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Home / Businesses / Bluegrass

Bluegrass

Super GemHighland Park (suburb) · Southern/Cajun Community-sourced, unverified
📍 1636 Old Deerfield Rd, Highland Park, IL 60035

Bluegrass sits on the quiet west side of Highland Park, on Old Deerfield Road, and since 2004 it has been the North Shore's best argument that a casual neighborhood restaurant can still be a destination.

$$
The gumbo shots are a genuinely unusual way to start a meal, and the seafood salad backs it up.

The founder is Jim Lederer, a lifer who ran Don Roth's in Wheeling and Bub City's kitchen for Lettuce Entertain You before opening Crawdaddy Bayou with chef David Teichman. Bluegrass is what he built next: American food with a Southern accent, barbecue, a lot of seafood, and a wine and beer list that is entirely American. Start with a $3 shot of the chicken-and-sausage gumbo, which is exactly what it sounds like and the right way to open. The shrimp and grits with candied pork belly won the 2014 Wagner Farms Baconfest, and the trophy sits on the back bar. The New Orleans-style BBQ shrimp comes with the menu's own pitch: 'Save your airfare.' Add crawfish étouffée and pit-smoked ribs and you have the picture. Then plan around the calendar.

Tuesday is smoked-chicken night: a $22 BBQ half chicken, a $34 chicken-and-ribs combo and $10 Authentico margaritas, and the chicken sells out. Wednesday brings $10 Bluegrass Martinis and $5 pours of Tavern Pale, a lager brewed just for the house. In between come lobster and crawfish boils, Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest menus. Lunch runs Tuesday through Friday, dinner Tuesday through Saturday, and it's closed Sunday and Monday. Reservations are by phone.

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Specials at Bluegrass

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Bluegrass

Food + Drink
Smoked BBQ Chicken Tuesday: $22 Half Chicken + $10 Margaritas
Highland Park (suburb)4:30PM–8PMCommunity
Directions

Bluegrass

Drink
Wednesday: $10 Bluegrass Martinis + $5 Tavern Pale Drafts
Highland Park (suburb)4:30PM–8PMCommunity
Directions

Hours

Sun-MonClosed
Lunch Tue-Fri 11:30AM-2PM
Dinner Tue-Thu 4:30-8PM, Fri-Sat 4:30-8:30PM
📅 Reserve on OpenTable 🥡 Takeout available 📞 (847) 831-0595

Amenities & accessibility

🥡Takeout available
❔Wheelchair access: unverified
📅Reservations accepted

Location

🧭 Apple Maps 📍 Google Maps

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