On June 20, Perennial opened in the lobby of Lincoln Park's new Park View Hotel. The American bistro comes with a culinary pedigree: It's owned by Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz (the duo behind Boka, Landmark, and BRG Catering); and the menu is overseen by executive chef Giuseppe Tentori, who was named one of 2008's best new chefs by Food and Wine.
The menu focuses on seasonal fare cooked up with ingredients from the Green City Market, which is located just across the street from Perennial. For its summertime opening, the restaurant offered items like asparagus soup with soft poached egg, parmesan tuile, and lavender prosciutto dust; peekytoe crab salad with avocado mousse and ginger oil; and New York strip with blue cheese fondue and shallot rings. Among the 100 bottles that make up the wine list, 30 selections form the Perennial Reserve List, which features wines picked out by local notables like chefs Grant Achatz and Charlie Trotter.Architect Warren Ashworth designed the restaurant's interior, filling the 90-seat main dining room with turquoise and magenta hues to offset its neutral stone floors. The centerpiece of the room is a wooden banquette that wraps around a slew of illuminated, white birch tree trunks. A cocktail lounge off of the main dining room offers fireplaces and seating for 50 on plush couches.
Across the hotel lobby, the restaurant's small private event space (which serves as a breakfast room in the mornings and a lounge in the evenings) is decorated with black-and-white photographs by American photographer Paul Strand; hence, the room is referred to as the Strand. Filled with velvety magenta furniture and equipped with its own walnut bar, the Strand can accommodate groups of 35.
Available for full buyouts, Perennial can accommodate 235 guests between the Strand, the main dining room, the cocktail lounge, and an outdoor patio that has seating for 60.
The menu focuses on seasonal fare cooked up with ingredients from the Green City Market, which is located just across the street from Perennial. For its summertime opening, the restaurant offered items like asparagus soup with soft poached egg, parmesan tuile, and lavender prosciutto dust; peekytoe crab salad with avocado mousse and ginger oil; and New York strip with blue cheese fondue and shallot rings. Among the 100 bottles that make up the wine list, 30 selections form the Perennial Reserve List, which features wines picked out by local notables like chefs Grant Achatz and Charlie Trotter.Architect Warren Ashworth designed the restaurant's interior, filling the 90-seat main dining room with turquoise and magenta hues to offset its neutral stone floors. The centerpiece of the room is a wooden banquette that wraps around a slew of illuminated, white birch tree trunks. A cocktail lounge off of the main dining room offers fireplaces and seating for 50 on plush couches.
Across the hotel lobby, the restaurant's small private event space (which serves as a breakfast room in the mornings and a lounge in the evenings) is decorated with black-and-white photographs by American photographer Paul Strand; hence, the room is referred to as the Strand. Filled with velvety magenta furniture and equipped with its own walnut bar, the Strand can accommodate groups of 35.
Available for full buyouts, Perennial can accommodate 235 guests between the Strand, the main dining room, the cocktail lounge, and an outdoor patio that has seating for 60.

Perennial
Photo: BizBash

In the main dining room, a wooden banquette wraps around a line of white birch trees, whose tops are obscured in the fabric-draped ceiling.
Photo: BizBash

A turquoise banquette wraps around the back wall of the main dining room.
Photo: BizBash

The Strand, a small private lounge, takes its name from the Paul Strand photography that decorates its walls.
Photo: BizBash

The restaurant's floor-to-ceiling windows look out over Wells and Clark Streets and Lincoln Avenue.
Photo: BizBash

An outdoor patio, spruced up with English ivy plants and seasonal flowers, seats 60.
Photo: BizBash