Don’t let that unassuming wood-paneled façade fool you: Tzar Ultra Lounge is no local dive. The new River North nightclub bears a red-carpeted entrance, a list of 150 vodkas, a vodka vault reserved for big spenders, and a staff of modelesque bartenders mixing (you guessed it) vodka cocktails…
My guard was up last night from the moment I drove onto a particular block of River North, where the nightclubs Crescendo, Y, Sound-Bar, and now Tzar Ultra Lounge are all clustered. Parking my car around the corner on Franklin Street, I spotted a trio of teetering, sequined young women who had just alighted from an early model Rav4 bearing a suburban dealership logo and who nervously clutched pink Victoria’s Secret shopping bags as they read the instructions on the meter box…
Chicago’s most-buzzed-about restaurants this month
The Red Lion, an English pub that poured pints in Lincoln Park for 27 years, has been open in its new Lincoln Square location since January, but due to a paperwork snafu, owners Joe and Susan Heinen have been waiting on their liquor license for what feels like a bloody long time…
And on the ninth day, the brewers rested. Beer makers and drinkers alike gathered at Revolution Brewing on Friday, the final day of Chicago Craft Beer Week 2011, for a sold-out bash fittingly dubbed the Beer Fistival, featuring guest pours from area breweries, music from the Four Star Brass Band, and a new beer from Revolution dubbed Red Scare…
DEAD RECKONING: Seventy-six years after his death, Auguste Escoffier—the father of modern French cuisine—passes judgment on the menu he inspired at Next.
On the heels of the hotelier Ian Schrager’s announcement this week that the Ambassador East Hotel, once a celebrity playground, now will be called Public, we learned that the owners of Webster’s Wine Bar and The Bluebird have chosen a name for their soon-to-open Logan Square spot, further feeding this postrecession Everyman trend: Smith…
Seven Questions for Ian Schrager
Schrager bought the Ambassador East Hotel and its legendary restaurant, the Pump Room, in April 2010. Yesterday, he announced his plans to reinvent the hotel as Public Chicago…
Rootstock Wine & Beer Bar, the cozy Humboldt Park spot owned by three former Webster’s Wine Bar vets and our 2010 pick for best wine bar, has gotten so popular that I now consider it a major win if I snag a stool there on a weekend—or actually any—night…
No one knew exactly what to expect when Ian Schrager bought the Ambassador East hotel (1301 N. State Pkwy.), home of The Pump Room, the most famous restaurant in the city for decades. Dish got a look at the official release on the project. The hotel will be called Public, and it will emphasize service over extravagance. The restaurant will still be called The Pump Room, and, confirming the unconfirmed rumors Dish had been hearing…
