her surfer-girl past (she grew up riding waves in Malibu and has a second home in Hawaii). Daily fish specials share billing with a trio of tuna tartares and braised short ribs.

Such beachy dishes are at home in a dining room that swims with golds and browns and is bathed in toasty, amber lighting. Too busy to take a seat? Just call ahead, drive up, and have your eats delivered right to your car.

That, dudes, is oh so tubular.

Sola, 3868 North Lincoln Avenue, at Byron Street (773-327-3868).