These new restaurants in Chicago have private rooms and semiprivate spaces for groups both big and small, appropriate for events, meetings, business dinners, presentations, and other types of entertaining.
1. Local pizzeria chain Lou Malnati's opened a flagship location in the Gold Coast on Monday. Separated from the main dining room with garage-style doors, a private dining room can seat 90 and has two flat-screen TVs that hook up to laptops and DVD players. With an industrial-style interior, the restaurant serves pizzas, pastas, salads, and desserts, and also has a full bar.
2. Tribute, an American restaurant in the South Loop's Essex Inn, is scheduled to open this month. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the 6,800-square-foot restaurant offers views of Grant Park. Its main dining room will seat 100, and a private dining room will hold 48.
3. Brunch opened in River North in June. Dubbed the boardroom, the private meeting room is surrounded by frosted glass windows. A granite table can seat 10, and the room offers free Wi-Fi, a dry-erase board, and a 50-inch plasma TV. The catering menu includes breakfast items such as bagels, muffins, and strawberry-filled French toast; lunch options include tea-braised chicken salad sandwiches and whole-wheat pasta salad.
4. Jason Paskewitz and Ryan O'Donnell, the team behind Gemini Bistro, opened Rustic House in June. The Lincoln Park venue serves farm-fresh American fare such as lobster Caesar salad, hand-rolled gnocchi with Hudson Valley foie gras, and chicken potpie. Farm-themed artwork, travertine floors, and a fireplace with a timbered oak mantel spruce up the interior. In the wine cellar, a private dining room seats 24.
5. After a six-month renovation, Park Hyatt eatery NoMI reopened in June as NoMI Kitchen. The restaurant's updated decor includes a new fireplace in the 12-seat semiprivate dining room. The Chihuly blown-glass sculptures, which once hung in the main dining room, have been moved to the private dining room, which seats 16. Chef Ryan LaRoche oversees the new menu, where items include roasted chicken, handmade tagliolini with oven-dried tomatoes, and rack of lamb with forest mushroom chutney.
6. Roots Handmade Pizza opened in West Town in late May. Serving Quad Cities-style pizza—made with hand-tossed malt crust, a thin layer of spiced tomato sauce, and Wisconsin mozzarella—the venue also has a full bar that offers specialty candy-flavored cocktails. The 6,500-square-foot space seats 233 inside and 92 on its patio. A private dining room seats 40, has plasma TVs, and lets guests watch the chefs tossing pizza dough through a window that peeks into the kitchen.
7. From the team behind Hub 51, Paris Club opened in River North in February. Its upstairs lounge area, Studio Paris, debuted in late June. With a retractable glass roof and grass-covered walls, the space can hold private events for 300. Called the Salon Privé, a space that's adjacent to the main dining room can seat 80 for dinner or hold 100 for cocktails. Catering packages include hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, chilled seafood and charcuterie stations, caviar service, and desserts such as mini apple strudels and pots de crème.
8. Bistronomic took over the former Eve space in the Gold Coast in February. Available for buyout, the space can seat 80. A semiprivate dining room in the back can host dinners for 34, while another semiprivate area off the main dining room can seat 16. Chef Martial Noguier oversees the private dining menus, which change seasonally. Selections may include tuna tartare with lemon confit and pepper vinaigrette, curried chicken brochettes, filet of beef au poivre, and black and white crème brûlée.
9. Chicago Q opened in the Gold Coast in October. Chef Lee Ann Whippen of the Learning Channel show BBQ Pitmasters oversees the menu. Items include Kobe brisket prepared in wood-burning smokers, buttermilk mashed potatoes, and bacon-cheddar hush puppies. Two private dining rooms are available: the wine room seats 30, and the Octagon Room seats 12. The venue also offers pickup catering.
10. Overlooking the Chicago river, River North's Chicago Cut Steakhouse opened in September. Two private dining rooms, referred to as Sonoma and Napa, can each seat 35. The rooms can also be combined to host dinners for 80. Each room offers an independent sound system and a 55-inch monitor that can hook up to laptops.
