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!
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members and attracts the likes of President Barack Obama, Derrick Rose, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Grant DePorter, CEO of Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse, was one of East Bank Club's early adopters. At the time, he lived at the Hyatt Regency on East Wacker Drive. "Back then, it was very unsafe," DePorter says. "I wouldn't walk through River North; I would always run through it to get to East Bank Club." For the next 20 years there were pockets of growth. Before Harry Caray's opened at 33 West Kinzie in 1987, DePorter says all the windows were boarded up so patrons wouldn't have to look out at the landmark building that had once been home to Frank Nitti, the enforcer of Al Capone, and his cheese company. Although windows were replaced so patrons could look outside, the neighborhood still had that stigma. "We were always a planned destination," says DePorter. "We never had any impulse diners walking by. For years we didn't even bother to have a menu box outside." At magazine and the Black Eyed Peas "before they were big" to attract people. "And once people came out," Dec says, "they realized the cab fare was the same as to the Gold Coast or somewhere else." Then Rockit focused its attention one block north to Illinois Street— opening The Underground at 56 West Illinois in 2006 (voted No. 1 nightclub in the country by Nightclub & Bar magazine in 2008), and Sunda at 110 West Illinois three years later. This ushered in the development of what is now another thriving restaurant strip on Illinois. the same time, a young, unknown chef named Rick Bayless approached Friedman about backing a new restaurant concept: modern Mexican. Bayless had written a doctoral thesis on the cooking style, but Brothers R.J. and Jerrod Melman began their massive expansion into River North with HUB 51 at 51 West Hubbard in 2008. "When we were first talking, we wanted to be out of the public eye a little bit and thought maybe we'd open up in Wicker Park or somewhere else," says Jerrod Melman. Their dad, famed restaurateur Rich Melman, convinced them otherwise. "He told us, 'You are going to work just as hard, why not be in the premier area in the city, where the most is going on, the most young people are, the most nightlife is happening?'" says Melman from a booth in the newly opened RPM Italian restaurant at 52 West Illinois. "It was the best decision we ever made." The Melmans' Paris Club opened next door to Hub at 59 Friedman says he was skeptical. Friedman eventually changed his mind, West Hubbard in 2011. telling Bayless, who opened Frontera Grill in 1987, "Hopefully, we'll do it well, because I happen to like your cuisine." Other early adopters included the likes of Rich Melman, the founder of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises—which started Maggiano's Little Italy and Corner Bakery in River North in 1991—and Ruth Fertel of Ruth's Chris Steak House, to whom Friedman rented on the condition she opened for lunch, not just dinner, to help with foot traffic. Following the influx of upstart and trendy restaurants, forward-thinking art galleries, suppliers, and designers, such as The Golden Triangle, helped anchor the development and set up shop along the Superior and Huron Street corridors. These nascent studios laid the foundation for River North's famed Gallery District, a concentration of art galleries that has, over time, grown to become the nation's largest outside of Manhattan. Events like the Merchandise Mart's annual NeoCon World's Trade Fair, the largest commercial interior fur- nishings show in North America with nearly 1,000 exhibitors and more than 40,000 attendees, now cement the area as Chicago's design hub. Coming of Age W hen Billy Dec decided to open Rockit Ranch Productions 10 years ago with his partners Brad Young and Arturo Gomez, they tried to find some- thing "as close as you could get to the Gold Coast without having to pay expensive rent," Dec says. But they also wanted something distinctly differ- ent from the "sleek Euro nightclub feel" of the Viagra Triangle. While River North's proximity to the Gold Coast, the Loop, public transit, and express- ways made the area attractive, it was the sheer square footage available that made River North ideal for creative types who were trying to find unique spaces with high ceilings and lots of light. The trio found the space they were looking for in a former lamp factory on Hubbard Street, with a 75-foot skylight and unobstructed views. "Architecturally, it doesn't get better than this," says Dec, about the building that houses Rockit Bar & Grill. While other restaurants and nightclubs have populated the district over the years, they were mostly one-offs. It wasn't until Rockit Bar & Grill opened on Hubbard Street in 2004 that other restaurants took advantage of the attention it created and opened nearby, creating what today is a two-block strip of wall-to-wall restaurants. "We had trouble getting a cab those first two years," says Dec, but the team hosted celebrity parties with partners like GQ Rockit Bar & Grill "River North has become an environment not only conducive to working and playing, but living as well."—Graham Elliot michiGaNavEmaG.com 123