Culinary Couples Add Fine Dining Prowess to the West Loop

The West Loop has long been a national destination for dining, but thanks to a handful of new efforts from husband-wife couples, the neighborhood is about to get a huge dose of fine dining cred.

First up is John Shields and Karen Urie Shields, an esteemed couple that worked in Chicago restaurants (Alinea, Charlie Trotter’s, and Tru among them) before leaving town to amass national acclaim in the Mid-Atlantic region. They operated a fine dining destination restaurant in Chilhowie, Virginia, called Town House, eventually shuttering it to work on opening a restaurant together in Washington, DC. But those plans were scrapped in favor of Chicago. Now the couple has moved back to the Midwest, and they’ve brought their most ambitious plans with them. The two-floor space they’ve acquired in the West Loop will be divvied into two different restaurant concepts, with the upstairs skewing towards fine dining tasting menus and the downstairs being the more casual of the two, with cocktails, a lower price point, and a loungier environment. The Shields’ hope to open their restaurants by the end of fall.

Just down the street, two alums of One Off Hospitality are joining forces for a restaurant in the former Sawtooth space. David Posey, formerly chef de cuisine at Blackbird, and wife, Anna Posey, former pastry chef at The Publican, are planning a higher end spot for the space, with multi-course tasting menus and a private dining area on the second floor. Like the Shields’, they haven’t solidified a name yet for the restaurant, but are planning to debut at some point in the spring.

Shields’ Restaurants (Name TBD)
177 N. Ada Street, Chicago

Poseys’ Restaurant (Name TBD)
1350 W. Randolph Street, Chicago