Nothing New in River North Since Summer Is a First Attempt

On the south face of the Reid Murdoch Building, a row of 10-foot double doors now opens onto a riverwalk nearly twice as wide as the old one. That stretch runs 300 feet from Clark Street to LaSalle Drive. It has new precast piers, railings, lighting and planters, and better access from river level for people arriving by boat. The building went up in 1914 as offices and a warehouse for Reid, Murdoch & Co., once one of the country's largest wholesale grocers. After the city bought it in 1955, it housed traffic courts and municipal offices for decades.

That makes it a fitting place to start, because the building is on at least its third life. The same holds for almost every table that has opened in River North since late August. The Queens dumpling house has been around for twenty years. The Las Vegas restaurateur already has a Chicago steakhouse. One Wells Street kitchen is opening for the second time this year, and the Thai team on Hubbard came from established downtown rooms. Nothing on the list is a first try. Each one is a concept, a chef or a building that had already proved itself somewhere else, now opening in River North.

The riverfront corner was rebuilt before the restaurant arrived

Owner Friedman Properties says the riverwalk rebuild, a renovation of River Roast and the new Carlyle Club add up to about $15 million in recent investment at the landmark. Levy Restaurants finished updating River Roast, the 28,000-square-foot riverfront venue in the building. Its main event space is now branded RR Events and has a new riverside entrance with a curved grand staircase. The renovation also added Corner Roast, a coffee counter with its own entrance.

The building was rebuilt first and the restaurant moved in after. Carlyle Club opened at 316 N. Clark St. in early October, inside a space Urbanize Chicago describes as 8,200 square feet. Eater Chicago reported that Las Vegas restaurateur Steve Gogolab first visited Chicago only in August 2025. He opened Dēliz, a two-level Italian steakhouse in Bucktown, that December, and he has two more Chicago projects planned for next year.

So Carlyle Club is Gogolab's second Chicago room, and it's bigger than the first. According to Eater, the dining room has crystal chandeliers, a bar topped in deeply veined Italian calacatta viola marble, a sushi bar finished in Brazilian quartzite, oversized burgundy booths, and a glass-enclosed wine room with lockers for wine club members. There's a DJ booth, and Gogolab told Eater the soundproofing will keep conversation possible. The menu runs from a 40-day dry-aged rib-eye and wagyu steaks to handmade pasta and a snow-crab roll from the sushi side.

For anyone living nearby, the hours matter more than the chandeliers. The restaurant's site lists lunch daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., happy hour at the bar from 3 to 6 p.m., and dinner until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. That puts a weekday lunch option right on the river, at the foot of Clark Street.

A Flushing institution took its first Midwest address on Ontario

Head a few blocks north and the pattern repeats with a brand that's much older. Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao opened its first restaurant in Flushing, Queens, in 2006. It specializes in Shanghainese cooking and, according to the Daily Herald, has been recommended by the Michelin Guide for nine years running. In late August it opened its first Midwest location at 35 W. Ontario St.

Eater Chicago counted 135 seats and an open kitchen. The headliner is the Lucky Six, a set of soup dumplings in six fillings that include pork and crab, truffle, luffa shrimp and scallop. The rest of the menu covers pan-fried pork buns, scallion pancakes, noodles, stir-fries, dim sum and fruit teas. The restaurant's location page lists walk-in service from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.

Nearly everything else on this list takes reservations or keeps dinner-only hours. Nan Xiang is the exception, a large room with no booking that opens at 11 a.m., seven days a week.

Gingie opened twice in six months

The most literal second act is at 707 N. Wells St. Gingie is part of the Boka Restaurant Group and the first brick-and-mortar restaurant from chef Brian Lockwood, who consulted on FX's "The Bear." On March 29, three days after it opened, a fire in a grease chute shut the kitchen. Block Club Chicago reported that no one was hurt, though a couple of nearby restaurants had to be evacuated.

After months of renovations, the restaurant reopened on Saturday, August 29, according to Eater Chicago. In a statement quoted by Block Club, Boka co-founder and co-CEO Kevin Boehm thanked "the Chicago Fire Department, our neighbors and our community all across Chicago for the tremendous outpouring of love and support over these past months."

The menu is contemporary American and à la carte. It includes a spicy tuna dip with nori tapioca chips, a heritage half chicken with sansho pepper, pickled daikon and shiso, and late-summer additions like Délice de Bourgogne tortelloni with corn and black truffle. Gingie serves dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Most of the city first heard about Gingie when the fire made the news in March. This fall is the first real chance to eat there for more than three days.

Tarra & Sura is built from downtown résumés

On Hubbard, the second act belongs to the people. Tarra & Sura opened at 121 W. Hubbard St. on August 19 as a two-level Thai restaurant with a cocktail lounge below. Restaurateur Michael Chen runs it with executive chef Namo Chowcharoen, who was previously chef and partner at the Franklin Room, Union Sushi and Madison Bar & Kitchen.

Eater Chicago's opening report lists khao tang with beef tartare and caviar, sai uah curry sausage, southern Thai crab curry, stir-fried clams and a braised short-rib curry. Downstairs, Sura's 16-cocktail list comes from beverage director Robert Shamblin, formerly of BLVD, Willow Room and Parkside. Tarra seats 95 upstairs and Sura seats 80 below. At opening, Eater listed hours of 5 to 10 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

Tarra & Sura wasn't imported from another city. It still fits the pattern, because the kitchen and bar are run by people who learned the downtown dining crowd in other rooms first.

The late-summer and fall lineup at a glance

The exit on Erie

Turnover runs in both directions. Crain's Chicago Business reported on October 5 that True Food Kitchen had closed its River North restaurant at 1 W. Erie St. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed a dozen locations nationwide. The closure leaves one more large space on Erie open for whoever comes next.

What's still on the way

The next openings follow the same pattern. Cha Chin, a 60-seat chifa restaurant at 407 N. Clark St., blends Cantonese cooking with Peruvian ingredients. Eater's fall preview gives it an early-December target. It comes from Exodo Hospitality Group, which already runs Kayao, Ayayay, Matilda, Clandestino and Akiro, all built on Peruvian cooking crossed with the cuisines of Mexico or Japan. It sits about a block from the Carlyle Club's entrance, which makes that end of Clark Street the busiest part of the neighborhood's dining map this season.

Two more are still pending:

• The Conservatory, a rooftop at 100 E. Ontario St., was slated for fall in Eater Chicago's September preview.
• Läderach, the Swiss chocolatier, plans a store at 535 N. Michigan Ave. later this fall, though What Now Chicago reported on October 14 that no grand-opening date had been set.

Until those dates land, the reliable plans are the ones already open: soup dumplings on Ontario at lunch, Thai curry on Hubbard Wednesday through Sunday, Gingie on Wells any night of the week, and a walk along the rebuilt riverwalk between Clark and LaSalle.

If this list has you thinking about which River North blocks put you within walking distance of Clark Street's riverfront or Nan Xiang's walk-in line, The Michael Scavo Group can build you a tailored list of buildings near the spots you'd actually use and get you on tour the same week. Find Your Apartment.