Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises’ overhaul of the Hub 51 space in River North starts with the unveiling of a wallet-friendly cocktail bar. Gus’ Sip and Dip aims to prove that downtown bars can pour quality cocktails at affordable prices at all times of the day, not just happy hour.
The menu will consist of classic cocktails all priced at $12. A bar program with housemade ingredients, — including juices and syrups — as well as in-house ice making will help keep prices low.
Costs are a worry, but Kevin Beary also cites hard seltzers and ready-to-drink canned cocktails as reasons the next generation of drinkers has shifted away from cocktails that are mixed in front of them by bartenders. “It’s a concerning sign when we see folks of the younger age groups gravitating towards those,” says Beary.
“I’m so concerned for the future of cocktails that I feel like I need to expose as many people to great classic cocktails as possible,” he adds.
Gus’, which should debut next month at 51 W. Hubbard Street, is Beary’s brainchild — he’s the beverage director of Three Dots and a Dash, the Bamboo Room, and the Omakase Room at Sushi-san. For the 30 cocktails, Beary promises ingredients, techniques, and presentations that guests are familiar with and a curated selection of premium spirits. “Instead of offering a 200-bottle back bar where I have a ton of inventory, I’m focusing solely on the spirits we use to make the cocktails,” he says.
Complementing the cocktail list — ranging from a “killer White Russian” and amaretto sour to a traditional martini — will be an ambiance that channels classic taverns. “It’s supposed to feel like a bar that could have been there for the past 50 years,” Beary says. “Classic in nature, very approachable, and somewhat familiar.”
Glassware also went through a careful selection process, especially since the various glasses will be stored in freezers under the bar. “I wanted to have every piece of glassware come chilled,” he says.
Taking over one-third of the former Hub 51 space, Gus’ Sip and Dip will seat about 75 guests. Located in the center of the room, the 25-seat U-shaped bar will feature leather-wrapped arm rails. Leather booths surround the room with a few high-tops near the bar.
In addition to cocktails, a light and a dark beer have been custom brewed for Gus’. Beary says McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York, which has been open for two centuries, inspired the move. He declined to say which two breweries were making the beer. There’ll be cider, too. Wine offerings will be limited to a red and white burgundy.
The food menu, headed up by RPM Restaurants chef Bob Broskey, will feature classic tavern favorites, including a wagyu French dip, Caesar salad, shrimp cocktail, and a burger.
“I’m trying to create a bar that is going to be very appealing to your seasoned cocktail drinker but can also be a really good introduction to this classic style of drinks for the next generation,” says Beary.
Hub 51 had a 16-year run before it closed in June. Sharing the Hub 51 space with Gus’ will be Crying Tiger from HaiSous chef Thai Dang, opening next year.
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises has brought its hit Ema to the suburbs hoping the North Shore appreciates chef and partner CJ Jacobson’s menu that mixes California cool with Mediterranean. The concept debuted in River North in 2016 and Lettuce has spun that into a sibling concept called Aba, which begot locations in Fulton Market; Austin, Texas; and Miami.
The buildout in Glenview is impressive, a radical departure from what most associate with the suburbs, taking a page from notable suburban debuts like RH Oak Brook, which channels the energy from the original in Gold Coast. The new Ema features a skylight and a light and breezy design with a track record in other markets.
In Glenview, Jacobson hopes to win over the lunch crowd with more salads — the chef says for the first time he’s offering a chopped salad (with arugula, romaine, cauliflower, caper, date, parmesan, olive, red pepper). A Caesar’s salad is made with a tahini-spiked dressing. The restaurant’s staple dips, including hummus with lamb ragu and a South Asian-street-influenced bhel hummus made with tamarind and mint chutney, are also available.
Jacobson mentions the restaurant’s origins, as LEYE co-founded Rich Melman wanted a Mediterranean restaurant. Jacobson doesn’t possess that family background, saying at first he only knew the cuisine through late-night kebob spots in LA. That’s one of the reasons Ema doesn’t focus on a particular region or country. Jacobson compares how Chinese and Italian cuisine proliferated in America, and how locals interpreted those foods using American ingredients. Jacobson feels foods from the Mediterranean haven’t had the chance to go through those filters, and that’s how he approaches Ema. For example, the lamb & beef kofta comes with a hoisin sauce, drawing from Chinese influences. Since Ema’s conception, Jacobson’s experience has endeared him to the culture and cuisine. He’s traveled to the region and he recounts spending time at a late-night Israeli club known for its hummus. After eight years of research, he says Ema has developed a point of view which is what’s made the brand successful.
Lamb & beef kofta.
Pita with spinach and feta spread.
Jacobson has worked with Lettuce since 2014, when he was one of the chefs at the company’s rotating Intro Chicago restaurant in Lincoln Park. He knows the company isn’t known for short menus. They’re big and feature many items to cater to the pickiest. Jacobson doesn’t necessarily agree with that philosophy and says he constantly worries that customers won’t branch out and try something new.
“Can we be good at all this stuff?” Jacobson asks rhetorically.
Lettuce Entertain You is Chicago’s largest restaurant group and the Melman family’s strategy of ensuring the customer is always right has been successful for 53 years. “I kind of get proved wrong time and time again,” Jacobson adds.
Jacobson ponders his future with Lettuce, saying that he’s due to pitch the Melmans on a new restaurant idea. While he ponders, he reflects on Ema and Aba.
“Anytime you spend this amount of time with a cuisine, it becomes a part of who you are,” he says.
Ema Glenview, 1320 Patriot Road in Glenview, lunch is 11:30 to 4 p.m., until 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday; dinner is 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thurday, until 10 p.m. on Friday; 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Measures in Springfield that would ban hemp-derived cannabis beverages in Illinois — a move that the state’s breweries say would have dealt a big blow to operations — did not go forward. That includes legislation that would have begun regulating delta-8 and other forms.
All parties involved, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, say the issue will come up again during the next session — the growing industry needs rules, they argue. In the meantime, the summer should provide some data in terms of how popular THC-infused drinks can be in Illinois. Observers believe the state could generate larger sales — and tax dollars — compared to Minnesota. Minnesota, whose lawmakers have embraced the drinks, has become
THC drinks have been a lifeline for struggling breweries aiming to diversify revenue streams. Breweries say they were caught off guard by bills that were introduced to regulate the THC industry — actions they say they support — and then altered to crush their business. There’s the belief that no one wants the drinks truly banned, but larger players want to weed out smaller competitors that were first to market before introducing their own brands.
Security patrols backed by Boka, LEYE, and One Off start in West Loop
It’s been a year since news that some of Chicago’s major restaurant groups — Boka, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, and One Off Hospitality Group — were organizing to deploy private security patrols in West Loop and Fulton Market. The owners of restaurants including the Publican, Aba, and Girl & the Goat, have gotten their wish. Block Club Chicago reports P4 Security Solutions is working with the groups and patrol SUVs have been spotted outside the restaurants in those neighborhoods.
The restaurants are part of the Fulton Market District Improvement Association, and the patrols are “entirely funded by contributions from businesses and organizations.” Security guards carry handcuffs and are armed. Their shifts extend to 3 a.m., according to Block Club. Chicago police have launched nightlife or “entertainment patrols” in areas like Wicker Park and the Near West Side. P4 is supposed to augment that and serves Bucktown and Lincoln Park. Greektown is another area that has its own patrols.
Springfield keeps the tipped minimum wage
Observers who witnessed One Fair Wage’s efforts in Chicago to abolish the tipped minimum wage could see this building. Lawmakers in Springfield did not move forward with the measure to abolish the tipped minimum wage statewide, but the campaign is still going national. The National Restaurant Association, which earlier in May hosted its annual show in Chicago, is gearing up its opposition to the effort. After lawmakers finished their session in Springfield ended, the association sent a statement to Eater defending the tip credit (a government subsidiary fills in the gap, and allows restaurants to pay workers below the minimum wage) as a “win-win-win for tipped restaurant workers, restaurant operators, and customers.”
“This win for Illinois restaurants will help keep menu prices down and will protect the jobs and high-earning potential of tipped workers in vibrant Illinois restaurant communities,” a statement from NRA Executive Vice President for Public Affairs Sean Kennedy reads.
North Center diner closed after a Thursday fire
Irene’s Finer Diner in North Center is closed indefinitely after a fire on Thursday at 2012 W. Irving Park Road. The owners announced the news on Friday morning: “We’re deeply saddened to share that due to a recent fire, we are forced to close for further notice. We are very grateful that no one was harmed. We’ve put a lot of heart and sweat into this diner, and will keep you posted on when we can welcome you once again for breakfast.”
5419 N Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60640 (773) 878-7340
Last month, veteran Chicago food writer Titus Ruscitti made a stunning statement — that Lincoln Park “could be making an early case for the 2024 restaurant neighborhood of the year.” The North Side neighborhood certainly has its stalwarts in Alinea, Boka, and, yes — the Wieners Circle. But the area, that DePaul University inhabits also has its fair share of cheap eat stinkers.
Lincoln Park has also been dominated by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises which counts five restaurants, including the original LEYE venue, R.J. Grunts, which opened in 1971. That number is about to increase with the addition of Sushi-san, joining locations in River North and inside Willis Tower. Sushi-san Lincoln Park opens today on Thursday, May 2 at 1950 N. Halsted Street.
The new Sushi-san is inside a new building where gay icon Manhandler Saloon stood. The neighborhood has changed and Lettuce has had to evolve with competition with the likes of John’s Food and Wine, Esme, and more. LEYE managing partner Amarit Dulyapaibul says Sushi-san has new tricks up with sashimi additions like bluefin tuna with a wafu vinaigrette and dill: “They’ve hit some of the biggest, boldest flavors we have come from that section of the menu,” he says.
Lincoln Park isn’t a neighborhood without quality sushi options from casual spots like Green Tea, to fancier options like Juno. But LEYE is ready for the competition. Sushi chef Kaze Chan spends most of his time in River North, where they serve omakase. Omakase won’t be a fixture in Lincoln Park, but Dulyapaibul is proud of the menu. He calls Chan “a generational sushi talent.”
“We have this incredible chef and we think that we’re able to grow the brand and create an extension and an evolution of Ramen-san,” Dulyapaibul says.
When Sushi-san opened in River North, it was more of a sushi spinoff of the ramen restaurant, but it’s found its niche. A popular and tasty item is vegetarian sushi made with Mighty Vine tomatoes. There are also chilled soba noodles made of buckwheat. Many restaurants and suppliers claim their soba is made of buckwheat when they’re actually made with a touch of buckwheat mixed with fillers. Sushi-san’s noodles should be more of a genuine article.
There’s a six-table patio along Halsted Street and room for 130 inside. The interior includes an eight-seat sushi bar along with a 17-seat bar. There’s a basement where Dulyapaibul hopes will emulate what LEYE does next door at Ramen-san when they bring in a visiting chef from another restaurant for the occasional pop-up.
A patio along Halsted is among the highlights.
Dulyapaibul says Lettuce sees the Sushi-san brand as a neighborhood restaurant. They’ll have a kid’s menu with chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and miso salmon.
“I think the way we always try to build them is just to be super kind of welcoming and responsive to the neighborhood that we’re in,” Dulyapaibul says.
With Ramen-san (which opened in 2023), Summer House, and Cafe Ba-Ba-Ree-ba, all clustered at Halsted and Armitage, is that enough for LEYE?
“Lincoln Park is such a special neighborhood in Chicago and means so much to us and the history of this organization,” Dulyapaibul says. ”I think we’ll continue to invest here heavily. We always are looking for more opportunity.”
Check out some food photos below.
Sushi-san Lincoln Park, 1950 N. Halsted Street, open 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Tre Dita’s 44-foot ceilings and 40-foot windows are sights to behold and though the restaurant only sits on the second floor of the St. Regis Chicago, the panoramic views are spectacular. There’s also a special corner table set aside to offer a premier perspective. Perhaps, in time, this will rival what LondonHouse’s cupola has become — a popular destination for wedding engagements for folks of a certain ilk.
The restaurant opened on Saturday. The dramatic vistas at 401 E. Wacker Drive aren’t overstated inside the $1 billion and 1,198-foot skyscraper with 101 stories. Even on an overcast day, high above Navy Pier, and a short walk to the Mag Mile down Upper Wacker Drive, the views are stunning. It’s also close to Millenium Park where Lollapalooza annually sets up shop. Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises will do well to host performers at its restaurants, and Tre Dita is already attracting celebrities. They’ve already served cast members from The Bear and Chicago PD at a preview party. There’s a rear entrance and plenty of private space across two levels so celebrities can enjoy their meals in peace, or be seen if that’s what they want. Mayor Brandon Johnson has already visited, and so has former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Take a look at the spaces below.
The Bar
Bar Tre Dita has a separate entrance and opened in February. In some ways, it represented a soft opening for the restaurant with a truncated menu of Funke’s favorites. As time goes by, it will evolve into its own identity with a unique menu. The drinks are Italian-focused with grappa, amaru, and vermouth. There are 14 seats at the bar with room for 120 total in the space. Grab a seat and try one of 400 spirits stocked from across the globe.
Dita (Sazerac rye, Sfumatto Rabarbaro, punt e mes, Cynar 70, luxardo antica, house bitters)
The Restaurant
The quality of the food is important, but Funke reminds us that much of the Italian experience comes from the environment.
“It’s where you are and who you’re with and it’s what you’re eating,” he says. “If you’re sitting on the island of Capri, eating a caprese salad with the ocean breeze on your face, sipping a glass of white wine with the person you love.”
With that in mind, Lettuce worked with David Collins Studio to create an 8,600-square-foot space outfitted with gray Tuscan marbles, arched portals, dark-stained timber chequerboard flooring, walnut timber paneling, and wrought-iron light fixtures. There’s room for 130 inside the 3,200-square-foot dining room and a private room for 40 that sits above the main space. There are also five private rooms, each named after a horse that’s competed in the Palio di Siena, a race held biannually in Siena.
Evan Funke’s Pasta Lab
This is chef Evan Funke’s blue steel.
Chef Funke is a perfectionist and he believes that pasta needs the perfect environment to consistently create outstanding noodles. His pasta lab, a fixture at two of his other restaurants, is a glassed-off space where staff can ensure dough has the ideal humidity and temperature to produce quality noodles. Of course, customers can peer into the workspace and see the staff at work.
The Menu
Tortelli di Zucca
Funke is a proud Angelino, having cooked for Hollywood royalty at Spago in Beverly Hills. Funke’s passion for LA is neck and neck with his love of Italian cooking, and at Tre Dita, they’re honing in on Tuscany with a mix of unique pasta and steaks. Funke says he wants to spotlight more than Tuscany’s famous regions, like Florence, Pisa, and Siena. There’s focus on Pontremoli, Pienza, and Chiusi.
Even before Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises entered the picture, there were already big expectations for the restaurants that would open inside the St. Regis Chicago, the $1 billion skyscraper that hovers over Navy Pier on Upper Wacker Drive.
Back in November 2020, Alinea Group announced its intentions to partner with the 101-story luxury hotel, which also contains residences overlooking the Chicago Riverwalk. A year later, with restaurants feeling the impact of the pandemic, Alinea canceled plans which left an opportunity for Chicago’s largest hospitality group. Work hadn’t started, giving LEYE a clean slate to design what would become Tre Dita, a lavish spot with 44-foot ceilings and 40-foot windows. The restaurant, officially opening on Saturday, March 16, is going to be a hot spot to watch Navy Pier fireworks.
After Lettuce closed Tru in 2017, the prevailing narrative around town was that LEYE was no longer interested in the fine dining world. Quick serve and casual dining were en vogue, and to an extent, the pandemic proved the popularity of carry-out-friendly restaurants. Now eight years later, Lettuce Entertain is back in the game, first with Miru, the Japanese restaurant on the 11th floor of St. Regis. Described as a “cucina Toscana,” Tre Dita, the Marriott property’s flagship restaurant, is now open. “Tre Dita” means “three fingers,” a reference to the thickness of the signature cut of meat, bistecca Fiorentina.
Tre Dita is one of the city’s fanciest spots
The space features a private room above the dining room where guests have an overhead view of the rest of the restaurant.
The Melmans turned to LA chef Evan Funke to shape the restaurant which has been in a kind of soft open mode since February when the bar debuted. For a hotel bar, the design is big and bold and could be easily confused for a separate restaurant. For now, they serve a scaled-down menu with some of Funke’s favorites, a little preview of Tre Dita’s main menu. Eventually, it will evolve to a menu of more refined bar bites. The specialty is Italian beverages like grappa. There’s even a rarity: Italian gin.
Funke worked with Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills and was raised in California. His restaurants, Felix and Mother Wolf, have routinely served Hollywood celebrities. Tre Dita is his fifth restaurant in America. He’s also working on a sixth in Miami. While Chicago lacks LA’s celebrity culture, Lollapalooza takes place nearby, and athletes love the city. There are plenty of private rooms, including one that overlooks the main dining hall that could make Tre Dita attractive to the rich and famous.
Chef Evan Funke had worked with Wolfgang Puck and Rich Melman.
Chicago is a steak town, and Tuscans love their beef, says chef Evan Funke. This steak is “three fingers thick” or “tre dita” in Italian.
Funke chats about knowing that movie stars, successful tech bros, and other guests of note just want to have a normal experience. A key is to make sure their security details are comfortable. Having back entries away from the public eye helps. Funke also says it’s a little easier because most people love what he specializes in, pizza and pasta.
“I did my piece at Spago in Beverly Hills and did that for six years,” Funke says. “I’m good — I don’t want to do tasting menus and small portions. I want to make people happy.”
Customers took to his passion for creating pasta by hand. Funke has immersed himself in Italian cuisine and a signature attribute of his restaurants, including Tre Dita, is a pasta lab. The lab is a refrigerated and glassed room with wood tables that allow the restaurant to regulate humidity and temperature. There are pasta labs in LA, Beverly Hills, and now Chicago.
“So pasta, much like bread, is an animal. It lives and breathes, it’s directly affected by its immediate environment, and controlling the environment is an extremely important thing if you want to produce a handmade product very consistently,” Funke says.
Tre Dita’s bar debuted in February and is so large it could be confused for its own restaurant.
The chef continues: “The connection I really seek is if someone passes by the pasta lab, and they look through the glass and they see a pasta maker repping out continuously thousands of thousands of small shapes and they sit down to dinner and the plate arrives and they see that there’s 150 of these beautiful shapes of pasta within their bowl, and they think back to when they pass by the pasta lab. They go ‘wow, that person just repped out 150 times just for this one place.’ And that guest is never going to look at that pasta shape the same way again.”
Funke has been in and out of Chicago the last three months training staff. He says the goal is about “really sweeping people off their feet and taking them outside of their daily lives through delicious Tuscan traditional food and excellently executed hospitality.”
The chef is an encyclopedia of Italian cooking driven by three bedrocks: connection, reverence, and appreciation. Tre Dita’s menu will contain a variety of unique and obscure shapes of pasta rarely seen on American menus. There’s Tortelli di zucca stuffed with roasted butternut squash and pici (fat spaghetti) that will power the cacio e pepe. There’s also lasagna bastarde. But Funke says he’s not going to alienate people or “force education down people’s throats.”
“I want us to be approachable. I want it to be delicious, and I want it to be fun and ultimately I think we’ve really hit it,” he says.
The pastas are made in a special glassed room, a pasta lab, that regulates temperature and humidity.
Other menu highlights include Funke’s schiacciata bianca, a fluffy focaccia made with rosemary and Tuscan sea salt. Then there’s fiori di zucca (squash blossoms with ricotta fresca and parmigiano reggiano) and gamberi in salsa verde.
No, Chicago isn’t blessed with the same produce that’s available throughout the year in California. Funke says that presents a challenge, but they’ll happily fly in produce from across the country. But they’ll also bring in fruit and veggies from Michigan and farms in the area. Funke is excited about the Mitten State’s blueberry season, for example.
“I mean, Italian food is 90 percent ingredients and 10 percent technique,” Funke says. “You know, it comes down to really smart shopping a lot of the time and then just not trying to you know try not to fuck it up after that.”
Funke’s relationship with LEYE goes back a few years. After he unceremoniously left Bucato in 2015 in Culver City, California, he says he became determined to work on his weakness. He figured working with Rich Melman would help and moved to Chicago where he lived in a hotel for nine months and consulted with Lettuce, helping them open Italian restaurants like Il Porcellino. He would also collaborate with LEYE in Las Vegas when the company opened RPM Italian in 2022.
“They’re just a very very forward-thinking progressive company and they recognize talent and they grow people very well,” Funke says. “Their leadership infrastructure was something thatI found very important to kind of key in on and that was really what drew me to working with Rich Melman and [son] RJ [Melman].”
The pasta is what Funke is known for, but the beef isn’t an afterthought. Funke succinctly sums it up.
“What I like to say is Tuscans celebrate beef, and the bistecca Fiorentina, and Chicagoans celebrate beef as well,” he says. “So it was a natural fit for me to do this restaurant.”
Tre Dita inside St. Regis Chicago, 401 E. Wacker Drive, second floor, opening on Saturday, March 16, reservations via OpenTable