I Ate at Ever Restaurant from 'The Bear.' It Was Surreal.

As someone born and raised in Chicago, it’s very fun to watch movies and TV shows that take place in the city. It sounds silly, but a John Hughes movie or While You Were Sleeping were like little iSpy treats as a kid. The same goes for series like Shameless and The Bear.

While watching the latest season of The Bear, I learned that the fine-dining restaurant featured in Episode 7 (the one where cousin Richie spends a lot of time polishing forks) was based on (and filmed at) a real-life Chicago restaurant called Ever.

While the show's fictional restaurant is a 3-Michelin star establishment headed by chef Terry (played by Olivia Colman), the real Ever is a 2-Michelin star restaurant that serves creative, modern seasonal cuisine. It's headed by chef Curtis Duffy, a James Beard award-winning chef who also earned Michelin stars at Chicago restaurants Grace and Avenues at The Peninsula Hotel. Ever was founded by Duffy and his business partner Michael Muse, an award-winning sommelier and restaurateur, in the summer of 2020—he and Duffy have worked side-by-side since 2009. The food doesn't focus on a particular cuisine or style and is always changing based on what inspires chef Duffy.

In The Bear, Ever was the inspiration for "the best restaurant in the world." I was taken by the extravagance of the restaurant on the show and was curious to see if that depiction was real or TV magic.

It felt like a long shot, but I reached out to the restaurant to see if I could get in. And much to my surprise (and delight), they invited my partner and me to experience the 10-course tasting menu. I was excited, but I was also quite intimidated. I had never eaten at a restaurant that had a Michelin star before this, let alone two.

But as we were led to our seats by an attentive and calm staff member through the restaurant’s curved, illuminated walls, the quiet ambiance slowly relaxed us. And that relaxation was a through line during our entire experience. Here’s what it’s like to dine at Ever.

Related: Is 'The Bear' Based on a True Story? Your Fact-Versus-Fiction Guide to the Series

It All Starts With a Drink

Our evening began in the After lounge, which we learned was actually the filming location for the Copenhagen kitchen that Marcus (Lionel Boyce) staged under Chef Luca (Will Poulter) in Episode 4, “Honeydew.” Amy Cordell, Ever’s Director of Hospitality, gave us a tour of After’s kitchen, which had a slight makeover for the show. All of the glassware that's usually stored on one of its black tiled walls was replaced with different props to take on the look of a pastry chef's kitchen. The Bear's production team switched out some of the overheard lights too, which the restaurant kept up afterward because they liked them so much.

Duffy and Muser opened After in 2022. The space is dark and sultry with a glamorous speakeasy vibe. The drinks are as elegant as the dishes at Ever. We had cocktails with absinthe, lavender honey and refreshing citrus.

On our way to dinner, Cordell took us through a secret entrance behind the bar that leads to The Observatory. The space, which connects After to Ever, is rented out for small events and has a library and a massive telescope that looks up at a “sky” made up of a large screen. (Pro tip: Look up and see if you can catch the UFO that occasionally flies overhead).

Related: What Is the Real Meaning Behind the Feast of the Seven Fishes in 'The Bear'?

Dinner Is Served

After passing through The Observatory, the Ever experience began, and it was just as impressive as what Richie witnessed. Once you enter the dining room, it’s a nonstop, well-rehearsed performance from the time you’re seated until the time you leave. After each course, servers silently replace your utensils at the same time and new wine glasses appear like magic. (And there were no smudges on the forks, if you were wondering.) Even the way they politely push your seat in for you once you sit is truly a tailored experience that makes you feel like that night’s dinner is just for you.

We started out with Osetra Grand Reserve Caviar with honeydew, surrounded by a foam that also tasted like honeydew, which was a bit mind-melting. (How can foam have so much flavor?) Then we had a course that appeared in The Bear: ribbons of frozen hamachi that changed as you ate them. Because of the changing temperatures of the plate to your tongue, the frozen fish changes texture as you chew, becoming softer and more tender. It was a cool experience and also very delicious.

The rest of the courses included rabbit (a new one for me), scallops, pork cheeks and so much more. Every dish was gorgeous and expertly paired with a different wine. The sommelier came by to pour each new glass, explaining where the wine came from, details about the winemakers and (sometimes) how rare it was.

While it was hard to imagine before we started our meal, by the end of it we were very, very full. Again as someone who’s never had 10 courses and knew the portions would be small, I didn’t realize they’d be so filling. There was a bread portion that may be the tastiest pretzel bread I’ve ever had with the best butter, and I think that one really did us in, if I’m being honest.

Dessert consisted of a couple of courses. The first included a well-known dish from Chef Duffy: sweet rice with banana, hibiscus, passion fruit and fennel with an impossibly thin glass-like disk of sugar that you had to break to get to the deliciousness underneath. And then there were waffles. But not just any waffles, of course. They were small waffles (a little larger than a cake pop) on sticks with a thin piece of truffle on top of each one and the dish was presented on a large slab of charcoal. I can’t believe it exists either.

A Tour of the Ever Kitchen

In addition to the amazing food and drinks, another highlight of the night was a tour of the Ever kitchen, a space that played a huge role in the “Forks” episode. In the episode, Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is forced to stage at the on-screen version of Ever while everyone else is working on the new restaurant’s renovations. Ever’s kitchen starts as a foreboding, punishing space, but over the course of the episode, it morphs and changes with Richie himself in a truly moving character arc. The main Ever kitchen looks very similar to what you see in The Bear, but the filter used in the show makes it a bit bluer. The blue tint made the space feel colder, which set the perfect mood for Richie's intense experience at the restaurant.

The real-life Ever shut down for a week or so to accommodate filming and a lot of the staff that you see in the episode actually works at the restaurant, including Paulina Pahl, who was our captain during dinner. A restaurant captain at Ever manages their own station in the dining room. There are three captains at Ever and they oversee all aspects of service, serving guests and making sure their dining experience is above and beyond expectations. Pahl is the only Ever staff member with a speaking line on The Bear.

To prepare for the episode, actor Sarah Ramos shadowed Matthew, an expeditor at Ever, for a few nights. “He orchestrates everything,” Cordell tells us as we watch Matthew in action. In the episode, Richie studied what Jessica did so he could take on a similar role on opening night of Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) new restaurant, The Bear.

And yes, we also saw the workstation where they shot Richie’s memorable mushroom-peeling moment with Chef Terry (Olivia Colman). Cordell shared that Colman was “a natural” at this and was also a wonderful human being (which is just such a nice confirmation to have).

But Would They Ever Really Go Out and Pick Up Pequod’s Pizza?

There are moments in the Ever episode of The Bear that seem over-the-top, for even a luxury restaurant. One of these is when they sent Richie to Pequod’s to fetch a deep-dish pizza because they’d overheard a guest say they were bummed they didn’t get any while in the Windy City. Cordell did tell us that there is a bit of eavesdropping among the staff to make sure that guests are completely satisfied.

She says that they want to know what guests are excited about and if they catch something they can provide, they’ll drop it during dinner for you to enjoy. Another example: If there are kids in the group who aren’t enjoying the gourmet cuisine, they might grab some fries and burgers for them.

And while I can't be sure that they passed notes back and forth, I think I might have seen it happen at least once. While that might have been a trick of the light or wishful thinking based on what the show depicted, there definitely wasn't any talking from the servers or employees at all (so the notes thing might very much be true).

Cordell shared a story of a diner who told her caption that she was dining at Ever on her late father’s birthday to honor him. He had always wanted to dine there, but never got the chance.

“Our captain started talking to her and [she] said, ‘You know, his favorite drink is a Budweiser,’” Cordell says. “And we don't have that, so we went to a store and got her Budweiser. And we poured it for her last cheers for like a birthday celebration.”

Does Ever Google Their Guests?

Another detail that stands out in the episode is the idea that the restaurant Googles their guests before service. Fun fact: This one is true too. Cordell tells us they Google every guest because they “want to know” them. This pre-service detective work also helps them pair you with a captain who has similar likes and dislikes, which will hopefully help the dinner flow well and make for an even more tailored experience.

“Not that they would ever divulge information, but sometimes it creates more of a comfort,” Cordell says. “We know that some people save up all the money in the world to be able to dine here. And that's a big deal, just as much as a big deal for someone who always dines out.”

She says that you have to find a way to treat guests “differently, but the same” to give them the Ever experience while also making them feel comfortable. I didn’t ask if they Googled my partner and me, but if they did or didn’t, we left that night feeling full, happy, content and well taken care of. Richie would have approved.

Next up, we're sorry deep dish, but this is the Chicago pizza that locals love.