Red Bridge Bistro Brings Elevated Comfort Food to Cicero
There’s a proverbial new kid on the restaurant block in Cicero. Red Bridge Bistro opened earlier this summer, offering its clientele what General Manager Tom Paris says is an approachable and affordable menu — elevated.
“This menu was purposely written,” Paris says. “The food is largely considered upscale gastropub, but what we want is to be different than anyone else in this town as far as footprint. That includes from the vibe and atmosphere of the restaurant to every item on our menu.”
For diners, that means deviled eggs are not just hard-boiled carriers of mashed yolks and mayo. At Red Bridge, Paris takes the classic fare up a serious notch and gives it his own spin: he fries them.
“And our play on a regular French dip is our pot roast slider,” Paris says. “We braise chuck roast in a beef jus. We do that for four and a half hours, we strain its liquid and serve our sliders with that and creamy horseradish cream sauce.”
Paris’ take on the most classic of sandwiches, the grilled cheese, is made that much better by making it buffalo.
“We whole roast our chickens on the bone, then we pull the meat,” he says. “We make a cream cheese mix with dried herbs and hot sauce, add the chicken and that all goes on grilled sourdough with cheddar cheese.”
Two other highlights on the menu include burgers — but Red Bridge patties are a level up, made of a tri-blend of sirloin, brisket and short rib.
“We also have a classic fried bologna sandwich, and it’s done a little differently,” Paris says. “We make ours with high-end mortadella bologna. We slice it thin, fry it, and it’s served on toasted sourdough. Just a classic with a good twist.”
Paris comes to the GM position at Red Bridge Bistro with a literal lifetime of experience in restaurants and hospitality. He started working in the back of restaurants at age 14, running dishwashers and doing other age-appropriate work.
“I was a young person who loved to cook and who loved to be in the kitchen,” he says.
After high school, Paris studied at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school and then worked in several fine dining restaurants and hotel kitchens.
He served as banquet chef at the Bridgewater Country Club in Noblesville and then went on to join Marriott as an executive sous chef.
“I was hired by Hilton and I opened a 1,500-room resort,” Paris says. “I was the restaurant chef, so my focus was menu creating and hiring and finding vendors — dialing in recipes.”
After a year in that position, Paris was promoted to garde manger.
“Which in French means cold kitchen,” he says. “I managed all of our cold foods — fruit and salad displays, raw bars with oysters … just anything cold. It was a great experience.”
Paris moved his family back to Indiana and shortly thereafter was approached by his childhood friend with a business proposition.
In short, that proposition soon became what is now Red Bridge Bistro.
“It has been a really wild few months or so,” Paris says. “But we are a month and a half in as far as being open, and I feel the feedback from our community has been so very good. Especially regarding the service and food and the quality and atmosphere — we give our customers the very best of every part of the service we have to offer.”
Red Bridge Bistro is located at 109 W. Jackson St. in Cicero. For more information, visit redbridgebistro.com.
