New Bistro, Microbrewery Coming To North Broadway This Fall
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new bistro and microbrewery is the latest venture coming to Broadway in the East Lakeview neighborhood, as the transformation of the busy and fashionable strip continues.
Dryhop will open in the fall at 3155 N. Broadway, in a space that had been vacant since the Pleasure Chest adult store moved out in 2006. The upscale neighborhood restaurant will feature "moderately priced and locally sourced cuisine inspired by the culinary techniques of Western Europe." A sample menu shows food items such prosciutto peppers and Boudin Blanc sausage with rosemary sweet garlic beer mustard, along with three different preparations of mussels.
Part of the space will also be used for creating ales that will be served only from the premises.
Dryhop founder and general manager Greg Shuff tells CBS Chicago by e-mail that this is his first business venture of this scale, after some smaller startups in his native Indianapolis and while in college at Purdue. He says he has also become an expert in brewing over the past couple of years.
"Started as a homebrewer like the rest of them, then took my brewing knowledge to the next level when I went to Siebel/Doemens in Chicago and Munich," Shuff wrote. "Since Brew-school I've been working on this project – about nine months now."
The stretch of Broadway between Belmont Avenue and the juncture with Diversey Parkway and Clark Street was once known as a seedy area, but in the decades since the neighborhood became a hot destination beginning in the 1970s, upscale and fashionable business have boomed. Shuff says he's glad to be part of it.
"I love East Lakeview. I live here. I walk by our location every day. With such a great community, some really great businesses… where else would I go?" he wrote.
He specifically mentioned Wilde Bar and Restaurant at 3130 N. Broadway, the Pastoral artisan cheese shop at 2945 N. Broadway, the Mexican shared-plate restaurant Chilam Balam at 3023 N. Broadway, and the new Laugh Factory, an outpost of the Los Angeles comedy club that recently opened at 3175 N. Broadway in the space vacated by the Lakeshore Theater in 2010.
"The Laugh Factory is great. I went for a show a few weeks ago – hilarious! It's just great that the neighborhood is seeing some new activity. The less empty space we have – the better it is for all of us," Shuff wrote.
Besides the Laugh Factory, numerous other new businesses have sprouted up along Broadway in the past year, while others have faded away after generations in operation.
A Hustler Hollywood adult store opened at 3161 N. Broadway last summer, in the other of the two storefronts in the building where Dryhop will open. Reckless Records had occupied the space before moving across the street a year earlier.
Also last summer, an older adult store that was a lone throwback to a seedier era closed a couple of blocks south. Adult Fantasy at 2928 N. Broadway, an old-fashioned adult bookstore with private video viewing booths, had operated under various names since the 1970s.
Adult Fantasy remains shuttered, with its old orange and black sign still hanging over the sidewalk. But in another storefront in the same building, entrepreneur Philip Tadros plans to open the new Bow & Truss coffee roasting house at 2934 N. Broadway, in a space that until recently had housed the headquarters of Tadros' digital design agency.
Meanwhile, another new restaurant, Frog N Snail, will soon open at 3124 N. Broadway. The location had been occupied by Sura, a Thai bistro with spherical swings suspended from the ceiling, which closed last year.
And at the southernmost foot of Broadway between Surf Street and Diversey Parkway, talk continues about plans for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.
The Wal-Mart would take over two long-vacant spaces in the Broadway at Surf retail complex that were once occupied by a Wolf Camera and a PetSmart, and would kick out an existing and popular Cost Plus World Market store at 2844 N. Broadway. But no lease has been signed for the space.
Wal-Mart also opened an Express store about a mile to the north at 3636 N. Broadway last fall.
Adam Harrington, cbschicago.com
