Explore This New Bucktown Tasting Menu Restaurant With a Secret Bar

Eater

3 days ago

is the James Beard Award-winning regional editor for Eater's Midwest region, and in charge of coverage in Chicago, Detroit, and the Twin Cities. He's a native Chicagoan and has been with Eater since 2014.
Class Act, a new tasting menu restaurant in Bucktown, attempts to remove many obstacles that prevent diners from enjoying fine dining by presenting meals in a friendly, residential-like atmosphere around a 16-seat communal table, hoping diners will mingle with other parties.
There's a bar component to the space, called Nightcap, a tiny speakeasy-style spot that's open to the general public without requiring reservations. Folks can enter through a side alley. Restaurant guests will eventually be whisked to the space at the end of their meals.
This is the welcome room that greets guests.
Chef Nicolai Mlodinow
'Bouquet' is make with zucchini flower, parmesan mousse, flowers, and honey.
Chef Nicolai Mlodinow hatched his dream in college, cooking in dorms, and brought his apartment pop-up to Chicago. The restaurant's kitchen, with its marble counter facing the entrance, looks like an apartment kitchen from afar, albeit armed with sufficient gadgetry that Mlodinow hopes will allow Class Act to compete with Chicago's top-tier restaurants, mentioning restaurants like Alinea, Oriole, and Smyth. He describes the approach as modernist cuisine that taps into international influences.
Mlodinow, an avid basketball player who grew up in California, is confident and wears sneakers showing off who his favorite player was growing up — a certain LA Laker who sported 'a Mamba mentality.' Mlodinow shares a story about wearing ankle weights while cooking to develop endurance strength, comparing himself to Rock Lee, a manga character from the Naruto series. The chef hopes this attitude carries through a 13-course meal over three hours that touches upon nostalgia. The opening menu is called 'Growing Up.'
The communal dining seats 16.
The kitchen is meant to look residential.
'The sense of connection and belonging is everything to me,' Mlodinow says. 'Bringing people together to break bread... One of the courses, they literally tear bread together. That is why I cook.'
A tartlet with butter-poached shrimp and flavored with Cajun seasoning and garam masala is emblematic of what Mlodinow wants to achieve, he says. It reminds him of a blackened salmon dish his father cooked for him growing up: 'When I look at it, when I taste it, I get all those flavors,' he says.
He's quick to say he isn't swapping in fancy ingredients to tried-and-true dishes just for the sake of it. For example, the thought of recklessly substituting uncured brisket in a specific dish instead of pastrami revolts him.
'Blackened Seafood' and 'Scrimps.'
'Ice Cream Truck' is made with saffron olive oil ice cream and crystalized chocolate.
There's a Nordic bent in Class Act's menu, but Mlodinow calls it subtle — the use of flowers, for example. Flowers are something the chef gravitates toward: 'They're very intentional, it's not just with how pretty it is,' Mlodinow says. 'These things actually have flavor.'
Guests will enter and convene in a welcome room where they can enjoy a drink and decide on a beverage pairing; perhaps some peer pressure or old-fashioned conversation can help customers decide between nonalcoholic, standard, reserve, or cocktails. Dinner costs $230 per person, which ranks as one of the pricier tasting menus in town. The top tier includes Oriole ($325), Smyth ($420), and Alinea ($325 to $395) for standard reservations. In comparison, Feld, which opened in 2024, debuted at $195.
The back bar, called Nightcap, is open to the general public.
The cocktails aren't mundane.
The chef's business partner, Shreena Amin, met Mlodinow while she was a guest at one of his dinners. She lives in Schaumburg and grew up traveling the world and eating at fine dining restaurants. The two took a research and development trip to Copenhagen, where they visited Michelin-starred institutions like Noma, the Alchemist, Jordnær, and Geranium in one week. For Amin, opening Class Act can give Chicagoans a taste of other cultures without a passport.
'We want to be carving out our own space that is about connection and fun and whimsy and joy and the food always has to be incredible — it takes you somewhere and tells a story,' she says. 'But what you're going to take away and remember is who you sat next to, how you laugh together, that's what makes you want to come back.'
Class Act and Nightcap, 1737 N. Damen Avenue, reservations via OpenTable.