‘It’s incredibly meaningful’: Niche celebrates 20 years in downtown Geneva

For 20 years, Niche has worked to embody the definition of its name in downtown Geneva.

In a crowded dining market that seemingly becomes more homogeneous all the time, this classic American restaurant continues to provide an evolving menu that fuses modern sensibilities with classic preparations and global influences while curating one of the most distinctive beverage programs in the Chicago area.

“It’s incredibly meaningful to us to be around this long,” co-owner Vince Balistreri said. “It’s been fun looking back on the changes that we’ve made and all the craziness that happens over 20 years.”

The eatery at 14 S. Third St. opened in 2006 and is marking its 20th year in August with a pair of anniversary dinners and a new back patio that allows a permanent outdoor dining space for the first time.

Balistreri joined Niche about a year after it opened and has been a partner with co-owner Andrea Redmond for about 17 years.

He said when it first emerged on the scene, Niche “was someplace you only would go on birthdays and anniversaries.”

His first order of business was to make it to “an everyday place.” They accomplished that by making the bar about five times bigger and focusing on the beverage program as much as the food.

“On weekdays our bar area is packed. I think people just like the more casual feel,” he said. “Our goal has always been to be food first, but because of what we’ve created on the back bar, sometimes that doesn’t happen.”

What they created on the back bar is one of the more diverse and robust whiskey and bourbon collections in the Chicago area.

“I have my culinary background, but this is my jam,” he said, pointing to the bar.

A collector by nature, Balistreri had been hunting for rare bourbons before it became popular. He saw that bars and restaurants in Chicago and New York were putting a much greater emphasis on the spirit as well.

“I had a feeling bourbon was going to pop,” he said. “So I put all my eggs into that basket and it paid off. We’ve been doing it for so long that we get everything.”

By “doing it,” Balistreri means working with both his distributors as well as distilleries, making regular visits to Kentucky and establishing relationships by doing special barrel picks and the like.

When other bars and restaurants were having difficulty getting popular brands from distilleries like Buffalo Trace because of allocations, Niche was able to get them since they were essentially there first.

Balistreri said they were surprised to learn that Niche is the top selling restaurant account in the U.S. for Sazerac, whose mammoth portfolio of spirits includes Buffalo Trace, Weller and Pappy Van Winkle bourbons, to name just a few.

“We’re their number one account in the nation, right here in little Geneva,” he said. “You can’t do that unless you have those relationships and you’ve been there from the start.”

While he’s proud of what they’ve built with their beverage program, equal focus is always on the kitchen.

“We do everything that we can from scratch,” he said, enunciating every syllable in everything to make his point. “We do everything but kill the animal” or marine crustacean (and even that came with a caveat in the case of lobster).

Nothing is ever frozen. They get whole, fresh fish every day. They work with local farms for seasonal produce. Even for a seemingly simple hamburger, they bake their own buns and grind the meat.

The menu, which Balistreri had trouble describing because it is ever-evolving, currently features myriad American dishes with influences from Europe, Asia, Latin America and beyond. And frequently all at once.

A smoked short rib is served with borracho beans, creamed corn esquites, red cabbage and apple slaw along with Carolina barbecue and wasabi mustard greens. The roasted Duroc pork tenderloin is served with black-eyed peas, gai Lan, red curry and lemongrass broth, cilantro rice and roasted broccoli. A seared hake is served with red pearl onions and zucchini, potato saffron rosti, blistered cherry tomato, tomatillo vierge and Provençal sauce.

In a crowded Geneva dining scene, Balistreri wants to make sure that Niche stands out as the place to go when you want to be blown away.

“I want you to have that whiskey and eat that food and be like, ‘Oh my god, that was incredible,’ not just, ‘Oh, that was good, that was fine,’” he said. “That’s our identity. That’s what we’re trying to be, and I think that’s what Niche offers. The food’s gonna look awesome, it’s gonna smell awesome, and it’s gonna taste awesome. And if you want to find something rare to drink with it, we’ll probably have it.”

The anniversary dinners will highlight both the food and the beverage programs, with a five-course Sazerac whiskey pairing dinner scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 26, and a similar Duckhorn Vineyards pairing dinner Thursday, Aug. 27. The experiences cost $185 each.

Aside from dessert, both dinners will feature the same five courses but be accompanied by different drink pairings. A Fjord trout gravlax will be paired with a Niche pick Bowman Brothers Small Batch single barrel bourbon on Wednesday and a 2025 Duckhorn sauvignon blanc the next night.

Beef shank croquettes will be served with a Niche Eagle Rare 10-year bourbon and a 2021 Duckhorn “Three Palms” merlot.

A third course of morel and truffle risotto with Hokkaido scallop will come with a Blanton’s single barrel or a 2024 Duckhorn chardonnay. The main course of roasted beef tenderloin with black garlic and miso, charred celery root, crab and onion cigar and pickled ramp jus will be paired with the orange label Weller Single Barrel or a 2023 Duckhorn “50th Anniversary” cabernet sauvignon.

For dessert, the Sazerac dinner will feature a whiskey date cake with salted maple toffee sauce along with an Old Charter Oak Finest Oak Bourbon. The Duckhorn dessert will be lemon cheesecake with Goldeneye Brut Rose.

If those pairings featured a lot of words you had to Google (two thumbs pointing right here), Balistreri said he hopes that people don’t feel intimidated.

“We take our food and drink seriously, without it being so serious, if you know what I mean,” he said.

He said it’s part of their goal to offer great food and great drinks served unpretentiously.

“We want it to be accessible to everyone,” he said. “You can get a burger and a $7 shot of bourbon if you want, or you can buy a $1,400 bottle of wine and get a rib-eye with foie gras. We just want to be known for having the best food around.”

• To make reservations for the anniversary dinners, call (630) 262-1000.