Restaurant News: Arami Go Opening, Top Chef Fabio Viviani Talks New Restaurant
By Anthony Todd in Food on Oct 31, 2012 3:00PM
Dear departed Custom House Tavern.
- Arami Go, the new fast-casual concept from the group behind Arami Sushi, is opening soon at 203 E. Ohio St. The restaurant is putting on some finishing touches and word is that a soft-opening may start as early as this Thursday—you'll have to stop by to find out. The downtown restaurant only has 16 seats and boasts an "ethereal aesthetic" with counters made from reclaimed wood from Chicago parks and tables made of bamboo. The menu focuses on bento boxes, rather than just sushi, and was designed by Chef Shin Matsuda, who has worked at Arami and Slurping Turtle.
- Custom House Tavern, after a long struggle to stay relevant, has finally closed. The South Loop restaurant won many accolades over its seven years in business—including mentions on more best burger lists than we can remember—but never managed to fill the seats, partly because of it's awkward location. Chef Shawn McClain left early on, and even a re-concepting from Custom House to Custom House Tavern (a slightly more downscale version of the original) couldn't save the place. It finally closed yesterday, leaving a fine-dining hole in Printer's Row that likely won't be filled anytime soon. The owners released a statement to Time Out: "We felt that given the changing demographics of the neighborhood and the needs of the Hotel Blake that the Custom House Tavern concept would need to evolve again and at present, we have decided to focus on our two newest restaurants instead." The same group also owns Maison and Eggy's.
- Details are emerging about Top Chef Fabio Viviani's new River North restaurant. It's going to be called "Siena Tavern," it'll be opening in February and it'll be a gasp-inducing 10,000 square feet, according to Eater Chicago. It'll have a fancy turbo-jet pizza oven (which will cook 16 pizzas in 5 minutes), six distinct dining spaces carved out of the enormous space and the cuisine will be Italian. Cocktails are being created by Revae Schneider (Femme de Coupe). Let's hope that at least one monstrous Italian restaurant project in River North can be decent.