21. CORTON
New York, NY
22. SUSHI TARO
Washington, DC
23. ELEMENTS
Princeton, NJ
24. COI
San Francisco, CA
25. WILLOWS INN, THE
Lummi Island, WA
26. PETER LUGER
Brooklyn, NY
27. BOULEY
New York, NY
28. KOMI
Washington, DC
29. MARINUS
Carmel Valley, CA
30. SCHWA
Chicago, IL
30

Photo Courtesy of: The Food Doc

Schwa
Chicago, IL

1466 N. ASHLAND AVE.
773-252-1466
WWW.SCHWARESTAURANT.COM

Michael Carlson’s restaurant is famous for two things: Unique creations – like a surf 'n' turf of veal cheeks and branzino with Brussels sprouts and mushrooms; and a reservation system that is so difficult to manage that it sometimes can take weeks to have your phone call returned. Fortunately, Carlson’s cooking is so good that diners happily overlook the reservation hassles, offering comments like, “It was worth whatever effort it took for the privilege of being able to eat the cool food." To say that the other comments we collected were glowing is an understatement: "creativity on steroids"; "phenomenal in every way, with taste, texture and presentation nearly perfect"; and "Small, loud, cool and innovative, Schwa was more fun than ought to be legal."