You'd think a neighborhood packed with million-dollar Frank Lloyd Wright-designed mansions would be a restaurant mecca, but the sleepy hamlet of Oak Park is anything but. One major exception: Cafe Le Coq. It’s the bistro ideal, a clean, well-lit transplant from Paris, where the golden glow that flows through the plate glass storefront window beckons to every person walking by on Lake Street.

The restaurant is a place to forget your troubles, to drown them in a glass of cognac or over a cream and butter laden meal of comfort. The interior is a womb full of good will precisely because of its attentive owner Jim August, whose eyes constantly dart over a pair of reading glasses as he peruses the reservation book. August mans the maitre d' station like Ahab at the wheelhouse of the Pequod, steering customers past the bar laden with rooster sculptures and into the amber confines of the dining room.

Menu-wise, classics rule, from salad Lyonnaise with a poached egg yolk perched upon a mountain of frisee to steak sided by a Seussian nest of pomme frites. In the winter, keep yourself warm with anise-perfumed Bouillabaisse or creamy cassoulet. If you don’t want to stick to the classics, specials like creamy sweetbreads are worth the change in direction.

Centerstage Reviewer: Michael Nagrant