Chicago’s Eat Well Hospitality Group
This week we are featuring 3 restaurants in Chicago that are part of the Eat Well Hospitality group: Andros Taverna, Mano A Mano and Asador Bastian. All 3 are unique, serving totally different styles of food.
The co-founder and chef behind this group is Doug Psaltis. He has been working in the restaurant industry since he was 10, when he worked at his grandfathers diner in Long Island. Psaltis went on to work and study with many great chefs including Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV in Monaco in the early 2000’s, and was the first American chef chosen to open one of Ducasse’s restaurants in New York shortly after. Psaltis has also worked and helped run Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Napa Valley, before being called back to New York. There he became the executive chef of Country Restaurant earning them a Michelin star every year he headed the kitchen (2005-2009) He has been a part of the Chicago food scene since around 2012.
The reason we are featuring these 3 restaurants, is that they are where our son, Dylan, has found his new work home in Chicago. He is currently working at 2 of them, in different roles . . . but we went to all 3 to check them out.
See below, pictures of Dylan at his Disney Internship at the Grand Floridian, with Chef Kyle at his first job out of culinary school, at BESA (Chef Kyle is now killing it at Wright and Company and tried to get Dylan to join him there) with John Vermiglio from Grey Ghost, Second Best and Basan, and Dan Barber from Blue Hill at Stone Barn in NEW YORK.
He also worked for Stephanie Izard, at the Girl and the Goat Restaurants and most recently for Grant Achatz at Alinea, a 3 Michelin Star restaurant.
ANDROS TAVERNA
Let’s start with Andros Taverna, which is located in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood at 2542 N Milwaukee Ave. Andros Taverna is a Contemporary Greek restaurant inspired by the cosmopolitan taverns of Greece serving “sophisticated Mediterranean food cooked from the soul” This was our largest group outing of the trip, with 7 of us dining, so there was a lot of food ordered and passed around. It is a large place that has roll up windows for open air dining as well as outdoor tables when the weather is nice. Inside, the place is well lit with high ceilings and lots of plants, both potted and hanging from the ceiling trellises. It is a great place for a nice group gathering.
For starters we had a wide variety of items starting with some delicious cherry tomatoes on the vine with olive oil and sea salt, next was a crispy Kataifi cheese pie, some fresh oysters with roasted tomato mignonette, Andros ceviche, the Andros salad with barrel-aged feta, watermelon and feta salad, and the beet and feta salad.
For mains we ordered the slow roasted leg of lamb, a half garlic herb roasted chicken, Mediterranean octopus, and 2 whole fish, which were deboned for us at the table, and a bunch of sides to share. They brought over dessert from Mano A Mano, which is right next door, which we will talk about next.
MANO A MANO
Mano A Mano is literally right next door to Andros and couldn’t be more different. It is an Italian Trattoria (Italian for eatery) that highlights Italy’s best regional cooking using ingredients from independent purveyors and local markets. It is smaller inside than Andros, also darker and more intimate. They have areas for larger groups but we only had 4 of us which seemed like the prefect size group. Here it seems like we ordered the whole menu. We didn’t, it just seemed like it. Everything is served as small plates meant for sharing and when you work there, like Dylan does, things tend to magically appear at the table that were not ordered. No complaints here!
Here is what we had, in the order that it came out: Heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella and pesto, fried calamari, Focaccia Di Recco (which is a flatbread with cheese and prosciutto) lobster ravioli, meatballs Napoletana, ravioletti made with beef short rib, tagliatelle bolognese, cavatelli in pesto, fresh green beans with sardines, and a wild mushroom pasta that wasn’t even on the menu.
For dessert, and this is the same dessert we had at Andros, was tiramisu, hazelnut gelato, popcorn gelato and a peach crostata.
ASADOR BASTIAN
Lastly is the most elite restaurant of the 3, Asador Bastian which is located in the Flair house in Chicago’s River North Neighborhood. Located at 214 W Erie St, the Flair house was built in 1883. It was purchased in 1964 for $20,000 by Lee Flaherty who used the home for his marketing agency Flair Communications, which explains why it is call the Flair House. In 2015 Flaherty sold the home for $2,730,000. Not a bad return on investment after 50 years.
Asador Bastion is a Basque style steak or chophouse who takes their name from the great Asadors of San Sebastion, Spain to serve the world best beef without compromise. They only serve the finest beef from all over the world and were voted the 13th best steakhouse in the world in 2025 by worldsbeststeaks.com They are known for flying beef in from overseas and well as from smaller US cattlemen that only sell 70-80 cattle a year compared to the larger corporations selling 80,000 a year. They also only sell their steaks and seafood by the ounce or pound, with the smallest steak being 1.5 to 2 pounds.
You enter Asador through the lower garden room level, which is where their bar is located. The main dining room and kitchen are located upstairs. This time it was just the 3 of us, so we were able to sit at the bar comfortably. The bar area is dimly lit and small with a bar and some booths along the wall. It is very intimate while the upstairs dining room is brighter and more open space. We let Dylan do the ordering, since it was his domain. He started us off with the bluefin carpaccio, a 4oz skewer of Kobe beef, and a plate of 5J Iberico Prosciutto, and the truffled beef tartar. For our main, we of course ordered a 1.75 lb Tajima strip steak, tortilla Espanola, Spider Crab Arroz Cremoso and Bone Marrow Potato Puree.
For dessert, yes we had dessert, We had their Raspberry Mil Hojas, the Burnt Basque Cheesecake and took home a Chocolate Hazelnut Cake.
While we didn’t go into great detail about everything we ate at all 3 places…everything was fantastic and beyond and if you are ever in Chicago, and want to experience some good food, pay these 3 a visit. While they will set you back a few dollars (Asador more then the others) they are worth the experience if you are foodies like us.
If you are ever venturing to Chicago, and are interested in trying one of these restaurants, give us a call. We would love to talk to you about it.
Until next time . . . live well, eat well and enjoy life!
-Keith & Teresa Becker, Becker Home Advisors