Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News,  Jan, 2001  

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"Arguably, Chicago has become one of the top three or four restaurant towns in the country," says Chuck Hamburg, associate professor of restaurant management at the Manfred Steinfred Program in Hospitality Management at Chicago's Roosevelt University and an international foodservice consultant.

"We're known as an eating city that appeals to everybody," Hamburg says. He points to the many Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and authentic Mexican restaurants as examples of the city's culinary diversity and calls Arun's "the best Thai restaurant in the nation."

The professor credits Chicago's positive restaurant evolution to a number of factors: a location with access to the best products from around the world; a wealth of culinary schools, from Chicago City Colleges to Evanston's Kendall College; and the support of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

"We have some legitimate talent in this town," Hamburg notes, pointing to chefs, including Charlie Trotter, Jean Joho, Michael Foley and Paul Kahan, as celebrities who have attracted national attention. Chefs have replaced front-of-the-house hosts, such as Arnie Morton, Gene Sage, Don Roth and Gordon Sinclair as "stars of the show," Hamburg says.

"Chefs flock here to release their ethnic heritage and are very well-received," says Illinois Restaurant Association executive director Colleen McShaen. "Patrons eat out a lot and support them.

"We are the convention city of the world," she continues. "People from New York are impressed by the prices and the diversity."

Richard Melman, head of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Chicago's largest locally based multiconcept restaurant dinner-house group, also praises the city's restaurant diversity. "There is everything here that you could possibly want. We don't have the depth that New York does, but when you take Charlie Trotter or Rick Bayless, we're right up there for quality," he says.

In outlining Chicago's positive attributes for restaurant operators, Melman cites a good business climate, fair rents, a healthy convention and tourism business and "one of the great mayors in the country."

Melman says Mayor Daley was responsible for getting him excited about the burgeoning downtown theater district. "We're going to put a restaurant down there," says Melman, who, fearing a lack of dinner business, previously avoided the heart of downtown.

Larry Levy, whose restaurants consistently perform well, says out-of-towners find Chicago eateries to be a better value than many of their counterparts in other large cities, "We are giving wonderful experiences at a good value, and the future looks terrific," he says.

As Chicago's reputation for being a good restaurant town has spread, an increasing number of high-profile regional operators based elsewhere have opened branches here, including Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, Wolfgang Puck's Spago and Xando/Cosi. And, of course, countless national chains in all segments have multiple units in this market.