Blood & Sand

Blood & Sand is a members-only restaurant and bar located in an otherwise unremarkable stretch just south of Washington Avenue’s loft district. If you can swing a membership or know someone who has one, you should go. Owners TJ Vytlacil and Adam Frager and chef Chris Bork have created a remarkable venue: not a snobby club, but a community of people who are passionate about good food and good drink. Bork’s menu is seasonal, sophisticated and also playful: a plate of heirloom tomatoes like an abstract-expressionist painting in three dimensions; earthy sweetbreads paired with kimchi made from apple. Vytlacil’s cocktail list nods at tradition while indulging the mixologist’s impressive creativity. Service throughout is topnotch.