The Cottage is a farm to table restaurant in Homewood Illinois that is focused on sourcing organic and sustainable local ingredients wherever possible.  The restaurant itself is open, inviting and generally a good atmosphere.  The wine and beer selections are good, but not great, and the menu changes by season, based on what is available and fresh.  Our waiter, who was relatively new, was quick to tell us that no substitutions were allowed as that “deviated from the Chef’s point of view”.  He then told us a funny story about a woman that asked for the grilled chicken breast sandwich on the house made bun (which the burger comes on) instead of the ciabatta role, he said he asked the kitchen and they emphatically said no.

We were interested in trying a variety of dishes, so we also asked if we could get a combined cheese and charcuterie board since they were both listed on the menu as separate starters.  Our friendly waiter ventured into the kitchen to ask and was told since they we both “made to order” it was impossible to combine them as that would deviate from the “theme”.  Not sure we understood this, but we got the message that special requests, even simple ones, were not appreciated.

We ate our cheese and charcuterie (we ended up ordering both) and had a nice glass of wine and a good beer.  The food was good, but something felt a little off.  We understand, and applaud, that they are trying to create a fine-dining establishment in the south suburbs, but the place felt pretentious and was on the expensive side of things.   We won’t likely be back.