Prairie Grass Cafe co-owners and co-chefs Sarah Stegner and George Bumbaris have made the transition smoothly from the elite fine-dining world they formerly inhabited at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago on the city’s Magnificent Mile at North Michigan Avenue to operating their own neighborhood upscale-casual cafe in the suburbs.
Stegner and Bumbaris—along with their front-of-the-house teammates Dan Sviland and Stegner’s husband, Rohit Nambiar—strive to set a tone of civilized informality by avoiding the use of white tablecloths, French menu terms and formal service. In addition, most dinner main courses are priced below $20.
Stegner says she enjoyed working at the award-winning Dining Room restaurant, which the hotel closed to use strictly for banquets, though she says she feels most at home in her own restaurant. “I love to cook, so it doesn’t matter what the forum is,” she says.
To keep prices in line with their goals, Stegner and Bumbaris forgo some of the pricier ingredients they used regularly at the Ritz-Carlton. For instance, they use lamb sausage but don’t offer the more upscale rack of lamb. Similarly, caviar, foie gras and lobster are absent from the menu.
The most expensive entrée, at $29, offers a choice of a 12-ounce New York strip steak or an 8-ounce filet mignon. A top sirloin burger also is on the dinner menu and priced at $13.
Prairie Grass is tucked away in the back of a strip mall on one of the North Shore suburb’s busy thoroughfares—a lack of visibility that doesn’t matter once customers find it the first time, Stegner says. The interior is furnished with natural materials and art of nature scenes, including a constantly changing plasma screen “wall” that separates the bar from the dining room.
AT A GLANCE Cuisine: AmericanLocation: 601 Skokie Blvd., Northbrook, Ill.Phone: (847) 205-4433Opened: October 2004Seats: 180Average per-person check: $15 for lunch; $34 for dinnerBest-selling item: “untraditional” shepherd’s pieMenu makers: Owners Sarah Stegner and George BumbarisWebsite:
TV documentary host and producer Bill Kurtis provides photography for the plasma screens and also supplies grass-fed beef from his Tallgrass Beef Co. A shepherd’s pie containing a cut of that beef and vegetables has become the restaurant’s signature dish.
Although Kurtis, a frequent customer, is an advocate of Midwest prairie restoration and other environmental causes, Stegner says the restaurant is not trying to showcase foods of the Midwest.
“The point is to show off what we do best,” she says.
To showcase their skills, the chef-owners take extra culinary steps that many of their peers do not, especially not in venues with moderate $34 dinner check averages. They make their own Italian and lamb sausages, salad dressings, barbecue sauce and ice creams. Although these extra steps are more time-consuming, Stegner says they give the restaurant a more personal feeling.
“I try to be very seasonal,” Stegner says. “I’m not afraid to put asparagus on three or four dishes while it’s in season.” Even the pies, credited to Stegner’s mother, change monthly. Coconut cream is the current feature. Customers often split one dessert order.
Some 70 percent of customers order wine, selected by Nambiar for fair values, approachability and food-friendliness. The list of wines by the glass is printed at the top of the menu.
The restaurant has a separate children’s menu and strives to be family-friendly. There are diaper-changing tables in both restrooms.
Prairie Grass is open for dinner, lunch, weekend brunch and light afternoon fare in the bar.
“People don’t perceive us as a breakfast place, but we have lots of breakfast training from the hotel, and we’re good at it and wanted to share it,” Stegner says.
