Great in '08: Dining

Big-name chefs (imports!)

Celeb chefs gravitated to Chicago this year like foodies to pork belly. Laurent Gras (pictured) blew into town in a grand way to open L20, Marcus Samuelsson tested the waters with seafood temple C-House and Jose Garces did us proud with tapas spot Mercat a la Planxa. Our favorite new spot from a name chef, though, is the Bucktown restaurant that kicked it all off: Takashi, the contemporary Japanese spot from James Beard Award-winner Takashi Yagihashi. (Yes, we know it opened in the final hours of 2007. But we can’t ignore one of Chicago’s best new spots just because it missed the cut by a day and a half.)