Just ask our nightlife writer Amalie Drury, who lives nearby: Old Townies and Lincoln Parkers alike spent the better part of winter drooling in wait for this new wine bar to open—and finally, last week, it did, with a list of 21 varieties available both by the glass and the bottle, plus a menu of Southern European small plates. Our photographer dropped by Friday night and found a chic crowd in a…
STEPHANIE IZARD, INC.: In the two years since the curly-haired Chicago chef won a TV reality show, she has managed to turn her 15 minutes of fame into the launching pad for a celebrity brand. Her $1.5-million, 130-seat restaurant in the West Loop is racing to open next month. Will the crowds come?
RELATED STORY: STEPHANIE IZARD PROFILE »
The design directive: the words “quirky,” “rustic,” and “badass.” With those marching orders, the Chicago-based design firm 555 helped incorporate the following elements.
There’s an art to sitting at a bar alone, and I’m still mastering it. (Mom: “Sweetie, if I were you, I wouldn’t spend too much time in bars alone. So unhealthy.”) I don’t know if women can pull it off as easily as men, who always have the option of hunching over some huge beer while staring with laser focus at a hockey game on the nearest flat-screen. But…
GILT BAR Gilt’s popular good-times vibe may finally break this space’s long-held jinx. Then again, we said that when Aigre Doux opened, too. 230 W. Kinzie St.; 312-464-9544 LONGMAN & EAGLE Overheard at this throbbing Logan Square porkopolis: “How long’s the wait?” “@#$%ing long, man.” 2657 N. Kedzie Ave.; 773-276-7110 M BURGER Lettuce’s cutesy burger … Read more
Steaking Out Territory
Two steak-house veterans—David Flom (Rosebud) and Matty Moore (Rosebud, Smith & Wollensky)—think they’ve unearthed some angles that will wedge yet another steak house into River North. Loosely scheduled to open in…
The Inn Crowd: Two shiny spots in the Elysian Hotel blast onto the Gold Coast—one buzzing, the other stunning
Cue the pipe organ: The Shady Lady (712 N. Clark St.; 312-624-9008), a new circus-meets-burlesque lounge in River North, opened to the public last Friday, and our photographer was onsite to catch early adopters mugging for the camera. The bar marks the return of the once and future nightlife entrepreneur Dion Antic to Chicago’s bar scene. Antic is…
2002-04: Bada Bing 2004-06: Iggy’s 2007-January 2010: Chaise Lounge February 2010 on: The Southern, the latest spot to take a stab at curing the world’s woes with small-batch bourbon
