Sandwiches around the world excite Jeff Mauro, the Chicago native Food Network personality. Nowadays, the once and future Sandwich King isn’t globetrotting as much, and in 2024 he’s plotting a series of collaborations to showcase his gourmet food brand, Mauro Provisions.
One of those collaborations starts on Friday, February 16 with another Chicago native, Henry Cai of 3 Little Pigs. Cai, who recently opened in the South Loop — inside the Molly’s Cupcakes space, 1150 S. Wabash — will top his signature Chinese American fried chicken sandwiches with Mauro’s Honey G Pepper Relish, which is a finely chopped version of his giardiniera. Cai says it’s a perfect match, saying when you’re eating giardiniera, you sometimes don’t get all the ingredients in a bite. A finely chopped relish is easily spreadable with the spicy oil, carrots, and celery evenly distributed.
They mix the relish with honey for a savory, sweet, and crunch condiment. Mauro says the relish gives eaters “a natural high.” The sandwich comes with the relish and a thinly sliced cucumber salad. There’s also 3 Little Pigs’ hot mustard, mayo, and iceberg lettuce. It’s called “the Hot Mauro.” The sandwich is available for a limited time.
“It’s like a Chinese-Italian symphony,” Mauro says.
Cai says he wasn’t sure if he was being pranked when Mauro sent him a message via Instagram asking if he was interested in teaming up. Mauro says folks from around the world have an affinity for Chinese food in its different varieties. China may not have a huge history with sandwich culture — baos seem to fill that niche. But Cai fuses the food his father cooked for him growing up with his own ideas. Mauro says Cai has “a gift for frying chicken.”
“His is what this is like what I crave in a fried chicken sandwich, right?” Mauro says. “it’s balanced — it’s marinated chicken thigh and the coating is so good.”
Henry Cai (left) and Jeff Mauro (right) pose at 3 Little Pigs in South Loop.Paper Pigeon Studio
Mauro was then left with figuring out how to add giardiniera to a fried chicken sandwich with Chinese spices and toppings: “When I started formulating the Honey G pepper relish, I just knew the flavors, the fermented quality, the oily quality, you know — the crunch — the color, the sweetness would lend itself well.”
Speaking with Mauro about combining Chinese and Italian food brought up memories of a Lincoln Park restaurant that opened in the ‘90s called Luigi’s of Hong Kong. The restaurant teased customers with a revolution with a menu that included pasta and pot stickers. There was also a location in suburban Lake Zurich.
Giardiniera is like a mystic art to Chicagoans, with companies closely guarding their recipes. Recently, Cai has been studying the sacred alchemy while preparing his own tribute to Chicago street food, combining Chinese hot pot with Italian beef. Think of it as a Chinese counterpart to Kasama’s Adobo beef sandwich with Filipino flavors. Cai knows he’ll need to include giardiniera in some form. Perhaps he has a new collaborator with Mauro.
Mauro has other collaborations on the way with Boar’s Head Cafe and others. Stay tuned for more information.
New York City-based hospitality brand The Group continues its splashy Chicago expansion with the launch of Parisian brasserie La Grande Boucherie, a restaurant trying to channel the joie de vie of La Belle Epoque-era France parked in the prominent former two-level home of Ruth’s Chris Steak House in River North which has remained vacant for nearly three and a half years.
Poised to open on Saturday, February 17 at 431 N. Dearborn Street, La Grande Boucherie is the second of three new restaurant projects The Group has planned for Chicago. It follows the late 2023 entrance of Olio e Più, a spacious trattoria perched just steps away from its French sister spot, and precedes the unveiling of intimate 10-seat sushi counter Omakase Room projected for the spring. That’s not to be confused with the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises venue inside Sushi-San River North the bears the same name.
Design renderings show off the enormous scale.La Grande Boucherie
The New York restaurant made a cameo in Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That… La Grande Boucherie
Boka Restaurant Group attempted to usher a new age of French dining in River North when it opened Le Select in January 2023, but it closed 10 months later. Now, a new contender has emerged where Ruth’s Chris spent nearly 28 years; it closed in October 2020, mostly due to deflated downtown traffic during the pandemic.
The Group invested around $1.5 million to build and install a new facade for the Dearborn Street building, replacing the steak chain’s unremarkable beige brick with a soaring, scrollwork-gilded stone exterior that’s outfitted with 25-foot windows. Despite the time and cost involved, founder Emil Stefkov feels the juice is well worth the squeeze. “It was a super ugly building that we transformed into a jewel, so I’m very happy [and] very proud of it,” he says. “[It’s] literally another landmark building in Chicago.”
At a whopping 10,120 square feet, La Grande Boucherie Chicago is The Group’s largest restaurant, outpacing even the New York original, which seats up to 600 and spans half the length of 6 1/2 Avenue in Manhattan. The massive construction project extended to the building’s interior, where workers gutted the structure to create a grandiose ground floor and mezzanine with curved vaulted ceilings, custom mosaic tile floors, and a century-old French glass mural featuring a scene from a Paris cafe — a collection piece that survived the Nazi bombardment of Paris during World War II.
Stefkov and New York-based designer Julien Legeard (Olio e Più) tapped French and Chicago crews to create the restaurant’s most prominent element — a 40-seat, 82-foot-long oval-shaped pewter bar crafted with 200-year-old metalworking techniques. That’s where bartenders will lavish special attention on absinthe, a famed symbol of Parisian decadence, served out of traditional fountains. Drinkers can expect around a dozen varieties of absinthe as well as cocktails starring the so-called Green Fairy, a drink favored by Ernest Hemingway. Even happy hour gets the absinthe treatment, as La Grande aims to resurrect the 18th-century tradition of the green hour.
For some local color, the team has brought in Chicago bartender Tim Williams of Pour Souls to design the cocktail and absinthe menus (he also created the drinks for Olio e Più) and partnered with modern Jewish deli Steingold’s of Chicago, which will furnish smoked salmon for La Grande’s menu.
The Chicago outpost’s food menu will strongly resemble that of its older sister restaurant with a focus on brasserie classics (think French onion soup and escargot) alongside a raw bar and large cuts of meat including chateaubriand for two and plateu de boucher, a “meat-lovers plate” featuring several cuts that can feed up to four. The Group sources its beef from Idaho’s Snake River Farms and ages it on-site.
Aya Pastry was a rare pandemic success story. While Chicagoans anxiously navigated the early days of COVID, the desire for comfort foods increased, and baker Aya Fukai — who rose through Chicago’s culinary ranks using her imagination and creativity as pastry chef at highly profitable Gold Coast hot spot Maple & Ash — was there with her baked goods: Fukai took inspiration from a variety of sources, including Girl Scout Cookies, which pushed her to create a supercharged doughnut, a decadent treat that looks like a Samoa cookie. Coffeehouses around town turned to Aya to supply pastries, and the bakery’s wholesale operation boomed, counting more than 50 clients including large grocery stores like Dom’s Kitchen & Market and independent coffee shops like Gaslight Coffee Roasters.
But behind the scenes, Fukai wasn’t exactly enjoying her tremendous success. She quietly left the bakery in October. Fukai’s exit came just 10 months after her backers at What If Syndicate dissolved the company. What If co-founder David Pisor brought Aya Pastry under his newly formed entity, Etta Collective.
Few knew about Fukai’s exit, as her name remained on the signs. She says that her deal to sell her 51 percent stake in the bakery for $700,000 closed on October 3. Meanwhile, Pisor told Eater on January 17 that she was still with the bakery.
Aya Pastry is just one of the dominoes to fall in Pisor’s restaurant empire, an empire that at one point consisted of five restaurants in three states. In the past month, Pisor closed the River North location of Etta and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers for Etta Collective and Etta River North. On the same day, Thursday, February 1, his attorney made two more bankruptcy filings — one for Etta Bucktown and another for Aya Pastry. The Aya filing revealed Pisor owed $500,000 to Fukai (she received $200,000 upon closing, it went mostly to attorneys fees, she says). A fifth filing had been made on January 18 involving Etta in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are also reports of a $2.5 million loan defaulting and eviction orders, according to Crain’s. The Chapter 11 filings would allow the businesses to continue, and although messaging directed to customers indicate that things are business as usual, questions remain about Etta’s future. Also, plans for a suburban Etta location in Evanston are on hold, Pisor confirms.
Workers said they only received two hours’ notice before Etta River North closed.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
“Our aim is to best position the Etta brand for future success,” a statement provided to Eater from Pisor and his reps reads. “By filing for protection under Chapter 11, we will be able to restructure our financial position while continuing our daily operations and keeping our locations open. As has already happened in our Scottsdale location, we predict that we will emerge stronger both operationally and financially.”
Former workers have been calling out Etta Collective for months, alleging that the company left them without health care. Their final paychecks also arrived two days late. Fukai, along with 11 former Etta employees — servers, bartenders, and operations staff — from River North and Bucktown provide an inside look into the seeming slow-rolling collapse of a national restaurant group. Etta’s Chicago workers saw warning signs of the downfall in August when Etta Collective narrowly dodged eviction at its Culver City location and laid off 10 workers including a handful at the corporate level. The cost-cutting continued as nine Etta River North workers claimed that they saw lapses in their health care coverage despite having premiums deducted from their paychecks. They accuse Pisor and management of allegedly misleading customers about the distribution of a 3.5 percent staff benefits fee added to customer checks. Most have requested their names be kept out of the story for fear of being labeled as outspoken as they search for new hospitality jobs. Some say they are worried about becoming a target of what they describe as Pisor’s litigious temperament.
After the settlement, Pisor quickly touted the arrivals of three forthcoming restaurants in an afternoon interview with Eater on January 22 — Etta Evanston, Etta Dallas, and a yet-to-be-announced Downtown Chicago steakhouse. Yet the bankruptcy filings include a list of unpaid vendors across sectors — restaurant, health care, and construction — that may put the three projects in jeopardy. Familiar names like Slagel Family Farm, Sysco, Kilgus Farmstead, and Supreme Lobster are owed thousands of dollars, according to these filings.
“He’s got open tabs all around the city,” alleges a source who works in construction and design.
In a written response about money owed to vendors, Pisor writes that Etta filed for Chapter 11 in part to ensure day-to-day operations to restructure and “work to resolve those payments.”
Etta Collective’s decline comes in the aftermath of a split between Pisor and former business partner Jim Lasky following a legal battle that started in March 2022. The two opened Maple & Ash, in 2015 in Chicago’s Gold Coast. They went on to form What If Syndicate and opened a Maple & Ash in Scottsdale. However, along the way, Lasky and Pisor’s relationship became strained, according to court documents. In January 2023, the pair agreed to split What If into two companies. Pisor formed Etta Collective, taking Etta restaurants in River North and Bucktown, Aya Pastry, and Cafe Sophie in Gold Coast. Lasky formed Maple Hospitality Group, taking Maple & Ash, one of the highest-grossing restaurants in the country, according to Restaurant Business Online.
Pisor’s employees in this new company, Etta Collective, say the split was an unwelcome change. Fukai alleges it was made without her knowledge or input, despite her being the majority owner of Aya Pastry. Though she’s come to terms with leaving the business that bears her name, she is considering pursuing legal action against Pisor after seeing the bankruptcy filing.
Many other former employees believe they would still be employed under different leadership.
“Pisor was the only thing wrong with that company,” former Etta River North server Drew Riebhoff alleges of Etta Collective.
Pisor earned a reputation as a developer with big ideas. As a restaurateur, he relished creating lavish dining rooms. Before Maple & Ash, he served as the chief executive officer of Elysian Hotels and was a prolific real estate developer. In 2015, Lasky and Pisor founded Maple & Ash. Building on the success of that first steakhouse, the partners, along with executive chef and Elysian alum Danny Grant, opened a second location four years later in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Maple & Ash brought a brasher attitude compared to traditional steakhouses. It had to, as it takes guts to open a steakhouse on the perimeter of what Chicagoans have nicknamed “the Viagra Triangle,” with Morton’s and Gibsons already surrounding Mariano Park. Pisor and Lasky debuted a new brand centered on one of the trends of the moment: kitchens with wood-fired hearths.
An approach that mixed fine dining with approachable irreverence earned Maple & Ash national attention; then-Eater critic Bill Addison hailed the team for its embrace of “the steakhouse motif with unfettered playfulness.” Addison continued, “[Grant] oversees a 12-foot hearth that breathes fire over rows of steaks, as well as a coal-burning oven that produces the kitchen’s greatest stroke of genius: a seafood tower of roasted shrimp, oysters, lobster, Alaskan King Crab legs, and other oceanic treasures, kissing the shellfish with smoke and concentrating their flavors.”
When Etta Bucktown, a more casual restaurant than Maple & Ash, opened in 2018, customers soon made it one of the hottest tables in town, too. A prototypical neighborhood restaurant and easily scaled, a second Etta soon opened in River North with a third following in Culver City, California.
But the partnership reached a breaking point during the pandemic. Maple & Ash became caught up in a scandal over vaccinations earmarked for a safety net hospital on Chicago’s West Side. A Maple & Ash regular, the former chief operating officer of Loretto Hospital, broke protocol and secured a supply of COVID vaccines for the steakhouse’s staff. While all of this was going on, restaurants across the country fought for every dollar and applied for PPP funds, and staff donned masks to keep safe. Pisor and Lasky’s relationship continued to erode.
David Pisor came up with much of the design for Maple & Ash, the steakhouse he and Jim Lasky opened before the two split in January 2023.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
A lawsuit filed by Pisor in April 2022 alleged that Lasky and Grant were freezing him out of the company. A counter-lawsuit accused Pisor of allegedly showing up to a female employee’s house late at night unannounced. Rumors began to circulate on both sides, but before the powder keg could explode, Pisor and Lasky agreed to a settlement in January 2023, splitting the company and keeping any other stories away from the public eye.
Today, Pisor’s empire appears in shambles, and his former business partner at Maple & Ash, Lasky, is defending allegations of PPP fraud levied by restaurant investors. The claims of PPP abuse were used as punchlines during the 2024 Jean Banchet Awards, which recognizes local chefs and restaurants. On stage in January, host Michael Muser, a co-owner of two-Michelin-starred Ever, joked about the alleged purchase of a private jet using taxpayer funds that were supposed to benefit employees. But Maple & Ash’s reputation and brand, at least in the eyes of customers, remains strong. The steakhouse continues to attract crowds in Gold Coast and Scottsdale.
Maple & Ash’s owners declined to comment for this story.
Pisor had big plans in 2023 after breaking away from Lasky. In March, he hired a pair of big names with Michelin-star resumes. Alinea Group alum Dan Perretta served as a partner and executive chef. He brought over Micah Melton, the former beverage director of the Aviary — the upscale cocktail lounge operated by Alinea. Buoyed by a fresh start and new personnel, Pisor teased expansion through a series of media announcements in the spring and early summer. But by August, Melton was laid off and Perretta had quit, allegedly in protest of the layoffs.
For service staff, Etta looked like a great place to work from the outside. The company’s promise to pay 70 percent of medical expenses for employees was particularly attractive. But after those August layoffs — which included firing managers who handled payroll — Etta workers allege that they received mixed messages from management regarding their paychecks and benefits. One ex-employee claims he was told by a manager that Etta had underpaid him in August and that he would receive the missing amount in the next week’s paycheck. When the following payday arrived, he claims he was told he owed money to the restaurant because he was overpaid. Complicating matters, according to workers, was an alleged lapse in dental and vision coverage between July 31 and December 5. Eater reviewed emails from insurance provider Guardian and Etta that backed the claim.
“It was just becoming this big, big process of confusion and lies,” a former River North worker alleges.
In an interview from January and a written statement, Pisor denies any lapses, claiming Etta provided “same-day reimbursement checks” and payments before appointments.
Eater has reviewed worker pay stubs from January 2024 showing the deductions (around $15.56 bimonthly for dental and $67.14 for health insurance for employees without dependents). Another worker tells Eater that their dentist told them their “insurance was no longer active.” They claim management never bothered to tell workers.
“I got a call from my dentist for like $500 because they said that they canceled our insurance in August, but we had still been paying premiums since then,” that same worker says. “And that has been taken out of our checks.”
Similarly, Etta server Riebhoff received a letter dated December 12 from Guardian stating dental coverage had been terminated on July 31 before coverage was reinstated. Workers pushed back during a December pre-shift meeting and benefits were restored retroactively to August. Management allegedly told workers they would be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket health care expenses incurred during the lapse in coverage.
“All employees who attended their appointments and submitted a claim to us received a manual check reimbursement from us directly out of pocket, as we did not want any employee to have to fund their own vision and dental appointments while the billing dispute was still being resolved,” Pisor responded.
In January, Pisor told Eater that the health care concerns were not as widespread as alleged by employees, attributing the claim to just one outspoken worker complaining. However, Eater spoke with eight other employees who shared similar concerns about dental and vision coverage. Pisor added that Etta was in a dispute with Guardian, saying the insurance company overcharged Etta following its August layoffs.
Guardian does not appear on the restaurant’s bankruptcy filing as one of the vendors to whom Etta River North owes money. In a statement, Pisor writes that Etta and Guardian agreed to a payment plan in mid-December after receiving a notice on December 7 from Guardian, giving Etta its 30-day notice that it would discontinue coverage due to nonpayment. However, a $10,042.39 debt to United Healthcare appears on the Etta Collective filing.
Aya Fukai says she left Aya Pastry in October 2023.Aya Pastry
Workers want to know what their deductions were spent on. They also received notice of open enrollment going from December 20 to December 29, 2023. An email sent to workers dated December 29, 2023, announced that the dispute with Guardian had been settled. A representative from Etta’s dental and vision provider, Guardian, declined most questions but did say that Etta is no longer a client.
Etta also tacked on a 3.5 percent fee for customers, presenting it as a payment for “staff benefits.” Workers claim that’s not the case and allege the money goes toward credit card processing fees.
“We were required through management to tell people that that was to go toward our health care,” a former Etta worker alleges.
Pisor’s statement denies this claim, saying the charge is meant to cover health care: “We do not offer discounts for cash, nor do we communicate with customers in that manner.”
Multiple former workers, including Riebhoff, allege that they were told by managers that “if [customers are] paying with cash, we take that service charge off.”
Riebhoff continues, “Yep, I guess if you pay cash, you don’t have to help people with insurance.”
Former Etta workers claim pettiness played a role in the company’s fall, citing numerous instances of Pisor’s hubris. A former employee says they believe “it would be thriving” and alleges that Pisor “completely gutted the restaurant of all of its heart and soul.”
The menu changed so much that regular customers couldn’t recognize the restaurant they once enjoyed; management removed popular items like oysters, ricotta pillows, and fire pie. “They just didn’t want anything that Danny [Grant] created on our menu,” Riebhoff says.
A manager allegedly told Riebhoff that the decision to remove specific dishes was a reaction to the loss of chef Grant after What If’s split. Pisor dismissed that conclusion as untrue speculation, saying while dishes change due to seasonality, the classics remain. In addition, three workers and a source familiar with operations say that to underscore that feeling, someone had defaced a photo of Grant at Etta Bucktown, drawing a penis on the picture.
“That’s how petty that they were about the Danny Grant situation,” a former worker says. “And that’s up at the restaurant for employees to see and walk past every day.”
Cafe Sophie next found footing in Gold Coast.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
Pisor writes, “to the best of my knowledge, there’s no photo of Danny Grant in the restaurant with graffiti on it” and that “if I had been aware of any such photo, I would have had it removed and made sure we addressed that issue with staff immediately.”
Grant declined a request for comment.
A source familiar with Etta’s operations says they were stunned by how quickly the chain’s financials soured right after the split with Lasky in January 2023. That source claims Pisor didn’t realize that restaurants in Chicago slow down in the winter months and make the majority of money after March. Part of the reason, the source alleges, was that Pisor didn’t make any adjustments to his lifestyle, thinking he could live his life as if he was still a co-owner of Maple & Ash, which reported $32 million in sales in 2023. He wanted badly to see Etta succeed on the national level but Etta wasn’t ready to expand that quickly at that scale, the source says.
Pride also seems to have fueled Pisor’s desire to open another steakhouse — showing Grant and Lasky that he could exceed the success of Maple & Ash without them. Pisor had an opportunity to partner on a new restaurant at One Illinois Center. Maple & Ash’s reputation impressed the project’s owner who sought to replicate that success. But in the wake of the bankruptcy filings and eviction notes, the project owner confirms they have severed ties with Pisor. They declined further comment, stating they didn’t want their name in the story and didn’t want anything to do with Pisor. Two other sources allege that the owner was continually embarrassed by Pisor’s recent headlines.
Engineers, architects, and management companies haven’t been paid for a $5 million project that includes a new Etta in Evanston. Construction was supposed to start there in mid-February, but parties are pulling out of the project: “As far as right now, that project is dead,” a construction source says.
Pisor described Evanston as “on hold” and that Etta Collective’s focus is on restructuring.
Pisor’s attitude toward flipping the page in teasing new projects without facing accountability irked his former employees. The day he closed Etta River North, Pisor told Eater Chicago he had worked out a deal with his landlord to open a new restaurant in the space.
“When he said he was going to open a new restaurant in that space, that was a bit infuriating for me,” a former worker says. “Because if that is the case, why were we not informed about this and given the option to maybe pursue a future with the company?”
As the bankruptcies get sorted, there are parties interested in buying Etta from Pisor. Court documents identified John Leahy, who owns Lulu’s in Waikiki, Hawai’i, as a stalking horse investor. “He is a long-time colleague who is interested in helping us restructure and emerge stronger from this bankruptcy,” according to Pisor. “Each entity is being restructured so that we can emerge stronger from the filing. We’re excited to start growing again once we come out the other side of this.”
While Pisor talks expansion, grassroots campaigns from restaurant workers, including the activists at the CHAAD Project, have mounted with a goal of alerting members of the hospitality industry of Pisor and Etta Collective’s reputation.
Pisor writes that he’s unaware of such campaigns and feels Etta treats workers well: “We take very good care of them, and we have employees who have been with us for five years. We’re very proud of the team we’ve built.”
That’s contrary to Riebhoff’s frustrations which have built for months.
“In the court documents for the Scottsdale bankruptcy, there is a quote from him saying, ‘I want to keep this place open so I don’t negatively impact my employees there,’” Riebhoff says. “Meanwhile, he closes Etta River North two hours before our shift with no communication whatsoever. I fucking worked for Lettuce [Entertain You Enterprises] during COVID, and R.J. Melman called us to tell us about it — everyone. So for him to just like not acknowledge it at all, to have zero sympathy or empathy, is fucking disgusting.”
Etta River North remains closed even though lights are turned on and tables set as though the restaurant is ready to serve customers. On the morning of Wednesday, February 7, Rieboff was greeted by the sound of 30 or so text messages. He wasn’t surprised with what he read. He and his former coworkers were supposed to receive their last paycheck from Etta, but the payments didn’t come through. So he and four former workers gathered that afternoon outside Etta Bucktown with signs to protest.
“A lot of industry people live check by check, where’s their money?” they yelled. “They have new concepts even though they’re broke!”
Former Etta River North server Drew Riebhoff holds up a sign at a protest in front of Etta’s Bucktown location.Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago
A former Etta worker holds up two signs outside the Bucktown location.Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago
Eater reviewed a text from Rieboff to Etta Bucktown manager Max Ostrowski asking about the status of the paychecks. Ostrowski replied that payment should pop up in 24 to 48 hours, “but if Bucktown gets shut down [because] of protest, then the courts could shut us down and we can’t pay anyone and it would be tied up in courts for months.”
That night, Pisor sent out an email to those former workers, writing that “this payment delay was not expected, the court has approved payment, and we anticipate that the funding process will only take a few days.”
On the afternoon of Friday, February 9, Rieboff told Eater that he received his payment and that he was shocked that no insurance premiums were deducted from his paycheck.
As news spread about Aya Pastry’s bankruptcy on Tuesday, February 13, Pisor’s teams sent out an email newsletter to the bakery’s customers: “Aya continues to operate and add new clients to our roster. What does this mean for you, our valued patrons? Operations as usual. We remain dedicated to producing great breads, cakes and pastries that you’ve come to expect, and our day-to-day operations will continue without interruption.”
A similar email was also sent to Etta Bucktown’s customers, a message that addressed the protest earlier in the week, reassuring potential diners that payments were “sent less than 36 hours after they were due” and that management was “filled with optimism about the future.”
Neither message included any mention of Fukai’s departure. When reached, Fukai, who had already seen the Aya Pastry email, said she felt the message “seemed misleading.” Pisor, in a statement, writes that Etta Collective promoted a worker who had been with the bakery for four and a half years to lead Aya Pastry.
Fukai, who already received $200,000 of Aya’s $700,000 sale price from Pisor, wonders if she’ll see the remainder after five years of building the bakery. She empathizes with Rieboff and Etta’s other workers. Though she’s had since October to extricate herself from the bakery, she needs a reset.
“I’ve been working so hard, and I had so many responsibilities, so I’m taking a little break,” Fukai says.
In March, for the first time since 2018, Chef Paddle Battle, a ping pong competition between Chicago chefs that raises money for charity, will take place. A variety of factors, including the pandemic, wiped out the annual event held at SPIN Chicago in River North.
This year’s event, Monday, March 4, brings together 30 chefs to raise money for Culinary Care, a charity that provides restaurant meals to cancer patients and their families. The group has worked with a variety of chefs through the years to organize fundraisers. The event is open to the public, giving fans a chance to meet the chefs. Three drinks are included in the ticket price; there’s also an open bar option.
In past years, the audience has been treated to feats such as the exploits of Proxi and Sepia chef Andrew Zimmerman, who has dominated the field. Rivalries have been known to form and a new one is about to bubble up between a veteran and a rookie. It could be the next big Chicago food rivalry, on par with Lou Malnati’s versus Giordano’s or Harold’s vs. Uncle Remus.
Jake Potashnick’s Instagram handle is “notyetachef.” The Chicago native has traveled around the world cooking at restaurants and plans to open his own, Feld, soon in West Town. Potashnick has poked the bear, namely S.K.Y. and Valhalla chef Stephen Gillanders. The young chef playfully taunted his friend, claiming that he would take Gillanders down if they two were to play.
“I’m just thrilled that my crushing of Stephen can support an amazing organization like Culinary Care,” Potashnik texted.
The two donned WWE personas in a text thread over the weekend when questioned about their budding rivalry. Potashnick joked the loser would have to leave West Town.
“Unfortunately for you, Jake, a true rivalry requires a worthy adversary,” Gillanders texted to the thread. “I will crush you and your paddle. Going full Forrest Gump on you.”
Potashnick responded: “Look, I believe that Stephen is a very good ping pong player. But we’ve all heard the underground rumors of blood doping… Anything for an edge up that ol’ Gillanders.”
Gillanders responded humbly: “My genetic superiority, intelligent-yet-approachable wit, and face-melting dance moves have been a pressure point for years now amongst my competitors,” the chef writes. “While I outright refuse to provide a blood sample, I deny all allegations.”
The event, held on a Monday when many restaurants are closed, gives chefs a chance to socialize. While Potashnick jokes about starting “a lifelong death-match style ping pong rivalry” with Gillanders, he also writes that he’s grateful that chefs like Gillanders have welcomed him back home.
SPIN hosted Paddle Battles in 2017 and 2018 and its return is seen as a sign of recovery for River North and Downtown Chicago. And while Gllanders and Potashick throw gasoline on their rivalry, ping pong isn’t just about winning. Many chefs of Asian heritage take the competition as a point of pride given the sport’s popularity overseas.
For Bayan Ko chef Lawrence Letrero, the game is nostalgic. He played in college and has a lot of rust to shake off: “I haven’t played in years,” he texts. “I’m going to suck.”
Win or lose, it’s for a good cause. Kimski chef Won Kim will even DJ.
Check out the roster of chefs below.
Chef Paddle Battle at SPIN, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday, March 4, 344 N. State Street, tickets via Eventbrite.
Season 3 of The Bear, the critically acclaimed TV series that has showcased many of Chicago’s most popular restaurants, should release in June, according to FX. The network’s chairman, John Landgraf, confirmed the time frame during the Television Critics Association winter press tour last week.
Season 2 and its 10 episodes were released all at once on June 22, 2023 on Hulu. Season 3’s news follows that template. Since then, the series has garnered 10 Emmys and three Golden Globes. After enduring the ire of some Chicagoans for its depiction of the city in Season 1, where some natives railed about inaccuracies, creator and suburban native Christopher Storer and his team began Season 2 as a love letter to the city with plenty of pretty shots of the city and cameos from chefs and restaurant owners.
The show moved away from Italian beef in Season 2 and focused on the opening of an upscale neighborhood restaurant. A handful of local chefs told Eater Chicago that TV reps approached them to see if they were interested in cameos in Season 2; there’s no shortage of possibilities in terms of filming locations. Eater Chicago has some opinions on where the show should go in Season 3. Perhaps they’ll also include a certain rodent-shaped crevice.
Two Chicagoans featured on Top Chef Wisconsin
In more TV news, a pair of local chefs will appear on Season 21 of Top Chef, set in Chicago’s mostly pleasant neighbors to the north, Wisconsin. Get ready for national writers to parachute in and Columbus supper clubs as the TV show heads to Madison and Milwaukee. The season premieres on March 20 and Bravo with Alisha Elenz (last seen at Bambola in Fulton Market) and Kaleena Bliss. Elenz won a local Jean Banchet Award for her work at Mfk in Lakeview. Bliss recently moved to Chicago from Seattle where she worked as executive chef at the Thompson Seattle hotel and its flagship food and beverage offering, Conversation. Bliss also won Chopped Casino Royale. She’s now the executive chef at Chicago Athletic Association. Like the Thompson, it’s a Hyatt property.
Dark Matter Gives Skeletor Some Love
Yes, the world of He-Man is set in Eternia (which perhaps is as fictional a realm as River North was to viewers as Season 1 of The Bear). But the ‘80s cartoon, a series created as a way to sell toys to kids, has made a comeback via Netflix. The latest installment, titled Masters of the Universe: Revolution, dropped in late January, and Chicago’s very own Dark Matter Coffee has released a coffee with toy maker Mattel. “Skeletor Blood” features gorgeous art from Dark Matter’s Jourdon Gullett. Beer fans may recognize his work on bottles for Solemn Oath Brewery. Dark Matter is also selling coffee mugs with the art: “This caffeinated concoction permeates dark chocolate and luscious fruit, fueling the evil lord of destruction to accomplish universal domination.” The mug, canned cold coffee, and 12-ounce bags of beans are available online and at stores.
The Palace Grill is closed after a kitchen fire on Thursday that resulted in significant damage to the 86-year-old diner on the Near West Side.
Firefighters were called just after 10 p.m. to the diner at 1408 W. Madison Street, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford announced on X. After a preliminary investigation, it appears that the blaze began as a grease fire beside a grill in the diner’s kitchen. Though firefighters were able to extinguish it “relatively quickly,” they had to cut a hole in the roof to pour water on the flames, Langford tells the Sun-Times. Palace Grill was closed at the time and no injuries were reported, but interior damage is “extensive.”
Fire strikes the Palace Grill 1408 west Madison across from Chicago 911 center. Interior damage extensive but no injuries. Cause under investigation. Business established in 1938 pic.twitter.com/M4758Yzw65
Owner George Lemperis, whose family has owned Palace Grill since 1955, was stunned by the severity of the destruction, he tells NBC 5 Chicago. There’s no sense yet to how long repairs will take or what’s needed to reopen.
An old-school haven for nearly nine decades that’s served fans of Chicago Stadium and United Center, Palace Grill is seen by many as a pillar of Chicago diner culture. Founded in 1938, the restaurant bore witness to massive changes in its surrounding neighborhood and has served celebrities and politicians including Oprah Winfrey (she used to work nearby at Harpo Studios) and Al Gore (who shared a meal with then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin). It’s also a longtime destination for Blackhawks fans and even players, who on several occasions have held Stanley Cup victory celebrations in the diner, which was draped in team jerseys, posters, and memorabilia.
As news of the fire circulated on social media, fans began to extend their condolences. “My thoughts are with George and his great staff with the brutal news of the legendary Palace Grill having an extensive grease fire,” Darren Pang, an NHL analyst and former Blackhawks goalie, writes on X.
Bakers around Chicago, including Justice of the Pies Maya-Camille Broussard, were happy to flip their calendars to February. Carbs and sweets are easy targets for New Year’s resolutions, and that means business can be slower. She’s responded with more lighter offerings, like quiche.
But Broussard is ready for Mardi Gras with two holiday-inspired cakes available this weekend, February 9 to 11, only.
She explains that while growing up her father, Stephen, had King Cake shipped to Chicago from a Louisiana bakery — his family’s from Lake Charles and New Iberia, Louisiana. The tradition involves finding the tiny plastic baby baked inside the cake, it can mean good luck. In the Broussard household, it meant being crowned king.
“If after biting into the pastry and my teeth hit something hard, I’d extract a little pink baby from my lips,” Maya-Camille Broussard says. “I’d win but most years, I’d lose.”
Justice of the Pies is selling king cake.
Cream cheese frosting tops this dark stout cake made with chocolate and espresso.
However, one year, the future baker, who many know from Netflix’s Bake Squad, says she bit into the cake and found a little brown baby: “I was so overjoyed to win a baby that was brown like me. It made up for all the years that I didn’t win,” she says.
That memory meant a lot to Broussard, and as her bakery, 8655 S. Blackstone Avenue in Avalon Park, sits in a predominantly Black community, she figured other customers would enjoy that feeling. So she spent some time searching online for packs of little, plastic, brown babies. She consents that it wasn’t easy. But she achieved her goal.
“I hope to share that joy that I received when I won as ‘king’ after finding a little brown baby,” Broussard says.
Maya-Camille Broussard searched long and high for these.
Hi, there!
She bakes her king cake with a cinnamon layer and folds dried cherries, blueberries, and raisins. She’ll sell them by the slices. And there’s an incentive for the customer who finds the baby — they’ll win a slice of Justice of the Pie’s famous key lime pie.
That’s not the only holiday-minded treat the bakery will sell. Broussard is testing out a new cake that might appeal to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Her dark ale cake is made with stout ale, chocolate, espresso, and sour cream. It’s topped with cream cheese frosting. Broussard is hoping she can find a fandom among South Side revelers, and if it’s popular enough, she might offer it in March in time for the holiday. But for now, it’s this weekend only leading up to Fat Tuesday.
Maya-Camille Broussard is happy January is done.
Perhaps the stout cake could be part of future St. Patrick’s Day celebrations?
It’s telling that in Chicago, Fat Tuesday — the day before Lenten Season begins, this year on Tuesday, February 13 — is generally referred to as Paczki Day. Weighing in at around 400 calories each, the Polish pastries inevitably whip up excitement among fans who form long lines, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, to snag paczki by the dozen in a wide array of classic and contemporary flavors.
Amid all the paczki pandemonium, however, lie Fat Tuesday specialties from a variety of ethnic groups that now call Chicago home. In Andersonville, the city’s historic Swedish American enclave, a lauded local pastry chef is shining a spotlight on the Scandinavian tradition of the semla, a rich yet delicate sweet roll also known as fettisdagsbulle, literally “Fat Tuesday bun.”
Pastry chef Bobby Schaffer brings fine dining style to Swedish semlor.
As in the case of many Fat Tuesday treats, modern semlor (the plural of semla) evolved significantly from their original form. Historically, semlor simply referred to bread rolls floating in warm milk, a combination also dubbed hetvagg. In an ominous anecdote, 18th-century Swedish King Adolf Fredrick is said to have died after wrapping up a hearty, boozy meal with 14 servings of the dish. Today, typical semlor are small, baked yeast buns enriched with butter and egg, flavored with cardamom, stuffed with almond paste and whipped cream, and finally, dusted with powdered sugar. Sweden’s neighboring countries feature regional variations, such as Finnish laskiaispulla and Danish and Norwegian fastelavnsboller.
Bobby Schaffer (Grace, Blue Hill at Stone Barns), has made a name for himself in the city with his contemporary takes on Swedish pastry traditions at Lost Larson, his stylish bakeries and cafes with modern minimalist Swedish vibes in Andersonville and Wicker Park. The seasonal item has a crowd of eager adherents who start peppering Schaffer with questions about availability “as soon as January hits,” he says. This year’s lineup blends old and new, juxtaposing a traditional version with playful semlor, including one stuffed with raspberry jam and topped with raspberry whipped cream and a spin on bananas foster. They’re available to walk-in customers through Monday, February 12 in both Andersonville and Wicker Park, and online pre-orders are open for pickup on Fat Tuesday in Andersonville.
Lost Larson’s team starts the process by making cardamom brioche dough.
Like paczki, semlor are an opulent treat for those about to start the Lenten season.
The dough is then left to ferment overnight.
Each semla will receive its own little brioche “hat.”
The concept of fun and funky semlor is a full-on phenomenon in Sweden, says Karin Moen Abercrombie, executive director of Andersonville’s Swedish American Museum. In Stockholm, famed 90-year-old coffeehouse Vete-Katten typically sells around 14,000 semlor ahead of Lent each year. “Today, there’s almost a competition between bakeries of who makes the best semlor,” she says.
Schaffer had his first taste of semlor in January 2018 during a trip to Stockholm with his sister ahead of Lost Larson’s debut in Andersonville. His memories of the encounter, which unfolded in a “very old-school” bakery in Sweden’s capital, are vivid: “The texture of the cream [was] so soft, and hitting that layer of almond paste gives it a chewy, unctuous texture,” he says. “It’s very satisfying to dig into one of those.”
The “hats” are back.
Schaffer scales back the sweetness of the whipped cream to balance with powdered sugar.
Back in Chicago, he had a serious task on his hands with the debut of his stylish bakery and cafe with modern minimalist Swedish vibes. The Swedish Bakery, a neighborhood icon for more than eight decades, had closed the year prior in 2017, and residents made plain their high expectations of Schaffer’s endeavor. Given his recent semlor meet cute, Schaffer was eager to introduce his version and included them on his opening menu, which happened to arrive in June.
“I was a little overly exuberant to start making them,” he says, laughing. “I was quickly scolded by [Abercrombie] that it was not semla season… I didn’t want to start by offending Swedish people.”
Abercrombie, a Swedish immigrant who has spent nearly 40 years in Chicago, doesn’t remember her first semla but does recall eating them with warm milk (a la King Fredrick, though in smaller quantities) as a girl. For her, the Swedish Bakery’s closure struck close to home. “They were the ones, for many of us, who connected us back to our home country and childhood memories.”
Each bun undergoes a little surgery.
Almond paste is a popular flavor in Swedish pastries and baked goods.
Despite its more contemporary approach, Lost Larson’s dedication to Swedish baking and pastry — as well as Schaffer’s openness to feedback from the community — have played vital roles in maintaining Swedish American culture in the city. The museum will also feature semlor in its pop-up cafe on Fat Tuesday, but for Abercrombie and Schaffer, it’s not about competition. “We all have to work together because if we don’t support each other, none of us will survive,” she says.
A Colombian and Polish spot that has location-hopped a bit over the last few years. They’re currently at Washington Hall, the food hall formerly known as Urbanspace Chicago, located in the Loop near City Hall, on Washington. Partners Phillipe Sobon and Cynthia Orobio, who previously operated out of Politan Row food hall, offer dishes that combine ingredients from both their respective heritages. That means creations like “emparogis” filled with potato and short rib; kielbasa topped with muenster, pickles, and pineapple glaze; and zapiekanka, a Polish-style pizza featuring a toasted baguette loaded with muenster, sofrito, garlic aioli, pineapple glaze, and choice of protein. Online ordering is available here.
Bill Murray surprised folks last week at Navy Pier during an event celebrating the movie Groundhog Hog Day held on Groundhog Day, Friday, February 2. Harry Caray’s Grant DePorter put the show together, reuniting members of the 1993 movie to honor the film’s director, Chicago native Harold Ramis. Ramis was also an investor at Harry Caray’s. The event marked the 10th anniversary of his death.
Luminaries like Sen. Dick Durbin attended as did Ramis’s wife, Erica Mann Ramis. She read a letter written by President Barack Obama. DePorter arranged an elaborate set as a tribute to the movie, giving folks a reason to visit Navy Pier. The winters are slow around most Chicago restaurants, but big crowds rarely fill Navy Pier during the colder months. DePorter sold movie-themed cocktails and brought in a groundhog from Woodstock, using the same animal handler that was used in the movie. Yes, there’s a possibility that this critter, nicknamed Chicago Harry, is related to the star of the movie. In a controversial ruling, Harry did see his shadow, thus sentencing Chicagoans to six more weeks of winter. Even if 40 degrees feels tropical right now.
But as the spring-starved crowd wiped their tears, Brian Doyle-Murray — who appeared in the movie as Buster Green — joined his brother and others to a toast to Harold Ramis, raising glasses of sweet vermouth. Check out the scene in the photos below.
Chicago Harry is the groundhog’s name.
Members of the movie’s cast, plus Chicago aldermen, and Harold Ramis’s wife, Erica Mann Ramis, celebrated on February 2 at Navy Pier.
Actor Brian Doyle Murray, who played Buster in Groundhog Day, reenacts a scene from the movie.
The groundhog saw its shadow.
Sen. Dick Durbin speaks at the event.
Chicago Harry and its handler.
Harold Ramis was also an investor at Harry’s.
A group of Ghostbusters superfans also attended when they heard about Bill Murray’s involvement.
Eldridge Williams, the Chicago restaurateur behind Wicker Park’s lively Mississippi-style restaurant the Delta, is setting himself up for a bustling 2024 with two new dining and drinking spots coming this spring and summer to River North: The Pink Polo Social Club and Bar, a coffee shop and co-working space by day and ambitious cocktail bar by night; and Red River Dicks, a country-western saloon and barbecue spot touted as the only Black-owned venue of its kind in the Midwest.
These major moves from Williams and G.O.O.D. Pineapple Hospitality partner Robert Johnson will begin in late spring or early summer with the debut of the Pink Polo inside the Chicago Collection hotel at 312 W. Chestnut Street. Then they’ll unveil Red River Dicks in late summer at 1935 N. Sedgwick Street, the former home of long-vacant sports bar Sedgwick’s Bar & Grill.
Despite the sizable chasm between the venues’ styles and cuisines, both represent an ethos Williams holds dear. “I have this theory that for me to be able to get behind an idea or project, it has to have a story,” he says. “It has to have substance, something that’s more tangible than just food and beverage.”
In the case of Red River Dicks, that story is a powerful one, inspired in large part by the life and legacy of 18th-century African American cowboy Nat (pronounced “Nate”) Love. Born into enslavement in 1854 in Tennessee, Love — also known by his nickname, Red River Dick — was among the first and most famous Black cowboys of the Old West. Historians estimate that from the 1860s to 1880s, around 25 percent of cowboys were African American, though media portrayals have largely obscured their roles.
A Memphis, Tennessee, native and a rare Black restaurant owner in Wicker Park, Williams has engaged head-on with the disparities BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color) hospitality operators face on Chicago’s North Side. He’d long harbored a desire to open a country bar, citing his love of a scene in 2008 comedy Soul Man where Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac portray soul singers who find themselves onstage in a White-dominated honkey tonk saloon. “They were singing soul music, but it was like they bridged cultures and blended with this country aesthetic,” he says. “Everyone started line dancing, it was beautiful. I want to bottle that energy.”
The pieces began to come together when Williams learned about Black cowboys from Netflix documentary series High on the Hogand, after deeper research, encountered Love’s story. The barbecue menu will be based on the famed cowboy’s travels with representation from Tennessee, Kansas City, and Texas. Though the lineup is still in development, the team teases options like Crusted Cowboy beef ribs and a Tennessee smokehouse duck sandwich. Williams also promises a selection of “world barbecue” for those looking to expand their palate beyond the classics. Given his Memphis roots, he feels confident that barbecue fans will be satisfied. “There won’t be any half-stepping here, we’re going to do it right,” he says.
As in any Western watering hole, the bar at Red River Dicks will be a focal point, reaching almost the entire length of the 110-seat space. There, the team will offer an ample selection of whiskies and bourbons but hopes that patrons won’t overlook a lineup of “exciting, ambitious” cocktails, including group-sized concoctions that reflect the bar’s upbeat energy. Williams promises intricate custom woodwork, reclaimed tabletops, and a rustic Western aesthetic buoyed by a 15-foot cast iron hood (a relic from the previous tenant) that will hang overhead as a chandelier, as well as a soundtrack of both classic and modern country tunes.
“I want [customers] to feel as if they have been placed in a time capsule and they’re sitting in a bar from the 18th Century,” he says. “I want it to feel like a legitimate saloon that is somewhere in this old country-western town that you just stumbled across.”
Chicagoans can expect a very different scene at the Pink Polo, a chic replacement for shuttered snack spot Drop Shop Coffee. Williams and Johnson envision the space as a hub for remote workers and organizations with the atmosphere of a private club sans a hefty membership fee. At the Delta, Williams has worked with groups that don’t have a permanent space to gather and he plans to replicate that approach in River North with meeting spaces, coffee, and espresso drinks. The space bears a mix of industrial design and softer elements like Persian rugs and leather seating, as well as a dining room space that seats up to 60.
Once the workday is over, the Pink Polo will transition into a cocktail den equipped with a marble tile bar that seats around a dozen. But Williams has bigger plans than humdrum after-work drinks — he aims to unveil an “extremely ambitious cocktail program” that channels the over-the-top energy of 2000s cocktail culture. Though he’s keeping his cards close to his chest for now, “We’re not going to hold back,” he says. “I want [the Pink Polo] to be globally recognized for its cocktail program.”
While drinks are the star, the team will also offer a selection of small plates such as butter-poached ceviche and a Peruvian spin on nachos, tapping into the cuisines of South America, where the sport of polo is popular, says Williams. It provides a lively counterpoint to the intentionally preppy, country club implications of the venue’s name, which the founders drew from a lyric in Kanye West’s 2007 track “Barry Bonds.”
“I took my favorite social club and I took my favorite cocktail bar and imagined they had a baby, but I raised it,” says Williams. “That’s what the Pink Polo is going to be.”
The Pink Polo, 312 W. Chestnut Street, Scheduled to open in late spring or early summer. Red River Dicks, 1935 N. Sedgwick Street, Scheduled to open in late summer.
Crab rangoon can be a polarizing menu item, but a new crop of chefs and diners are embracing the Chinese American staple in Chicago and beyond.
The fried wonton wrappers are normally filled with some ratio of cream cheese and imitation crab, then served with some variant of duck sauce. Its origins aren’t well defined, with the most accepted narrative being it was invented in the ‘40s or ‘50s in the kitchen of Trader Vic’s, the famous Polynesian and tiki bar chain that had a Chicago outpost until 2011 in Gold Coast. There’s not a ton written about the appetizer’s origins. Most scouring the Internet will be taken to a 2019 story in Atlas Obscura.
In 2022, crab Rangoon broke through to social media thanks to a series of TikTok posts made over the years by a Rangoon superfan. The item’s name is derived from a city in Myanmar. Yangon is the largest city in the South Asian country.
Though not a prime example of gourmet cooking, a handful of chefs are dressing the item up using premium ingredients. Some may not take the Rangoon seriously, but the item is enjoying a surge in popularity. And with Lunar New Year approaching (the Year of the Dragon starts on Saturday, February 10) here’s a trio of restaurants offering their unique takes.
Lobster Rangoon from Duck InnThe Duck Inn
Kevin Hickey reveres Chicago’s Chinatown and he grew up nearby in Bridgeport. For the last nine years, the chef and owner of the Duck Inn has celebrated Lunar New Year. It’s the only time they change how they prepare the restaurant’s signature duck, prepping it Beijing-style for the holiday. Hickey reasons that many of his customers are part of the Chinese community. Up until Saturday, February 10, the Duck Inn will offer lobster-filled Rangoon. They come with a pomegranate sweet & sour and optional chili crunch.
The Rangoon Royale served at Bixi Beer in Logan Square is like the Mercedes Benz of the Rangoon circuit. Chef and owner Bo Fowler gave in to her staff’s request for the item and created a souped-up version of the appetizer. Fowler, who was also the mastermind behind Owen & Engine, does not like to skimp on premium ingredients, sourcing from some of the Midwest’s best farmers. After much experimentation, uses a thicker wonton wrapper and fills it with lobster, crawfish, lump crab meat, and snow crab. Instead of cream cheese, she whips cream by hand for a mousse-like texture. She put the item on the menu and didn’t think customers would want a $20 order of fancy crab rangoon. She was wrong, and behind the burger, it’s Bixi’s No. 2-selling item: “I didn’t think they would sell at that price, but they sold like crazy,” she says.
Perfect with one of the beers brewed on the premises, the Rangoon Royale is a permanent menu item at Bixi.
Chef Henry Cai wanted an appetizer to complement the more American items on the menu of his Chinese American restaurant, something to pair with his burger and chicken sandwiches. He dipped into the nostalgia vault for memories of growing up in America with an immigrant family, seeing kids eat Tontino Pizza Rolls and Hot Pockets, and begging his parents to buy those products for him.
In January, he unveiled the Pizza Rangoon, a superior version of what he wanted in his youth. Unlike Hot Pockets, the crusts aren’t soggy. The wonton is a better vessel, Cai says, and he stuffs it with shredded mozzarella, white onions, tomato puree, pizza sauces, a dash of five spice, and then wraps the filling with a slice of mozzarella. The latter gives the Rangoon a cheese pull worthy of an old cartoon, Cai says. The exterior is coated with Italian season and Romano cheese. This is a permanent menu item at Cai’s new South Loop restaurant.
John Manion is a man who enjoys lighting things on fire. He’s demonstrated his Promethean prowess at Más, his adored Wicker Park restaurant that closed in 2007. Then there’s La Sirena Cladestina, which closed at the end of 2019. The Fulton Market spot leaned more into Manion’s formative years he spent as a child in Brazil. A few blocks south, El Che Steakhouse has evolved in the West Loop, showing off Brazilian and Argentinian preparations of meat in the style of the great Argentine chef Francis Mallmann.
Though a native Michigander, Manion — like Malmman — takes a MacGyver-like approach to cooking over fire, trying out various methods to bring seared and smoky goodness to the table — just check out the Meat Project. For Manion’s new West Town restaurant the grill is again the center of attention.
This is the former Funkenhausen.
While Manion describes Brasero, 1709 W. Chicago Avenue, as the spiritual successor to La Sirena, he’s quick to point out that the menu shows a variety of Latin American influences. But the menu also pushes tradition, utilizing a few American techniques and ingredients to position Brasero uniquely. Manion mentions how through the years he assumed the mantle of “bean guy.” His expertise in cooking beans (feijoada is a Brazilian black bean stew) left little question about who would prepare them. But then at a pop-up dinner last year that previewed Brasero’s menu held at Sportsman’s Club in Ukrainian Village, one of his cooks made the beans using a slightly different technique. A beleaguered Manion was stunned by the great results: “I guess we have a new ‘bean guy,’” he says.
For Brasero, its feijoada is a group affair, a $200 dish reminiscent of risotto and stuffed with collard green kimchi, slow-roasted beef shank, puffed beef tendon, pickled orange, and farofa. Beyond the beef dishes, there are a few Peruvian dishes with Chinese influences like a pork fried rice.
Wagyu picanha with farofa and chimi-vinaigrette.
Green curry prawns.
Look for a mix of small and large plates, with plenty of seafood and pork chops. At one point, Manion considered opening a restaurant dedicated to charcoal-roasted chicken. That moment has since passed, but the chicken has found a place at Brasero, cooked in the corner grill that burns wood into charcoal. The chicken is brined and finished with a fermented garlic sauce glaze that’s supplemented by chili oil and a special seasoning of herbs, salt, and dehydrated chicken skin. Manion’s calling it chicken salt.
Caipirinhas are the featured cocktail and come in a trio of flavors. Alex Cuper, Brasero’s wine director, is also promising a selection of 100 Latin American wines priced around $100.
Take a look at the dinner and dessert menus, the food, and the 120-seat dining room with an 18-seat bar below.
Brasero, 1709 W. Chicago Avenue, opening Tuesday, February 5, reservations via OpenTable.
The fire happens in the upper right corner.
Coal-roasted sweet potato with Catapiry cheese, hot honey, fried pumpkin seed, and peanut crunchies.
Broccolini with cashew-basil butter, herbs, and Brazil nut.
Pao de quelio with papaya jam, herbed Catapiry cheese, and mortadella.
Sweet-toothed Chicagoans are counting down to Paczki Day, the last day before Lenten season and better known as Fat Tuesday outside of Chicago. Locals descend upon city and suburban bakeries annually and line up for boxes of the traditional Polish treat, which essentially packs 40 days’ worth of sugar and butter into a holeless doughnut.
Kelly Ijichi, a Japanese American chef, has kept an eye trained on the calendar. On Tuesday, February 13, she and a cadre of hospitality collaborators will unveil their unusual and inventive paczki creations. They will host a paczki party on Fat Tuesday in the former home of Big Kids in Logan Square. The irreverent sandwich shop closed on Sunday, February 4, after three years. The festivities will also serve as one last hurrah.
For Ijichi, who ran a pop-up and food stall called Mom’s, this isn’t the first time she’s dabbled with paczki. Chef Lorraine Nguyen has concocted a pastry with malted sunchoke cremeux, dark chocolate, and cacao (“In my head, it tastes like a very good chocolate milkshake from Steak ‘n Shake,”), while baker Rosie Est is stuffing hers with guava citrus cardamom filling and topping them with vanilla icing and puffed rice for a satisfying crunch. Cheesemonger Alisha Norris Jones is tapping into her memory of a standout cheese board at Michelin-starred Lutèce in D.C. for her take, featuring curry comte honeycomb cream.
Not to be outdone, Ijichi promises two paczki, a milk chocolate version with hatcho miso and hazelnut praline; and an old favorite, her truffled paczki. It’s stuffed with truffle honey cream and showered with shaved winter truffle and edible gold leaves. That’s all on top of special walk-in-only offerings, like Nguyen’s Fruity Pebbles-inspired option with strawberry mousse filling and makrut lime glaze. She estimates that each year, the team makes around 600 paczki. It’s a goofy, sugar-soaked time, and Ijichi’s way of forming partnerships with friends and hospitality players, with past participants including Roshelley Mayén of to-go cocktail business Juanitas Bebidas and Palita Sriratana of Thai food brand Pink Salt.
Ijichi began making paczki five years ago when she ran Mom’s out of Marz Community Brewing in Bridgeport. Every year, the Polish- and Korean-owned brewery hosts a Paczki Fest featuring sweet treats from neighborhood bakeries as well as special seasonal beers. Neither Ijichi nor her collaborators are of Polish descent, but the Chicago tradition piqued their interest and presented an opportunity to experiment with questions of food and identity.
“As people who had multicultural experiences growing up, it’s always fun to look at food as something that evolves,” Nguyen says, noting the prevalence of Western chefs who build careers by interpreting cuisines from other parts of the world. “But I think there’s something really powerful and great in flipping that scenario. Instead of a Western lens looking globally, it’s a global lens looking at something Western.”
Four packs of paczki (one of each flavor) and truffle paczki are available for pre-order online through Thursday, February 8. Pickup is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Fat Tuesday, February 13 at Big Kids, 2545 N. Kedzie Boulevard.
Marcos Ascensio says Pilsen and nearby Little Village need more mariscos. The chef grew up in Little Village, and while La Vilita has plenty of Mexican cuisine, Ascensio says he became accustomed to driving to the North Side if he was in the mood for seafood.
Now, Ascensio and his team from Logan Square’s Taqueria Chingon — including Obelix and Le Bouchon’s Oliver Poilevey — have an opportunity to rectify that problem. They’re taking over the ground-floor space inside Thalia Hall, partnering with owners 16” on Center and opening a new restaurant inside the former Dusek’s. The interiors have been gutted to make room for Mariscos San Pedro, which should open by early summer, 1227 W. 18th Street.
With the churches in the area, and with St. Peter hailed as patron saint of fishermen, the name made sense for the team. Cynically, Poilevey, Asencsio, and new partner Antonio Incandela (a pastry chef at Obelix) say while some customers may complain when tacos aren’t cheap (something hear a lot in Logan Square at Taqueria Chingon), they don’t complain about the prices of mariscos.
“We want to make it fun,” Ascensio says. Much like Obelix, folks can come in a few times a week, crush a few appetizers from the raw bar and a beer and head out. That’s also important for Thalia Hall visitors attending concerts. The venue, which was home to Dusek’s (a former Michelin-starred restaurant), also includes two bars, Punch House and Tack Room. The San Pedro team will begin its infiltration of Thalia Hall by unleashing a small bites menu at Punch House. That will also allow them to measure reaction and adjust San Pedro’s opening menu accordingly.
After a decade, Dusek’s closed in December. 16” on Center, which is also behind Revival Food Hall and the Salt Shed, tried to breathe new life into the restaurant with new chefs and a fancier menu. Poilevey says they’ve been in contact with the company and that San Pedro was originally supposed to open in Logan Square, but a real estate deal fell through.
Folks with a little bit more time on their hands can indulge with a bottle of wine and a whole fish (think snapper or a “baller” turbot) cooked in the hearth left over from Dusek’s. Unlike many mariscos restaurants, which may hone in on a region in Mexico, San Pedro will combine flavors and techniques. For example, they may use Japanese panko on snapper to ensure the fish gets extra crunchy.
Beyond the fusion of techniques, Poilevey says the quality of fish will set them apart from other restaurants. They’re working with a variety of vendors and will steer away from frozen seafood.
“We get a great product and treat it with great technique and, you know, serve with with great masa and a great salsa,” Poilevey says. “We’ll just kind of let it….”
“Speak for itself,” Ascensio says, completing his colleague’s sentence.
Some of the menu items from Taqueria Chingon, like duck carnitas and perhaps the octopus off the trompo, could make it to Pilsen. Much of the menu remains under development, but one dish they’re workshopping is duck tamales. Incandela, who worked at Spiaggia, jokingly calls himself “the random Italian” on the project. Like Poilevey, whose parents owned Le Bouchon and La Sardine, he grew up in the restaurant world. Incandela’s father owned Sicily Restaurant in Elmwood Park. He’s focused on seeing “how far I can take masa in a pastry” while maintaining respect for classic Mexican desserts.
“I don’t want to stray too far away from what makes it classically beautiful,” he says. “But I also want to put our own spin that would match the daringness, I guess, of the rest of the menu.”
They’re imagining the kind of towers or seafood platters that groups seated in the booths will quickly grab as soon as the plate hits the table. Fun cocktails with some element of interaction are also planned. They also want to accommodate Pilsen’s drinkers and make sure San Pedro has plenty of beer options. Logan Square’s Pilot Project Brewing could work on a collaboration.
Before working in restaurants, Ascencio studied to be an engineer. He sees himself as MacGyver and Poilevey calls him their handyman. The team is excited to expand. In January, they were shortlisted by the James Beard Foundation for Outstanding Restaurateur.
Mariscos San Pedro, inside Thalia Hall, 1227 W. 18th Street, planned for an early summer opening
Four months after announcing plans to moveKhmai Fine Dining, chef Mona Sang is ready to reveal the new location of her decorated Cambodian restaurant in Rogers Park.
A rare Chicago specialist in Khmer cuisine hailed as one of the 15 Best New Restaurants in America in 2022, the restaurant will reopen in April at 6580 N. Sheridan Road on the ground floor of the Hampton Inn. Now two miles southeast from the original, Khmai will move into a larger and more modern space that’s owned by Loyola University. Close to the college’s campus, the space previously housed Onward Chicago from Michael Olszewski, ex-owner of three-Michelin-starred Grace and one-starred Yugen.
Though staying in Rogers Park, the restaurant will embark on its new chapter simply as Khmai, a portmanteau of “Khmer,” the ethnicity and language of native Cambodians, and “me,” or mother. It’s a bold name meant to alert diners to the inextricable role of Sang’s mother, Sarom Sieng, in securing the legacy of traditional Cambodian cuisine. Now serving a new community, one that includes college students and professors (as well as hotel guests) Khmai will open with dinner and breakfast, with plans to launch brunch in August.
“We’re still going to be sticking with traditional flavors, but for brunch and breakfast, I can play a little more,” Sang says. “Mom will allow me to do that — we’re negotiating and coming to a middle ground. She doesn’t want me to Americanize our food, but she’s OK with this so far.”
Chef Mona Sang and her mother, Sarom Sieng, will soon get to cook in a much larger kitchen.Jack X. Li/Eater Chicago
Sang built a customer base with on church catering gigs, and rose to prominence after opening Khmai in 2022, accumulating accolades as a surprise smash-hit on Howard Street near the Evanston border. Mother and daughter were named co-winners of Eater Chicago’s Chefs of the Year award in 2022, and in 2023, the restaurant earned a semifinalist nod from the James Beard Foundation. For Khmai 2.0, a new generation is joining the mix — Sang’s daughter will begin her freshman year at Loyola in the fall and work at the restaurant in her spare time.
For Sang, the opening represents a fresh start after a contentious dynamic with her former landlord forced her to leave the original restaurant space. It’s also a new opportunity to share Cambodian culture and cuisine with even more diners and a chance to play, experiment, and partner with other Cambodian Chicagoans — to be a rising tide that lifts all boats.
“[Cambodians] are still not well known, a lot of people still don’t know about the food and who we are, or about the genocide,” Sang says. “My focus is still wanting to share my mom’s story because I think her story is important — what she went through, how she’s a huge survivor.”
The Cambodian genocide took place between 1975 to 1979 when the totalitarian Khmer Rouge regime murdered between 1.5 and 2 million people. As a survivor, Sieng endured countless horrors, including torture and the murder of her husband, Sang’s father. Sieng gave birth to Sang in a Thai refugee camp, before emigrating with her children to the U.S. as refugees in the early 1980s, first to New York City and later, to Chicago.
Khami’s traditional Cambodian cuisine will remain central at the new location, where dinnertime patrons can expect to find a rotating lineup of rich, complex staples seen at the original such as kuy reav tuk, a rice noodle soup with beef, onions, and crispy garlic. Sang will add a new date-night menu featuring interactive dishes like hot pot and smash-your-own papaya salad, complete with mortar and pestle, as well as a fresh lineup of dessert options such as fried and smashed baby bananas stuffed with banana coconut cream.
Diners should also expect doughnuts from suburban bakery Gurnee Donuts, owned by Sang’s friend Kevin Lee, a fellow first-generation Cambodian American whose parents also survived the genocide. “His mom and my mom are very similar, so we know what it’s like to be Cambodian kids whose parents have gone through trauma and want their kids to be the best of the best,” she says. “When I finally opened up the restaurant, he was one of the first people who was there, inspiring me to keep doing what I do best. He’s always been on my side.”
Cambodians are at the center of a grand doughnut tradition in the U.S., particularly in California. Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee, helped popularize the doughnut trade among Cambodian Americans and his story, immortalized in the 2020 documentary The Donut King, is a symbol of ingenuity that Sang says inspires her and many other Cambodian Americans.
With a new crop of hotel guests and Loyola customers at play, Sang plans to tune into the college crowd with affordable options like rice and beef skewers, as well as Sieng’s popular egg rolls, which she hopes will be a welcome relief for fast food-weary students. Early and mid-morning meals will become her playground for dishes like seasoned fried eggs with chicken and rice, rice porridge (akin to congee) with garnishes like blood sausage or crispy garlic, and pandan waffles with lemongrass chicken and ginger syrup.
The new Khmai will seat 70 inside in addition to an outdoor patio during warm weather. Onward, which opened in 2018, closed amid pandemic shutdown orders and was later the subject of a seemingly messy lawsuit. Its space, though, was immaculate, says Sang, who is happy to avoid expensive construction and simply add her own touches to the space: a black and gold color palette, Regency-style table settings (inspired, she confesses, by habit-forming Netflix confection Bridgerton), and Cambodian artwork from the original restaurant.
Sang is keenly aware of the risks involved in any restaurant operation, but has worked to set her anxieties aside in pursuit of her primary goal — to keep Sieng, now 80, engaged with the world and out from under the fog of trauma.
“I have to make sure she sees that we’re going to do this,” she says. “I want her to know that she deserves it. I don’t care about awards or any of that — I want her to know that we did this, we survived against all odds. If we survived the war, we can survive anything now.”
Khmai 2.0, 6580 N. Sheridan Road, Scheduled for an April opening.
Pork chop suey, duck fat-infused corn dogs and more are served at Ramova Grill.|
Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
Chicago — we’re in a leap year, so the city gets an extra day of February antics. For cynics, that might feel like we’re an extra day away from spring, but don’t be one of those fools. A beautiful way to avoid wintertime blues is to enjoy a great meal at a great, new restaurant. With that in mind, welcome to the Eater Chicago Heatmap for February.
The Heatmap features new restaurants and old favorites creating a new buzz. Whereas the Eater 38 is a collection of can’t-miss stalwarts and bucket-list entries, the Heatmap is about the now — focused on recent openings that have the city’s diners talking.
The February update includes four updates: a reskinned hot dog stand, a renovated South Side icon, a tasting menu with a late-night fine dining taco menu, and a hip Lincoln Park steakhouse.
For culinary creator and blogger Samantha Mui, food has always been “the center of everything.” It’s one of the reasons the second-generation Cantonese American launched Thirsty Dumpling, an at-home dumpling-making kit that marries tradition with modern ease.
“There are two kinds of people,” Mui says. “People who plan their food around their activities and people who plan their activities around food.”
You could guess which category she falls into.
Samantha Mui, a culinary creator and blogger, is the founder of Thirsty Dumpling.
For Mui, Thirsty Dumpling is a culmination of personal and career milestones to this point; an opportunity for the act of preparation to serve as a focal point for communing in the age of Postmates and Uber Eats. She’s no stranger to the food space, having worked in several different food spaces including blogging at Sammy Eats and creating cooking videos on YouTube. She’s even appeared on the Bay Area version of Check, Please!and competed on Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout (the episode aired in early January 2021, in which she made it to the final round).
Mui aims to empower millennials and zoomers by reigniting a spark for home cooking and party hosting. It’s something she admits she didn’t have as often as she would’ve liked growing up, and was part of why she loved hosting friends as she got older. After the height of the pandemic, she felt an element of quality, thoughtful at-home gatherings was lost as everyone was eager to be back outside.
After moving to the Midwest from the Bay Area in 2022, Mui began posting on Kittch, a live-streaming platform for culinary creators where she shared trendy hacks and what have become millennial party staples — charcuterie and butter boards. But she soon realized that wasn’t where her heart was.
Then, she thought of dumplings.
Looking back on her childhood, primarily living with her brother and maternal grandmother during the week while their parents worked, then spending the weekends with mom and dad, dumplings were the one dish she always enjoyed among what she considered “bland, healthier” foods her mother and grandmother made more regularly.
Thirst Dumpling’s kits are designed to help home cooks seamlessly host dumpling parties.
A packaged dough mix takes the guesswork out of dumpling making.
While living abroad in Shanghai as part of a graduate studies program in 2017, she frequented a local dumpling shop whose flavors brought back those childhood memories; she confesses she dined there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pretty soon, she took to her apartment’s purple kitchen to try her hand at making them herself, experimenting with proteins such as pork and shrimp, seeking the kind of comfort that only a family recipe could deliver.
Like many grandmothers’ recipes handed down through generations, there were no measurements or written instructions. “I realized how much of [the process] was memory-based because I’d watch my mom just throw it all together. I remember her just chopping things up and throwing a bunch of random ingredients into a big, yellow Tupperware bowl, then we’d fold them together. There was no recipe. This was 20 years later and I was able to recreate what she did.” Returning to the United States, dumplings became a staple in her own home — she even included a recipe for Jiaozi-style dumplings in her 2020 self-published cookbook, Melting Pot.
The kits come with the basics for a filling. Just add protein.
Six years later, she finally — albeit impulsively (coming up with the concept in April of 2023 and launching in November) — decided to go all-in on Thirsty Dumpling.
Developing a recipe that would easily translate to home cooks of all skill levels was crucial. With Asian cooking in particular, she’d heard from many home cooks that there were additional “intimidating” factors to recreating dishes on their own.
“We’ve tried to remove all the pain points of making dumplings without sacrificing any of the complete experience, so this is really bridging the culture,” she says.
Thirsty Dumpling’s package includes everything but the meat (or selected substitute, such as Impossible beef or pork) and preferred cooking oil to make an affordable, “cake mix-style” product.
“If you’re scared of crimping, we have the little dumpling folder,” she says. “If you’re nervous about reading instructions and not really trusting yourself, we have the videos to use as a benchmark.”
Dinner is nearly served.
With enough ingredients for 36 dumplings, including a soy-and-sesame-based dipping sauce and a combination of air and freeze-dried ingredients that reflect a traditional Cantonese stuffing — from various cabbages and green onion to ginger, mushroom, and white pepper — Mui has created an arguably foolproof recipe, “so good,” its tagline states, “you’ll catch fillings.”
Much intention and attention to common kitchen mishaps went into compiling the final product. Considering different learning styles was important to her, sharing that she hesitated in her own continuing education (culinary and otherwise) due to inflexibilities in lessons or instructions before realizing she was just a more of a hands-on learner.
“People who don’t cook, when you ask them ‘what happened?’ — it’s those small steps that weren’t mentioned but should have been,” she says. “If you cook, you learn that over time, some things in recipes are implied. That’s why we have the videos. They’re not there to follow step-by-step, but it’s the closest thing to me being right next to you, your bestie in the kitchen, letting you know that you’re good.”
Her mission in fostering togetherness and active participation in the kitchen is further underscored by her “dumpling parties” and classes showcasing what she considers “the world’s most shareable food.” Taking place in coworking spaces like Guild Row in Avondale and the conference rooms of Merrill-Lynch’s downtown offices, they’re her ideal vehicle for building harmonious unions on and off the plate.
Mui found connections in Chicago through a variety of food startup programs.
Mui’s infectious, extroverted personality also mixed well with Chicago’s Midwestern hospitality, making it comfortable for her to connect with the local food community. She’s attended mixers hosted by Vermillion’s Rohini Dey and her Let’s Talk Womxn initiative, and connected with other rising leaders in the city like Francis Almeda of Side Practice Coffee, alongside companies such as Here Here Market and Good Food Accelerator that support independent entrepreneurs in their business goals.
“Chicago is such a hub for emerging food brands,” she says excitedly. “There were so many accelerator programs here — and they were free. The city’s so collaborative. I was so shocked at how many communities exist here to support folks like us. People want to see you succeed.”
She credits her friend, founder of Vietnamese coffee brand (and upcoming Uptown coffee shop) Fat Miilk, Lan Ho with providing her first real introduction to Chicago’s expansive food culture and entrepreneurial spirit. Initially meeting during their pageant days, competing in Miss Asian Global, Mui reached out ahead of her impending move and the two reconnected more deeply.
“I witnessed a lot of her growth, when she was prepping for Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars and watching her grow and figure out Fat Miilk and all the craziness of being an entrepreneur, always be able to turn a corner and come out on top — it was helpful to see someone else on their journey. She’s that person I call for advice.”
Since Thirsty Dumpling’s launch, Mui’s continued adjusting to life as a small business owner, but the feedback so far has been more than enough to sustain her.
So crispy.Garrett Sweet/Eater Chicago
Time to dig in.
“I sent a lot of tester kits to different kinds of people — folks with kids, people having a date night, girls’ nights, whatever. I was so nervous that if someone got my kit and the instructions weren’t good, they would say it was so hard to do — that their experience was bad,” she says. “But just the fact that people say ‘I can’t believe I made that’ — it’s all about that confidence that comes after. That lets me know I’ve made it.”
Despite the charms of Chicago winter (see: cozy fireplaces, hot drinks, cuddling), the coldest season is always a challenging time for the city’s hospitality industry. It’s hard to lure customers out of their homes when it’s freezing outside, exacerbating the already razor-thin margins of many local restaurants.
Below, Eater is cataloging both temporary and permanent restaurant closures in Chicago. If you know of a restaurant, bar, or another closed food establishment, please email chicago@eater.com. We will continue to update this post.
Edgewater: Mango Pickle, a multiyear Michelin Bib Gourmand honoree known for modern Indian cuisine, will permanently close after service on Sunday, February 4, at 5842 N. Broadway Street, owners Marisa Paolillo and Nakur Patel announced in an email newsletter. Founded in 2016, the restaurant garnered a following for its ability to balance a casual atmosphere with ambitious techniques, including whole-animal butchery. “We’ll be venturing into new culinary endeavors and adventures, including ‘eclectic pop-ups,’ culinary training, and catering in 2024,” Paolillo writes.
Hyde Park: Jade Court, one of the city’s top Chinese restaurants, will close at the end of February inside the Harper Court development that’s owned by the University of Chicago, says owner Carol Cheung. The restaurant faced numerous difficulties, including adequate staffing and rising food and labor costs.
Lincoln Square: Cafe Selmarie owner Birgit Kobayashi has announced her intention to close the neighborhood bakery favorite around mid-February, though a closing date is not yet finalized, according to Block Club Chicago. Kobayashi first notified fans in the fall that she planned to retire and shut down the cafe in 2024 after 40 years at 4729 N. Lincoln Avenue. She and co-founder Jeanne Uzdawinis founded Cafe Selmarie when they were 29 and introduced the neighborhood to its first espresso machine.
Lincoln Square: Chef Darnell Reed announced on Tuesday that he would close Luella’s Southern Kitchen, a culinary ode to his grandmother, in October after nine years at 4609 N. Lincoln Avenue. Nevertheless, he’s on the hunt for a new location.
River North: Etta, a high-profile daytime spot known for brunch and food cooked in a wood-burning oven, has closed its outpost in River North after more than three years at 700 N. Clark Street. The news came as a surprise to employees, several of whom say management alerted them just hours before their shifts were scheduled to begin.
River North: French restaurant and wine bar Marchesa permanently closed on Saturday, January 20, after six years at 535 N. Wells Street, restaurant manager Francisco Montiel and partner Kathryn Alvera announced in a Facebook post. A gallery-style space with an Art Deco bent, Marchesa opened in 2016, filling the long-vacant former home of Crofton on Wells. “We will always be grateful that after the pandemic we were able to continue with our dream, and indeed grow our business to new heights, but bankrolling a dream such as this one can be cost-prohibitive,” they write in part. “Having the honor of taking care of each of you has been the privilege of a lifetime for our entire team.”
South Loop: Thai restaurant stalwart Siam Rice will permanently close on Wednesday, January 31, at 1906 S. State Street after more than two decades in business so its owners can retire, they announced on Instagram. Originally located on North Wells in the Loop, Siam Rice relocated in 2021 and took over a former outpost of Opart Thai House.
Uptown/Palos Heights: Meat-free street food spot Meek’s Vegan Kitchen has permanently closed its stall inside Uptown’s newish vegan food hall XMarket, as well as its original location in suburban Palos Heights, owners announced in an Instagram post. “While this chapter closes, the spirit of Meek’s lives on in our hearts and memories,” it reads. “We’re immensely grateful for the journey we’ve shared with you.”
January 19
Lincoln Park: Local mini-chain Broken English Taco Pub is closed after seven years at 2576 N. Lincoln Avenue, reps announced in early January on Instagram. The third iteration of Adolfo Garcia and Phil Stefani’s taco-focused cantina marked by a frenetic approach to design, the restaurant opened in 2017 following sister spots in the Loop and Old Town, which remain open.
Logan Square: Passion House Coffee Roasters will permanently close its Logan Square cafe on Wednesday, January 31 after seven years at 2631 N. Kedzie Avenue, according to owner Joshua Millman. The cafe was the first from Passion House, opening in 2017 in the former Bow Truss coffee space. The company also had an outpost inside shuttered food hall Politan Row. Millman says the closure will allow him to focus on the brand’s five-year-old Goose Island cafe located off Division Street and finally unveil a long-awaited new cafe in March in the same building as its roasting plant in Fulton Market. “As this chapter closes, we wish to thank each and every one of you who contributed in helping Logan become an integral part of Passion House’s evolution, and we to see each of you again in the not too distant future,” Millman writes on Instagram.
January 18
Fulton Market: Well-known West Town sushi spot Arami, one of the original vendors at Time Out Market Chicago when the food hall debuted in 2019, has exited its stall at 916 W. Fulton Market after five years. The hall has seen significant turnover throughout its tenure and has already filled the vacancy with a new sushi restaurant, Madai.
Gold Coast: Cafe Sophie, a European-style all-day cafe originally from the company behind splashy steakhouse Maple & Ash, is permanently closed. After an ownership split at Maple & Ash’s parent company, the cafe was no longer affiliated with the Gold Coast steakhouse as the the cafe was operated by partner David Pisor’s reformed company which also includes Etta. Pisor says River North has changed since the pandemic, with folks worried about safety and a lack of foot traffic. He also points to challenges with the building and his growing frustration over spending more money on the space. In July 2022, Pisor’s attorneys blamed design flaws in the building for the cafe’s failures.
Cafe Sophie first opened in 2022.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
Lakeview: Casual Chicago mini-chain Big & Little’s has permanently closed its last standalone location at 1034 W. Belmont Avenue after a decade and removed the address from its website. The brand’s sole remaining outpost is at Midway Airport.
Logan Square: Roundhouse, a neighborhood sports bar that garnered local attention for unusual food like Italian beef fried rice, is permanently closed after a year at 2535 N. Milwaukee Avenue, according to a former employee. A replacement for 12-year-old fixture Rocking Horse, Roundhouse sought to channel Chicago’s dive bar culture with an ownership group that shared investors with the now-shuttered Uproar in Old Town.
Portage Park: American comfort food spot Bluebird has temporarily closed its second location after a wiring-related fire in early January gutted its space at 3938 N. Central Avenue, according to Block Club Chicago. First responders extinguished the blaze and reported no injuries. Owner Zachary Lucchese-Soto, also behind the original Bluebird in Lakeview, tells reporters that he intends to rebuild and reopen in five or six months. He also aims to raise $3,000 via GoFundMe to help support his staff during the closure.
Rogers Park: An outpost of breakfast chain restaurant Honey Berry Cafe is permanently closed after just four months at 6606 N. Sheridan Road, according to Block Club Chicago. Both Honey Berry Cafe and its predecessor, Bulldog Ale House, are owned by Midwestern restaurant company WeEat Hospitality Group, which operates more than a dozen locations in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Texas.
Chicago Heights: Chicago street food stalwart Enzo’s will close in March at 1710 Chicago Road in suburban Chicago Heights after nearly 80 years in business, third-generation owner Kyle Hallberg tells the Tribune. His grandfather, Enzo Tribo, started selling Italian beef in 1946 inside an old body shop. By the late 1960s, Tribo moved across the street into the former EZ Snack diner, which he bought with business partner Albert Tocco, an infamous local figure in his own right. Enzo’s last day will be Sunday, March 31, according to a Facebook post.
Two dives with more than two centuries of Chicago tavern history between them are making big moves in 2024. SmallBar in Logan Square has sold to new owners and is on track to close the deal on Friday night, February 2. Meanwhile, Skylark in Pilsen has sold to a group of employees who have already taken over operations.
At SmallBar, brothers Ty and Troy Fujimura, and co-owner Jesse Roberts agreed to sell the bar to Footman Hospitality, owners of Quality Time, Sparrow, and Bangers & Lace. Footman’s owners have pledged to keep “the soul of SmallBar intact and reestablish it for its next decade and beyond.”
Ty Fujimura says it’s time to downsize as his family grows older. He currently lives above the bar but plans to move soon. “We have a great opportunity to pass the torch to a really great group of guys who want to keep it SmallBar, to continue the legacy — that’s super important to me,” Fujimura says.
One of the bar’s regulars, Jason Freiman, is a Footman Hospitality founder. “I’ve known Ty for 15 years, I was also a longtime patron,” Freiman writes in an email. “More importantly, historic Chicago taverns are worth saving, I didn’t want to see the bar/property undergo redevelopment into condominiums.”
SmallBar, 2956 N. Albany, opened in 2002, but the space has been a tavern since 1906, says Ty Fujimura. (One of its incarnations was called Fanelli’s.) True to its name, it’s a tiny bar — just 500 square feet — that serves beers from craft breweries from around the country. Tucked away from major intersections, it’s a neighborhood dive with a 50-seat patio — double the size of the interior. Small Bar’s indoor footprint makes it one of the tiniest watering holes in Chicago. It’s got more girth compared to Matchbox, the tiny and narrow West Town tavern.
Ty Fujimura called SmallBar his “happy place” and has witnessed hundreds of first dates (and just as many break ups) at the bar, in addition to the various rapscallions who frequent it. Fujimura compares SmallBar to a first love. “You learn from them and you make some mistakes, and hopefully the next one you don’t make the same mistakes — that’s what SmallBar is to me,” he says.
SmallBar will close for six to eight weeks, according to Freiman. Footman Hospitality has hired Siren Betty Design to spruce up the space. Footman has a history of taking over bars, and in 2014 it purchased Bucktown Pub, a 92-year-old bar.
According to a news release, Footman partner Mike Van Meter is charged with creating a drink menu with “unpretentious riffs on classics.” The beer list will be local and “no-nonsense.” And they’ll still pour fun beer-and-shot combos. Siren Betty is bringing in new light fixtures with vintage elements like 1910s Tiffany-style glass, 1920s Art Deco geometry, and textured walls with patterned wallpaper.
SmallBar’s proximity to Quality Time doesn’t bother Freiman: “No worries at all — the more the merrier,” he tells Eater.
If any new SmallBars open, the Fujimuras won’t be involved as the name has been sold to Footman. At one point there was SmallBar located in Wicker Park and near DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus, though the latter two were operated by Fujimura’s former business partner who helped open the original in Logan Square.
Across town in Pilsen, the story is similar at Skylark, but it’s a group of employees who have rallied to purchase the bar at 2149 S. Halsted Street. The former owner, Bob McHale, placed the bar for sale with the hopes that a buyer would maintain the space rather than erect a new development on the site. Skylark opened in 2003.
Brian Page, a veteran Chicago bartender who’s worked at places including California Clipper in Humboldt Park, is one of the owners. He told Block Club Chicago that he “hates to see neighborhood bars close down and no longer be fostering community” and that he didn’t want to see the bar fall into the hands of inexperienced owners who would squander what workers have built.
Losing bars to new development is a fear for many lovers of tavern culture. Ty Fujimura says he’s been fortunate to watch Logan Square, and specifically his corner of the neighborhood, change through the years. He’s happy he found a worthy successor at SmallBar and confident he’s handing the keys to folks he trusts.
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