Nominator waited 2 years for Geneva's Niche to be on 'Check, Please!'

GENEVA – When Geneva eatery Niche was featured on WTTW's show "Check, Please!" on Nov. 9, it was the culmination of a two-year odyssey by Elburn resident Kerri Lee-Young, a former restaurant worker turned creative consultant.

Lee-Young said she grew up in St. Charles and Geneva and got her first restaurant job at 12 bussing tables at the St. Charles Moose Lodge because her parents were members.

“I have worked in restaurants as a server, as a bartender, as a trainer – probably since I was 18 years old,” Lee-Young said. “I have a good working knowledge of restaurants and I have a real high expectation of service and experiences that restaurants create for their guests.”

Niche is on Lee-Young’s short list of favorite restaurants.

“There is just something exceptional about Niche,” Lee-Young said.

About 13 years ago, someone was on “Check, Please!” to talk about 302 West, a now-closed restaurant on West State Street in Geneva.

“I was so insanely jealous,” Lee-Young said. “For 13 years this was a bucket list item of mine to get on that show.”

She made the application to “Check, Please!” for Niche in October 2016 and the following August. Then at age 43, Lee-Young left serving in restaurants to create her own marketing company for the restaurant industry.

The producers contacted Lee-Young within six weeks of her submission and after a 90-minute telephone interview with a producer, she was told not to tell Niche anything.

And then nothing happened.

“I would send follow-up emails asking if there was a date. I got no reply,” Lee-Young said.

Then this past May, a producer got in touch. The previous producer had left and the new producer was going through submissions and notes that were left.

“They asked, ‘Are you still interested in being on the show?’ And I cannot respond fast enough. ‘Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.’"

Lee-Young was paired with two other “Check, Please!” nominators. Each had to go to all three restaurants and then go on the show and talk about their experiences.

On the program, Niche owner Vince Balisteri compared the beauty of downtown Geneva to Mayberry – the fictitious small town featured in “The Andy Griffith Show” of the 1960s.

“We really pride ourselves on service. I think most of all the kitchen always does a great job with the food that they do,” Balisteri said. “We have a lot of whiskies here. … We’ve been awarded as one of the top whiskey bars in America. We keep working on that and adding to the 400-plus bottles we have.”

Lee-Young appeared with Diego Martinez-Krippner of Chicago who recommended La Chaparrita Grocery and Tracey Coldewey of Evanston who recommended Kitsune, both in Chicago.

“I have been a patron of Niche since they day they opened their doors,” Lee-Young said on the program. “There is just something that is done so perfect, so effortlessly that it keeps us coming back."

For Martinez-Krippner, going to dinner in Geneva was a homecoming.

“My dad grew up in Geneva and my grandparents have lived there since 1963,” Martinez-Krippner said on the show. “I went to Niche with my grandmother and my aunt and uncle.”

Martinez-Krippner said he had the hanger steak, the cheese board and sausage plate.

“The corn soup is incredible," Martinez-Krippner said. "It’s new American cuisine that is worth getting excited about. And it’s not that far on the train.”

Coldewey said she was surprised by Niche “in a very pleasant way.”

"We were so blown away. We had the kale salad and it was actually so delicious," Coldewey said.

They had the fried chicken appetizer, which was good enough to have skipped dinner, Coldewey said.

“I would eat that fried chicken all day long. I almost did not want to order the rest of dinner, I just thought 'Keep bringing me more of those.' It was so good,” Coldewey said. “I would definitely go back to Niche for amazing, innovative preparations and top-notch service.”

The full program is online by visiting checkplease.wttw.com.

More information about Niche is online by visiting www.nichegeneva.com.