Just curious what it would take to "live up to the hype" if the food and wine were very good. You left off service so I'm guessing there were deficiencies there?

For me, I find restaurants are sometimes like movies. If I'd skipped the gushing review and just discovered the movie on my own, I would have probably loved it too. Reviews sometimes seem to make us expect too much.

FWIW, Charlie has served up winners 3/3 for me. There's usually something in the menu I dislike though - once it was beet ice cream - yuck. But I've found their staff to be terrific and extremely knowledgable and helpful. This last visit they got us reservations at Tru for the following night and gave us recommendations for restaurants in Paris. I could actually go on and on about the wonderful special things the staff has done on each visit. Anyway just some comments from a Trotter's fan.

To keep with the topic ... you Chicagoans are pretty fortunate. I've yet to be disappointed in a restaurant there. You get some wonderful produce. I've always heard we send the best stuff out of California and keep the crummy stuff. I don't know if it's true, but it seems to be.