Personalized pairing dinners offer unique fine-dining experience at casual Wauconda eatery

Curated pairing dinners are usually the domain of fine dining restaurants, not small, local joints known for smash burgers and draft beer.

But that’s exactly what Phil Costello, co-owner of The Side Lot in Wauconda, likes most about his Side Lot Experiences.

“We try to do the unexpected,” he said. “We just like to get reckless and weird.”

Unlike other pairing dinners, which are usually designed for a whole room of guests, the Side Lot Experiences are intimate, four-course affairs for parties as small as two.

Costello is not only the host for the experience, but also he makes every dish and drink himself and then serves you what he’s created with a little story behind the inspiration for the pairings.

“It’s really just all these crazy ideas I’ve got bottled up or written down. Stuff I couldn’t do for an entire restaurant but would be great for two, four, six people at a kind of private dinner,” he said.

The dinner menus are a mystery until diners arrive. When making reservations for the experience, diners answer a few questions about preferences, dietary restrictions or foods that are an absolute no-go. From there, Costello crafts the menu specifically for that party, telling a story with food and drinks that he makes.

“You’re going to choose stuff, and I’ll choose the rest of it, and we’re gonna have a lot of fun,” he said.

Guests get a personalized menu when they arrive, along with a welcome drink. From there Costello brings out four food courses, each paired with a handcrafted cocktail.

Dishes from recent dinners include marinated beets with whipped feta and pita bread, seared Wagyu and brioche, fresh oysters served with a single malt scotch mignonette served under a dome of smoke, salmon carpaccio and poached lobster on French toast.

Many of the menu ideas come from what’s fresh and in-season. Thursday visits to the Wauconda farmers market can inspire a weekend’s worth of dishes.

It’s serious food and drinks, but done in a playful way that’s fun for the guests and the host.

“Everybody’s spending habits and the way they want to spend recreational time are changing,” he said. “Just going out to get something for dinner is less important. People want to make it a thing.”

The restaurant also offers other experiences, including dinners that center around scotch, tequila or sparkling wine and a brunch experience.

The full experience, which features five drinks and four courses, is $80, with dinners lasting at least two hours. The scotch and tequila experiences are $75, and brunch is $65.

Costello said The Side Lot has done larger “Chef’s Table” themed dinners, but he wanted to do something more flexible with this series.

“That was fun, but it’s the whole restaurant for the whole night,” he said. “The downside was if someone wants to pop in for a quick burger and a beer on a Saturday night, you gotta say no. This is a similar concept in that it’s all off-menu stuff, but we can do it on a nightly basis for small groups.”