Chicago restaurant John's Food & Wine named Food & Wine magazine's Restaurant of the Year

A modern American bistro in the Lincoln Park neighborhood has been named Food & Wine magazine's Restaurant of the Year.

John's Food & Wine is making a name for itself with delicious dishes, like lobster salad and beef fat fries. Another reason it stands out is its unique business model. It allows line cooks to make up to $90,000 a year, and dishwashers to earn up to $75,000.

It's not every day that you're able to walk into a restaurant and order a Wagyu short rib skewer straight from a countertop. It's one of the many things that John's Food & Wine does that breaks from traditional fine dining rules.

From there, you can order from a selection of wines and one of their homey dishes, like a juicy half chicken, or the sweet potato brulée, or the decadent ice cream sundae with corn cake.

It's part of a carefully curated menu created by longtime friends and co-head chefs, Adam MacFarland and Tom Rogers.

"It's, you know, we call it American, right? Modern American food," Rogers said. "For us, it's … it's taking something that's approachable, recognizable, and then kind of reinventing it a little bit."

While the food is the main attraction, perhaps most remarkable about John's Food & Wine is its unconventional business model.

"When our guests arrive, they place the order upfront, and that allows us to not have a traditional server. Cutting down on that specific role has enabled us to pay our cooks and our dishwashers the highest in the City of Chicago," MacFarland said.

There's no tipping. Instead, each bill includes a 20% service fee that is shared among the whole team at John's Food & Wine – everyone from the kitchen to the front of the house.

It's what allows their dishwashers, normally a minimum wage job, to make up to $75,000 a year, pay the owners said is more than any other dishwashers in the Chicago area.

"It was integral in the success of John's. You know, when … when we started meeting with our staff, we explained that, you know, the cooks, you're going to get a piece of a $150 bottle of wine," MacFarland said.

"And the same goes for our line cooks, our prep cooks. We value these positions as much as we value a bartender or sommelier," Rogers said.

It's an ambitious experiment, and it's one of the reasons that's John's Food & Wine has been selected as Food & Wine magazine's Restaurant of the Year. And, yes, the name is just a coincidence.

"Putting our team members first and our guests second, if you will, has allowed the team to enjoy their job, making it that place where people can come week after week and kind of see the same people, because we retain staff here," MacFarland said.

MacFarland and Rogers argue that high regard for the staff shines through and trickles down to the service. Just ask lead sommelier Felix Fernandez.

"It allows us to draw on really talented and passionate people, whether that's back of house, our dish team, our front of house team, you know," Fernandez said. "When everyone cares a bit more, it just shows across the board."

Hernandez said he's never worked in a restaurant with such a business model before.

"I'm pretty sure it's the only one that does it, and I've been 13 different cities in the U.S., so I'm pretty sure this is the only one doing it, yeah," he said.

Make no mistake, while the unorthodox business model is noteworthy, the proof is still on the plate, starting with their famous beef fat fries.

"It's the care that we take to find the right potatoes," Rogers said. "You know, it took us a ton of different samples to figure this out."

The lobster salad is made from simple ingredients that pack a powerful punch.

"This is a dish that most people order. It's the first … one of the first things they have to eat at John's," MacFarland said. "One of the things like we really focus on here at John's is layering flavors. And so down in the base is our nice leek aioli. This is our lobster meat that's been dressed in a fish sauce vinaigrette. And then from here, we're going to – and I think this is the best part of the salad – is, some chive oil."

Today, while most restaurants are stuck fighting rising costs and revolving-door staff, John's is betting on a different way of doing business, and the experiment is proving successful. They said the establishment has turned a 10% profit since opening in 2023.

Why do they think Food & Wine magazine chose their restaurant this year?

"The food. The way that we treated our employees," MacFarland said. "I think that is … you feel that vibe when you're here during service, seeing Tom and I working at the pass, seeing this controlled chaos that we have at John's where cooks are bringing food to the guests and cooks are learning how to bartend. So, everything's connected, and I think that translates to Food & Wine."