Sorry to confuse two topics. Who else remembers the tiny elevator (3, maybe 4 people max) that was the entrance to Le Perroquet (70 E. Walton) - after you were screened by the host of course? Fantastic food, incredible service that was neither obsequious nor snobbish – ever. It was one of the best restaurants I’ve ever enjoyed, and I’ve traveled the States, Canada, Caribbean, and most of Europe regularly both for business and pleasure. Not THE best, but right up there.

The “best” involves so many factors, your mood, the person you’re with and the occasion. Perhaps my “best” restaurant experience, or at least the most memorable, was in Boston at a now also gone restaurant called Apley’s where I proposed to my wife. Another was a stumbled upon late afternoon lunch in an obscure village that I can’t even remember the name of somewhere northwest of Bern in Switzerland.

But Le Perroquet is right up there, along with L’Escargot, Febo’s and a few others.