Marquee Grill to Revamp: No More Fine Dining

Big changes ahead at Marquee Grill (formerly Village Marquee), the ritzy Highland Park Village restaurant once cheffed by Top Chef alum Tre Wilcox and now overseen by former Pyramid chef Andre Natera.

Nancy Nichols reports that Marquee "will close at the end of July and reopen in mid-August as two restaurants and a bar": The downstairs will become Village Kitchen, the upstairs Toko V, "an Asian seafood and sushi restaurant." (Marquee Bar will remain intact.) Natera will remain executive chef of the entire concept, with the addition of a sushi chef upstairs.

Co-owner Brian Twomey tells Nichols that "no neighborhood can support 8,000 square feet of fine dining," and they're looking to transform the restaurant from a pricey special occasion spot into more of a neighborhood dining staple. The downstairs menu is said to include "house-ground burgers, fish and chips, buttermilk fried chicken salad, and mussels steamed in white wine," but surely the talented Natera will be putting his own spin on things — diners will just have to wait till August to see exactly what that'll be.

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[Photo credit: Village Marquee/Facebook]