Pop-Up Restaurant Concept Slated For Chicago Avenue

There isn’t even a sign over the door yet, but chefs are already scheduling “pop-up” dinners at Company in Evanston, a new restaurant concept from the owner of Lucky Platter.

Riffing off the popularity of underground dining and supper clubs, Company will house a rotating calendar of chefs at a 500 square foot, 18-seat space at 1307 Chicago Ave.

“It’s a conceptual idea and a conceptual spot,” says Eric Singer, who has owned Lucky Platter for the past 21 years. “No one’s really tried this yet.”

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Singer is partnering with Craig Golden, principal of the real estate investment firm Blue Star Properties and owner of the building that houses Union Pizzeria and S.P.A.C.E., at 1245 Chicago Ave. After Blue Star purchased the property at 1307 Chicago Ave., Golden approached Singer—whom he’d known for a couple of years—seeking Singer’s opinion on what should fill the space. 

“It was kind of an idea, could we do an underground venue but have it licensed,” explains Singer. “Chefs are doing that around Chicago, but they do it in venues that are not necessarily licensed.” 

While the space is already outfitted with gleaming wood tables and modern, globe-shaped light fixtures, as well as a full kitchen, Singer says the restaurant is still in a test phase. He has a temporary liquor license that will cover an early set of dinner series, but is still seeking a permanent liquor license from the city. He’s hoping to operate Company as a BYOB space—a classification that doesn’t exist in the once dry city’s current liquor code.  

“It kind of caught us off guard that the license doesn’t exist in Evanston,” he says, noting that the city of Chicago has long permitted BYOB operations. 

Singer expects to go before the liquor commission on Feb. 21, and will request that the city create a new classification. If that’s not possible, he plans to seek a standard liquor license instead. 

Related: Michelin-Rated Farmhouse Restaurant Coming to Evanston

Under the temporary liquor license, chefs are already planning dinners in February, beginning with a Valentine’s Day series by the restaurant group Feast and Imbibe, a partnership of two former employees of Chicago’s Michelin-rated Moto Restaurant.

D’Andre Carter and Heather Bublick, both of whom live in Evanston, met four years ago as interns at Moto, a restaurant known for its innovative, futuristic cuisine. Bublick went on to work at Tru, followed by the Evanston wine shop Vinic, while Carter stayed on to become executive sous chef at Moto. 

Bublick says she broached the idea of doing a pop-up restaurant or catering business to Carter long before he quit Moto. 

“I remember the first time I mentioned it to him, he was like, ‘I work 80 hours a week, I do not have time to do a popup,’” Bublick recalls.

Once Carter left his job at Moto last year, he and Bublick started Feast and Imbibe. They’re planning to cater small events and hope to do more pop-up dinners at Company and other places around the Chicago area. Following a test dinner with family and friends at Company earlier this year, the Valentine’s Day dinner will be a showcase for the entrepreneurs. 

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they’ll serve a seven-course tasting menu with drink pairings, beginning with caviar and ending with red velvet macaroons, saffron pear caramels and white chocolate pop rocks. 

“We wanted to do something really decadent, and we noticed that a lot of places weren’t really going crazy with the caviar,” Bublick says. 

“I wanted to present it in a fun way,” adds Carter. 

That sense of fun is evident in a dish called “Duck, Duck, Duck, Goose,” which features duck breast with duck confit, duck cracklings, foie gras, mushrooms, fig, turnip, carrots and berries. 

While the website for Company isn’t up and running yet, diners can make reservations for the dinner series via the online seating service Table Host.

Following Feast and Imbibe, the next chef to take over at Company is Erwin Drechsler, longtime owner of Erwin in Lakeview, which closed this summer after 18 years. He’ll partner with Stephanie Samuels, owner of Angel Food Bakery in Ravenswood, to serve a five-course dinner on Feb. 20, 21 and 22. The main course is a rack of lamb chop with tomato-olive couscous, escarole, fennel, white anchovy and balsamic syrup, and desserts is a financier tea-cake with roasted pear compote, almond-ginger crumble and gorgonzola ice cream. 

As for future chefs, Singer says he’s still working out the details, but hopes to also invite chefs from restaurants currently in operation.

“We would like to encourage restaurants in the city to come up and do maybe a three-night run,” he says. “I think it would be kind of fun to have, say, Taxim comes to Evanston for three days, Ruxbin comes to Evanston for three days.”

“I could call Mario Batalia, but I doubt he would come for 18 seats,” Singer jokes.

So will Singer ever head up a dinner series himself? Eventually, he says—but for now, he’s focusing on bringing chefs in to see the restaurant and lining up the proper licensing from the city of Evanston. 

“Right now, I’m just concentrating on getting the space up and rolling,” he says.