This Upcoming Fulton Market Steakhouse Is Different, Its Chefs Swear
Over the last decade, several keystrokes have chronicled Fulton Market's transition from Chicago's meat-packing capital to its current identity as a retail and restaurant hub. And while that familiar smell of beef won't ever return to the area, don't look now — it's raining steak.
The latest entry comes from the team behind a Gold Coast Italian restaurant. Adalina debuted in 2021 and became a sleeper hit in an area where fine dining often flounders. Chef Soo Ahn brought Michelin-starred experience from his time at Band of Bohemia, and that translated into a unique contemporary take on Italian food. For the follow-up, Adalina Prime, Ahn is now a partner. The restaurant, on the ground floor of a new Fulton Market tower, just down the street from the Guinness Open Gate Brewery, should open in late summer, or as Ahn describes, 'right before braising period.'
Nemanjia Milunovic, who has worked at Nico Osteria, Prime & Provisions, and Aba, will helm the kitchen. The Belgrade-born chef also ran Kiosk Balkan Street Food. The Serbian chef has a clear idea of how Adalina Prime will deviate from Chicago's fabled history of steakhouses.
'If we approach this venture with global flavors, we can bring in so much more fun,' Milunovic says. 'There are so many cultures [and flavors] in Chicago, and I think they should be on the menu.'
Adalina
Adalina/Liz Goodwin
Milunovic teases slow-baked tomatoes on the vine infused with mapo flavors, a nod to Sichuan cuisine. Milunovic's Hong Kong-born mother-in-law ran a restaurant in Naperville and inspired him to create a scallop dish with XO sauce made from abalone. Other sample menu ideas include Korean rice cakes (tteokbokki) atop seafood towers with Fra Diavolo replacing gochujang. They haven't settled on a name, but everyone's favorite fried onion appetizer will get the Adalina Prime treatment. For a placeholder, they're calling it Crispy Petals. That's not the only chain tribute — look for a riff on Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits, too.
They'll also have several vegan options, which continues Ahn's culinary approach. While running Band of Bohemia, then the world's only Michelin-starred brewpub, he created a salt-cured carrot entree with a unique miso texture that drew a following of vegans and omnivores alike.
The two are already talking about a secret menu with Balkan flavors like truffled burek. Chicago loves its cevapi, and Milunovic wants to create his own. Still, Adalina Prime's focus is steak with beef from a few sources, including Miller Wagyu Ranch, a farm in the Quad Cities. They'll be the first restaurant to feature meats from Miller. They'll have some dry-aged beef, but Ahn says he feels the Midwest prefers grass-fed beef.
Inspired by how some Italian restaurants present olive oils tableside, Adalina Prime plans to incorporate a salt library with 12 varieties. Ahn says this extra, personalized touch can elevate an experience, and staff will recommend pairings to customers.
Chicago still is known as a meat-and-potatoes town, even as chefs like Ahn and Milunovic attempt to push past legendary names like Morton's and Gibsons. Maple & Ash debuted in 2015, and the Gold Coast steakhouse was meant to usher in a new era of irreverence. Boka Restaurant Group dove into the genre with one of its fanciest build-outs; Swift & Sons, in the shadow of Google's then-headquarters, also brought new energy into the world of beef. Not to be outdone, Gibsons Italia opened in 2017 with a gorgeous view of the Chicago River.
Much in the same vein, during the pandemic, when restaurants pivoted toward comfort foods with pizzas, burgers, and pastas that could travel well for delivery or carryout, steakhouses are the latest safety net amid the chaotic unknowns, such as the impact of federal tariffs and higher labor costs due to increases in Chicago's minimum wage. The team from Adalina Prime feels they're the cure for the mundane.
'We want to take the heart and soul of a steakhouse using live fire, bold flavors, very rustic techniques, and refine it a little bit,' Ahn says.
Adalina Prime, 360 N. Green Street, planned for a late August opening
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