Oct 3, 2018
Ashok Selvam | Eater Chicago | September 27, 2018
SVN Restaurant Resource Group’s Scott Reinish represented the buyer in the transaction.
Roscoe Village received a culinary upgrade earlier this week when Le Sud, a new two-level restaurant, opened. Dishes on its Mediterranean French menu includes rabbit leg à la Provençal and a foie gras tart. It’s a casual spot on the neighborhood’s main drag at 2301 W. Roscoe Street.
Travels through southern France inspired owner Sandy Chen (Koi Fine Asian Dining in Evanston) to open the restaurant. She said southern French cuisine reminded her of the food served in her native Zhejiang, a province along China’s east coast. She’s charged executive chef Ryan Brosseau (Table, Donkey & Stick in Logan Square and the shuttered Perennial Virant in Lincoln Park) with creating a “Provencal inspired” menu. It includes pan-roasted duck and steak frites.
GM and wine director Terry McNeese (Le Lan, De Quay, The Gage, Henri) came up with the — surprise — French-focused wine list. There are also eight house cocktails including two “reserve” drinks that cost $15, $3 more than most of the “regular” drinks.
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Sep 28, 2018
Brenna Houck | Eater Detroit | September 26, 2018
A metro Detroit axe-throwing bar received a brief suspension of its liquor license for what regulators described as a potentially dangerous activities involving alcohol and sharp objects flying through the air. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) confirmed in a release on Tuesday that Auburn Hills-based entertainment venue Hub Stadium has investigated for “health, safety, and welfare concerns” at its axe-throwing lanes.
The state agency says it was unaware that axe-throwing would take place at the Hub Stadium during its licensing application and began investigating the establishment in June. Investigators say found a number of red flags at the axe bar including consumption of alcohol in the throwing areas, patrons wearing inappropriate footwear (open-toed shoes, heels, etc.), and generally poor enforcement and monitoring of the lanes by management. Hub Stadium’s social media accounts also didn’t help its case. The MLCC noted that there were images and videos of customers throwing axes at bottles of alcohol, bouncing axes off the floor to hit targets, and people juggling axes or generally just being unsafe showing offs.
The lax enforcement of safety precautions resulted in a hearing on Thursday, August 30. The bar received a brief, one-day suspension on Monday, September 10, “to allow the licensee to make numerous structural and policy changes.”
Axe-throwing bars are becoming increasingly common across North America and made their entrance into the Michigan market last year with the location at Hub Stadium and at Detroit Axe in Ferndale. Reached by Eater, a representative for the MLCC, David Harns, confirms that the agency did look into Detroit Axe in May and that the difference between the hearings for the Ferndale bar and Hub Stadium were “like night and day”
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Sep 21, 2018
Ashok Selvam | Eater Chicago | September 20, 2018
A former OpenTable employee who made several hundred fake restaurant reservations in an attempt to harm online reservation rival Reserve faces a charge of wire fraud. The man, Steven Addison, worked in the Chicago office of OpenTable, and from November to February, he made more than 300 fake reservations at Chicago restaurants using Reserve. The scheme, first reported by Eater Chicago, was designed to hurt Reserve causing no shows.
“Addison knew restaurants would suffer financial losses when no diners showed up to claim the reservation, the information states,” a U.S. Attorney’s office news release reads. “Addison’s scheme intended to demonstrate to Chicago restaurants that Reserve had an inferior reservation system, the charge alleges.”
Addison, 30, worked as an enterprise operations specialist for OpenTable and was fired after the news was uncovered. He faces one charge of wire fraud. He used creative names in booking the fake reservations at restaurants like City Mouse in Fulton Market, Presidio in Bucktown, and Tavern on the Park in the Loop. According to the feds, Addison used names like “Hans Gruber” (from Die Hard) “Richard Ashcroft” (lead singer from The Verve) and “Jimmy Smits” (actor from Star Wars and L.A. Law) to make reservations.
He figured out back in November that Reserve didn’t require a working email address to make a reservation, according to the lawsuit. He made about 300 reservations and that led to about 1,200 shows. He targeted busy days like New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, according to the complaint and wanted to cause the most harm. Reserve’s software engineers found irregular reservation patterns and traced the scheme to OpenTable. Reserve execs then brought the problem up to OpenTable’s leadership.
OpenTable wasn’t named in the U.S. Attorney’s lawsuit. It was only identified as “a San Francisco-based company that provides an online reservation system for restaurants.” The company did not know about the scheme: “Addison made the reservations on his own accord and did not personally profit from the scheme, the information states,” according to the government.
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Sep 15, 2018
Daniel Gerzina | Eater Chicago | September 12, 2018
Marcus Sullivan of SVN Chicago Commercial’s Restaurant Resource Group represented the buyer in the transaction.
The owners of Chicago’s most popular pour-your-own-beer bar, Tapster in Wicker Park, are almost ready to unveil their new Lincoln Park location. It’ll open in the former Wrightwood Tapspace at 1059 W. Wrightwood Avenue to the general public on September 18. The new spot will have 40 taps using the PourMyBeer system, 70 seats and 175-person total capacity, be open seven days a week and won’t serve food. Tapster Wicker Park was the first of its kind in the city, although the first Chicagoland self-serve bar opened in the suburbs and another is now open in Logan Square.
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Sep 7, 2018
Alison Millington | Insider | August 29, 2018
Finding hidden gem bars and restaurants is one of the best parts of travelling — but it can be hard not to fall into the tourist traps.
Jurgen Lijcops, who has 28 years of experience working in food and drink, put together “150 Bars You Need To Visit Before You Die” for that exact reason.
Starting as a waiter in a small pub before falling into the world of wine, Lijcops worked in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants before starting his own cocktail bar in Antwerp, Bar Burbure, in 2015.
A master sommelier with a second passion is for spirits, he told INSIDER: “I couldn’t find a guide/book about beautiful bars, so I thought I could make it myself.”
Visiting 40 of the bars himself, he spent a year using his own experience and recommendations from friends and colleagues around the world to produce a “guide to local watering holes located across the globe,” from the US and South America to Europe, the UK, North Africa, Asia, and Australia.
He said that each bar on the list gives you a “special feeling” when you visit.
“Each and every bar I selected has a story to tell, which is certainly not always about the drinks,” Lijcops writes in the book’s intro. “Often this story is told by the owners and the staff, or by the location.”
Scroll down to see the 25 bars everyone should visit before they die, ranked in alphabetical order — and why they’re worth the trip, according to Lijcops’ book.
