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The Hot List: 10 places everyone’s talking about and dining at in January—in order of heat
Chicago's most-buzzed-about restaurants this month
By Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby
Chicago Magazine
January 2012
LAKE STREET KITCHEN + BAR Look hip, tout farm-to-table, load up on microbrews, and declare victory. 1101 Lake St., Oak Park; 708-383-5253
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Date Night Destinations: Oak Park
Romance awaits at these Oak Park destinations.
by Casey Cora
Dec 1, 2011
Oak Park-River Forest Patch
The holiday lights are up and twinkling, it's getting chilly and you're looking to duck into somewhere warm and snuggle up with a date. There is perhaps no better time for a romantic night out than early winter, and no better place for a fun suburban date than right here in Oak Park. Here's a look at a few places that will serve as the perfect backdrop:
Lake Street Kitchen + Bar: Exactly what sometimes-sleepy downtown Oak Park needed, this new restaurant features sharable small plates and entrée creations from chef Jason Kurosaki, a smart wine list and a great selection of craft beers. Grab a table and have a romantic meal, belly up and order at the bar or make new friends at the restaurant's communal seating space. 1101 Lake St. (708) 383-5253
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Lake Street Kitchen + Bar Now Open in Oak Park
Nov 2, 2011
By Penny Pollack, Graham Meyer, and Carly Boers
“I kind of thought I would do this my whole life,” says Rachel Dennis, referring to fulfilling her goal of opening her eclectic-rustic restaurant Lake Street Kitchen + Bar (1101 Lake St., Oak Park; 708-383-5253). Dennis’s life kept leading her back to the food world: Her mother was a career waitress, and Dennis herself waited tables through high school and college. After law school, she became general counsel for the Bar Louie group, but she was laid off when the company was sold. When an 80- to 90-seat location in downtown Oak Park came available because a potential Johnny Rockets fell through, Dennis leaped. She hired the chef Jason Kurosaki, who has experience at Sola and Custom House, and the restaurant opened on October 11. Kurosaki designed a menu with flatbreads, panini, small plates, charcuterie, and some large plates such as Moroccan-spice-rubbed country ribs, brined and served with apples and parsnips. Now that the former lawyer’s restaurant is up and running, we can read her quote as lawyers would and find an ambiguity: Instead of thinking her whole life about having a restaurant, now she can think about having a restaurant her whole life.
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Have a drink in Oak Park
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 10:00 PM
By Editorial
Evidence that Oak Park is taking a more adult approach to adult beverages arrived last week with the opening of Lake Street Kitchen + Bar. A restaurant that wears its bar proudly in its name is a step forward in a town where we've served up drinks for 40 years but didn't seem too proud of it.
The new eatery, at the corner of Lake and Marion, is a major upgrade from its predecessor and, if the first week is an indicator, it is proof that Oak Park can be fun, too.
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By Marty Stempniak
Staff Reporter for the Wednesday Journal
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Thirsty Oak Parkers will have a new watering hole soon, following a decision on Monday night.
Village trustees approved a liquor license this week, for an Oak Parker to operate a bar and
restaurant at 1101 Lake Street, the former home of Cosi restaurant. Rachel Dennis is calling the new pub
"Lake Street Kitchen + Bar," according to village documents.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., serving
breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and late-night eats.
The menu is described as "American-eclectic," with the kitchen operating until they close.
Dennis could not be reached for comment Monday, but village documents say
she's a lifelong Oak Parker who spent several years working as a waitress,
and has a legal background and worked as vice president of a national restaurant company.
Lake Street Kitchen + Bar will seat as many as 80 people.
They're planning to open in August.
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Sit, have a drink, I'll tell you a story
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 10:00 PM
By Dan Haley
Publisher/Columnist for the Wednesday Journal
Say you want to open a restaurant in Downtown Oak Park. You've worked in town, so you sort of have a feeling for what might fly here. Of course, you get that whole locovore, seasonal, artisanal menu thing going. You've got a great location right at Marion and Lake. And you want to send a subliminal message that this isn't just a latter-day corner grill; it's more of an all-hours spot. Great for dinner. Great for just a drink after a movie.
So you decide to call your restaurant Lake Street Kitchen + Bar. Some people like this. They especially like that plus-sign thing. Contemporary. Even sophisticated, but in a cool customer sort of way. That plus sign is almost as worthy as the unpasteurized cheese you just might put on the menu.
But speaking of subliminal messages, it is time to apply for your liquor license from the Village of Oak Park and your feet get cold. You think you are hearing whispers from village hall that maybe, just maybe, the " Bar" is more hot than cool and so you drop it from the license application and your official village issued moniker is now Lake Street Kitchen, which to my untrained ear, sounds more like a social service agency than a place I want to be spotted in looking dapper.
Hold on, though, now there are voices from village hall with names attached and they are saying, "What happened to ' Bar'? That was the best part. We've got this downtown master plan, and its says we want nightlife, and you were going to be nightlife, and now you sound like turkey with gravy on white bread."
Which brings us to last night, Tuesday, when Rachel Dennis, the owner of the eatery, was scheduled to reappear before the village's Liquor Control Review Board and get the " Bar" reattached to the name. And maybe as soon as a week from now, the village board ought to be signing off on both the license and the name.
Weird town.
Or as Village President David Pope told me Monday when I asked about the naming kerfuffle, "I think we're sort of bipolar on this issue."
I think he's right. There's half of Oak Park that 15 years ago was all atwitter when Dominick's wanted to sell beer and wine. There's the other half of Oak Park that just arrived from Wicker Park, and they'd like a drink — at a bar — and it would be best if the beer had an unpronounceable name.
Asked if village hall might have sent mixed signals, Pope said, "I don't understand what happened. My gut is that someone in village hall said something."
So here we have Village Manager Tom Barwin salivating over attracting a brew pub to Oak Park and one of his minions is using the secret decoder ring to spell out "Nix the ' Bar.' "
A happy ending? Village Clerk Teresa Powell, who is the keeper of the liquor licenses, points out there has never been a prohibition in Oak Park's complex liquor ordinances on using the words "bar" or "lounge" or "tap" as part of a name. She sees the latest confusion as part of "the evolution that is going on in town." Loretta Daly, the village's business liaison, calls the new spot "a great use" that meets the goal of more nightlife.
Time to get the village's long, conflicted liquor history into the history books. Time to make hooch our economic development buddy and late-evening nightcap.
Staff Reporter for the Wednesday Journal
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Thirsty Oak Parkers will have a new watering hole soon, following a decision on Monday night.
Village trustees approved a liquor license this week, for an Oak Parker to operate a bar and
restaurant at 1101 Lake Street, the former home of Cosi restaurant. Rachel Dennis is calling the new pub
"Lake Street Kitchen + Bar," according to village documents.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., serving
breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and late-night eats.
The menu is described as "American-eclectic," with the kitchen operating until they close.
Dennis could not be reached for comment Monday, but village documents say
she's a lifelong Oak Parker who spent several years working as a waitress,
and has a legal background and worked as vice president of a national restaurant company.
Lake Street Kitchen + Bar will seat as many as 80 people.
They're planning to open in August.
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Sit, have a drink, I'll tell you a story
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 10:00 PM
By Dan Haley
Publisher/Columnist for the Wednesday Journal
Say you want to open a restaurant in Downtown Oak Park. You've worked in town, so you sort of have a feeling for what might fly here. Of course, you get that whole locovore, seasonal, artisanal menu thing going. You've got a great location right at Marion and Lake. And you want to send a subliminal message that this isn't just a latter-day corner grill; it's more of an all-hours spot. Great for dinner. Great for just a drink after a movie.
So you decide to call your restaurant Lake Street Kitchen + Bar. Some people like this. They especially like that plus-sign thing. Contemporary. Even sophisticated, but in a cool customer sort of way. That plus sign is almost as worthy as the unpasteurized cheese you just might put on the menu.
But speaking of subliminal messages, it is time to apply for your liquor license from the Village of Oak Park and your feet get cold. You think you are hearing whispers from village hall that maybe, just maybe, the " Bar" is more hot than cool and so you drop it from the license application and your official village issued moniker is now Lake Street Kitchen, which to my untrained ear, sounds more like a social service agency than a place I want to be spotted in looking dapper.
Hold on, though, now there are voices from village hall with names attached and they are saying, "What happened to ' Bar'? That was the best part. We've got this downtown master plan, and its says we want nightlife, and you were going to be nightlife, and now you sound like turkey with gravy on white bread."
Which brings us to last night, Tuesday, when Rachel Dennis, the owner of the eatery, was scheduled to reappear before the village's Liquor Control Review Board and get the " Bar" reattached to the name. And maybe as soon as a week from now, the village board ought to be signing off on both the license and the name.
Weird town.
Or as Village President David Pope told me Monday when I asked about the naming kerfuffle, "I think we're sort of bipolar on this issue."
I think he's right. There's half of Oak Park that 15 years ago was all atwitter when Dominick's wanted to sell beer and wine. There's the other half of Oak Park that just arrived from Wicker Park, and they'd like a drink — at a bar — and it would be best if the beer had an unpronounceable name.
Asked if village hall might have sent mixed signals, Pope said, "I don't understand what happened. My gut is that someone in village hall said something."
So here we have Village Manager Tom Barwin salivating over attracting a brew pub to Oak Park and one of his minions is using the secret decoder ring to spell out "Nix the ' Bar.' "
A happy ending? Village Clerk Teresa Powell, who is the keeper of the liquor licenses, points out there has never been a prohibition in Oak Park's complex liquor ordinances on using the words "bar" or "lounge" or "tap" as part of a name. She sees the latest confusion as part of "the evolution that is going on in town." Loretta Daly, the village's business liaison, calls the new spot "a great use" that meets the goal of more nightlife.
Time to get the village's long, conflicted liquor history into the history books. Time to make hooch our economic development buddy and late-evening nightcap.
