Terzo Piano

Conrad and I can be rather limited in dining out. Yoshi's. The Center on Halsted. Thai food ordered in from Ping Pong. Given our rather narrow tastes, it's something of a special treat to dine out some place new to us. And with the added excuse of a friend visiting from out of town, well, quite a treat indeed.

Holly had been in Chicago for a few days, attending a conference. We managed to catch up with her before she headed back Texas-ward. The three of us met up in Terzo Piano, the restaurant in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Mostly, it's open for lunch with Thursday dinners also available. Big open space, full of light. We had a table not far from the entrance, which gave me a view of the buzz of activity as people came in and gave Conrad and Holly a view of a dining room that filled up while we had a leisurely time of it.

A few things struck me early on in our time at the restaurant:

• They loved cheese. Good sign - a cart with a number of handsome options. Yay.
• The wine list does you favours if you order by the bottle, not so much by the glass. Funky cocktail list, too.
• The menu is not cheap for lunch, but it promised a lot of fun.
• The service was sweet and friendly - I think our server was named Jessica, and we were impressed (and grateful) that she thought to ask us about food allergies.

I'm sorry I didn't photograph the antipasti plate we had. Different items of charcuterie, a bit of cheese, some huge olives, pickled vegetables, a salty-spicy celery dish. We shared a modest but fine Italian white wine, and happily grabbed items from the platter.

Lunch: Holly and I each opted for the same thing, sesame-crusted whitefish with eggplant and a charmoula dressing. We both liked it a good deal, and I think it was a good match for the wine. Conrad, meanwhile, decided on a healthier course of things and chose a salad with avocado and chicken breast. Darn him. It did look good.

If we weren't with Holly, we might have had cheese (they looked so good, parked near us). Instead, I had a dessert while Holly had a cocktail and Conrad had a coffee. Five dessert selections to pick from, and four of them had "keywords", those ingredients you see listed and they just pique your interest something fierce. I went for the dessert that hit multiple keywords:

• pomegranate
• maple
• beignet

Maple-cream filled sweet potato beignets with a pomegranate sorbet.
The beignets were light, not too sweet, and the sorbet was a jewel - taste and colour both.

So then, I think Conrad and I will be back. After all, as a member of the Art Institute, I get a 10% discount. Good reason to go and have a nice lunch right there, as if the food, wine, setting, and collections downstairs weren't enticement enough!