Frontera Grill is a Mexican restaurant in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. It is owned by

Rick Bayless Rick Bayless (born November 23, 1953) is an American chef and restaurateur who specializes in traditional Mexican cuisine with modern interpretations. He is widely known for his PBS series '' Mexico: One Plate at a Time''. Among his various acco ...

. It opened on March 21, 1987, at 445 N. Clark Street in Chicago's

River North The River North Gallery District or simply River North, in Chicago, is in the Near North Side, Chicago. It hosts the largest concentration of Contemporary art gallery, art galleries in the United States outside of Manhattan. River North has ex ...

neighborhood and was Bayless' first restaurant. In 2011, the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' called it "a study in the art of Mexican cookery". In 1994, Frontera Grill was ranked the world's third-best casual dining restaurant by the ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...

''. In 2007, Frontera Grill won the

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery." The prog ...

's "Outstanding Restaurant" award, designating it the best restaurant in the U.S. Although Frontera Grill is not a chain, the restaurant's name brand and logo are used in several of Bayless' other restaurants including Tortas Frontera at Chicago's O'Hare airport, Frontera Fresco (closed January 2020), and Frontera Cocina in

Disney Springs Disney Springs (previously known as Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village in 1975, Walt Disney World Village in 1977, Disney Village Marketplace in 1989, and Downtown Disney in 1997) is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex at the W ...

, Florida. The brand and logo were also leveraged when Bayless founded his Frontera Foods line of pre-packaged foods in 1996. The packaged food line was sold to Chicago food processing company ConAgra in 2016.

References

External links

* Mexican-American culture in Chicago Restaurants in Chicago Restaurants established in 1987 1987 establishments in Illinois Latin American restaurants in Chicago Mexican restaurants in the United States {{US-restaurant-stub