01/31/08

Dish Deux: Sky-High Breakfast

Breakfast for Two at Sixteen
For the first 15 minutes or so, it was just the two of us, which meant that we were the most fascinating people in the room. The staff kind of hovered. Even though construction of the 92-floor building won’t be finished until summer of 2009, things looked pretty swanky from where we were sitting. Which just happened to be in the River Room, in cerulean blue chairs next to one of the 30-foot-high windows, with a very nice view of the Wrigley Building’s clock tower. It’s a striking space, full of beautiful swirly-grained African wood.

As soon as we sat down, our waiter asked if we wanted freshly squeezed orange juice. Sure. Skinny shooter glasses filled with yummy berry juice came as...

Posted at 06:10 PM in Dish | Permalink | Comments (16)

01/30/08

More Red Meat in River North

Age Enlightenment

Fred Ramos, a veteran chef who most recently ran the show at Room 21 (and Gioco, Printer’s Row, and Pili.Pili), has signed on with a large-scale steak house in the heart of River North. “It’s going to be a modern steak house—the new hip scene,” says Ramos, who will be competing with nearby beef palaces Keefer’s, Ruth’s Chris, Sullivan’s, and Harry Caray’s. The still-unnamed restaurant, owned by Chicago investors, will have homemade pastas, an ambitious rooftop deck, and its own dry-aging room. (Ramos has been hanging out in a couple of local restaurants to learn dry aging.) Expect a...

Posted at 05:14 PM in Dish | Permalink | Comments (1)

01/23/08

Rabbit Stew, Guinness Stew, and Pink Ladies

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Unlucky Rabbit

Paul Fehribach, the chef-owner of Andersonville’s upcoming Big Jones (5347 N. Clark St.), has a defined focus for his new restaurant, bowing in early April: “It’s contemporary coastal Southern—cuisine from low-country Carolinas—a little bit of Florida and Caribbean,” he says. “And a lot of Cajun and Creole, more of the urban Louisiana cuisines.” Fehribach, an Indiana native who created the recipes for the Hi Ricky noodle chain during his lengthy stint with the company—and learned to appreciate Southern food during five years in the kitchen at Harmony Grill (3159 N. Southport Ave.; 773-525-2508)—will bake his own bread, brew his own Worcestershire, and make some of his own cheeses. Also, look for a menu of classic prewar cocktails like pink ladies and...

Posted at 05:13 PM in Dish | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/21/08

Dish FLASH—New Avenues

Graham Elliot Bowles, the supremely talented four-star chef at Avenues (Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St.; 312-573-6754) for the past four years, is leaving to open Graham Elliot in the former Harvest on Huron space at 217 West Huron Street. “The idea is to do four-star cuisine in a completely different atmosphere,” says Bowles. “I’m doing away with linen and florals and the silver and the crystal and making the space as reflective of the chef as possible. Instead of fine dining I think of it as ‘redefined dining,’ in the bistronomic sense of the word. To just be humble and serve the food we believe in.” Like what? “Dishes such as aged Cheddar risotto with Pabst-braised onions, smoked bacon, green apples, and Cheez-Its,” Bowles says. “And there’s going to be a bar and lounge element focusing on the art of mixology and handcrafted cocktails like a deconstructed Bloody Mary with horseradish sorbet, jellied vodka, Tabasco bubbles, and celery salt.” Bowles will bring...

Posted at 04:34 PM in Dish | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/16/08

Name That Restaurant

Stretch Armstrong

Govind Armstrong has set his sights on Chicago. “ Govind who,” you say? Armstrong is the man behind red-hot Table 8 in Los Angeles and Miami, and he is breaking ground at an undisclosed location in River North by the end of January. “I’ve always wanted to do a place in Chicago,” says Armstrong, 38. “It’s got an impeccable dining scene.” Armstrong, an L.A. native who apprenticed at the age of 13 with Wolfgang Puck at Spago, has Costa Rican roots, but describes Table 8 on Melrose Avenue as: “Nothing fancy; warm and inviting, a little gem that you would walk into. It’s not exactly comfort food, but it’s approachable. We’re not reinventing how people should eat, or what they should eat.” (The only dish he’s bringing to his 120-seat restaurant in Chicago that he’d reveal to us was a prime salt-roasted porterhouse.) Armstrong is currently searching for a Chicago chef who is...

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01/09/08

To Market, To Market . . .

Fox, Obel, and Vulpes?

Vulpes, LLC, a group of locally based investors led by the food retail veteran Bill Bolton, has agreed to purchase Fox & Obel (401 E. Illinois St.; 312-410-7301), Chicago’s leading gourmet food shop. The name will not change, nor will the people involved, but according to Fox & Obel’s president and CEO, Keith Montague, the deal leverages F & O’s longtime plan: expansion. “For a long time we have wanted to build additional stores and go to other areas,” Montague told us. “River North, South Loop, North Shore: all tremendous areas. Naperville, Oak Park. We are a small company and don’t have the luxury of opening sites that won’t be successful, so we want to be careful to do it right.” The deal, whose financial terms were not made public, is scheduled to close...

Posted at 05:15 PM in Dish | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/03/08

Geese is the Word

Poetry in Motion
Steve Schwartz, the owner of Campagnola (815 Chicago Ave., Evanston; 847-475-6100), is almost set to open Wild Geese (1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston), an eclectic restaurant with a huge bar. . “We had a guy come from Vermont who built the wood-burning oven,” Schwartz says. “It’s absolutely beautiful.” Pizzas and small plates will be on the menu, but Schwartz is reluctant to pigeonhole the restaurant, which shares a common performance/party space with a neighboring recording studio. And Wild Geese may sound like a random name for a pizzeria, but it comes from a poem of the same name by Mary Oliver: “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting . . . ”

Out Lao’d
They say you should never open a restaurant in January, and Tony Hu didn’t. He opened two...

Posted at 05:54 PM in Dish | Permalink | Comments (3)