French farm goodness in River North

Normally modeling your restaurant after your grandparents' place would leave patrons sucking on bowls of hard candy while staring at awkward photos of far-removed kin with ponytails and an iguana on his shoulder (who is that dude?). Thankfully, the chef/owner behind Cyrano's Farm & Kitchen was safe in remodeling his restaurant after his grandparents' farmhouse in Bergerac (get it? Cyrano de?), as it merely resulted in lantern-esque light fixtures, mounted deer heads, livestock figurines, and loads of century-old barnwood from Sandwich.

The new menu's loaded with snacks and small plates, and uses duck fat for everything from popping smoked popcorn, to deep-frying potato chips for caramelized onion dip; less mallard-driven options include bread-abetted tastings of flavored sea salts & olive oils, and escargot w/ fried tomato leaves, also what some audience members did when they found out that Sipsey killed Frank, barbecued him, and fed him to the Sheriff! But mostly because the movie was basically over. For mains, they're keeping the rotisserie duck a l'orange from the old menu while debuting options like whole roasted trout w/ fennel stuffing, and roast chicken rubbed with coffee, which it had to settle for after not getting au laid.

They've also built a snug bar up front sporting three taps that'll rotate brews from Half Acre and Three Floyds, and their 60-bottle global wine list is about half-French, which could explain the ponytail, but not the iguana.