July 10--Just about a year ago, David Posey stepped down from his position as chef de cuisine at Blackbird (619 W. Randolph St.) to focus his attention on opening his own place.
He didn't leave Blackbird entirely, but became the restaurant's private-party chef. "It would have been an injustice," he said, "to continue as chef de cuisine when I couldn't focus on it all the time."
And, finally, his new focus -- a place of his own -- is close to becoming reality.
Posey and his wife, Anna, purchased the property at 1350 W. Randolph St., formerly home to Saltaus and, before that, Sawtooth. The Poseys will build out a street-level restaurant and bar, a second-floor private-party space and a third floor loft that will become their home.
"We're keeping the name to ourselves for a little bit," said Posey, who hopes to have the restaurant up and running in early 2016.
"It's taken a little longer than I thought," Posey said. "I'm naive; I thought it'd be easy to get a building, but then three different deals fell through. But we found this and closed a few days ago, and now all the fun of building can start."
Posey, a nominee for the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef award in 2013 and 2014, said the restaurant will offer "relaxed fine dining" with a menu of eight courses, priced from $75 to $95. He will cook alongside his pastry-chef wife.
The restaurant will be about 100 feet from the new restaurant planned by John and Karen Shields. If there was any question about this area being the hottest restaurant neighborhood in Chicago, consider it answered.
"Funny story, we initially told our Realtors that we didn't want to be anywhere near Randolph and wanted a space one-third the size we bought," Posey said. "But my dad mentioned what we were doing with his friend, and he said he knew someone selling a property, and we connected."
The competition for Best New Restaurant of 2016 is wide open, but we may have an early front-runner.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
pvettel@tribpub.com
