St. Charles ROX City Grill features music, martinis

When new management took over Hotel Baker, they changed the hotel's existing restaurant into private party space and knocked down the wall that separated the hotel's bar, Charlemagne Lounge, and a small banquet room. The result is ROX City Grill, which offers both a place to sit and sip a finely mixed martini and a dining room for an intimate dinner.

Motif: The lounge and small restaurant are all part of one room. The lounge features a single booth for large groups along with candlelit tables. The antique decor includes hanging bronze lamps and a candelabra perched on the piano, which sits on a raised stage in the corner between the lounge and dining room. Sheer white curtains frame the windows, which offer a view of downtown. A large wine rack behind the bar shows off the restaurant's impressive collection. Bottles of liquor are on display in front of a white illuminated panel. Two flat-screen TVs in the corners are tuned to sports. The small dining room features white tablecloth-topped tables and bright colored paintings.

Crowd: ROX primarily draws people in their late 30s on up. Because it is part of Hotel Baker, you'll also find plenty of guests there for dinner and drinks, including wedding parties and business travelers.

Liquid consumption: ROX offers a great selection of martinis, which are $6 on Thursdays. The sangria martini, a blend of red wine, vodka, peach and apple schnapps and cranberry and orange juices, is light and fruity, making it a great summer sipper. Another favorite is the espresso martini, which tastes like the alcoholic version of a good cup of coffee. The bananas foster is another excellent choice, sweet and creamy but not too rich to drink with dinner.

Beer fans will find a small internationally focused draft list featuring Guinness and the German Franziskaner Weissbier served in a large and tall glass. You can take advantage of the restaurant's efforts to clean out its wine cellar by ordering one of the two to three different bottles offered for half-price each day. If you can't finish it there, you can take the rest of the bottle home.

Food: The lounge menu features ROX City Grill's appetizer selections plus burgers and steak, chicken and shrimp skewers. The full ROX menu, which changes seasonally, is also available in the lounge, but you're better off just moving into the dining room since the plates tend to be too big to easily fit on the small lounge tables.

Everything we tried was excellent. The $10 lobster potstickers were lightly fried and included big chunks of seafood mixed with peas that worked perfectly with the ponzu dipping sauce. The beef tenderloin sliders are $4 each and feature very tender beef served on a fluffy bun with a creamy shallot sauce. The dinner menu offers novel interpretations on classic dishes. The steak flight features portions of excellent New York strip prepared in a trio of sauces American-, Japanese- and French-style, served with crispy potatoes, seaweed salad and mashed potatoes. Rather than cut their ahi tuna into thin strips, ROX keeps it as a block, with the very rare seared fish served with a piece of crispy shrimp tempura and a side of coconut-flavored rice. If you can save room for dessert, their version of molten chocolate cake is an excellent finisher, made extra sweet when you combine a bite with the raspberry sauce and vanilla gelato.

Service: Our server was very friendly, checking in regularly and offering great recommendations on everything from drinks to dessert.

Sounds: Piano players perform at ROX starting at 7 p.m. Thursday and from 8:30 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. The bar draws high quality musicians, including some who regularly perform at Chicago's Redhead Piano Bar. When we were there, the pianist was doing a great job of involving the crowd, encouraging them to sing along to classic Billy Joel and Elton John tunes and taking requests.

Parking: Free street parking is available down the block.

Overall: ROX City Grill offers an excellent experience, whether you're going for dinner, cocktails or a full night of food, drinks and music.

<b>ROX City Grill</b>

<b>100 W. Main St., St. Charles,

(630) 845-5800, roxcitygrill.com</b>

<b>Hours:</b> 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to midnight Wednesday and Thursday, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday