The late Jimmy Rohr, veteran restaurateur and opera devotee, ran this refined, sophisticated restaurant in Avondale. When the imposing building was completed, the company occupied two and a half of its nine floors while the rest of the space was rented for offices and what were known then as bachelor apartments, probably lacking anything but the most rudimentary cooking facilities. While some Northern Blacks slowly accepted soul food, others were more resistant. (1982 -1995) Cooker's Red Hots / 469 Lake Cook Rd. . 1965-late 1980s // Lincoln Park What you need to live your best life now. (German) The stately original across from the Germania Club fell to urban renewal, and when RSI closed for good, we lost the citys best German pancakes. It's only open for breakfast and lunch, and the menu consists of trademark dishes like cupcake-batter pancakes and sweet and savory French toast, but you can also just get a basic omelette or granola.The Mashed Potato ClubWhat it was: Named for its signature dish, which could be garnished with more than 100 toppings including jelly beans and pickled beets, the Mashed Potato Club was an eccentric outpost in River North. The first Taste . In the mid-1970s The Bakerys reputation began to sag somewhat along with continental cuisine generally. Its possible that Trebor is a play on the owners name Robert. Those dishes were Barbecued Chicken, Duck, and Squab; Chicken Salad; Club Sandwiches; Sea Foods; and Chili Con Carne (at two restaurants). Trotter's incredible legacy has stretched all across the city, as alumni of his kitchen have opened some of the best restaurants in Chicago. (1969-2008) We're far too young to have firsthand experience, but we still dream of sitting on the chrome stools in the pink neon glow every time we watch Risky Business, when Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay enjoy a bite after some slo-mo CTA shagging.What's taken its place: Still seeking a gastrointestinal lube job at 4am with a side of nostalgia? -- Trash, garbage, and waste Americas literary chef The smrgsbord saga Meals along the way Dinner in Miami, Dec. 25, 1936 An early restaurateurs rise & fall Runaway menu prices Thanks so much! (1970-2021) Black Ram Restaurant / 1414 E. Oakton St. Des Plaines, IL. Tea-less tea rooms Carhops in fact and fiction Finds of the day: two taverns Dining with a disability The history of the restaurant of the future The food gap All the salad you can eat Find of the day, almost Famous in its day: The Bakery Training department store waitresses Chocolate on the menu Restaurant-ing with the Klan Diet plates Christian restaurant-ing Taste of a decade: 1980s restaurants Higbees Silver Grille Bulgarian restaurants Dining with Diamond Jim Restaurant wear 2016, a recap Holiday banquets for the newsies Multitasking eateries Famous in its day: the Blue Parrot Tea Room A hair in the soup When presidents eat out Spooky restaurants The mysterious Singing Kettle Famous in its day: Aunt Fannys Cabin Faces on the wall Dining for a cause Come as you are The Gables Find of the day: Ifflands Hofbrau-Haus Find of the day: Hancock Tavern menu Cooking with gas Ladies restrooms All you can eat Taste of a decade: 1880s restaurants Anatomy of a corporate restaurant executive Surf n turf Odd restaurant buildings: ducks Dining with the Grahamites Deep fried When coffee was king A fantasy drive-in Farm to table Between courses: masticating with Horace Restaurant-ing with Mildred Pierce Greeting the New Year On the 7th day they feasted Find of the day: Wayside Food Shop Cooking up Thanksgiving Automation, part II: the disappearing kitchen Dining alone Coppas famous walls Image gallery: insulting waitresses Famous in its day: Partridges Find of the day: Mrs. Ks Toll House Tavern Automation, part I: the disappearing server Find of the day: Moodys Diner cookbook To go Pepper mills Little things: butter pats The dining room light and dark Dining at sea Reservations 100 years of quotations Restaurant-ing with Soviet humorists Heroism at lunch Caper sauce at Taylors Shared meals High-volume restaurants: Crook & Duff (etc.) Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. Winfield, IL. Desserts included the opera-inspired Tosca's Kiss and the Otello, and the dining rooms were decorated with vintage opera posters American opera companies in one room, international companies in the other. Cafe Bonaparte Sheraton, Blackstone Hotel, Chicago. Amidst the steak and potatoes of 1963, its pt, bouillabaisse, Wiener schnitzel, and Viennese tortes stood out as exotic. Dj vu! That same year the Gopher Grill in St. Paul MN claimed to be headquarters for chitterlings and corn bread. Similar menus were often found at dinners at Black churches and homes.
But there's no one in Chicago who so embodies a restaurant the way Sohn embodies Hot Doug's.Ina'sWhat it was: Ina Pinkney ran Ina's, a charming breakfast restaurant in the West Loop, for 12 years before closing it last New Year's Eve. Le Titi was a beautiful experience, one with all the trappings of formal dining but none of the stuffiness. Try another? 21. I loved everything about the River North place; the cool plaster hands used as curtain tiebacks, the naughty graffiti and artworks in the powder rooms and, of course, the dapper, unflappable presence of owner Gordon Sinclair, himself, who kept his restaurant sophisticated and vibrant for 23 years. Perhaps to attract new customers, Hieronymus created an associated restaurant on the 9th floor called The Black Cat Inn, with somewhat lower prices than the Tip Top Inn and a menu featuring prix fixe meals. The Black Cat was unusual at the time for having a staff of Black waitresses who served in restaurants far less often than Black men. Chef Michael Short whipped up offbeat flavor combinations (scallops and pasta bathed in mint-Montrachet sauce, skate wing in wasabi beurre blanc in 1992, mind you) and was using Sichuan peppercorns long before they became a thing. Beef Steaks. Elijah Muhammad denounced soul food as a legacy of slavery that should be decisively rejected. Taste of a decade: restaurants, 1810-1820 Between courses: nutburgers & orangeade Subtle savories at Nucleus Nuance Between courses: keep out of restaurants The Automat, an East Coast oasis Good eaters: James Beard Basic fare: waffles Anatomy of a restaurant family: the Downings Taste of a decade: 1950s restaurants Basic fare: pizza Building a tea room empire A black man walked into a restaurant and Who hasnt heard of Maxims in Paris? 11. 1989-present // River North Jimmys Place 1987-present // Lincoln Park 18. 6. 1970s chicago restaurants. Within a few years he would run a restaurant of renown on the buildings top floor. Merci, Jean Banchet. In an opening advertisement Bowl & Roll promised a range of unusual soups such as Hungarian sour cherry soup, Scandinavian fruit soup, and kohlrabi soup. Oprah Winfrey, left, was known to stop by tables at The Eccentric, the restaurant she opened with Rich Melman. The spectrum of eating places found in New Yorks Harlem, Chicagos Black Belt, and Black urban neighborhoods across the North ranged from down-home, all-night eateries serving factory shift workers to elegant tea rooms lodged in old mansions that hosted patrons with more money and leisure. Tea at the Mary Louise Restaurant-ing as a civil right Once trendy: tomato juice cocktails Famous in its day: Thompsons Spa The browning of McDonalds Eating, dining, and snacking at the fair A Valentine with soul (food) Down and out in St. Louis Serving the poor For the record The ups and downs of Frank Flower Famous in its day, now infamous: Coon Chicken Inn Nothing but the best, 19th cen. Jacques . Reading the tea leaves Is ethnic food a slur? America's first hamburger served on a bun is said to have debuted in the Windy City in 1917 at a small restaurant called Drexel's Pure Food. The domed, dark Crescent Room, home to many a bachelorette and birthday party, featured low tables, pillow seating and multicolored Moroccan lamps hanging from the ceiling. Also obvious, perhaps, but impossible to ignore.
30 Vintage Postcards Show Chicago's Restaurants in the 1950s and '60s Fish & chips, inc. was conveniently located in the Loop, across the street from the central Chicago library, now the Chicago Cultural Center. But what sometimes seemed like capricious ingredient pairings always made sense on the plate.
Chicago History: Burger Restaurants & Who Invented the - Thrillist Mannys Coffee Shop &Deli 26. Phil's 50: Chicago's top restaurants rated, reviewed, mapped , 25 Chicago restaurants earn Michelin stars in 2017 , Craving: Italian -- a month of Chicago's best pastas, antipasti, pizza, secondi and more . So said Bon Apptit, Julia Child, Jacques Ppin, Craig Claiborne, and Mimi Sheraton. Inserra worked his way up at Gino`s and bought the restaurant in 1979. As executive chef at Armour he helped launch the companys Continental Cuisine line of frozen entrees for the home and commercial market that came in polybags that could be immersed in boiling water and served. The Street Life of Chicago in the 1970s through these Fabulous Vintage Photos. (steaks) The rolling-cart show of massive cuts of plastic-wrapped prime beef raised the bar on excessive steak consumption from maybe to mandatory. Fred Harvey revisited Street food: tamales Famous in its day: Blums Women chefs before the 1970s Speed eating Top posts in 2020 Holiday greetings from 11th Heaven Dining with Us Mortals Your favorite restaurant? But the diet gained a charged meaning in the 1960s when proponents of Black Power affirmed eating soul food as a political statement. Ham & eggs by any other name Good eaters: Josephine Hull Name trouble: Aunt Jemimas Reflections on a name: Plantation Dining on a roof Restaurant-ing on wheels Dinner to go Drive-up windows Dining during an epidemic: San Francisco Good eaters: bohemians Dining during an epidemic Fish on Fridays Image gallery: breaded things Lunching in a laboratory Women drinking in restaurants The puzzling St. Paul sandwich New Years Eve at the Latin Quarter Chinese for Christmas Turkeyburgers Themes: bordellos Finds of the day Early bird specials Franchising: Heap Big Beef Bostons automats Coffee and cake saloons Women chefs not wanted Entree from side dish to main dish Anatomy of a restaurateur: Woo Yee Sing Lobster stew at the White Rabbit Restaurants in the family: Doris Day Almost like flying Eye appeal Writing food memoirs Anatomy of a restaurateur: Ruby Foo Soul food restaurants Effects of war on restaurant-ing Behind the scenes at the Splendide Take your Valentine to dinner Lunching at the dime store Square meals Tea rooms for students Christmas dinner in the desert Green Book restaurants Dirty by design Clown themes Basic fare: meat & potatoes Dining with Chiang Yee in Boston Slumming Picturing restaurant food Find of the day: the Double R Coffee House Delicatessing at the Delirama Restaurant design and decoration Dining on a dime Anatomy of a restaurateur: George Rector Catering Dining in a garden Sawdust on the floor Learning to eat (in restaurants) Childrens menus Taste of a decade: the 1830s Check your hat How Americans learned to tip Image gallery: eating in a hat The up-and-down life of a restaurant owner Dressing the female server The Lunch Box, a memoir Crazy for crepes Famous in its day: The Pyramid Dining & wining on New Years Eve High-volume restaurants: Hilltop Steak House Famous in its day: the Public Natatorium Turkey on the menu Getting closer to your food Between courses: secret recipes Find of the day: Aladdin Studio Tiffin Room Americans in Paris: The Chinese Umbrella No smoking! It opened for business in 1924, making it nearly a quarter of a century older than the People's Republic of China. 1946-circa 2003 // Bronzeville The rest of us have finally caught up. The first review of The Bakery described it as a table dhte offering a set dinner that began with pt, possibly followed by celery soup, shredded celery root salad with handmade mayonnaise, and Filet of Pike with Sauce Louis. Atmosphere Taste of a decade: 1840s restaurants Eating Chinese Park and eat Thanksgiving quiz: dinner times four Dining sky-side Habenstein of Hartford Back of the house: writing this blog Image gallery: supper clubs Restaurant cups Truth in Menu Every luxury the markets afford See it, want it: window food displays Time to sell the doughnuts Who was the mystery diner? The diner has landed itself on the pages of USA Today and Zagat as a must-visit Chicago restaurant, inspiring patrons from all over the world to give it a shot. We still miss the cloches and the gorgeous dessert cart. Fanny's 1946-1987 // Evanston. (Mediterranean) The trendoids embraced the small plates and communal seating and never looked back. (Continental) Cognoscenti flocked to Louis Szathmrys quirky storefrontno menu and mismatched everything for beef Wellington and an inexplicable BYO policy. Those photographsnow 40 years oldare being shared in a new book, " Uptown: Portrait of a Chicago Neighborhood in the Mid-1970s ." Rehak shares his experiences documenting a diverse Chicago neighborhood with us. These are the closed Chicago restaurants, bars, nightclubs and more that we pine for the most, and the spots that have taken their place Tuesday September 9 2014 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email . Gentrification and the occasional rat sighting (whoops!) )What's taken its place: Though the crowd is less singer-songwriter, more graphic designer, Filter has a lock on the all-day camping set in the Wicker Park of today. Henrici's was indisputably a Chicago institution that billed itself as "Chicago's Most Famous Restaurant" and for a time, it might well have been. The decor was all over the map (including a cunning street map that seamlessly linked Chicago to London and Paris), using mixed floor materials, abrupt color shifts on the walls, and art that included a picture of Charlie Brown rendered as a Romanesque bust. Gene & Georgettis Now its sold online, along with her famous spaghetti sauce. At the same time, he observed that whites visiting Harlem enjoyed spare ribs with red beans, concluding, there are no fundamental points of difference between eating habits of Harlemites and those of the lighter-skinned folk downtown.. He arrived in the US in 1951, working as a chef in several institutional settings in the Northeast before moving to Chicago in 1960 to join Armour & Co. in product development. I'm working on a book about the Rush Street area from the 1800's to the 1980's and the characters, movers & shakers, nightclubs, restaurants, and music that made it happen. Until 1995, the only way to experience chef Jean Joho's food was by digging deep into your wallet to dine at Everest. (American) The Spinning Bowl salad: A waiter would lay out 21 ingredients and narrate the drama as he gently tossed and spun them.
The Most Famous Restaurants in Chicago | January 2020 | OpenTable 1976-1999 // River North The menu could date any time from the opening of the restaurant in 1936 into the 1940s. "I always had a passion for photography, and I went by Uptown every day, twice a day, actually on my way to and from work. (E. Jason Wambsgans /.
Take a Step Back in Time at the Oldest Bars and Restaurants in Chicago . In 1912 her daughter Maude Le Page created quite a stir and became a minor celebrity when she stood up in the balcony of a Chicago theater and loudly proclaimed that she would sell herself to a man for $1,000 so that she could escape working in a deli (!) 1981-present // Highland Park It went out of business in 2016. (Progressive American) Still wet behind the ears, Alinea, the culinary juggernaut of the brilliant and visionary Grant Achatz, turned Chicago into an international foodie destination and a launching pad for the next generation of groundbreaking chefs. Although he sometimes used frozen foods, he said he always revealed that on his menus. Maison LaFite, they shoot back. For New York City, it broke restaurant listings into the categories Steaks, American Specialties, Seafood, and Chinese but not Soul Food. I raved about the eclectic, but utterly professional, gem in Wilmette, a very pretty space done in aqua and salmon hues and dishes like Jarvis' wild turkey breast stuffed with truffle mousse. Calumet City's contribution to the fine-dining scene was a formidable one. Charlie Trotters Critic John Hess, in 1974, questioned the high regard that Holiday magazine bestowed on The Bakery and declared its Beef Wellington the quintessence of the pretentious gourmet plague. Patrons sent letters to Chicago newspapers saying the Roast Duckling was as tough as an auto tire, and charging that the restaurants acclaim was based on mass hysteria whipped up by Chef Louis himself. 34.
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises: How the Tribune - Chicago Tribune Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1980s *Unstruck* Chris Lancers Steaks Seafoods Restaurant Matchbook Chicago, IL at the best online prices at eBay! The building was to be the new headquarters of the Pullman Palace Car Company which manufactured sleeping and dining cars used by major railways. Gladys Holcombs Home Cooking Vintage menus from some of Chicago's dearly departed restaurants, including The Eccdentric, Gordon and The Cottage, help tell the tale of what made them so great. 2020 Chicago magazine / A Chicago Tribune Media Group website. (Contemporary French) From day one, Carlos Nietos patented silver bow tie has said it all: Check your ideas about formal French dining at the door. Rohr passed away in 1999, leaving a wonderful legacy. Antonio's Steak House at 1528 N. Wells Street, Chicago. Good eaters: Andy Warhol Birth of the theme restaurant Restaurant-ing with royalty Righting civil wrongs in restaurants Theme restaurants: barns Men only Taste of a decade: restaurants, 1900-1910 Celebrating restaurant cuisine Decor: glass ceilings Between courses: dont sniff the food In the kitchen with Mme Early: black women in restaurants Burger bloat On the menu for 2010 Christmas feasting Todays specials: books on restaurants With haute cuisine for all: Longchamps Restaurant-ing on Thanksgiving High-volume restaurants: Smith & McNells Anatomy of a restaurateur: Dario Toffenetti Between courses: rate this menu You want cheese with that?
Rush Street Chicago in the 80's - Facebook 33. (American) Some pretty hotsy-totsy chefs have discovered hamburgers lately, but time was when the half-pounder on dark rye and fried onion loaf at Hackneys had no peers. Vintage menus from some of Chicago's dearly departed restaurants, including The Eccdentric, Gordon and The Cottage, help tell the tale of what made them so great. Restaurants of 1936 Regulars Steakburgers and shakes A famous fake Music in restaurants Co-operative restaurant-ing Dainty Dining, the book Famous in its day: Miss Hullings Cafeteria Celebrating in style 2011 year-end report Famous in its day: Reeves Bakery, Restaurant, Coffee Shop Washing up Taste of a decade: 1910s restaurants Dipping into the finger bowl The Craftsman, a model restaurant Anatomy of a restaurateur: Chin Foin Hot Cha and the Kapok Tree Find of the day: Demos Caf Footnote on roadhouses Spectacular failures: Caf de lOpera Product placement in restaurants Lunch and a beer White restaurants It was a dilly Wayne McAllisters drive-ins in the round Making a restaurant exciting, on the cheap Duncans beefs Anatomy of a restaurateur: Anna de Naucaze The checkered career of the roadhouse Famous in its day: the Aware Inn Waiters games Anatomy of a restaurateur: Harriet Moody Basic fare: salad Image gallery: tally ho Famous in its day: Pign Whistle Confectionery restaurants Etiquette violations: eating off your knife Frenchies, oui, oui Common victualing 1001 unsavorinesses Find of the day: Steubens Taste of a decade: 1850s restaurants Famous in its day: Wolfies Good eaters: me The all-American hamburger Waitress uniforms: bloomers Theme restaurants: Russian! It closed in 2006 after 12 years, but the restaurant launched the careers of Grant Achatz, Rick Tramonto, Gale Gand and Curtis Duffy, among other important Chicago chefs.What's taken its place: Through December, Next Restaurant is serving a version of a Trio menu from 2004. No different from Chez Paul or Jacques (which made the cut for its lovely garden). Savarin showed Hogan's mastery of French technique; the menu interspersed bistro classics with sturgeon-wrapped crab mousse and a knockout composition of sea urchin and crabmeat in lobster sauce with a sabayon gratin. 12 1924 Orange Garden - North Center. Only months before opening The Bakery, Chef Louis (as he was popularly known) had been training the staff of a Michigan gas-station-restaurant complex aptly named The American Way how to heat and serve Armours bagged entrees. A Chester PA restaurant specialized in oysters in 1910. She now writes a breakfast column for the Chicago Tribune, and while it's delightful, it's no replacement for the best breakfast spot in town.What's taken its place: A notable new breakfast place hasn't opened since the closing of Ina's, so we'll pick an old standby: Southport Grocery. Spiaggia This seemed to hold especially true for those higher in social status. The name was a contraction of "tutto a posto," roughly meaning "all is as it should be" (we might translate it to "it's all good" today), and the Mediterranean restaurant with the Italian name was the brainchild of Tony Mantuano, who created it in between his two terms running Spiaggia (where he's running things today). . Frontera Grill 25. Phone Dearborn 2673.. It was such a hit, in fact, that Gilbert opened another location in Lincoln Park in 2009. 1933-present // Gold Coast Vintage menus from some of Chicago's dearly departed restaurants, including The Eccdentric, Gordon and The Cottage, help tell the tale of what made them so great. The outlawing of alcoholic beverages proved challenging to the Tip Top Inn, as it did to other leading Chicago restaurants of the pre-Prohibition era such as Rectors, the Edelweiss, and the Hofbrau, all of which would go under before the ban on selling alcohol ended. Bread service has become optional at many restaurants these days, but back in the late '90s, bread was a statement at this New York import, which closed in 2002. The food was spicy, the music loud (vinyl only, played on a console stereo), the tablecloths reptilian. 1982-present // Lake View Gone were the days when people indulged in a nice restaurant dinner only when traveling or celebrating a birthday or anniversary. Gurnee. Even as Beef Wellington lost its fashionability in the 1970s and 1980s, it continued as a Bakery mainstay. and casinos in the 1980s. In 2012, the big news was the closing of Charlie Trotter's after 25 years, but out in the northwest suburbs, Le Titi de Paris called it a career after a remarkable 40-year run, which began in Palatine and ended in Arlington Heights. Mob restaurants As the restaurant world turned, July 17 Dining in summer Dining by gaslight Anatomy of a restaurateur: Charles Sarris Womens restaurants Restaurant history day Charge it! What to watch. No wonder it felt like an affront when MTV turned the building into the first Chicago Real World house in 2001, even though Urbis had closed three years earlier; it was a sign of the next wave of gentrification coming with condos. (Franco-Asian) Jimmy Rohr greeted guests at the door, kept the lights low, and played strictly opera music, which made for the most civilized dinner in town. .. respond @windflowerfarmalpaca @ Gmail.com, Egg Harbor WI, (former home ofBarbara Cady, our dining companion in those days:):). Alinea Cizma loved cooking game blackberry-stuffed venison loin, grilled boar tenderloin, rabbit with prunes and port-wine sauce and I loved eating there. You have to include Barneys!
Famous Iconic Chicago Restaurants | Choose Chicago Chef Louis stayed busy in retirement and donated his vast cookbook and culinary arts collection to libraries at the University of Iowa and Johnson & Wales University. After he left Armour to concentrate on The Bakery, Chef Louis continued to praise the use of convenience foods in restaurants. All of that disappeared the following April, however, when a roof fire in the Plaza del Lago center destroyed Melange and other businesses. Wop salad? He found only one restaurant serving them (Rosalies and Frances Clam House and Restaurant). As a toast to this magazines 40th anniversary, we name the 40 best Chicago restaurants of all time. Jerry and Carolyn Buster, who had worked under legendary chef Louis Szathmary at The Bakery, opened this homey suburban restaurant, which oozed country charm. 32. The first Taste of Chicago (1980) Flickr/Monique Wingard Set up along Michigan Avenue between Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building, you may have been one of the 250,000 people to first enjoy this one-day event if you lived in Chicago in the 1980's. and publish her poetry. 31. In Spring 1923, the University Tea Room (The Most Beautiful Spot in Chicago) advertised the following menu: 65c Special Table de Hote Dinner 65c Its clever design may have been due to owner Bob Winters background in advertising. Old Glory flies atop Chuck Cavallini's restaurant, 3835 W. 147th St., Midlothian. Some of Chicagos Bronzeville residents who held themselves superior to migrants expressed criticism of newcomers food customs, such as eating chitterlings. Miller laments the decline of restaurants that serve soul food, marked by the closure of landmarks such as Army and Lous and Soul Queen in Chicago. It took our breath away then, and it still does. I was going to go all inside-baseball and say the restaurant I really missed was Mistral, the John Hogan project that never quite got off the ground. (I dubbed them Hogan's Heroes at the time.) By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. 9.
Remembering Chicago's 'Lost Restaurants' - WTTW News Bally was was acquired by Hilton Hotels in 1996 and the health club was spun off as an independent company. (Contemporary) This treasure has delighted for three decades simply because Yoshi Katsumuras gentle fusion continues to sparkle and his wife, Nobuko, continues to charm. The following year it was enlarged to seat 300. Most soul food histories note that some prominent Black leaders have rejected soul food, pointing to Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. (Continental) Home of the three-hour lunch for columnists, models, and moguls: Irv Kupcinet described Fritzels as Chicagos version of Toots Shors. 1920-1984 // Loop Take that, caesar salad! For dessert, there was a shimmering tempered-chocolate cube that cracked open to reveal fluffy espresso mousse.
The first thing I discovered was that it is available as a reproduction. She lived to be 96. We gathered them from experience, of course, but also from Chicagos voluminous files, avid conversations, and old guidebooks. It started on Franklin Street in 1991,and between the crispy pizzas and the rosemary-perfumed porchetta, there was nothing not to like. Oprah Winfrey, left, was known to stop by tables at The Eccentric, the restaurant she opened with Rich Melman. 1985-present // Lincoln Park (Contemporary American) The bon vivant Gordon A. Sinclair brought sophistication to a seedy stretch of North Clark Street, and River North was born.