I do have confirmation from a Binny's employee with whom I spoke earlier today that the new Glencoe store will indeed be in the former Blockbuster space. I'm guessing it could possibly include a couple of other spaces, too because it was originally announced as a 9,000 sf store and is now being referred to as a 13,000 sf store.

The abandoned (and unlamented) Everest Burger space next door, for sure - but what else? The dry cleaners and the tanning salon? A good-sized Binny's would be a far better use of that space, IMO.

Glencoe recently 86'd a law that required stores that sell liquor to also sell food. That change, in part, led to this expansion.

So, that silly little space-wasting deli counter at the tiny Binny's Express is history? Good! You need a deli counter? Go to The Grand on the way home.

The Sedgwick Stop opened last week in the old Angelo's Taverna space at 1612 N. Sedgwick, I stopped by on Saturday mid-afternoon when I got back in town and the place was packed. The braised short rib sandwich I ordered was excellent. Also opening last week was Stella Barra, the second concept Lettuce Entertain You is opening where Tilli's used to stand at 1952 N. Halsted. The artisanal pizza restaurant joins Summer House Santa Monica, which opened a few weeks ago.

Ursiform wrote:Just spotted a sign for a new Red Hot Ranch at Ashland and Barry, former home of Dona Totrtas. Appears to be a work in progress.

Was at the Western Ave. Red Hot Ranch last Thursday, and the guy there said the Ashland location would be opening in a couple of weeks.

Forgive me if this appears elsewhere on the board, but Szalas has closed, as has Gilmart.

thepld wrote:On the corner of Lake and Wells in the Century Tower building they're putting in a new Japanese Grill and Ramen restaurant. I live in the building so I'm rather excited about this. Even if it's mediocre ramen I still won't have to travel far on the days when I'm sick and need a steaming hot bowl of noodle soup. I think they are behind schedule as they were supposed to open this last weekend. I asked the doorman and he said probably next weekend now. I haven't seen a name or anything. They did put up the plastic food replicas in the window though, which is kinda hilarious.

From the signs on Wells, it's called Ajida. I can't find any information online.

Based on the amount of plastic ramens in the windows, there's gonna be plenty of options.

Corrected name for new restaurant on 715 Devon Avenue in Park Ridge: Shawarma Inn. Saw a permanent sign above the restaurant and a flashing neon one last night when I was picking up my bird across the street at Devon Avenue Meats, but they do not appear to be open for business yet.

sdbond wrote:Corrected name for new restaurant on 715 Devon Avenue in Park Ridge: Shawarma Inn. Saw a permanent sign above the restaurant and a flashing neon one last night when I was picking up my bird across the street at Devon Avenue Meats, but they do not appear to be open for business yet.

Presumably a second location of the one on Lincoln in Budlong Woods?

spinynorman99 wrote:

sdbond wrote:Corrected name for new restaurant on 715 Devon Avenue in Park Ridge: Shawarma Inn. Saw a permanent sign above the restaurant and a flashing neon one last night when I was picking up my bird across the street at Devon Avenue Meats, but they do not appear to be open for business yet.

Presumably a second location of the one on Lincoln in Budlong Woods?

I'm not quite sure. I will look more closely next time I go up that way. But if it is, we are in for some good food, based on the menu I just looked up!

From Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 102&type=1

Four years ago we opened the first Naf Naf in Naperville. We had a shoestring budget, an old building with no heat or AC, and used equipment. What we lacked in our facility we made up with the passion and love that we put into our food. The people of Naperville welcomed and supported us and for that we are forever grateful. We are excited to announce our 11th location and 2nd Naperville location in downtown Naperville! This location will feature our new concept with new items like our steak shawarma, salad/rice bowls, garlic sauce, and sumac onions. As we have grown to become the largest Middle Eastern chain in Chicago we are always proud that we started in a great city, with great people.
Thank you Naperville!
Elan, Justin, Sahar & David

No address was given in the post, but it appears it will the express concept, not the full menu. No clue if the schnitzel will be available.

lodasi wrote:From Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 102&type=1

Four years ago we opened the first Naf Naf in Naperville. We had a shoestring budget, an old building with no heat or AC, and used equipment. What we lacked in our facility we made up with the passion and love that we put into our food. The people of Naperville welcomed and supported us and for that we are forever grateful. We are excited to announce our 11th location and 2nd Naperville location in downtown Naperville! This location will feature our new concept with new items like our steak shawarma, salad/rice bowls, garlic sauce, and sumac onions. As we have grown to become the largest Middle Eastern chain in Chicago we are always proud that we started in a great city, with great people.
Thank you Naperville!
Elan, Justin, Sahar & David

No address was given in the post, but it appears it will the express concept, not the full menu. No clue if the schnitzel will be available.

On a related note - the Evanston branch recently opened:
1629 Orrington Ave.
http://dailynorthwestern.com/2013/11/12 ... free-pita/

Uptown/Ravenswood area: looks like there's a new pizza joint at 1607 W. Montrose: Pizzeria ORD. They definitely have a good size pizza oven in there and they were working on window signage yesterday. No one answered when I called but they put up a yelp page already:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/pizzeria-ord-chicago-2

Wingers in Hyde Park

Walking down 53rd Street, a new restaurant named Wingers looks to be opening soon. Their sign promises wings, burgers, and gyros. They are in the spot formerly occupied by Hyde Park Gyros at the corner of 53rd and Kimbark.

The GP wrote:Cookies & Carnitas will be opening in the old Barry's Spot space at 5759 N. Broadway. According to their Facebook page, they have been at Green City Market. Has anyone tried their food?

Looks like they open today. I'm going to try and stop by after work.

Cookies & Carnitas
5757 Broadway
312-339-0465
11am-11pm
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cookies- ... 7477387821

Radler is open now, as of yesterday. No liquor license yet. Article on Chicago Eater here.

Chick-fil-a at Cermak and Harlem, North Riverside

Steel frame is up.

Meanwhile, in Evanston:

Lulu's is closing, to be replaced by a farm-to-table restaurant.

Lao Sze Chuan is supposedly “almost finished", whatever that means.

Really sorry to hear this about LuLu's
I always enjoyed eating there...

Meanwhile, closings in the Kingdom of Oak Park...

... at the space located at...

108 Madison St #1, Oak Park
Home of (most recently) Burgers, Wings & Turkey Things and before, Oak Park Dogs and before that Sheena's Soulfood & Deli.

Cursed spot. Nothing to indicate anything else opening.

Did you blink? Then you missed...

King Philly
1141 Garfield St, Oak Park

Open just a few months and it was owned by the guy who also owned the cell phone store next door (also closed). Funny thing, if you paid using credit they would have to run next door to process.

Stopped in a few times. Nothing special. They would make funnel cake that was pretty good. I did ask the cook if he would make a Jim Shoe and looked confused. The gal at the register enlightened him. Never made it back to see if they would.

Another cursed spot (Dino's Snack, Sabios Pizzeria). Nothing to indicate anything else opening.

Enough scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Panther in the Den wrote:Meanwhile, closings in the Kingdom of Oak Park...

... at the space located at...

108 Madison St #1, Oak Park
Home of (most recently) Burgers, Wings & Turkey Things and before, Oak Park Dogs and before that Sheena's Soulfood & Deli.

Cursed spot. Nothing to indicate anything else opening.

That is just an awful location. It's inconvenient, hard to see from the street and the parking isn't good (where in OP is though).
Add to that the fact that there's a McD's right across the street and it's no mystery why these places don't last in Oak Park.

Panther in the Den wrote:Did you blink? Then you missed...

King Philly
1141 Garfield St, Oak Park

Open just a few months and it was owned by the guy who also owned the cell phone store next door (also closed). Funny thing, if you paid using credit they would have to run next door to process.

Stopped in a few times. Nothing special. They would make funnel cake that was pretty good. I did ask the cook if he would make a Jim Shoe and looked confused. The gal at the register enlightened him. Never made it back to see if they would.

Another bad location. Years ago there was a very good taco stand there and they made a good run for about 3 years but the crampt parking and severe congestion from the nearby Eisenhower interchange doomed them as well.

Per Uptown Update, the former Sous Rising team are bringing a fine dining concept, 42 Grams, to the former Chester's Chicken space at 4662 N Broadway near Lawrence and Broadway. The concept sounds similar to other recent off the beaten path upscale concepts to open over the past year or two. It's a price point I rarely opt for but will probably give them a shot because I appreciate them taking a chance on Uptown.

42 Grams
4662 N Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
http://www.42gramschicago.com

AlekH wrote:Per Uptown Update, the former Sous Rising team are bringing a fine dining concept, 42 Grams, to the former Chester's Chicken space at 4662 N Broadway near Lawrence and Broadway. The concept sounds similar to other recent off the beaten path upscale concepts to open over the past year or two. It's a price point I rarely opt for but will probably give them a shot because I appreciate them taking a chance on Uptown.

42 Grams
4662 N Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
http://www.42gramschicago.com

That's really pricey, but living in the area I'm very curious as well. I think it's interesting they've decided to go with communal dining after Elizabeth's failed experiment (love the restaurant itself). I wonder if they'll be able to navigate around the same challenges. I think it's difficult for many potential customers to spend over 200 dollars per person when the table guests can be a huge crapshoot.

I wish the folks at 42 Grams well. With the impending reconstruction of the Wilson L stop, that section of Broadway is going to be pretty unpleasant for however long it takes.

Fulton's on the River, part of Levy Restaurants, is closing in January to make way for a new restaurant from chef Tony Mantuano, his first non-Italian venture.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... estaurant#

PopcornMegaphone wrote:

AlekH wrote:Per Uptown Update, the former Sous Rising team are bringing a fine dining concept, 42 Grams, to the former Chester's Chicken space at 4662 N Broadway near Lawrence and Broadway. The concept sounds similar to other recent off the beaten path upscale concepts to open over the past year or two. It's a price point I rarely opt for but will probably give them a shot because I appreciate them taking a chance on Uptown.

42 Grams
4662 N Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
http://www.42gramschicago.com

That's really pricey, but living in the area I'm very curious as well. I think it's interesting they've decided to go with communal dining after Elizabeth's failed experiment (love the restaurant itself). I wonder if they'll be able to navigate around the same challenges. I think it's difficult for many potential customers to spend over 200 dollars per person when the table guests can be a huge crapshoot.

This is a ballsy play: more expensive than Elizabeth and Goosefoot and even further away from a highway to court suburban diners. Schwa had the luxury of being novel in 2005, and could afford to wait for momentum to build; this restaurant, with little publicity on it and all of it on all the places opening downtown, is going to have to turn heads immediately to have a chance. Should be interesting...

AlekH wrote:Per Uptown Update, the former Sous Rising team are bringing a fine dining concept, 42 Grams, to the former Chester's Chicken space at 4662 N Broadway near Lawrence and Broadway. The concept sounds similar to other recent off the beaten path upscale concepts to open over the past year or two. It's a price point I rarely opt for but will probably give them a shot because I appreciate them taking a chance on Uptown.

I'm pulling hard for these guys - Jake is such an outstanding chef. The last time I ate at Sous Rising, 5 of the dinners there were from the far suburbs; a pretty impressive reach for an "underground" dining experience. If they can open smoothly and draw some early buzz, they could do well.

P.S. Nice 42 grams write-up in the reader.

That was a nice write-up. Thanks for posting it. I'm really tempted to try them out.

That's a steep price for an off-Broadway ticket.

(I know it's on Broadway. That's part of the joke.)

disagree wrote:That's a steep price for an off-Broadway ticket.

(I know it's on Broadway. That's part of the joke.)

I think that whole thing is overblown. Yes, it's in a neighborhood where the prices are lower, but this is in no way striving to be a a neighborhood spot. If they get good or better reviews, people will come from many different areas and it won't matter in the end. These spots aren't just reserved for neighborhood residents remember and not all establishments are required to do so.

marothisu wrote:

disagree wrote:That's a steep price for an off-Broadway ticket.

(I know it's on Broadway. That's part of the joke.)

I think that whole thing is overblown. Yes, it's in a neighborhood where the prices are lower, but this is in no way striving to be a a neighborhood spot. If they get good or better reviews, people will come from many different areas and it won't matter in the end. These spots aren't just reserved for neighborhood residents remember and not all establishments are required to do so.

It's still counter-intuitive Yes, people would likely seek out a place like Alinea even if it was in a less trendy area. However, convincing someone that a place off the beaten path s worthy of $200+/person is somewhat more difficult, particularly when you're hoping to draw more affluent customers.

I don't know. Places like Elizabeth, EL Ideas and Goosefoot are able to attract customers despite less than ideal locations. If the restaurant delivers the goods, it will thrive. I'm more concerned about their prices and communal dining.