Oct 19, 2018
Ashok Selvam | Eater | October 18, 2018
SVN Restaurant Resource Group’s Scott Reinish represented the tenant in the transaction.
Hubbard Street should soon have a new bar that appears to focus on sweets from one of the co-owners of Shore Club, the restaurant/club at North Avenue Beach. A spokesperson confirmed that JoJo’s Milk Bar is on its way inside the short-lived Coco Champagne Lounge space at 23 W. Hubbard Street. Coco lasted eight months before shuttering in August 2017.
An Instagram page announced that “something sweet is coming to Hubbard Street.” The spokesperson didn’t have many details other than Robbie Schloss, one of the investors in Shore Club, is involved. Another Shore Club partner, Nick Thayer, is included on the bar’s liquor license application, which also lists the business as two floors. Shore Club opened in August 2017, a partnership with the Chicago Park District.
The Instagram posts use hashtags for “milkshake,” “cake,” “desserts,” “diner,” and “chicagogrammers,” so over-the-top boozy or non-boozy milkshakes and sweets could be on the docket. They also use “#fall” so the opening could be coming very soon. Stay tuned for more concrete details when they become available.
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Oct 6, 2018
Alisa Hauser & Mina Bloom | Block Club Chicago | October 3, 2018
CHICAGO — Folks who can’t hear what their Tinder date is saying over the blaring music at a burger bar can now whip out their iPhones and warn others to find a quieter place for a conversation.
SoundPrint, described as a “Yelp for noise levels,” allows users to find and rate restaurants, bars and cafes based on noise levels.
Founded by Gregory Scott, SoundPrint launched last year, initially just in New York City where he lives. In a Q&A on the app’s website, Scott said the idea for SoundPrint came about as he was dating.
“As someone with hearing loss, finding a quieter venue is very important,” Scott said. “And searching for quiet spots on Google, Yelp and other websites was not fruitful, as their ratings are subjective (whether the reviewer thinks the place is quiet or loud) and often unreliable. Many times I would go to a supposedly quieter venue and the place would be very loud, which often resulted in having trouble connecting with my date.”
Scott began using decibel meters out of curiosity to measure various venues, and when he found a quiet spot, he would measure it. This resulted in a list of quiet venues that he shared with others, whether they had hearing loss or not.
Since so many other people were interested in Scott’s New York City list, he decided to create the SoundPrint app and expand its reach. The crowdsourced database currently totals more than 30,000 noise level submissions in 12 cities and it recently expanded nationwide on iPhones (an Android version of the app is not available).
The SoundPrint app includes a built-in decibel meter, so users can measure the noise level of a venue and submit the results or “sound checks” to the SoundPrint database, as well as leave detailed comments about the venue.
The app rates sound levels within four categories: Quiet, Moderate, Loud and Very Loud.
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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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