Redstone American Grill in Oakbrook Terrace has something of a split personality.
It’s the quintessential suburban restaurant, set in an office park with loads of parking, yet offers valet service for $4.
Diners can nibble on smoked salmon and toast points with chive-herb sauce, or they can start their meal with artichoke-spinach dip.
The large dining room is rustic and warm, with a long, granite-topped bar; maroon leather booths; barrel ceiling; stone fireplace; and wooden shutters. It also has TVs, tuned to sports,suspended above the bar and (I’m told) above each urinal in the men’s room.
So what kind of effect, exactly, is the two-month-old restaurant after?
The recording that plays when you call Redstone bills it as “spirited, rugged and romantic,” a description echoed by Justin Valentine, the front of the house manager. He also said it’s aiming for an “upper clientele.”
Judging by the crowd on the Friday evening we visited, that means middle-age couples looking to spend an evening away from the kids and willing to pay to have their luxury cars parked up front. Redstone seems to have a bit of a singles scene too. We spotted a pair of women–one dressed in a skimpy tank top and hip-hugging print pants that could have been borrowed from her teen daughter–exit their Volvo station wagon and head for the overflowing patio bar and its outdoor fireplace.
This Redstone is the third in a chain (there are two outside Minneapolis) whose signature touches are a wood-burning grill (a sweet aroma beckons from the parking lot) and rotisserie oven, which is so much on display that diners looking for the restrooms may instead find themselves face to carcass with a flock of roasting birds.
Besides touting its spit-roasted and wood-fired entrees, Redstone seems intent on conveying a sense of “from-scratch” homeyness. “All of our breads are baked fresh daily to Redstone specifications,” the menu declares, and “all of Redstone’s dressings and sauces are homemade.”
Sounded good to us, so we started with the Lodge Cornbread with a side of maple butter and the Canyon Flatbread with pesto and oven-roasted tomatoes (portabella mushrooms and chicken are other possible toppings).
As they sat on the table, the cornbread in its cast-iron skillet and the flatbread on its contemporary triangular metal platform, that split-personality image again came to mind–sort of Paul Bunyan meets Philippe Starck.
In this case, Starck prevailed. The flatbread, though not as thin and crispy as we were expecting, was nonetheless a tasty interpretation of a pizza margherita. But the poor cornbread, even slathered with maple butter, was dry and so bland that our carb-loving kid returned hers to the pan.
It was better in crouton form, gracing the outsized Redstone salad, whose nice mix of lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and kalamata olives suffered only from a heavy dousing of champagne vinaigrette.
We fared better with our entrees. The quarter-chicken and half-slab of ribs (a combo offering) were of the ultra-smoky, falling-off-the-bone variety, and came with better-than average coleslaw and crisp handcut french fries.
An impressive slab of wood-fired Sterling salmon, with equally impressive grill marks, was brushed with a slightly sweet barbecue sauce, set on a bed of mini roasted potatoes and accompanied by a half-dozen grilled asparagus spears.
The grilled cheese and fries were standard child’s menu fare (chicken and a hamburger are also offered for younger diners), but the homemade pickles were terrific.
While we awaited dessert (a hunk of chocolate cake so large that it–along with a mini-cauldron of Homer’s vanilla ice cream–are served on an oval platter), we took in the eatery’s soundtrack, featuring some folks we hadn’t heard from in a while: Blondie, Billy Ocean, Chic, Tom Jones.
Spirited, rugged and romantic, indeed.
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Redstone American Grill is at 13 Lincoln Court, Oakbrook Terrace; 630-268-0313. Open Mondays through Saturdays for lunch and dinner, Sundays for brunch and dinner. Entrees $14.95-$23.95 (some steaks are market price).
