Inside look: The Grotto

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You know a place is good when a woman is willing to enter it mid-highlight.

It was during the Grotto's lunch rush — a more apropos term would be lunch slam — and a woman walked in from the salon next door wearing the tellate nylon cape and head-full-of-foil of a dye-job recipient. She was there, freakish look and all, to pick up her to-go order. Now, I've been in that situation (the head-full-of-foil one) and I wouldn't want my own mother to see me like that. But I get it now — when you need Grotto, you need Grotto. Sci-fi hairdo be damned.

The south-side casual lunch and dinner spot, opened a little over a year ago, has garnered a phenomenal following of foodies, families and lone diners alike and with good reason. The food has all the markings of being "standards" — burgers, pizzas, salads — but enhanced with supremely fresh ingredients and the gourmet flourish of a man who has spent most of his adult life learning from highly regarded chefs in fine dining establishments. Not bad for a place where you fetch your own silverware.

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