In August, Crain's broke news that Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc. took over the shuttered Tilli's space at 1952 N. Halsted St. Now word comes the company is working on opening not one but three restaurants under one roof.
The group will open variations of its successful Stella Rossa Pizza Bar, M Street Kitchen and M Street Bakery, all based in Santa Monica, Calif., with Jeff Mahin, chef-partner of the California restaurants, and Francis Brennan (L20) serving as co-executive chefs.
This will be the second project for the pair; they launched Do-Rite Donuts for the company in early 2012. LEYE's R.J. and Jerrod Melman (Paris Club, RPM Italian) and Executive Partner Chris Meers, who serves as president of numerous restaurants including Mon Ami Gabi, Bub City and Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, have teamed up with Messrs. Mahin and Brennan.
The space will comprise three separate restaurants. The hub, at the entrance, will be modeled after M Street Bakery. Throughout the day, it will serve hand-pressed espresso, pastries, house-made English muffins (served with seasonal preserves or as a sandwich with ingredients such scrambled eggs, ham, bacon and organic sausage), and eight to 10 types of cookies, including what Mr. Mahin calls the best chocolate chip cookies he's ever had.
They'll re-create the pizzeria, calling it Stella "something," but the final name has not been worked out, Mr. Mahin said. The approximately 120-seat pizzeria, to the right of the bakery, will be about 3,500 square feet. Mr. Mahin said about 70 percent of the Santa Monica menu will translate to Chicago, but that "we never want to replicate the same thing, so a lot of menu items will have a Chicago focus" with a California cuisine influence.
The unnamed "other side," which will riff off M Street Kitchen, will be about 6,500 square feet and have local, farm-to-table cuisine with a focus on vegetables. It will feature rustic California cuisine with global influences and a wood-fired oven. "The idea is that it's a neighborhood restaurant," Mr. Mahin said. " 'Simple and delicious' is the key term we're looking to have in every dish. We want it to be affordable. We'll have a good steak, a quality free-range chicken." Each side will have its own bar with artisan cocktails; wine will be a focus at the pizzeria.
The team aims to open the restaurants toward the end of June. When they open, the bakery will operate throughout the day. It's likely the pizzeria will serve dinner and brunch on weekends, and the unnamed side will be open for dinner and brunch, with lunch seven days a week a possibility. Meanwhile, you can catch Mr. Mahin competing on ABC's new culinary competition show, "The Taste," featuring judges Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson, starting Tuesday.