Openings
- Who else but Brendan Sodikoff would be called upon to create a café inside Chicago’s new Restoration Hardware flagship? His 3 Arts Club Café (1300 N. Dearborn St., Gold Coast, 312-475-9116), which opened Friday, has light eats (salads, sandwiches, juices) as appealing as RH’s furniture.
- Pilsenites have a new spot to get their plantain-sandwich fix. The Jibarito Stop (1646 W. 18th St., 312-988-0585) is now making steak, chicken, and vegetarian versions of the native Chicago delicacy, plus empanadas and meat platters.
Morsels
- Can you manage to get in a line really, really early on Saturday? The new location of Stan’s Donuts & Coffee (2800 N. Clark St., Lake View, 773-868-0173) will open its doors at 6:30 a.m., and the first 100 customers will score a gift envelope. Everyone with an envelope will win something, but one person will earn free doughnuts. For life.
- Raise a glass of orange juice to Birchwood Kitchen (2211 W. North Ave., Wicker Park), which will shut its doors this weekend after six years of service. The cozy spot was best known for its delightful brunch and hour-plus weekend waits for experiencing said delightful brunch. The current owners told DNAInfo that they’re ready to do something else with their lives, and that they’ve sold the business to another neighborhood restaurateur, whom they declined to name.
- Brobagel (1931 W. North Ave., Wicker Park, 773-276-2243) has a new way for you to feel the burn. Starting Friday it will add to its sandwich roster the Atomic Bagel, a combo of Hot Doug’s Atomic Sausage (the same sausage that’s dappling pies at neighboring Piece), scrambled eggs, and pepper jack cheese on any of the shop’s bagels. The sandwich runs $6.99 and is on offer all day.