I know when I lived in downtown Chicago, it seemed every nearly every outdoor restaurant was dog friendly, but now in the suburbs, I'm not sure. Any suggestions of places that are dog friendly that have good food as well? (once we have a good stretch of nice weather I'll start calling around and asking places)
Tara, there is a book called Dog Gone Chicago that is WONDERFUL - has all the off-leash dog parks, dog activities, dog friendly restaurants - categorized by Suburb and or/county. It's not just the City of Chicago, it covers all the burbs too. Make sure you get the 2nd edition it was way updated from the first one. I use it regularly - just make sure to call ahead or research on the internet a little further before you head out for adventure because of course things change and it sucks to get there and realized the restaurant closed or something :)
Here is the book on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/lr9r2v but if you want to save $$ you can always try the library!