This lively Latin restaurant has taken up residence in Wilmette's most historic building, an old train station. Opened just in time for alfresco season, a front patio houses more than a dozen tables for dining and imbibing in the sun. Expect a cocktail menu featuring sips both traditional (mojitos, caipirinhas) and contemporary (elderberry margaritas and palomas, grapefruit soda spiked with tequila).
This traditional Irish pub's 70-seat outdoor area might remind you of visits to Ireland. On sunny days, sip on 20-ounce glasses of Sam Adams Summer Ale ($4 in May) or Konig-Ludwig Weiss ($4 in June), or warm up with Irish coffee and heat lamps on chillier evenings.
This trendy cafe/wine-bar bistro draws foodies and fashionistas alike. Colorful umbrella-topped tables set up in the courtyard outside open when the weather warms -- May 1, tentatively.
A working fireplace serves as a toasty focal point of this classy College Avenue-area restaurant serving contemporary American cuisine. Secluded patio seating is tucked away just west of the restaurant, bordered by vine-covered walls and twinkling lights.
This martini bar draws city folk and suburbanites alike, with its candle-lit high-top tables, curvy bar and intimate, casual atmosphere. An outdoor water garden nearly doubles the seating space during warmer months.
Folks pack the large concrete patio located on the east side of the restaurant in summer. Located right in the middle of downtown Naperville, this is clearly a popular fair-weather watering hole
The decor rides on massive blue aquariums, towering stone walls and latern-like lighting fixtures, and this location also offers an all-season patio with fireplaces and heat lamps during the winter and huge windows that bring in the fresh air during the warmer months.
An unexpectedly eclectic pan-Asian restaurant in the south 'burbs. It has a relaxed, casual atmosphere with plenty of booths and tables in the main dining room and small cocktail space.
Two sizable patios offer tons of outdoor seating; one faces the mall walkway for prime people-watching, while the other faces the parking lot and has a prime view of the gigantic Bass Pro Outdoor World.
This family-friendly brewpub restaurant opened in downtown Palatine in 2005, and after a year-long hiatus, has reopened in the same space. In it's new incarnation, it still boasts a small on-site brewery, patio and firepit.
A homey, cozy Italian bistro, Zaza's features specialities from northern Italy. Entrees run the gamut from pastas to filet and fish specials. Italian vino dominates the extensive wine list, and a beautiful outdoor patio welcomes guests on warm summer evenings.
Voted one of the top places to eat outdoors in our Chicago's Choice Summer Poll, this Mexican restaurant boasts a large outdoor patio where diners can gather around a nightly bonfire.
This traditional Irish pub is filled with Gaelic touches, from the menu including Guinness Braised Beef Stew and "This Side of the Atlantic" Boxty, to the hefty wooden bars and furniture. In warmer months, dine on the large outdoor patio, which has a hand-crafted stone fireplace and overlooks a pond.
The masculine decor is similar to the Gold Coast address with stained glass accents and plenty of dark wood, and there's also an outdoor patio overlooking a pond, equipped with an open fireplace.
This Libertyville restaurant sports a big bar decked with 7 TVs, a slightly more formal dining room and a sprawling outdoor patio that's supposedly the biggest in Lake County.
During warmer weather, a raised outdoor patio is a big draw, featuring umbrella-covered wrought-iron tables, potted plants, a wooden trellis laced with twinkling lights and classic Italian music floating in the air.
Whether you're choose to grab a bite between plays in their sports-themed upstairs room or dine on the patio while enjoying a view of the Fox River, popular menu items include their prime butt steak, almond-crusted tilapia and mozzarella-topped pizza soup with pepperoni and sausage.
While you'll find mostly dressed-up business people and families in the white-tableclothed dining room of this Italian eatery, the bar area and pond-view deck brings in a younger, polo shirt-and-shorts-wearing crowd. The list of about 20 martinis and mojitos mixed with fruits like raspberries and blueberries provide a variety of sippers to try while taking the scenery.
