Oriole

Oriole sits behind an all-but-unmarked door in a back alley off West Walnut Street in the West Loop; guests are collected there, put into a freight elevator with a drink in hand, and delivered into a dining room that seats a single service a night. Chef Noah Sandoval's cooking is deliberately minimalist in construction and maximalist in sourcing - Hokkaido uni with tiger prawn, morita chilli and maple, Maine lobster with almond milk and geranium custard - and the restaurant has held two MICHELIN stars for years. The tasting menu is $325.

What sets it apart for a non-drinker is that the restaurant offers three pairings and names them equally: spirit free, standard and reserve. Wine director Emily Rosenfeld curates the standard flight to match the courses and a reserve flight built from older vintages, esteemed producers and rarer bottles. Bar director Maddie Balintona builds the spirit-free pairing, which the restaurant describes as featuring creative, non-alcoholic beverages made to perfectly complement the menu. Balintona also creates the cocktails served in the dining room, so the same person is responsible for both the alcoholic and the alcohol-free drinks - the arrangement that tends to produce serious zero-proof programmes rather than juice substitutions. The wine list itself is old-world inspired with a focus on white wines, and there is a $50-per-bottle corkage policy with a two-bottle limit for guests bringing something of their own. Because the pairing changes with the menu, the restaurant does not publish the individual spirit-free drinks in advance; the commitment that is published is structural, and at this level of dining that structure - a non-alcoholic flight offered by name at the point of booking rather than requested as a favour - is the thing that matters. Service is Tuesday to Saturday from 5pm, closed Sunday and Monday.