Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/508485
photography by neil burger ready betty Chef Rachel Dow heats up lounge dining in the West loop. by elaine glusac Betty has been around the block. She's flirtatious and smart. She laughs—loudly. And she has a thing for peacock feathers. As the spirit of The Betty, the new lounge/restaurant on Fulton Market from Footman Hospitality (Bangers & Lace, The Anthem), she will never ask for a commitment, which may, in fact, account for her quick following. Frequent waiting lists suggest patrons enjoy The Betty over a glass of sparkling Italian rosé or an Evil Twin pilsner. But anyone who sticks around for another round—and delves beyond the bar-bait flatbread on the menu—will begin to appreciate this destination's deeper intrigue. The Betty's grilled squid salad with tossed frisée and bulgur, accented by lemony tahini. continued on page 90 The nonfictional woman who animates The Betty is Rachel Dow, the former sous chef at Avec, now given free rein to cook in the timber-columned, 5,000 -square-foot space, which once housed a club but now caters to the just-drinks set as well as more serious diners, with ambitions to convert the former. "I like to challenge people to order something they weren't thinking of when they walked in the door," says Dow, who shares a frankness with the fictional Betty. For her first time leading a kitchen, Dow wrote the anti-sprawl michiganavemag.com 89 taste this Issue: Now trending