Dec 14, 2019
Eater Chicago | Ashok Selvam and Daniel Gerzina | December 13, 2019
Cards Against Humanity deals itself into the restaurant world and more to look forward to
Chicago’s new restaurant outlook for this winter offers variety and some unlikely surprises. The city’s iconic Willis Tower is in the midst of a major renovation which has already begot a few new food options. A tourist attraction opening new restaurants to capitalize on crowds isn’t surprising, but winter 2020 will also bring an improbable debut: the entrepreneurs behind Cards Against Humanity are opening their own cafe.
A second surprise comes from Pilsen and its upcoming concert venue, Radius. It will feature a full-service restaurant and bar, and it’s the only project on the list south of Roosevelt Road. A pair of delayed projects that have appeared on previous previews — RPM Seafood and Chef’s Special Cocktail Bar — also should debut soon, according to reps.
Read on below for winter’s most anticipated restaurant openings. The list is sorted alphabetically.
CATALOG
Address: Willis Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, Loop
Key players: EQ Office, Urbanspace, Rick Bayless, Jollibee, Roberta’s, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Footman Hospitality, and more.
There’s a big effort to modernize one of Chicago’s most popular tourist attractions. Catalog is the over-arching name for new dining renovations inside the Willis Tower, and those improvements include a bevy of new food options highlighted by a new Mexican restaurant chain from chef Rick Bayless that’s funded by the company behind Filipino fast-food powerhouse Jollibee. It’s slated to open in January. The first-floor already has debuted a Shake Shack, Brown Bag Seafood Company, and Do-Rite Donuts. Sweetgreen opened this week, and Lettuce Entertain You’s Sushi-san is pegged for a February opening, according to a rep. A second level will feature a food hall opening in early 2020 from New York’s Urbanspace. Just this week, Urbanspace announced Chicago’s Footman Hospitality (Bangers & Lace, Sparrow) will operate its bar. Urbanspace, which will first open a Loop food hall, promises a lineup of New York favorites, such as Roberta’s — the hip Brooklyn pizzeria — and local chefs.
CHEF’S SPECIAL COCKTAIL BAR
Address: 2165 N. Western Avenue, Bucktown
Key players: Jason Vincent, Josh Perlman, Ben Lustbader, Chase Bracamontes, Tom Scodari, Aaron Kabot
Chicagoans have been patiently waiting for James Beard Award-nominated chef Jason Vincent’s American-Chinese restaurant and bar since January 2019. Chef’s Special will be a throwback to Chinese-American restaurants of the ‘80s, the kind of places that introduced many Americans to Chinese food through plates like Mongolian beef and General Tso’s chicken. There’ll also a bar with fancy drinks. Vincent’s team opened the highly-acclaimed Eater 38 restaurant Giant in 2016 in Logan Square and also oversees the culinary program at the Ace Hotel in Fulton Market. A rep said construction is nearly complete for Chef’s Special, and they’ll start to train workers after January 1 while gearing for a mid-January opening.
CHICAGO BOARD GAME CAFE
Address: 1965 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Logan Square
Key players: Cards Against Humanity, Max Temkin, Aaron McKay
The team behind ever-popular cheeky card game Cards Against Humanity are getting into the restaurant game with this new multi-prong project near the Bucktown/Logan Square border. Chicago Board Game Cafe will include a full-service restaurant and bar, a game library, a shop full of Cards Against Humanity stuff, and even two escape rooms. The food, from pedigreed chefs Aaron McKay (Schwa, NoMi) and Evan Behmer (Mercat a la Planxa, North Pond), will focus on Spanish, Vietnamese, and Mexican street food influences. It’s slated to open on January 10 and reservations are already available.
KOVAL DISTILLERY TASTING ROOM
Address: 4241 W. Ravenswood Avenue, Ravenswood
Key players: Sonat Birnecker Hart, Robert Birnecker
One of Chicago’s most popular craft distillers is finally close to opening its long-planned tasting room off the city’s burgeoning Malt Row on the North Side. For the last 11 years, Koval has specialized in organic spirits. The company has a tasting room, but it’s a little cramped for tour groups. Koval will stretch out its legs at a new 40,000-square-foot facility that’s about 10 minutes away from the current 11,000-square-foot HQ. Expect a cold kitchen with snacks, a patio, and more space to learn about Koval’s offerings. A rep said they’re planning on a February opening.
MOTHER’S RUIN
Address: 2943 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Avondale
Key players: TJ Lynch, Richard Knapp, James Metze, Nick Pfannerstill, Toby Maloney
Boozy milkshakes and Tecate beer cans spiked with Cholula hot sauce are among the drinks coming to Mother’s Ruin Chicago, the Avondale location of a New York bar that opened in 2011. The atmosphere there is casual, but can allegedly get rowdy. The New York team has anointed Toby Maloney as its local partner. Maloney is known for his work at the Violet Hour in Wicker Park, helping make that bar one of the most influential in Chicago. A rep said it’s slated for a February opening.
MUNDANO
Address: 1935 N. Lincoln Park West, Lincoln Park
Key players: Baligh and Moe Abu-Taleb, Ross Henke, Trista Baker
Mundano is about more than fusion food. It’s about a new approach to hospitality from chef Ross Henke who starred at Logan Square Mexican restaurant Quiote. Henke is working with front-of-house manager Trista Baker, a former colleague at Quiote, who founded a not for profit, Restaurant Culture Association, which works toward improving life for restaurant industry workers in a world of #MeToo and debate about wages and tipping. She’ll use that experience in working with Henke to develop best practices to make restaurants better places for workers. Mundano’s menu will represent more than Mexico, dipping into Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East for inspiration. Sample dishes include a bread and oil/chips and salsa service with baguettes with salsa macha and grated pecorino, plus crispy pig ears and salsa. Lamb dan dan noodles with fermented kale, “mexicracha,” lime, and peanuts; fried rock shrimp, cheese curds, escabeche/escalivada, mayo, and lime; delicata squash, salsa roja, labneh, and zaatar.
RADIUS
Address: 640 W. Cermak Road, Pilsen
Key players: Nick Karounos, Henry Hill
The owners of Radius, an upcoming 55,000-square-foot entertainment venue, kept their plans under the radar until this week after lining up acts including Lil Wayne and Alkaline Trio/Bad Religion for the 3,800-capacity music hall component, dubbed Cermak Hall. A rep later revealed that Radius will contain a full-service restaurant. Details are scant, but in a bit of serendipity, chef Henry Hill will develop the menu. Hill worked at Dusek’s, another Pilsen restaurant that comes attached to a music venue (Thalia Hall). Hill helped bring Dusek’s to Michelin-star status while he worked in the kitchen. Slated to open in February, Radius represents the only major project south of Roosevelt Road on this list.
RPM SEAFOOD
Address: 317 N. Clark Street, River North
Key players: Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Bill and Giuliana Rancic
The main component of an ambitious project along the Chicago River, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises plans on opening the new seafood restaurant in January. There’s a bit of an unknown with the controversial departure of chef/partner Doug Psaltis, but it appears construction is the culprit behind the delay. Pizzeria Portofino opened in August inside the riverside building. A private event space, RPM on the Water, opened in the fall. For those wanting a sneak peek, Lettuce Entertain You is offering a New Year’s Eve event where attendees can watch fireworks off the restaurant’s private terrace. Celebrity couple Giuliana and Bill Rancic — also partners in the RPM restaurants — will be in attendance. RPM Seafood should open in mid- to late-January, according to a LEYE rep.
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Dec 7, 2019
Chicago Tribune | Aurora Beacon News | David Sharos | December 5, 2019
Aurora resident Sheli Massie, 43, had a life-changing moment about eight months ago and if things go well, she and other volunteers may open a “pay-what-you-can” restaurant in the city focusing on helping those in need.
Massie said she was on vacation earlier this year with her sister after having attended a social justice conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, when the two of them elected to visit a cafe “everyone was talking about.”
“It was called A Place at the Table and from the moment I went there, everything changed,” Massie said.
The cafe is one of several in the country operating on a “pay-what-you-can” basis and is connected with One World Everybody Eats, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing food security through its pay-what-you-can nonprofit restaurant model.
“I’ve done 20 years of social service and case work and along the way have also worked in restaurants doing something,” Massie said. “My husband and I have been raising five kids and even taken in foster children, but I knew after visiting that cafe that doing something like I saw there was what I was supposed to do.”
Massie’s new dream is to oversee a venture she wants to call The Goldfinch Cafe at a site somewhere in Aurora.
“Goldfinches are symbols of hope and joy,” she said.
She is looking to open the restaurant in about 18 months.
For the past few months, Massie has been mentored by Maggie Kane who runs A Place at the Table in order to learn how she can operate a One World Everybody Eats concept restaurant. Massie said she talked with Kane “about what I wanted to do in the community and I came home and told my husband, ‘I have this crazy dream.'”
“My husband suggested we talk to friends and see what they thought and I also went to some non-profit leaders here in town to get some ideas,” Massie said.
One of those leaders was Cat Battista, executive director of the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, who said she herself is fully committed “to the vision.”
“I don’t say concept because this is bigger than that – it’s a vision and bigger than an idea and a lot of people are going to get behind it,” Battista said. “For me, it’s personally, professionally and financially worth the investment and time, and something that is desperately needed and wanted.”
Massie also spoke with Ryan Dowd, executive director of Hesed House, who she said offered “perspective and gave a lot of insight.” Dowd said Massie’s vision would “increase dignity.”
“Anything we can do to increase peoples’ dignity is a good thing and too often, people in poverty have to give that up to get what they need,” Dowd said. “I love the idea of paying what you can as it inherently adds dignity.”
The Goldfinch Cafe would work the same as other pay-what-you-can restaurants, with most of the help being volunteers and meals being offered with a variety of payment options.
“When people come in, they will be asked to pay a suggested price which will be very affordable,” Massie said.
They can also pay a lesser amount if that is what they can afford.
“If they don’t have money, they can volunteer and work here and every two hours of work will pay for one meal,” she said.
People can also “pay it forward” Massie said, and buy tokens which can be given to others in need of food or kept on the premises and used for those unable to pay.
“A lot of this is based on paying it forward and we’re going to be in constant need of fundraising and getting outside contributions,” she said. “Most of our staff will be volunteers but my job as executive director will be to build relationships, and I know with the kindness and generosity we have in Aurora this can be done.”
One of the first fundraising events for the restaurant was held Wednesday afternoon at R.C. Wegman Construction Co. at 750 Morton Ave. in Aurora.
R.C. Wegman Director of Business Development Colette Rozanski said she met Massie at a networking event and that like Battista, she and her company are interested in the restaurant’s concept.
“We agreed to sponsor this event and it’s safe to say we’re going to support it in the future,” Rozanski said before Massie addressed those who came to the event. “I heard about the concept and came back and told my company we were going to get behind it.”
Massie said she has had conversations with people interested in learning more about the proposed restaurant’s concept.
“People have said, ‘Do you want me to eat with the homeless?’ and my response has been that all people come to the table hungry for something – they may be lonely or afraid but if you look at one another across the table, you’ll see we’re not all that different,” she said. “We have to make the table longer and learn from those who have gone before.”
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Nov 23, 2019
Eater Chicago | Daniel Gerzina, Ashok Selvam, Naomi Waxman | November 18, 2019
We narrow down the playing field for best restaurant, design, and chef of the year
Today, the process of choosing this year’s stars in the Chicago restaurant world — the Eater Awards winners for 2019 — continues apace. After fielding many solid ideas from readers during the course of our month-long nomination period, it’s time to narrow the playing field. There are four finalists in three categories: Restaurant of the Year, Design of the Year, and Chef of the Year.
Here they are:
Restaurant of the Year
GALIT: Chicago is home to many Middle Eastern restaurants, but arguably none exalted the range, ingredients, heritage, and overall quality of Israeli cuisine before this smash hit from James Beard Award-winning chef Zach Engel opened this year in Lincoln Park.
ROOH: The city is in the midst of a golden era of South Asian restaurants, with pedigreed chefs opening many palate-expanding options this year outside Chicago’s longtime Indian hub on Devon Avenue, and the sophisticated, modern food and drink at this San Francisco import makes it arguably the crown jewel of them all along Randolph Restaurant Row.
TZUCO: Carlos Gaytán, who was the first chef of Mexican descent to earn a Michelin star at his shuttered classic Mexique, triumphantly rejoined the Chicago restaurant scene this year with this Mexican-French triple threat in River North that’s drawing critical and public acclaim for its main restaurant and adjoined all-day bakery, plus a fine dining, tasting-menu room is coming soon.
VIRTUE: This Hyde Park star from longtime acclaimed chef Erick Williams is already one of Eater’s best new restaurants of the year, expanding many diners’s beliefs in what’s possible with Southern comfort food, unpretentious hospitality, and unexpected ingredients.
Design of the Year
KUMIKO/KIKKO: Already one of Chicago’s essential cocktail bars, Kumiko packs sophisticated-yet-unpretentious design elements into this inconspicuous Japanese-influenced stalwart that includes a subterranean omakase den. The West Loop space features panels designed by a Japanese firm. Local firm Brokenpress Design worked on mid-century-influenced custom millwork furnishings.
TZUCO: Gaytán’s Mexican-French hit feels like he picked up a museum of his hometown of Huitzuco, Mexico and placed it in downtown Chicago: the space is full of personal items, plant life, kitchen utensils, and more transported and displayed in every nook and cranny, and also integrates the main restaurant, adjoined bakery, and coming-soon fine dining room under one roof.
UTOPIAN TAILGATE: As Chicago’s rooftop bar boom shows no signs of slowing down, the Fifty/50 Restaurant Group took a different design approach, focusing on fun and whimsical features such as bright psychedelic colors, zany games, and more quirky features in nearly every corner of this massive indoor-outdoor venue above the treasured Second City comedy club in Old Town.
WHEREWITHALL: The follow-up to one of Chicago’s most acclaimed restaurants — Michelin-starred Parachute in Avondale — turns a former auto body shop into a cozy neighborhood spot that oozes understated creativity in features including felt light fixtures, counter seats in the small bar room that look into the kitchen, and a quaint courtyard that leads to a private-dining room in a separate building.
Chef of the Year
MARI KATSUMURA (Yugen): The chef of this newly-Michelin-starred Japanese-influenced restaurant rises to a massive challenge – helming the West Loop restaurant that replaced three-Michelin-starred Grace – with food that’s wowing critics, diners, and Michelin inspectors.
DAVE PARK (Jeong): After earning an Eater Young Gun award and an Eater 38 inclusion at a small food stall in the suburbs, Dave Park’s first full restaurant in the city has somehow topped that hype, offering a symphony of creative Korean flavors in West Town.
OTTO PHAN (Kyōten): The plethora of new upscale omakase restaurants are one of the top trends in Chicago dining this year, yet the one that didn’t get a Michelin star – the Logan Square spot from this uber-talented, talkative sushi chef – is the most critically-acclaimed locally.
ERICK WILLIAMS (Virtue): Williams turned years of fine-dining experience into beloved Southern food at one of the country’s best new restaurants, working magic by pushing boundaries of dishes that most diners thought they already knew the limits.
All of these finalists have either opened or come into their own in a new way since we declared the winners last year. All of them were key contributors to making 2019 a great year of eating in Chicago. So please, take a moment to give these brave finalists a round of applause. Winners will be crowned, with much fanfare, on December 10, 2019.
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Nov 16, 2019
Crain’s Chicago Business | H. Lee Murphy | November 15, 2019
The Italian-born fan favorite on the reality TV show ‘Top Chef’ is sitting on 35 restaurants around the country, with plans to open at least a dozen more in the coming year.
In the world of brand-name chefs, perhaps Wolfgang Puck is the volume leader, with stakes in 36 restaurants and lounges. Gordon Ramsay has his name on 35 establishments. But both are likely to be surpassed soon by a lesser-known Chicago-area chef who is amassing a dining empire at a brisk pace.
Fabio Viviani, a native of Italy who has been living and working in the U.S. only since 2005, is sitting on 35 restaurants around the country, with plans to open at least a dozen more in the coming year. His Loop-based Fabio Viviani Hospitality, at which he is president and CEO, owns and manages dining rooms in airports and casinos, cities and suburbs together with deep-pocketed partners. Revenue is on track to jump by one-third this year to reach $100 million, then rise again in 2020 to $150 million.
The fast-rising entrepreneur, 41, still works in the kitchen. But more and more, he has become a manager of people—he has 2,500 employees—and an ambitious businessman. “I’m extended, but not stretched too far in my expansion,” he says. “I’m growing at a pace I can control.”
The restaurants are only the half of it. In his spare time, Viviani has written four cookbooks, endorses kitchen gear (high-end Bialetti pots and pans), delivers speeches to Fortune 500 audiences on inspirational topics, owns a winery in Sonoma, Calif., and invests in technology firms. He raises chickens and tends a vegetable garden on the 6-acre estate he owns in Barrington Hills, where he lives with his wife, Ashley, 42, a model and real estate broker before they were married 4½ years ago. They have a 4-year-old son.
Restaurant analysts wonder if he is going too far too fast. A big company like Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises has more than 120 locations, they point out, but it’s not dependent on any single chef to oversee operations, and it’s taken close to 50 years to reach its current size. Chef Rick Bayless, 65, of Frontera Restaurants has taken more than 30 years to get to nine concepts spread over 14 locations.
“Fabio is not following a normal pattern within the restaurant industry. So far he’s defied restaurant logic,” says Doug Roth, owner of consultancy Playground Hospitality in Glencoe. “He will need to build a very strong organization if he is going to maintain the kind of consistency that demanding diners expect today. If he can pull this kind of expansion off, great, but you have got to be skeptical.”
So far, it seems that Viviani hasn’t lost his focus. His local flagship, Siena Tavern, has been open six years in River North and is still pulling close to 1,000 customers on busy Saturdays into its 220-seat space. A few blocks away, steakhouse Prime & Provisions, where a 38-ounce tomahawk rib-eye goes for nearly $200, is similarly filled. The partner at both, the firm that played a key role in launching Viviani’s career, is DineAmic Hospitality, which is backing Viviani on 10 restaurants. The relationship has been a prosperous one: Siena and Prime each take in close to $14 million annually in revenue, considered huge by industry standards.
NO MONEY, NO ENGLISH
Viviani’s arrival in Chicago was something of an accident. With no money and no English-speaking skills, Viviani followed a friend to suburban Los Angeles in autumn 2005 and, with techniques learned since working in a bakery at age 11 back in Florence, quickly caught on. He took charge of a place called Cafe Firenze in Moorpark (he still has it today) and then placed fourth in the 2009-10 season of reality TV show “Top Chef.” His good looks and charismatic style caught the fancy of viewers, who voted him fan favorite.
Viviani met his future wife at a party on Michigan Avenue nine years ago and not long after pulled up stakes and left his California base to be close to her here. DineAmic spotted him shortly after and began planning Siena. “A lot of ‘Top Chefs’ you never hear of anymore,” says Lucas Stoioff, a founder and principal of DineAmic. “Fabio’s stint on ‘Top Chef’ didn’t hurt, but it’s his charm, kitchen skills and work ethic since then that have made him a success. He may still be a celebrity to ‘Top Chef’ fans, but he backs that up with real talent.”
What else has kept him moving forward? For one, Viviani doesn’t cut corners: Pasta is made from scratch at each of his Italian spots. That really tender octopus? Viviani asks his cooks to put the sea critters into a big electric paddle-mixer for an hour of tenderizing before they’re cooked.
In an industry notorious for turnover, the CFO and the human resources chief have both been with Viviani 15 years. The head of operations, John Paolone, started with the chef as a line cook. Ken Biffar, the corporate chef who oversees the Siena brand here, is 42 and a veteran of 14 years with Viviani. “Chef Fabio fit right into American kitchens easily from the start,” Biffar recalls. “He had presence. It was always obvious that he knew what he was doing.”
He knows all 40 people in the Siena kitchen by name—and he has a sense of humor that is rare among so many stressed-out captains of the kitchen. “He’s a fun person to be around, which is one reason why we are able to hold on to our people,” Biffar says. He adds that no Viviani restaurant, typically aimed at a middlebrow audience, is chasing Michelin stars, reducing the pressure to perform each day.
MULTIPLE BRANDS
The chef is invested in restaurants in Michigan, Florida, California, New York, Pennsylvania and other states—carrying names such as Osteria, BomboBar, Chuck Lager America’s Tavern and—the latest experiment in branding—Dixie’s Southern Kissed Chicken, to open by April in New Jersey and Delaware as a rival to fast-food giant Chick-fil-A. In the face of all this new construction, Viviani has closed just one nonperforming restaurant, in South Beach, Fla., a couple of years ago. “We simply had the wrong location there,” Viviani says.
“The Fabio name and its ‘Top Chef’ connection helps us in negotiations with landlords and property owners more than anything else,” says Craig Colby, president of Colby Restaurant Group in suburban Philadelphia, the partner on the chicken venture.
Viviani is logging more and more frequent-flyer miles today. He acknowledges that he might eventually attract the attention of a private-equity buyout specialist, saying “we’d be willing to consider any and all offers.” And yet above all he still loves to cook—and will cook for you personally at the right price. In his Barrington Hills home, the chef maintains a restaurant-style kitchen in his basement and invites small corporate groups, usually a dozen or so at a time, to reserve a table for an evening dinner. The price is $750 per person and more and includes luxury ingredients like truffles and sea urchins and Louis XIII cognac.
Limousines deliver the guests. Viviani, empire builder and chef, delivers the experience.
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Nov 9, 2019
CBS Chicago | Vince Gerasole | November 8, 2019
OAK PARK, Ill. (CBS) — From the outside looking in, Cucina Paradiso is still a well-known Italian restaurant in Oak Park. But for the past two months, it’s cooked up the not-so Mediterranean Nashville fried chicken. Out of the same kitchen, with the same staff, owners have created a restaurant that exists only online for delivery — a concept they call Boulevard Bird. A small sign outside has fun with the “secret location.”
“It’s hard to imagine you are getting orders for a restaurant that doesn’t exist,” said owner Anthony Gambino.
Online ordering is a $26.8 billion industry, and these “virtual restaurants” are emerging to meet growing demand. It’s fueled by diners ages 18 to 29. And 63% have used a delivery app in the past 90 days. But are health departments prepared to guarantee the safety of these virtual restaurants? CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole went looking for answers.
The Cook County Department of Public Health said it is “not aware of restaurants that … exist only for online delivery.” The Chicago health department seemed a bit more informed, saying though the concept is new, all meals for sale “must be prepared in a commercial kitchen.”
“We all have to be certified in sanitation,” Gambino said.
Gambino says delivery sites like Grubhub or DoorDash won’t work with virtual restaurants whose kitchens don’t meet local health standards. Ordering from sites like these is a good way for consumers to make sure the food they are ordering is safe. “They have to legitimize that you have a brick and mortar,” Gambino said. “You are completely licensed, bonded and insured to even run a business to begin with.”
The virtual restaurant trend also allows owners to experiment with different types of cuisines without investing heavily in dining rooms and large staffs.
“If Boulevard Bird doesn’t work, maybe next week it’s brick oven pizza,” said Gambino.
While restaurants keep their health certifications available on site, there is no state law requiring online or virtual restaurants post their certificates on their websites.
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Nov 2, 2019
InsideHook | Amanda Topper | October 31, 2019
Including the first themed restaurant that doesn’t suck since … forever?
To keep tabs on every Chicago restaurant and bar opening is folly. But to keep tabs on the most worthy? Yeoman’s work, and we’re proud to do it. Thus we present Table Stakes, a monthly rundown of the five (or so) must-know spots that have swung wide their doors in the past thirty (or so). Bon appétit.
JIAO | Loop – 18 South Wabash Avenue
You’re here because: You’re down for dumplings, especially the soup dumplings from the team behind Chinatown’s beloved Qing Xiang Yuan (QXY) Dumplings.
You’re dining on: QXY Dumplings’ sister restaurant just opened in the Loop, and we’re pretty sure it’s the first fast food restaurant in the US to serve soup dumplings. Jiao focuses on steamed and pan-fried dumplings with eight filling options: pork, lamb, vegetables, crab and truffle, plus rotating seasonal specials. Order dumplings online via Jiao’s proprietary app, or dine in amid the sleek East-meets-West dining room.
Gadabout | Andersonville – 5212 North Clark Street
You’re here because: You self-identify as a “gadabout,” aka a habitual, pleasure-seeker who loves exploring international cuisine in a fun, approachable way.
You’re dining on: Non-traditional street food divided into five sections: Raw & Lightly Cooked, Vegetables, Skewers, Seafood and Meat. Mix and match plates across the menu for a wide variety of global influences. Standouts include Sweet Corn & Poblano Empanadas with a blueberry peach salsa, and a pork belly and kimchi stew with tofu, clams and bok choy. Pair with cocktails made from small-batch spirits, like the Purple Flame featuring sotol, poblano, lingonberry and lime — note the eye-catching violet hue.
Stockton | Gold Coast – 1009 North Rush Street
You’re here because: You’re looking for an upscale escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. The sleek bar and restaurant offers plenty of plush seating to enjoy everything from a round of cocktails to a full group dining experience.
You’re dining on: A seafood-focused menu complete with shellfish towers, a raw bar, sushi and small plates like tuna tartare and jalapeno hamachi, plus an extensive variety of hot shared plates including Asian bao, kebabs and three varieties of dumplings. Larger plates are also globally inspired, like the Jack’d Up Fried Rice with teriyaki steak and hoisin chicken. Sip on the Sweet ‘N Spicy cocktail with mezcal, ginger, grapefruit and Thai chili ice cubes, plus beer, wine or sake options. A separate space, The Lounge at Stockton, is set to open with live music in November.
Papa Cenar | Logan Square – 2445 North Milwaukee Avenue
You’re here because: You’re a sucker for themed restaurants, and also happen to be an Ernest Hemingway fan. Papa Cenar’s menu is inspired by Hemingway’s travels to European cafes, with influences from the Mediterranean and Spain. The large yet warm space features several seating options including areas for enjoying cocktails at the bar, lounge tables and traditional dining tables.
You’re dining on: Shared plates are separated into three sections: The Land, The Sea and The Butcher. Highlights include halloumi cheese with eggplant caponata, scallops with saffron and carrot puree, and albondigas (Spanish meatballs) with cipollini onion agrodolce. The dinner menu is rounded out with a selection of large grilled plates including a pork chop with brown butter squash puree and whole grilled branzino with mole rojo. All wines are available by the glass or bottle, plus Papa Cenar offers a selection of classic and house cocktails, including two varieties of sangria and a selection of bottled beers.
WoodWind | Streeterville – 259 East Erie Street
You’re here because: You’re intrigued at the thought of an upscale restaurant inside a hospital.
You’re dining on: Odd location aside, WoodWind is a fine-dining destination 18 floors up with serious culinary chops and serious cityscape views. Executive Chef Donald Young (formerly of Temporis) is leading the execution of the whimsical menu. Dishes are fun and playful, including the Buffalo Chicken Chicharrón and the Foie Gras “Bao Mac,” an upscale take on a Big Mac with bread-and-butter pickles and fancy sauce, plus the Bloomin’ Maitake, a mushroom version of a Bloomin’ Onion with sesame caramel and bonito flakes. The cocktail menu is equally as playful, with ingredients ranging from activated charcoal and butterfly pea flower, to beets and dark chocolate. Weekday happy hour is also available, featuring a condensed menu of discounted bites and drinks.
Centre Street Kitchen | Lincoln Park – 1224 West Webster Avenue
You’re here because: You want to dine out for a good cause. Centre Street Kitchen plans to raise seven million dollars for pediatric cancer patients and their families via diner donations.
You’re dining on: Owned by Erik Baylis, a cancer survivor himself, this concept is all about embracing hospitality and giving back. The menu takes a better-for-you approach by limiting use of heavy ingredients like butter and cream, and emphasizing veggie-forward dishes. Shareables include grilled squash with za’atar, feta and shallot-tahini vinaigrette, char-grilled octopus with lentils and potatoes, and gochujang cabbage wraps with heirloom pork shoulder, plus a variety of salads. Larger dishes focus on proteins like the NY strip, grilled snapper or smoked chicken for two. Beverage options include a build-your-own whiskey flight, more than 20 draft beers, and a sizable wine and cocktail list.
Claudia | West Loop – 540 West Madison Street
You’re here because: You loved Claudia when it was a pop-up restaurant, and are ready for the next phase of chef Trevor Teich’s career.
You’re dining on: The elegant dining room houses only 16 tables, with dinner seatings offered at 5:30 PM and 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Claudia features a 10-course tasting menu for $185 and is currently BYOB, with plans to offer wine pairings in the future. Courses take inspiration from chef Teich’s culinary credentials — including stints at L2O and Acadia — and include surprises like a crab lasagna with passion fruit and snails served with truffles and pine.
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