<<--The spot: It’s easy to zip right by little Bonsoiree Cafe & Delicacies, a charming-yet-modern BYOB with an awning obscured by trees. Maybe that’s why co-owners, chefs, (and sometimes servers) Kurt Chenier and Shin Thompson offer perhaps the most eye-popping pre-fixe prix-fixe dinner in town Tuesdays through Fridays. “A lot of people think we’re insane for doing prix-fixe on Friday,” says Chenier. “We’re just trying to get people in and try our food.”

For as little as $20, you get three courses from a stellar contemporary American menu. For starters, go for the corn cake topped with a salad of spicy red lentils and fresh lime. An asparagus and oyster mushroom salad is another temptation. Entrees include braised beef short rib in a cabernet reduction and a smoky pork tenderloin wrapped with thick slab of applewood bacon (a $3 upcharge is well worth it.) For dessert, you can’t beat warm banana bread pudding drenched with a decadent white chocolate creme anglaise. Think it can’t get better? Eat it all under the stars on the secluded back patio—oh, and they do a weekend a la carte brunch too.  Pinch us, we’re in BYOB heaven.

-->>The bottle: There's a liquor store on the corner near Bonsoiree, but skip it--they don't  have anything you want (we hope). Instead, just head about two blocks west to Food Smart (2901 W Armitage Ave. 773-772-3200), a 24-hour convenience store with about every mid-priced, popular wine you need, from Santa Margherita to the Coppola Diamond series—plus a few surprises. We couldn’t resist this too-cute bottle of Lulu B. syrah, a $6.49 screwcap number from the daughter of famed French winemaker Louis Bernard. But turns out Lulu was more than just a pretty label, with luscious berrys and soft tannins, making it a wonderful summer sipper. -- Chris LaMorte, Metromix dining producer.

The French word for fixed price is 'prix-fixe' not 'pre-fixe'. Even if most of the restauranteurs who claim to know French cooking can't get it right it would be nice to see the journalists making the effort.