Kinsley

Explore the Loop’s World’s Fair-Inspired All-Day Restaurant and Bar | Eater Chicago

"I'm looking forward to an expansive new all-day restaurant and bar from the Chicago group behind Fairgrounds Craft Coffee & Tea that opens Monday, September 19 across from the Lyric Opera at 1 N. Upper Wacker Drive. Named for Herbert M. Kinsley, the 5,100-square-foot space marries contemporary food, drink, and design inspired by the 1893 World’s Fair: 15-foot ceilings with arched trellises, pendant light fixtures that resemble fireworks mid-burst, colorful artwork from the Columbian Exposition, green velvet Pullman-style booths and banquettes with quartz tables, an enormous white bar, seating for 135, and a 50-seat three-season outdoor patio on the building’s Franklin Street plaza. Designed by Barker Nestor, it aims to lure returning office workers and neighborhood residents by balancing Fairgrounds favorites—breakfast tacos and funnel cake fries dusted with powdered sugar—and the brand’s large coffee and tea menu (plus seltzer on tap) with seasonal and bar-forward offerings like an Angus smash burger with American cheese and bacon, s’mores French toast doused in chocolate ganache and marshmallow sauce, and cocktails such as Applegreen’s Old Pal (apple brandy, Maker’s Mark, and Luxardo cherry syrup) that nod to H.M. Kinsley’s famed bartender John Applegreen; bar fare leans into modern festival foods like mini corn dogs, caramel corn, and nachos. The arrival also feels timely given Hulu’s Devil in the White City is set to start filming in Chicago, a serendipitous tie to the restaurant’s 19th-century conceit." - Naomi Waxman