Riot Fest Is Opening A Carnival-Style Restaurant In The Old Saved By The Max Space

By Stephen Gossett in Food on Jun 8, 2017 3:40PM

Andrew WK is happy about Riot Feast. Well, he's always happy, but he's happy about this too!

At the end of May, Saved By the Max—the ridiculously popular Saved By the Bell-themed pop-up—officially packed it up and shipped out to Los Angeles after a year in Wicker Park. Now finally comes word of the space's end-of-run replacement. No, it's not the Peach Pit; the folks behind the annual punk festival Riot Fest are teaming up with the crew behind Saved By the Max for a new pop-up restaurant called (naturally) Riot Feast.

That's two groups of people with pretty good track records when it comes to lovingly stoking our nostalgia.

On perfect brand, the new Riot Fest restaurant concept will incorporate a turn-of- the-century carnival vibe—not surprising considering the festival's love of all things circus-y—and the menu will be developed with Brian Fisher (Schwa, Entente), who also served as The Max's executive chef. At 10 p.m., Riot Feast becomes "a carnival speakeasy" with "circus freaks" also joining the scene. So, yeah, it's definitely a Riot Fest production.

“I’ve always wanted to be a part of a restaurant, but time and life constraints made that seem impossible,” said Riot Fest founder Michael “Riot Mike” Petryshyn. But thanks to the team behind The Max, "they have given us an opportunity to create something special. And we want to do nothing short of wowing our fans with this experience.”

The Feast opens at 1941 W. North Ave. on July 8 and is slated for a three-month run. Seating—either communal or elevated reserved—will be available Friday, June 9, at 11:00 a.m. at theriotfeast.tocktix.com.

Here's Riot Fest lifer Andrew W.K. in a promo clip to get you amped. We hope GWAR won't be too bummed at being left out.