River North's New Restaurant Scene Is Turning Toward the River

Walk up Hubbard Street toward LaSalle on a Tuesday evening and the block reads differently than it did in 2024. The basement that stayed dark all last winter now spills warm light onto the sidewalk. A steakhouse crew that used to run a dining room two blocks over is setting up somewhere else entirely. If you've lived in River North long enough to remember what used to occupy these addresses, the last few months have rearranged more of the neighborhood's evening geography than any single opening usually does.

Here's the pattern: River North's recent restaurant changes include new riverfront openings and reworked interior spaces. Several of the newest rooms are along the water, while other projects are adapting existing spaces. For buildings a few blocks off the river, the newer waterfront spots are a walk toward it.

Recent openings along the river

Start at 300 N. LaSalle, under the tower that houses Chicago Cut Steakhouse. In May, DineAmic Hospitality, the group behind Prime & Provisions and Lyra, opened NAIA there: a pan-Mediterranean restaurant spanning nearly a full city block, with chef Athinagoras Kostakos drawing on Greek, Italian, Spanish and Levantine cooking. The space seats 150 on a riverfront patio and 250 more inside, with a separate event venue that can hold anywhere from 30 to 500 guests. NAIA is only the first piece of what Irvine Company is building at that address as part of a $37 million renovation. A Greek-inspired coffee bar and a private lounge on the river level are still coming, meaning one building alone will eventually run three separate food and drink concepts, all pointed at the water.

A few blocks east, the historic Reid, Murdoch & Co. Building at 316 N. Clark is getting its own riverfront rework. Built in 1914 and landmarked in 1975, the building most recently housed The Kitchen, the farm-to-table restaurant co-owned by Kimbal Musk, which closed earlier this year. Owner Steve Gogolab, who runs Dēliz Italian Steakhouse in Wicker Park, is opening The Carlyle Club there this September with chef partner Jakob Peterson. The plans call for a 72-seat patio connected to the dining room by ten-foot doors, so nearly every interior seat keeps a river view. It joins RPM Seafood, Pizzeria Portofino and River Roast on that same stretch of Clark Street, a corridor that's now seeing its most concentrated wave of new investment in at least a decade.

Even the neighborhood's cocktail scene followed the water, just a floor down. Lettuce Entertain You opened Kitty's Cosmopolitan Club on March 27 in the basement of 51 W. Hubbard Street, a room that reads from the Riverwalk before you ever see the menu. The lounge built what its owners say is Chicago's first dedicated cocktail station inside a walk-in freezer that runs 16 degrees below zero, and the food menu was put together by James Beard Award-nominated chef Thai Dang of Crying Tiger and HaiSous, working alongside chef Bob Broskey of RPM Restaurants. The patio, not the freezer, is what's changed how that stretch of the north bank feels after 6 p.m.

Recent changes on the interior blocks

Compare that to what's happening away from the water. Boka Restaurant Group opened Gingie at 707 N. Wells earlier this year, replacing its own GT Prime with chef Brian Lockwood's European-Japanese menu. Gingie closed almost immediately after a kitchen fire, and as of late summer there's no announced reopening date.

These examples include riverfront openings as well as changes to existing restaurant spaces.

Recent restaurant changes have brought new dining concepts to the riverfront and changes to existing spaces on interior blocks. The examples above also show how restaurant lineups can change over a few months.

What it means for how you actually spend an evening

The Riverwalk itself is what ties all of this together. It runs 1.25 miles from Lake Michigan to Lake Street, cutting past coves, wine gardens and public art the whole way. From most points in River North, the walk to City Winery's covered wine garden or the McCormick Bridgehouse is closer to fifteen minutes than a real outing. The Riverwalk can be part of an evening out, with several recent dining options along the river.

Taste of River North, the annual food and music festival, returned July 17 and 18 on Wells Street between Ontario and Chicago.

What's already on the calendar

A few other things came and went, or are still ahead, that are worth knowing if you live here:

• Rush Hour Concerts, the free chamber music series now in its 27th season, ran Tuesday evenings from June 9 through August 18 at Holy Name Cathedral on North State Street. It's done for the year, so mark the June start next summer if you missed it this time.
• The River North Design District's 10th Annual Fall Gallery Walk lands September 11, from 5 to 8 p.m., across 18 River North showrooms and galleries, with exhibits staying up through October 9. The evening also marks the district's tenth anniversary and the 25th anniversary of September 11, with an after-party at the BSH Experience Center in the Merchandise Mart featuring music from DJ Disko Kitty and proceeds benefiting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation's homeless veteran program.
• Prasino, a suburban import taking the long-vacant riverfront restaurant space in Trump Tower, has been announced but isn't opening until next spring.

The read for people already living here

River North's restaurant scene continues to change, with recent openings along the river and changes at interior locations. For residents, the newer dining options are spread across more than one part of the neighborhood.

Changes in a neighborhood's restaurant scene can be one part of the context for a building's value, not just what's on the menu nearby. If you've been wondering how recent changes are showing up in your own building's numbers, Hudson Parker puts together a market plan specific to your address, not a neighborhood average. Request a Building-Specific Market Plan and find out what it looks like for yours.