With the simultaneous launch of his fourth and fifth restaurants in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, world-renowned chef José Andrés gleefully further cements his relationship with a city that has already shown feverish appreciation for his approach to food.
“Chicago is one of the top culinary destinations in the world—one which we’ve been excited to join
for many years,” remarked José Andrés on the opening of his newest Chicago outposts. “We can’t wait to add these new concepts to the city, and there’s no better place to do so than from the Loop and overlooking the Chicago River!”
And based upon the initial reception received by the two radically different concepts, Chicago has also been eager to embrace Andrés’ latest offerings. Spread over two floors of prime real estate and anchored in the gleaming new Bank of America Tower, the tallest commercial building to be added to the Chicago skyline in 30 years, Chef José Andrés stunning new restaurants take the notion of surf and turf to an unprecedented new level.
Bazaar Meat, which dominates the top floor of the space, is a carnivore’s dream wrapped in a theatrical reimagining of a traditional steakhouse. Unlike the previous iterations of Bazaar Meat, the Chicago edition was not designed by Phillippe Starck but instead by Barcelona-based designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán who has created over 40 distinguished interiors for some of Spain’s most successful restaurants, boutique hotels and retail establishments.
“We love Philippe,” says Bazaar Meat General Manager, Christopher Bugeya. “[But] for this Bizarre, I think they really wanted to…go Spanish. Lázaro Rosa-Violán… has done a lot of restaurants and things of that nature so I think that matching up with Catalonians for a restaurant ended up working out well. They love to play with texture and height and it’s dramatic. The colors and the space really look like you’re walking into the hearth, the fire, these blowing embers on the inside.”
The notion of Bazaar’s dining room evoking the sense of blowing embers is actually a very real one as a handmade IPSOR oven, one of only two in the U.S., provides a dramatic “fire stage” used for preparing the suckling pig that is one of the highlights of the meat intensive menu. This handsome and dramatic oven, which took three Spanish gentlemen three days to build and install is also used to grill and/or roast everything else on the menu from poultry and fish to vegetables and the exceedingly rare Vaca Vieja (Spanish for “old cow”), which is prepared using hand-selected eight- to ten-year-old working cows, known for their more pronounced flavor.
In stark contrast, on the first floor at Bar Mar, the more accessible of the two eateries where guests are initially greeted, the menu focuses primarily on beautiful seafood and cocktails, served in a spacious, airy space with a buzzy, Mediterranean vibe. While a massive octopus, also designed by Lázaro Rosa-Violán, hangs from the ceiling acting as a showstopping centerpiece in the dining room, 40-foot floor-to-ceiling windows peering out over Upper Wacker Drive play their own part in adding drama to the Bar Mar experience. Atmosphere aside, it is ultimately the food that takes center stage at this unique boîte. Menu highlights include the Everything Bagel Airbread served in the shape of a fish, filled with cream cheese espuma and topped with smoked salmon, the Not so Po Boy José! featuring a fried oyster with Platinum Malassol caviar and tartar sauce in a steamed brioche bun, a Margarita Oyster, and Cobia “Rosa” Ceviche.
Despite the differences in the two spaces, however, they are both bound by their innovative cuisine, the sense of whimsy that has become one of the hallmarks of José Andrés establishments and, of course the legendary service for which those establishments have become known.
“[Here] everybody’s a VIP. Every single person is important. We need everyone to leave here happy,” Bugeya emphasizes. “It’s just a fact. They’re going to leave here happy, whether or not they want to. We’re going to do everything within our power to make that possible.”