An Instant Classic
Sunda (110 W. Illinois St.; 312-644-0500) is exhausting. Where to look first? The gleaming bar, three deep with gorgeous people sipping stunning martinis like a wasabi H2O with a crushed wasabi pea rim? The long sushi bar under bamboo hangings meant to suggest floating fish? The eye candy packed at the communal table? No matter where you look, it’s good. This contemporary Asian place has been open about a minute and a half, and service is already…
Also new to the neighborhood, The Lucky Lady opened around the corner from Theory in late December courtesy of Michaels Bisbee and Kaulentis, a.k.a. the guys behind the popular River North hangouts RiNo, Manor, and Stay. “A lot of our patrons said they wished we had an early spot to go to after work,” Bisbee … Read more
A new happy-hour spot in River North bets on the upscale-sports-lounge trend
Saturday’s Day & Night of the Living Ales was one scarily awesome-sounding slugfest we couldn’t pass up. And apparently, neither could you: Both the afternoon and the evening installment of the Chicago Beer Society’s fifth annual ode to…
Stadium West’s crawl from just another neighborhood dive to the vegan-Korean-food-cheap-beer haven known as Dragonlady Lounge (3188 N. Elston Ave.; 773-597-5617) has been a slow and stealthy one, but, with its name change last December, the metamorphoses is complete. And what a work of wacky, wonderful goodness it is…
A Different Shade of Sepia
Kendal Duque, named the best new chef of 2008 by Chicago magazine last May, announced he will leave his chef position at Sepia (123 N. Jefferson St.; 312-441-1920) at the end of March to pursue his own restaurant in Chicago. “It will probably be a small, casual place,” says Duque, a 36-year-old native of Ecuador. “l have a very, very good concept in mind and I’m being as tightlipped as I can for now. But I can say that I have a lot of energy…
When the door to one Latin-inflected nightclub closes, another one opens. On Friday we checked out opening night at Avila, a spot that’s taken over Club 720’s River North location as well as its M.O.: Latin music, a VIP vibe, and plenty of dancing…
Bull & Bear 431 N. Wells St. This newbie offers in-table taps, 25 TVs, one projection screen, and free WiFi (so you can trash talk your bracket buddies over IM). Stretch Run Sporting Club & Grille 544 N. LaSalle St. Talk about madness: This spot houses 240 TVs—that’s a 1.2:1 TV-to-barfly ratio. Plus, … Read more
Nightlifers, meet Chicago magazine’s new professional barfly, Kate Seamons. Kate, meet our very thirsty readers. By day, Kate’s the managing editor of newser.com, a site that could make us all a little smarter. (Before that, she spent four years at the helm of centerstagechicago.com, a post that required its fair share of bar hopping—you know, for research.) By night, she’ll be trolling the taverns of Chicago, looking for your next go-to spot for…
BYO Alert
“I have no restaurant experience,” says Hector Peña, owner of Café Bella (3311 W. Fullerton Ave.; 773-292-5040), a brand-new Logan Square BYO. “I’m a real estate broker. My experience is McDonald’s, when I was 17 years old. My buddy is the chef, and I have always wanted him to open up his own place because his food is marvelous.” The buddy in question is Cesar Casas, a veteran of Ambria who most recently ran…
