Experienced restaurateurs bringing unique eateries to the suburbs in 2016
There's nothing wrong with being loyal to your favorite restaurant. You know, the one where you don't even need to study the menu because you always order the same thing. Or where you look forward to seeing what the chef is trying this week.
But when is it loyalty, and when is it a rut?
A couple of new suburban restaurants coming this spring can help you address that, with experienced owners trying something new.
The biggest news may be coming out of Rosemont. Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and a popular Chicago country music club are teaming up for a second Bub City barbecue joint.
“We're really excited,” said Jerrod Melman, managing partner. The restaurant is being done in partnership with Joe's on Weed. “They know country music inside and out,” Melman said.
It won't be a carbon copy of the city establishments, but the menu will feature “about 90 percent” of the dishes Bub City serves, Melman said. “I think anytime (LEYE opens a second location) we want it to feel the same and want it to feel a little bit different,” Melman said.
With the new place there will be an additional meat-smoker, he said.
The chain began looking at the location, in the village's entertainment district, when it became apparent Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill was having financial trouble, in Rosemont and locations nationwide. The Rosemont spot closed in October.
“We just kind of loved what was happening (in the district). It's a tremendous opportunity to do something fun there.”
Melman said they hope to open the restaurant by the end of February.
Claim Company
Northwest suburban diners will have a new place to get their Motherlode burger fix. The Claim Company is opening any day now in Vernon Hills, near Hawthorn Mall.
It is the second spot for the new version of the restaurant, which was founded in the early 1970s in Chicago, and had locations in Northbrook and Oak Brook. It was sold in 1994 to a company that wanted to make it a national chain but closed when that plan failed. Former employees now own the Northbrook location.
The Vernon Hills spot will, of course, feature the famous Motherlode build-your-own gourmet burger there. And the Salad Saloon salad bar, with its 70-plus items — will have a twist. Employees will be the ones manning the tongs, building the salad to your specifications as you proceed along the bar.
In Geneva
• Pastry guru Alain Roby is again expanding his All Chocolate Kitchen, at 33 S. Third St. in downtown Geneva.
The savory side of life will be the focus at Primo, slated to open Jan. 27.
The new restaurant will offer small plates, cheeses, charcuterie, wine and desserts. Dishes will include crab-avocado sliders, short ribs, seared lamb shank with portobello mushrooms and green spiced lentils, eggplant confit (from his grandmother's recipe) and crostini au fromage.
It will also feature a 22-foot-tall chocolate rig pumping chocolate and a large lighted sugar-art creation.
Roby is the 2013 Pastry Chef of the Year as deemed by the Chicago Culinary Museum and Chefs Hall of Fame. He has appeared on the Food Channel and holds Guinness Book of World Records records for longest candy cane, tallest cooked-sugar building and tallest chocolate sculpture.
• The people behind Gia Mia Pizza Bar in Wheaton and Fire+Ice in Glen Ellyn plan to open Gia Mia Geneva in a former bread store at 13 N. Third St. The anticipated opening is in February.
Hop on it
Passers-by have wondered for months why there are a bunch of wooden poles sticking out of a field at Oak Street and Orchard Road in North Aurora.
They're the frame for the supports on which hops vines will grow for the Hardware Gastro Pub & Brewery.
Besides growing its own hops, the restaurant's owners also plan to grow fruit trees to use in the beverages they create. The beer will be brewed on the premises. Once production exceeds 3,000 barrels a year, there are plans to add a separate microbrewery, with a tasting room. The restaurant also plans to emphasize farm-to-table cooking, using local ingredients.
The venture is owned by Parker Grabowski's Gastronomy Rooms Inc., which also owns the nearby Turf Room restaurant and off-track betting establishment a few blocks away, and The Saddle Room in Hoffman Estates.