Politan Row dining guide: What to eat and drink at the new West Loop food hall and beer garden

Chicago Tribune | Louisa Chu, Adam Lukach, Nick Kindelsperger, Grace Wong | May 17, 2019

Politan Row, the newest and one of the most highly anticipated food halls in Chicago, opened Saturday, so we ate and drank everywhere there in one day this week. Our urgency was driven secondarily by its location in arguably the hottest neighborhood in the city, West Town in the West Loop area, more precisely the ground floor of the new McDonald’s headquarters building. To be clear Politan Hall is unrelated to the fast food company, instead created by the Politan Group based in New Orleans, home to its flagship food hall, St. Roch Market.

As Food & Dining reporters, we were motivated primarily by a promising lineup of 13 vendors, some of whom had only existed previously as pop-ups or food trucks and others completely new concepts.

Hours vary but, notably, most vendors are open for dinner and weekends, unlike at Revival Food Hall, the first of the new generation of fancy food courts filled with local brands. On the fifth day of business at Politan Row, it was clear that some vendors could clearly use a little more practice in their new home, but one team performed flawlessly: the service staff. They offered ice water in real glasses and cleared tables continuously, because, bizarrely, there are no garbage cans in the new food hall, except for one small ashtray-topped trash cylinder.

Here’s everything we ate and drank everywhere in Politan Row.

— Louisa Chu

Bar Politan – politanrow.com/barpolitan

Bumbu Roux – chicago.politanrow.com/bumburoux

Clave – chicago.politanrow.com/clave

Floriole – chicago.politanrow.com/floriole

La Shuk – chicago.politanrow.com/lashukstreetfood

Loud Mouth – chicago.politanrow.com/loudmouth

Mom’s – chicago.politanrow.com/moms

Passion House – chicago.politanrow.com/passionhousecoffee

Perle – chicago.politanrow.com/perle

Piko Street Kitchen – chicago.politanrow.com/pikostreetkitchen