One America’s ‘Best New Restaurants’ Is 90 Miles From Rockford

You're making dinner plans and then the "let's go somewhere new" line pops up, what do you do?

You probably start thinking about hitting up a place that you've never been to before.

Well, you might be interested in checking out a restaurant that is literally in every meaning of the word new and apparently incredible.

Located at 1462 East 53rd Street in Chicago, Virtue Restaurant is more than just Southern cuisine served in the Windy City.

Eater called Virtue Restaurant one of the "Best New Restaurants in America" and here's why:

At Virtue...Diners looking for Southern classics will find much to love on Virtue’s menu, whether in cornmeal-covered fried chicken gizzards or blackened catfish with Carolina Gold rice.

I'm getting hungry just thinking about it, but it's not your basic Southern grub. Here's where things get a bit different, thanks to chef and owner, Erick Williams.

Eater:

But Virtue’s most potent dish is the cauliflower...The braised cauliflower steak is finished on the grill, creating a crisp crust over the vegetable’s fork-tender innards. Williams plates it with cashew dukkah (an Egyptian spice blend) and “root cellar vegetables” presented as giardiniera — the pickle blend Chicagoans enjoy most on Italian beef sandwiches.

The Virtue website echoes Eater's sentiments saying they "use heritage techniques to create some familiar flavors, & some new ones."

The next time you're asked if you want to try something new, you might just want to reply with "How about a road trip to Virtue?"

A trip (with tolls) from Rockford to Virtue in Chicago is roughly 90 miles.

Sweet Lenny is the brand manager of 97ZOK, Q98.5, and Operations Manager for Townsquare Media Rockford. Catch him afternoons 3 to 7 on 97ZOK. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and like his page on Facebook.