Up, up and away

TEXAS DE BRAZIL

- 51 E. Ohio

- Mondays-Thursdays 5-10 p.m., Fridays 5-10:30 p.m., Saturdays 4-10:30 p.m., Sundays 4-10 p.m.

- Smart casual dress code

- (312) 670-1006; www.texasdebrazil.com

At most Brazilian steakhouses, costumed gauchos (South American cowboys) bring skews of slow-roasted meats tableside and carve them, adding a certain theatricality to the dining experience.

Texas de Brazil (51 E. Ohio) is taking the theatrics to new heights. Literally.

The restaurant features a two-story wine room that is glass-fronted, ensuring unobstructed views of the steakhouse's signature aerial wine artists. Wine stewards are suspended by theatrical rigging over a two-story bank of wine.

"We wanted the Chicago location to be sort of a flagship for us," says Texas de Brazil general manager Vincent Feola. "The Chicago location offered us high enough ceilings to do something like this."

The rigging was built and installed by the Chicago Flyhouse, a local group. The group also provided flight training.

Andrea Hiller, a student at Columbia College, originally had applied for a hostess job.

"They asked me if I wanted to be an aerial wine artist and I told them, 'No, just a hostess,' " she says. "They talked me into it and once I was strapped in and gliding I was hooked."

Though the concept of combining wine service with Cirque du Soleil-like aerial theatrics is not new (Aureole in Las Vegas was the first, although Feola says the restaurant's attraction is unique.)

"The one in Vegas can only go up and down, but our aerialists have full motion up, down and side to side," he says.

"You're strapped in and fairly secure. I feel totally comfortable with it," says 19-year-old Hiller, one of the steakhouse's five aerial wine artists.

Hiller uses a small, white controller to move the rigging. She gracefully glided through the air, retrieved a bottle of a Spanish red from high and flew back to me (upside down, no less).

"We each only work about an hour and a half because the wine room is a chilly 58 degrees," she says.

The two-story wall of wine contains 1,400 bottles. Once a server has entered an order into the computer, the aerialist gets a printout of the order and is soon flipping, gliding and soaring to retrieve it.

Depending on how many times a night someone orders a bottle of wine, an aerial wine artist might fetch upward of five to seven bottles.

"We haven't dropped a bottle yet," Hiller adds.

The restaurant is currently only open for dinner, but Feola plans to offer lunch service soon.

Wines are stocked on an as-needed basis during the dinner hours by the wine artists themselves. During the off hours, Feola and others will restock.

"I wish I was as graceful in the harness," he says with a chuckle as Hiller continues her aerial ballet.

The current aerialist uniform is all black and almost blends in with the black shelving, but that probably will change.

"We are in talks right now to maybe put them in red so the girls really stand out," Feola says.

Color Photo: Rich Hein, Sun-Times / Columbia College student Andrea Hiller, an aerial wine artist, originally came to Texas de Brazil in search of a job as a hostess. But once she tried out the aerial gear and was airborne, "I was hooked." ;