Parachute HiFi

Parachute, Chicago’s Pioneering Modern Korean Restaurant, Is Closing After a Decade | Eater Chicago

"I consider Parachute a pioneering, lauded modern Korean restaurant in America that served as chef Beverly Kim’s vehicle for channeling her family’s heritage into something Chicago had not seen before. Opened in May 2014 by Kim and her husband Johnny Clark on a quiet stretch of Elston, it became a destination-worthy restaurant that helped bring upscale dining to Avondale and educated Chicagoans beyond familiarity with Korean barbecue. Parachute earned a Michelin star from 2014 to 2021, and in 2019 Kim and Clark won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes; they have also been active in community work, founding the Abundance Setting to support working mothers in hospitality. The menu evolved from an earlier Korean-American focus that featured bing bread to a more traditional Korean direction after a light renovation and a pandemic-era temporary closure, and during the pandemic the couple were among the first fine-dining, Michelin-starred restaurants to offer takeout. The restaurant at 3500 N. Elston Avenue will close on Saturday, March 23, and the owners say they plan to renovate the space and bring something new under the Parachute umbrella while also searching for a larger downtown site that could house Parachute." - Ashok Selvam