The Kitchen - Johnny Anderes new spot

I didn't see a mention of this new restaurant though, given the name it is not easy to search properly for. The Kitchen is a new addition to River North, overlooking the river on Clark. It's part of a Colorado based restaurant group and Johnny Anderes, formerly of Telegraph and Avec is heading up the back of house. I had dinner there last week with friends and we had a great time. The website and descriptions call it a community bistro with the info about the groups background saying they want to be superb neighborhood restaurants so we expected something a bit less gorgeous and polished. The room has been redone and is so pretty ... minimalist but with sparkle. We all really liked the look and also really enjoyed the service which was unpretentious yet really top notch. The menu was interesting with dishes we just did not expect but did enjoy including a serious raw bar (complete with caviar outside of our price range for the evening). We began with the bruschetta with burrata, anchoyade and herbs then I ordered the Urban Till Spicy Green Salad with shaved turnip, radish, pleasant ridge reserve, champagne vinaigrette & croutons while my friends had the Roasted Nichols Farm Squash Salad with wheatberries, greens, pomergranate & pistachio sherry vinaigrette. We went for some fish entrees - Sturgeon for me, Trout for them - both perfectly cooked with great sauces. The fish in each dish was allowed to star and did. Desert was marshmallow gelato with graham cracker bits for me and a sinful looking chocolate cake for my friends. We also hit the wine list rather hard with some single glasses and then as we talked the night away a bottle of each of their roses. The wines were wonderful, the sommelier fun and helpful - very in keeping with the tone of being both relaxed yet quality. My friends are rather serious beer drinkers normally and want to go back and start working their way through the beer list. It was a very successful evening - and one I hope to repeat often. This is a place for special meals and feeling fancy as well as a spot for sitting for hours with some friends and relaxing. So glad Anderes is cooking nearby - it's going to be fun to watch this develop.

Edited to add that they do a community dinner every Monday night - you need to reserve and they invite one of the farmers or purveyors they work with to join the communal table - and donate 20% of that table's take to gardens at local schools. They also have a neat "community hour" menu from 3-5 that makes me want to find reasons to leave the office ... !

316 N. Clark St
Chicago, IL 60654
312.836.1300

I've dined at their Denver location and it was very good. Looking forward to trying the Chicago edition soon!

restaurant website

Thanks Dave and Nsxtasy for filling in the details I forgot!

Lerdawg - when I was in Denver for some meetings, they were highly recommended to me but I didn't make it so I was excited to see them open here. They were doing very well the night we went which was nice to see.

We had dinner at the Denver location last week and it was wonderful! Will have to try the Chicago version before we move to Denver in June.
FWIW, the wine prices in Denver were much better

Just back from what turned into a 9 hour brunch at The Kitchen ... we threatened to stay even longer! A group of four of us who work together had a wonderful brunch then sat at the bar for hours and finally ordered some pasta and salad to share .. with many glasses of really tasty wines. From Eggs Benedict to Quiche with chicken confit to the Bolognese ... every dish was so good. While sitting at the bar, we watched one chef prep and cook an apple chutney and it smelled so good, we ordered the cheese plate and they kindly gave us extra chutney ... it was so good I was wiping the last bits up with bread. By pasta time, I was a bit full so opted just to order salad but several tastes of the Bolognese made me wish for a full plate ... again, the flavors are just so right, it's hard to resist.

What made the day so good - and led to us just staying in one spot- is the service at Kitchen. The staff are so finely tuned and on point but also so friendly - and give really good guidance on the menu with no sense of pushing dishes or expense.

We want to go back and do it again tomorrow ... and will definitely go back often and soon.