Le Francais Is For Sale, Swift & Sons Pushes Back Second Restaurant, More AM Intel

—Le Francais, chef Jean Banchet's groundbreaking suburban French restaurant that Bon Appetit once named the best restaurant in America, has hit the real estate auction market, Crain's reports. Bidding starts at $900,000 for the landmark Wheeling restaurant—including much of its contents and Banchet's awards—that opened in 1973 and finally closed for good under a different owner in 2007.

—Cold Storage, the seafood restaurant-within-a-restaurant inside Swift & Sons, is now planning to open on Dec. 3, according to the Tribune. It was originally planned to open yesterday.

—CH Distillery will be the latest local restaurant to remove tipping when the West Loop cocktail bar, restaurant and distillery institutes an 18 percent service charge beginning in the first week of December, RedEye reports.

—The Tribune food section is losing longtime award-winning food writers Kevin Pang and Mark Caro, who are exiting to take staff buyouts.

—Pastry record-breaker Alain Roby will be going savory when he opens Primo, an Italian restaurant, down in Geneva in January.

—Chicago Independents, the organization aiming to bring more recognition to top local independent restaurants, has another round of gift cards on sale right now as well as many new members. Money from the card sales go towards funding membership dues, and are also great deals for the buyer.