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Story by Michael Austin • Photos by Joeff Davis
The dish
consists of fresh squash blossoms stuffed with jumbo blue crabmeat and
avocado mousse, served with a spicy chipotle cream sauce and garnished
with frizzled beets. Luckily there is a glass of chilled Penfolds Reserve
Eden Valley Reisling (2001) within arm’s reach. After a few sips
– okay, gulps – I send a warning to my dining partner. I hold
my hand above the dish and point downward: “This is hot.” I may
as well be pointing to the ground beneath the restaurant because the Near
North Side, which Salpicon calls home, is as they say south of the border,
muy caliente. Next
door, RDM Development recently built two new condo towers, the sold-out
95-unit Neapolitan and the 88-unit Venetian, which at press time had just
one unit remaining for sale. Just west of there, MCL Companies is selling
new townhouses priced from the $680s and single-family homes in the $1
million range at Old Town Village, in the shadows of the Chicago Housing
Authority’s remaining Cabrini-Green highrises.
At press
time, New Homes counted 16 new highrise developments underway throughout
the Near North Side, ranging from the 758-unit Trump Tower, just north
of the Loop, to Smithfield Development’s 46-unit boutique highrise
at 30 W. Oak, in the Gold Coast. Virtually
every corner of the Near North Side – from the once-industrial blocks
around Kingsbury and Chicago, on the edge of Cabrini-Green, to the former
docks of River East to the tony streets of the long-settled Gold Coast
– is in demand among home buyers. The former Montgomery Ward &
Co. headquarters, 500 W. Superior, is now the chic Montgomery, a 243-unit
condo conversion with units priced up to $2 million, and even the sprawling
Ward’s catalogue building, the behemoth that hugs the curve of the
river at Chicago Avenue, has been converted into luxury lofts as well
as office and retail space.
There
have been dozens of similar openings in recent years on the Near North
Side, celebrating the birth of high-quality, independently operated, chef-driven
restaurants – the kinds of places that earn reputations across the
country and get featured in glossy magazines. They increasingly count
as an important factor in Chicago’s status as a world-class city,
and more important for their growing base of neighborhood patrons, they
have made the Near North Side one of the most livable parts of Chicago.
Condos
and cuisine “When
we opened Saiko, our third restaurant in the South Loop, I remember the
condo people saying, ‘There are these great restaurants right here,’”
says restaurant developer Howard Davis, who with former business partner
Jerry Kleiner opened Gioco in 1999 and later, Opera. “They were listing
our restaurants in the flyers to try to sell the neighborhood.” Of course,
in the South Loop, those restaurants only opened after many years of steady
residential development. Neighborhood residents lamented for more than
a decade that apart from a few spots in Printers Row, the South Loop suffered
from a dearth of restaurants and other services.
“Restaurants
were a driving force, that whole element of the cosmopolitan nature and
mixed uses of River North – the restaurants, galleries and offices
– paved the way for the in-fill (development),” says Jerry Lasky,
of Spectrum Real Estate Services. “That’s why River North is
desired as the ultimate place to live and work.” Residential
came later
Lasky,
whose current holdings include six buildings in River North, became involved
in the area in the mid-‘80s. With partner Murray Peretz, he converted
the old Union Square Sewing Company into upscale loft condos in 1996.
Today,
just nine years after Spectrum’s adventurous loft conversion, River
North has the feel of a real neighborhood. The lofts have been followed
by a long line of highrises, which added population and replaced copious
surface parking lots that weren’t exactly helping the neighborhood
ambience. More and more restaurants have followed, and the growing residential
base is now supplying neighborhood patrons for restaurants that draw from
well beyond the suburbs. A
Streeterville boom
Architect
Robert Bistry, of Built Form Architecture, who won high praise for his
RiverBend design, has designed a modern tower with a long expanse of glass
at Avenue East, planned for 160 E. Illinois St. And architects Brininstool
& Lynch have designed the sort of progressive tower for which they’ve
become known in Chicago, at 550 St. Clair, a planned 26-story condo highrise
with 112 units.
Among
the new restaurants is Davis’ LeLan, 749 N. Clark St., where the
kitchen is manned by two of the city’s most celebrated chefs: Arun
Sampanthavivat of Arun’s, and Roland Liccioni, formerly of Les Nomades.
To the north, chef Jacky Pluton has opened a highly anticipated new restaurant
called Pluton, at 873 N. Orleans St. Before
the makeover
Mark
Miles, owner of World of Wireless in Lincoln Park, now lives in a condo
conversion just a block from where Galdes lived in the late 1990s. “I’ve
been there four years and it’s definitely different than it was,”
Miles says. “Literally, when I first moved in I would call 911 three
or four times a week for people dealing drugs on the corner. And when
you got to the holidays – Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve –
there was definitely stuff going off that was not fireworks.” Today,
the neighborhood is filled with young professionals who want to be close
to downtown, but also want a real neighborhood, which Miles didn’t
see when he looked at the South Loop. He and his girlfriend now enjoy
living among other couples who are committed to building a solid community. “There
aren’t so many kids around here as there are dogs (Miles has two
Springer Spaniels),” he says. “We love the neighborhood. It’s
very safe, but every once in a while you’ll get someone driving by
looking at property and they call you over to their car and go, ‘Can
we ask you a few questions? Is it safe…?’ These are people who
are intrigued by the area but still a little apprehensive.”
For seven
years before he bought his condo on Mohawk Street, he lived in Sandburg
Village. He is sold on living in an actual neighborhood, a place with
foot traffic and nightlife. Nacional
27, which is in the heart of the River North gallery district, has catered
to the after-work crowd and to those making the trip south for Zweiban’s
“Nuevo Latino” fare and the sizzling dance scene on weekends.
But even this area is changing – becoming more of a real neighborhood
– and no one knows this better than chef Michael Taus, who opened
Zealous, 419 W. Superior St., a few blocks away, nearly five years ago. “We
were pioneers,” Taus says. “It was a little rough. Scoozi (410
W. Huron St.) was on the next block, but that was about it. All my friends
kept saying, ‘You’re crazy, what are you doing?’” But it
has paid off, says Taus, who has lived in the neighborhood for six years. “I
feel like Mr. Rogers,” he says. “I was walking around the block
with this friend of mine and everyone was like, ‘Hey, Michael…hey,
Michael.’ By the time I got around the block, six people said hi
to me. It’s my neighborhood. It’s a really tight community.” Growing
convenience
“We
were one of the first,” says Bannos, who founded the original Heaven
on Seven in the Loop in 1984 and bought himself out of the partnership
with Melman a couple of years after the second location opened. “Since
we opened, there have been like 15 or 20 new restaurants over there. And
then when the Jewel at Grand and State went up – that’s when
you knew it was a neighborhood.’” There’s
an even clearer indication that this is a neighborhood to be reckoned
with across the street from the Jewel: a Starbucks. The River
North Association’s Web site says it all: “In the last few years,
River North has become the epicenter of Chicago nightlife. The restaurant
scene is overflowing with food from all over the world. With this diversity
and number of restaurants, there is surely something for everyone.” South
of Grand, in an area that was once overrun with adult bookstores and peep
shows, high cholesterol seems to be the new vice. There’s Keefer’s,
20 W. Kinzie St.; Kevin, 9 W. Hubbard St.; Brasserie Jo, 59 W. Hubbard
St.; Bin 36, 339 N. Dearborn St.; Frontera Grill / Topolobampo, 445 N.
Clark St.; Coco Pazzo, 300 W. Hubbard St.; and NAHA, 500 N. Clark St.
– site of the former fine dining destination, Gordon’s. Too
much development? “The
key to this area’s growing popularity over the last three years or
so, and in particular, the River North neighborhood, is convenience,”
says Ted Sveda, who has managed sales at Plaza 440 and several other Invsco
projects. “Residents have everything they need at their fingertips
– close proximity to Michigan Avenue, the river, a wide array of
shops and restaurants and in many cases, their offices.”
Belgravia
Group and Sandz Development overcame concerns about density and shading
to launch 600 N. Lake Shore Drive, a two-tower complex in development
in Streeterville. The Fourth Presbyterian Church, at Michigan and Chestnut,
however, had to put on hold plans for a new condo tower behind the church
after opposition from neighbors. “We
just want it to be positive development for the area,” says Gail
Spreen, SOAR’s vice president. “We want (developers) to keep
the residents of the neighborhood in mind.” Vince
Satkoff and his wife, chef Priscila Satkoff, should perhaps have given
more thought to the neighborhood when they started building Salpicon on
the ground floor of their home at Division and Wells. The location proved
tough, and the first few years were touch-and-go, though the last five
have been sweet like flan. “Before
we had a lot of crack dealers and prostitutes hanging around on the corner
and there’s none of that anymore,” Vince Satkoff says. “We
get a ton of walk-ins and a ton of locals from the developments behind
us and west of us, around the corner. One building went up at 1212 N.
Wells, and we have at least a dozen regulars from there who come in once,
maybe twice a week. “There
was a time when people would head over to Wells and walk north, never
south. When we first opened we thought, ‘If we have excellent food,
they will come.’”
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Where
there’s smoke there’s fire, and presently the fire is on the
back of my palate, courtesy of the “Flores de Jaiba” appetizer
at Salpicon, 1252 N. Wells St., in Old Town.
That
mixed-use project, called “Domain,” also happens to be the site
of one of the hottest restaurant openings in the city in recent memory,
at Japonais, 600 W. Chicago Ave., a two-level affair serving a fusion
of French and Japanese cuisine. 
But
what is the relationship between the upscale eateries and residential
development on the Near North Side? There’s no doubt that commercial
and residential development can be complementary, and on the Near North
Side, both certainly contribute to Mayor Richard Daley’s stated goal
of a “24-hour downtown.” But how does one really affect the
other?
It’s
typical, developers, say, for commercial development (including restaurants)
to follow residential building in “new” or emerging neighborhoods.
In Near North neighborhoods like Old Town and Streeterville, new restaurants
have built on residential foundations, but in River North, the process
has to some extent been reversed. A base of restaurants and other amenities
already was in place before the residential lofts and condos came along,
and that has been a factor in the area’s speedy transformation from
a district of galleries, restaurants and offices into one of the most
popular residential neighborhoods downtown. 
Another
key addition and catalyst for development was the East Bank Club, which
opened in 1980 on a barren stretch of the Chicago River as one of the
country’s premiere health, sports and dining facilities. Like many
nearby restaurants, the club preceded residential development and was
more interested in the site’s size and proximity to the Loop than
in the sparse blocks that surrounded it. 
There
had been some notable residential conversions before Union Square, during
the early ‘90s – loft condos by LR Development, Atlantis, Kenard
Corp. and Urban Innovations – but these were largely anomalous projects.
Even after they were successfully completed, no one thought of River North
as a residential neighborhood. It was a place for art openings and dinners
out, but you didn’t want to get caught there long after dark. 
At
least some of the latest highrises planned for Streeterville are getting
the same sorts of glowing reviews as the neighborhood’s best restaurants.
World-renowned Chicago-based architect Helmut Jahn has returned to the
downtown scene with 600 N. Fairbanks, a 41-story planned highrise that
will angle outward from a narrow base to lean alluringly over an adjacent
building. Centrum Properties has resurrected the failed Grand Pier site
with a 281-unit tower that will creatively use part of the previous development,
at 240 E. Illinois St., as a base in the first phase of Cityfront Plaza.
Streeterville
and the Gold Coast long have had their share of upscale towers and eateries,
but Old Town, like River North, received a recent boost from the redevelopment
of Cabrini-Green, which has improved safety and brought dozens of new
residential developments to a once blighted area. The blocks bounded by
the Chicago River on the south and west, the lake on the east and North
Avenue on the north have become among the hottest in the country for both
new homes and new eats.
“I
worked at the Four Seasons and I would walk home or try to find a cab,
but sometimes cabs wouldn’t go there,” she says. “I would
get in and give my address, 1438 N. Mohawk, and the driver would always
do a double take, and I’d always have to explain, ‘No, it’s
okay, I live there.’ If I ever called for a cab, they’d go,
‘No, sorry, we don‘t go there.’”
They
probably haven’t dined at Heat, 1507 N. Sedgwick St., where the sushi
is literally still moving when it arrives (not for everyone, admittedly),
or down the road a stretch, at Nacional 27, 325 W. Huron St., an elegant
Latin-influenced spot featuring the dazzling cuisine of chef Randy Zweiban.
This is where Miles has chosen to dine tonight, but he has long known
the benefits of living near downtown.
Even
the always-bustling North Michigan Avenue has seen a burst of new restaurants
since restaurateur extraordinaire Richard Melman and chef Jimmy Bannos
opened Heaven on Seven, 600 N. Michigan, seven years ago in what some
people have taken to calling the “North Bridge neighborhood”
much the way they’re christening a few blocks west “the Cathedral
District.”
Some
wonder if parts of the Near North Side are becoming too popular for their
own good. The neighborhood group Streeterville Organization of Active
Residents says it’s trying to make sure that development east of
Michigan Avenue doesn’t get out of hand, that sidewalks remain wide,
that parking remains underground and trees don’t disappear.