Monday, April 22, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

From the moment it opened its doors in suburban Chicago in 1993, Trio was a hit, first winning raves under high-profile founding chefs Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand, then enjoying a more subdued but equally delicious run with Shawn McClain. Last summer, French Laundry veteran Grant Achatz stepped in, and the restaurant's extraordinary era continues. Just a few months after Achatz planted himself behind the stoves, Food & Wine described Trio as "one of the most avant-garde restaurants in the country."

The Chicago Tribune agreed, giving the restaurant four stars and calling Achatz "the most dynamic, boundary-stretching chef to hit town in a long, long time." Trio, Phil Vettel wrote in the Tribune, has "re-embraced its wild side." Consider Achatz's playful take on Asian bubble tea. He substitutes salmon roe for the usual tapioca pearls, and cuts sencha tea with cucumber juice. A "root-beer" rib-eye is flavored with sassafras root and fennel, and served with potato purée capped with milk foam; a wild striped bass is drizzled with bittersweet chocolate-coffee sauce and enlivened with figs. At Trio, it's an adventure from the get-go; guests start dinner with what appears at first glance to be an innocuous, albeit delicious, amuse-bouche comprised of tomato confit, celery granita, horseradish cream, and tiny cubes of Worcestershire gelée. Look closer—it's a "deconstructed" Bloody Mary! Achatz's derring-do shows the influence of El Bulli's Ferrán Ádria, under whom he worked in Spain. Like Ádria, Achatz makes food that is as much a cerebral pleasure as a sensual one. Dennis Ray Wheaton called the menu at Trio "mind-boggling...at first glance it makes you wonder if the new chef is having a bit of an existential crisis," he wrote in Chicago magazine. "But no—it's only American creativity at full burn."

After graduating from the CIA, Achatz stage-ed under Charlie Trotter in Chicago, spent a year in the Napa Valley as assistant winemaker at La Jota Vineyards, worked for four years as sous-chef to Thomas Keller at The French Laundry, and cooked his way from Honolulu to Spain, experiences that shaped his global approach and instilled in him a deep appreciation for using the best local products. Asked to define his own culinary style by Chicago Social Modern Luxury reporter Nancy Ross Ryan, Achatz replied in a single word: "Fun." Agreed Ryan, "Fine dining has never been so fun." Nor so delectable.