The building that housed Taqueria San Matias is undergoing a renovation. All of the stores appear to be vacant, and their signage has been removed. When I called their number, it rings and rings but no answer.

As mentioned in the Lawrence & Montrose Taquerias thread, this place was better than many of the other nearby taquerias. I appreciated the fact that they were one of the few restaurants in that stretch of Lawrence that was generally open until midnight. I hope they re-open in the same or nearby location.

Taqueria San Matias
3005 W. Lawrence
773-467-7533

Drover wrote:
As reported in the 4Q2014 thread, Almaida, an "Indian Mediterranean Restaurant" (serving both? Fusing the two?) in the previous Baked Tomato space now has the paper removed from the windows and has tables/chairs ready to go. According to Everyblock, they passed inspection on March 26th. Opening rather soon one presumes.

Almaida
4358 N Elston Ave
773-628-7973

Well that didn't last long. Hasn't been open for a couple weeks now, and phone is disconnected.

Fresh Thyme Farmers Market will be opening 3 chicago area locations on Wednesday October 14th at 7am. The stores are located at 2500 N. Elston in Chicago, 5340 Northwest Highway in Crystal Lake and 790 Royal St. George Drive in Naperville.

Couple of openings in Northwest Indiana.

Enzo's to expand to Schererville

SCHERERVILLE | An Italian beef and Italian sausage restaurant beloved in the South Suburbs for more than four decades is finally opening a Northwest Indiana location.

Enzo's Restaurant, which is known for charbroiling freshly house-made sausage over lump coal, is taking over the former Schererville Gyros, which closed earlier this year. The restaurant's first location outside of its home base of Chicago Heights will be at 1120 U.S. 30 in Schererville, and open sometime next month.

Owners Lisa Hallberg, her husband Kevin Hallberg and their son Kyle Hallberg have big expansion plans for the business, which they took over in 2011 after founders Enzo and Nita retired.

Enzo was an Italian immigrant who built the restaurant's brick oven by hand and sought out the best ingredients he could afford to grind and stuff his sausages. The recipes haven't changed, but the new generation has added new menu items like thin and deep-dish pizza made with plum tomatoes that they sell by the slice.

This was from August. They should be opening any day.
https://www.facebook.com/Enzos-Restaura ... /timeline/
http://enzos1.com/

New soup restaurant to open in Highland

HIGHLAND | Soup's on in Highland.

A new fast-casual soup restaurant plans to open this year in a new strip mall in the Highland Meijer Plaza at 10140 Indianapolis Blvd., across the street from the Highland Grove Shopping Center.

Franchisees Steve and Diane Crnokrak have signed a lease to open a Zoup! Fresh Soup Co. location. The Detroit area-based chain offers sandwiches, salads and hundreds of soups, such as Chicken Potpie and Lobster Bisque. Zoup! always has 12 rotating daily varieties, including vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and low-fat options.

Soup comes with a hunk of freshly baked bread, and is also available for catering for 10 or more people.

"Zoup! is a unique concept with healthy menu options including soups and delicious sandwiches which we are confident will be a welcomed addition to our community," Steve Crnokrak said.

The Highland restaurant would be Zoup!'s second in the state.

Mon-Fri: 11am-8pm
Sat: 11am-8pm
Sun: 11am-6pm219.513.3737
Map

http://www.zoup.com/locations.html

Driving along Route 60 in Vernon Hills yesterday, I noticed that the late, lamented Silk Mandarin is being retooled, and the sign out front says it's going to become Yu's Mandarin. Yu's has gotten a few nice comments over the year. One hopes that this new iteration will ease the pain of having lost Silk Mandarin.

Did a search and found an article just out today that says it will open soon, though no date was given.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/v ... story.html

Around here we are on tenterhooks waiting for the opening of Yu's Mandarin on 60. I was going to mention it in this thread earlier, but I was waiting to hear something about an opening date.

Looks like that article is from March. I have not noticed much progress when I have driven by it the last few months, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

-Will

800 Degrees Pizza opened an outpost of the fast-pizza chain today at 812 Church Street in Evanston, apparently to compete with Blaze pizza for the Northwestern student dollars.

FYI - Latinicity at Block 37 got its food business license issued a few days ago. Opening any day now?

There's a new Ramen restaurant opening in Lakeview not far from the Belmont Red/Purple/Brown line stop at 919 W Belmont. They received their business license yesterday and their Twitter says "Opening Soon in 2015." (https://twitter.com/ramenster). This is where the Thai restaurant Jazmine & Nu-dle was. According to a comment from the owner on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ramenster?fref=ts), they are going to try and open up tomorrow (Thursday, October 15th).

Ramenster
919 W Belmont Ave



Also, Serai (which I believe will be Malaysian/Asian Fusion) lists "Coming Soon" on their webpage (http://www.seraichicago.com/). Located in Logan Square at 2169 N Milwaukee Ave. They got their business license probably a month ago.

In Hyde Park, on 57th street there's going to be a dumpling house called Packed. I've been walking by it everyday to the Metra. Recently, they've been doing construction inside of it. Hopefully it will be opening soon. I'm very excited about this. Here's an article I found in the Trib about it:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ch ... story.html

Woodridge, not my normal turf - (man, we really need some more boots on the ground reporting in).

Another steamed shellfish in a bag seafood restaurant has opened in Chicagoland(end of August) - Crab & Spice - Ive been to Angry Crab(average) and The Boiler(below average), so I figure i gotta try this one out in the western burbs soon.

In the old Clara's spot on 53

Crab & Spice
6740 Route 53
Woodridge, IL.

http://www.crabandspice.com/

MingHin is open at 333 E. Benton which is the former Yum Cha space. I stopped in for a very quick lunch of BBQ Pork and rice this afternoon. The service was welcoming and attentive and the pork was very good. I had brown rice with the pork and it was very tasty - well above standard restaurant rice. So far it seems this is a vast improvement over Yum Cha.

In New City news, LYFE Kitchen and Adobe Gila's are both now open. Canadian chain restaurant Earl's is scheduled to open October 26th. (the door was unlocked so I went in and asked). The New City Mariano's will have its grand opening on October 27th.

LYFE Kitchen 1538 N. Clybourn http://www.lyfekitchen.com/
Adobe Gila's 1500 N. Clybourn https://www.facebook.com/adobegilasnewcitychi
Earl's 1538 N. Clybourn https://earls.ca/locations/lincoln-park/menu/bar

Can't find an official address fro Marianos's, but I'm gonna guess it's in the 1500 block of clybourn.

Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Rosemont is closing due to staff stealing liquor and memorabilia.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2015 ... 151019183/

Jim-Bob wrote:Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Rosemont is closing due to staff stealing liquor and memorabilia.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2015 ... 151019183/

Not exactly. They were closing anyway due to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid property taxes and rent that was owed to Cook County and the village of Rosemont. They just had to bump up the closure slightly when the staff found out it was a done deal and they would all be out of jobs soon, and some of them handled the news...poorly.

Jim-Bob wrote:Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Rosemont is closing due to staff stealing liquor and memorabilia.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2015 ... 151019183/

As opposed to the eviction action initiated by Rosemont in August for failure to pay liquor taxes? They've closed several locations elsewhere - "memorabilia theft" must be rampant.

Aroy has reopened

I was told that Maple & Ash at Maple & State is probably opening on Wednesday. They are doing preview dinners for certain people and friends and family already. I was able to see the space and it's much nicer than I thought. Really nice addition, at least lookswise, to the city and neighborhood. They said they will probably be open until 4am as well (not sure if that means every night or just certain nights).

Really great inside though - I have a few friends dining there this weekend so I hope they'll report back on whether it's any good or not. The one thing I noticed was the staff was all really excited and really welcoming. At least the ones we interacted with treated the place like they were the really proud owners. The interior design/decorating was done by the same people who did the Waldorf Astoria hotel down the street (formerly the Elysian).

spinynorman99 wrote:

Jim-Bob wrote:Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Rosemont is closing due to staff stealing liquor and memorabilia.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2015 ... 151019183/

As opposed to the eviction action initiated by Rosemont in August for failure to pay liquor taxes? They've closed several locations elsewhere - "memorabilia theft" must be rampant.

Damn, what's the world gonna do if every TILTBAG closes its doors?

marothisu wrote:FYI - Latinicity at Block 37 got its food business license issued a few days ago. Opening any day now?

Businesspeople, tourists and Loop residents will get a massive wonderland of Latin food and drink in 17 days. Latinicity, celebrity chef Richard Sandoval's 20,000 square-foot food hall with 12 food and drink halls, a full tapas restaurant named Tapaneria, a cafe, wine bar and retail market, will open to the public on November 5 on the third floor of the Block 37 shops on State Street.

http://chicago.eater.com/2015/10/19/956 ... -date-loop

Ballaro, a new 112-seat Italian restaurant, hope —pending inspections— that they'll open in three to four weeks in suburban Highwood.

http://chicago.eater.com/2015/10/20/957 ... orth-shore
214 Green Bay Rd.
Highwood, IL 60040
(847) 780-3396
http://www.ballarohw.com/

The former TGIFriday's at Lake and Milwaukee in Glenview now has a sign reading "Myung Ga Grill"

Dave148 wrote:

Ballaro, a new 112-seat Italian restaurant, hope —pending inspections— that they'll open in three to four weeks in suburban Highwood.

http://chicago.eater.com/2015/10/20/957 ... orth-shore
214 Green Bay Rd.
Highwood, IL 60040
(847) 780-3396
http://www.ballarohw.com/

I'm glad to see this news, but I find it kinda silly that Eater describes Ballaro as "bringing Italian flair to the North Shore" and claiming that "the wait is almost over for the North Shore" (unless the Eater means waiting breathlessly for the opening of Ballaro, which I didn't know anyone was). The Eater doesn't know anything about Highwood if it doesn't know it's been the most Italian outpost in Illinois north of Chicago for ... well, I don't know exactly how long, but I'll guess anywhere from 60 to 100 years.

I don't know a lot about the history of Highwood, but my understanding is that Highwood was a destination for many Italian immigrants, particularly stonecutters, who came to the US to join family members here and help to build the mansions along the North Shore. This was back in the day of Ravinia Park being established and wealthy Chicagoans such as Marshall Field and Armand Hammer wanting summer homes away from the city and up along the lake.

Some of those Italian families that settled in Highwood (and in Highland Park---when I was a kid, the Catholic parish in HP was mostly Italian and Irish) also settled in certain places downstate. My relatives from south of Springfield could come up to visit and go to dinner in Highwood and found they knew the brothers and cousins of restaurant owners in Highwood.

It's all the more amusing that the two owners of Ballaro sound like two Jewish guys from Highland Park.

Nonetheless, I'm all for new restaurant blood and good Italian food in Highwood, as always.

HI,

One of the Bollaro owners is the son of recently retired Sherman Kaplan of WBBM radio.

Regards,

Evanston's Bravo! Cucina Italiana in the Church St Plaza (Church & Maple Street) is closing, effective Thursday, Oct 22.

Sadly, another Evanston restaurant closing - Dixie Kitchen.

The Fatso's Last Stand crew will be opening in the old Hot Diggity Dog spot around the corner from Pompeii
at 947 W. Wellington.

jay2021 wrote:The Fatso's Last Stand crew will be opening in the old Hot Diggity Dog spot around the corner from Pompeii
at 947 W. Wellington.

Nice! Where'd you hear this? Any idea on timing?

nr706 wrote:Sadly, another Evanston restaurant closing - Dixie Kitchen.

Noooooooooooooo

My father in law is going to go apeshit.