The Legacy of Charlie Trotter’s Lives on in the Hands of the Chef’s Son

Dylan Trotter, the son of the late Charlie Trotter, says he’s interviewed five chefs interested in taking over the dormant Lincoln Park space where his famous father’s eponymous restaurant entertained diners from all over the world. Charlie Trotter’s closed in 2012, but not before sparking a fine dining revolution in Chicago.

When Trotter’s arrived in 1987, white tablecloth whims, the kind of luxurious tasting menus Trotter imagined, were rarities in Chicago. But the city was starting to make fine dining waves across the globe. Tony Mantuano’s Mag Mile Italian restaurant, Spiaggia, opened in 1983. Arun’s, the pioneering fine-dining Thai restaurant in Avondale debuted in 1985 (it closed in December). Chicago’s appetite was beginning to stray from the norms during a time when phrases like “farm to table” were novel. Over the restaurant’s quarter century, Charlie Trotter brought a commitment to sourcing that approached fanaticism prompting daily changes to his tasting menu while thrilling diners and garnering international acclaim.

Trotter’s customers were loyal and willing to spend big bucks. One diner, investment banker Ray Harris, who split his time between Chicago and New York, first dined at Trotter’s in 1994 and claims he never had the same meal twice after visiting 424 times. Trotter’s willingness to push boundaries earned the respect of colleagues from across the country, including icons like Emeril Lagasse and Farmer Lee Brown. A photo collage affixed to the kitchen wall displays images of chefs Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and others.

But the kitchen wasn’t always a comforting place for his son, who felt intimidated seeing cooks work at his father’s restaurant. However, Dylan Trotter’s presence was often mandatory: He would routinely visit his father at work as a teen, thinking it would be a quick stop on his way to a movie. Not so fast. Charlie Trotter would tell his son to put on a sportcoat to entertain guests. Dylan Trotter, who bounced around all three neighborhood high schools — Francis W. Parker, Lincoln Park High School, and the Latin School of Chicago — before earning a GED, preferred to hang out with friends, but duty called. The building at 826 W. Armitage Avenue houses lifetimes of memories including a 21st birthday, accompanied by friends and family. A close childhood friend, David Fyfe, smiles when reminded of the dinner. It’s the perk of having a famous father leading one of the world’s most vaunted kitchens.

But after he turned 22 the unexpected happened: “I’m the one who found him,” Dylan Trotter says.

Charlie Trotter was 54 when he died from a stroke in 2013. The years since his father’s passing have been a journey for Dylan Trotter, who often followed close behind as his father chased new visions for what his restaurant could be. After his childhood home was sold, the restaurant remained Dylan Trotter’s only tie to Lincoln Park, a neighborhood that helped shape him. All the while, the restaurant’s exterior has remained, with the bronze sign emblazoned with its logo still shining outside. The family considered selling the property, and developers suggested radical remodeling plans. Older relatives oversaw the property until recently when Dylan Trotter gained control after spending time in LA. Dylan Trotter wants the Lincoln Park space to roar again as a restaurant, though his vision is still evolving into what the final project will look like.

Cook moved to Chicago specifically to work at Trotter’s. Among them is Grant Achatz, the chef behind three-Michelin-starred Alinea, located on Halsted, a few blocks south of Trotter’s. A Michigander, Achatz grew enamored after browsing Trotter’s cookbooks, now of out of print, at a bookstore. Dylan Trotter, now 33, wants to revive the content, perhaps digitizing the photos to inspire a new generation of cooks. His son recognizes that and has plans to make his father’s work more accessible to a new legion of fans. While paging through one of the cookbooks, Dylan stops at a photo of his younger self. The cookbooks are prized possessions for many fans and sell well on the secondary market.

Dylan Trotter worked his first job at the age of 14, at Trotter’s To Go inside a strip mall off Fullerton Avenue near DePaul University’s main campus. It was a corner store, a sort of precursor to Foxtrot Market, one that served gourmet food for carryout with Charlie Trotter’s pedigree. Dylan isn’t sure of what form a new restaurant will take or what he’ll name it. While the original restaurant became an international destination, Trotter wants the next iteration to be more of a neighborhood spot. He praises Achatz’s new restaurant, Fire, for its relatively affordable $115-per-person tasting menu. Achatz and Alinea Group have offered to participate in the project of reopening, but Trotter isn’t sure if he’ll take that route. After Next’s residency inside Trotter’s (the pop-up, originally announced as a two-week engagement, has been extended for another two weeks until Sunday, February 9), Trotter wants to invite other chefs. Giuseppe Tentori, a nine-year Trotter alum who recently left Boka, is seemingly a candidate. Tentori helped Dylan Trotter grieve by giving him a kitchen job at his River North restaurant shortly after Charlie Trotter’s death.

Over opening weekend, Tentori gathered a group of top chefs including Tony Priolo (Piccolo Sogno) and John Shields (Smyth) to have dinner at Trotter’s.

“Being in a restaurant with so much culinary history and getting to dine in the kitchen gave me chills,” Priolo says. Priolo was honored by the invite — the party dined at a VIP table in the kitchen — calling it one of the best dining experiences of his life.

“People forget about restaurants after they close in a year or two or three,” Tentori says, adding, “The next generation doesn’t know Charlie’s story.”

There have been events at Trotter’s since it closed, and when Tentori returns he says it’s like a child visiting their old room at their parents’. The walls whisper with memories. Tentori is noncommittal about his future. He’s not sure if he’ll open a restaurant or take over an existing one. However, after spending nearly two decades working in Lincoln Park, at Trotter’s, and nearby Boka, he says that Chicago needs this.

“It’s not just a legacy — it’s so many people, they’ve talked about what they think the place should be,” Tentori says. “At the end of the day, Dylan has the final say, and I’m very excited to see how everything comes together.”

There’s no working name for the restaurant. It doesn’t feel right just calling it Charlie Trotter’s. For now, there’s no timeline for when the restaurant will roar once again regularly. Dylan Trotter doesn’t feel the need to rush: “I want to get it right.”

Carrie Nahabedian, the chef and owner of Brindille, is one of Chicago’s most beloved chefs and was a mentor to Charlie Trotter. She’s tried to advise Dylan Trotter too over the last 10 months, on what to do with the space: “He wants to preserve his own legacy — this is his to preserve — not necessarily just his father’s… He’s the guardian of it.”

Nahabedian draws parallels between the Trotters and how E.J. Lagasse has made a name for himself separate from his famous father, Emeril Lagasse. Emeril was not only close with Charlie Trotter, but he’s Dylan Trotter’s godfather. E.J. and Dylan are also friends. With the new restaurant, Dylan Trotter faces the incredible challenge of battling expectations. “There are going to be as many people supporting Dylan as there will be people saying it’s not like Charlie’s,” Nahabedian says.

There have been offers to take over the space from chefs and restaurateurs all over the world. Nahabedian says Dylan Trotter has sought input from those he trusts and has carefully tweaked his plans. She’s tried to give him a better glimpse of the challenges of restaurant ownership. Navigating the currents of the restaurant world has been challenging for veterans like Nahabedian. No one can predict paying $107 for a case of eggs, the way Nahabedian just spent for her restaurant. Put simply: The restaurant world of 2024 is not what it was in 2012, or 1987. The pressures are different but the expectations to deliver a superb experience remain.

Trotter carried a reputation for being a difficult boss. In the ’90s, a Chicago publication compiled a list of the worst bosses in the city. Trotter ranked No. 2 behind another perfectionist, Michael Jordan. Ever the competitor, Trotter famously told friends that he was angry that he wasn’t ranked No. 1.

Trotter had zero problem with being blunt, epitomized by when, according to Achatz, Trotter said that his young cook would never amount to anything during their brief time working together in 1994. After Achatz departed and opened Alinea in 2005, Trotter never visited and was never enthralled with Achatz’s avant-garde molecular gastronomy style, even as it dazzled both peers and diners.

Trotter possessed a knack for being embroiled in controversy. He was sued by Beverly Kim in 2003 for overtime wage theft. Kim went on to win a James Beard Award for her landmark Korean restaurant, Parachute, after the parties reached a settlement. Trotter appeared in 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding, embracing the cliched role of a loud-mouthed chef. His son says that only tells parts of the story, remembering his father’s philanthropic side and time with his dad at Oz Park. Walk to the recently remodeled playground, and folks can see the names of donors — including Charlie, Dylan, and Dylan’s mother, Lynn — engraved on a fence. Dylan Trotter recalls reading allegations via Reddit about his dad throwing pans. He’s since gone to his dad’s former coworkers, asking for verification, only to hear them say that some of these stories were fabricated. Still, the chef possessed a temper that’s been referenced in several places. Though he was inspirational in Achatz’s career, when interviewed for a recent documentary, Love, Charlie, the Alinea chef admitted, while recounting his volatile rapport with Trotter, that he “didn’t know him at all.” The French brigade system wasn’t widely used in America and served as Trotter’s template for his kitchen while his intensity and confrontational manner were more widely accepted in the ’90s. After surviving that era, some older chefs kept metaphorical badges of honor to prove their worth, holding their experiences over younger chefs who they deem soft. Some chefs have adapted, realizing the transformed world, and many of Charlie Trotter’s closest confidants say they believe the chef could have evolved with the times.

Despite experiencing Trotter’s exacting side firsthand, Achatz respected the chef. In 2024, he launched a series at Next Restaurant celebrating the first wave of cooking TV stars, with menus by Julia Child through Bobby Flay. Trotter, who routinely appeared on PBS, was a natural fit for the series given his local roots and personal ties.

Nothing was finalized until Dylan Trotter and Achatz began talks during an anniversary celebration at Trotter’s. Achatz sought Dylan’s blessing and shared his plans with Trotter. The timing coincided with Dylan Trotter taking control of the Lincoln Park space. He also moved into the neighboring home, which doubled as Charlie Trotter’s office and was the same space where they held Dylan’s 21st birthday party. That space was being used for storage for plenty of trinkets. Perhaps the staff at Alinea could find some of that useful?

And so in September, Next: Charlie Trotter launched with memorabilia covering the walls and jazz playing in the background. The Fulton Market restaurant also used the same plates sourced from Trotter’s. Customers devoured the living time capsule as Next’s staff carefully reproduced dishes like Achatz’s favorite — a cold tomato soup. Trotter’s cooking celebrated vegetables, a middle finger at the city’s Midwestern steak-and-potato mentality. In another rejection of dining trends and fads, the chef’s love of game meat came into focus with the pop-up’s venison dish, a much-needed departure from the current obsession with wagyu beef.

Dylan Trotter was a picky until a trip with his father to New Zealand, during which Charlie Trotter stressed that Dylan would be eating “everything.” Dylan Trotter says he’s dined at Next 10 times since the Trotter menu dropped in September. Much of that is because his father’s friends and colleagues have asked him to join them. While he doesn’t want to sound disrespectful, he admits that, in some ways, Next’s kitchen staff has improved on the originals; they aren’t just a cover band belting out someone else’s songs.

This winter, the younger Trotter was gifted two chef’s knives from Sam Goldbroch, a renowned knifemaker. Both blades feature the Trotter logo, an uppercase serif “T” with branches. He hasn’t used the knives yet, keeping them in their cases, but he does have kitchen experience. He interned at El Bulli in Spain and worked at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood, and his time has helped inform him about the importance of service and how to get the most out of staff, but he never aspired to be a chef like his father. That’s a good thing, says Nahabedian: “He doesn’t have to preserve his father’s name — his father’s name is already preserved for eternity. He is not Charlie.”

The Trotter’s menu at Next was supposed to end in December 2024. But in line with Alinea Group CEO Jason Weingarten’s emphasis on “magical dining experiences,” something he’s stressed since joining the team in October, he, Achatz, and Dylan Trotter began talking about possibly bringing Next’s staff to Trotter’s in Lincoln Park. Dylan saw how other great chefs who respected his father, like Keller, shared strong relationships with Achatz. That put him at ease. Meanwhile, Weingarten (whose own father died in September 2023) entered the picture. On New Year’s Eve, they finalized the deal to hold two weeks of pop-ups at Trotter’s.

Dylan Trotter has taken a DIY approach to restoring the space, which was built in 1881. It’s a challenge finding parts to fix appliances built three decades ago. The cream paint that once covered the front bar space has been swapped for a darker shade of brown. He’s spent ample time bringing the space up to code, replacing the old exit signs with more subtle alternatives that come equipped with floodlights that blend in with the decor. Much of the original furniture was sold during an auction, and the first-floor carpet was in disrepair. They managed to find a new carpet with the same crimson shade. Dylan Trotter calls the first-floor space “Charlie’s Room” to rekindle the dream of the ’90s for loyal diners.

Keith Philpott/Getty Images

Dylan Trotter has taken a DIY approach to restoring the space, which was built in 1881. It’s a challenge finding parts to fix appliances built three decades ago. The cream paint that once covered the front bar space has been swapped for a darker shade of brown. He’s spent ample time bringing the space up to code, replacing the old exit signs with more subtle alternatives that come equipped with floodlights that blend in with the decor. Much of the original furniture was sold during an auction, and the first-floor carpet was in disrepair. They managed to find a new carpet with the same crimson shade. Dylan Trotter calls the first-floor space “Charlie’s Room” to rekindle the dream of the ’90s for loyal diners.

Courtesy of Tony Priolo

The second floor, nicknamed “Dylan’s Room,” overlooks the first-floor bar area. He wants the space to feel more like his. He’s added new light sconces, imported from Italy. It’s still a work in progress. The rear private dining room also features a new wine cellar on the east wall, although an auction after the restaurant’s closure emptied many of the restaurant’s stores of vintage wines; fine dining lovers saw Charlie Trotter as ahead of his time when it came to pairings.

Rumors have swirled for months about the state of this revival. One guessed that Trotter’s would be reimagined as a bar, which Dylan Trotter admits made him laugh, considering he’s been sober for more than six years. Whichever route he and his partners pick for the new era of Trotter’s, it will feature more than water and wine. He says the move to include nonalcoholic beverages in fine-dining restaurants has fascinated him.

The delivery trucks once more crowded Armitage Avenue over the weekend with the pop-up in full swing. But this time around, the deliveries had to contend with Chicago’s new bike lanes, something trucks didn’t have to worry about in the ’90s. Recreating that era, when Chicago’s restaurants boomed and Michael Jordan and the Bulls ruled the city, isn’t an easy endeavor. Tentori says cooking in a kitchen that hasn’t seen regular action in 12 years (even after renovation) won’t be easy.

But Nahabedian recalls Trotter quoting Jordan and noting how the two both saw high-pressure situations as canvasses to brandish their skills. That trait was passed to Dylan Trotter.

“You can’t be afraid,” Nahabedian says of the younger Trotter’s efforts. “He’s not afraid — he’s fearless.”