Closings

Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights To Close

Chef Michael Maddox.
Chef Michael Maddox. Photo: Courtesy Le Titi de Paris.

Last week we had news of the closing of late 90s French-influenced restaurant Crofton on Wells, and now Phil Vettel reports in the Tribune that a French restaurant which has been around for nearly 40 years, Le Titi de Paris, will close in mid-June. Chef Michael Maddox, a 2009 James Beard semifinalist, and his wife Susan, who’ve owned the restaurant for about 15 years, are selling the property, which will be demolished, and plan to find a more relaxing and regular life with their children after years of fine dining hours.

The restaurant, whose name means “the rascal of Paris,” was founded as a bistro by Christian Zeiger, who sold it to his chef Pierre Pollin; Pollin upgraded it to fine dining and eventually brought in Michael Maddox as chef-partner, so he could focus more on playing the role of the front-of-house host. When he retired, the Maddoxes took it over. Le Titi de Paris had a good run as one of the destination restaurants in the suburbs, but its formal French dining and decor came to have stuck-in-time feel. Though one couldn’t call it a Michelin casualty, as Crofton on Wells was, it didn’t escape notice that after Les Nomades, it was probably the most authentic French restaurant in the area to be snubbed by the guide when it came to Chicago (the guide did honor at least one restaurant some ways out in the suburbs, Vie in Western Springs, if none so far as Le Titi de Paris).

Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights To Close