Jan. 05--Since 1995, the restaurant space at 59 W. Hubbard St. has been a destination for great French food, first from Brasserie Jo (the James Beard Foundation's Best New Restaurant in 1996), and then Paris Club (rechristened Paris Club Bistro Bar two years ago).
Well, adieu to all that. Paris Club Bistro Bar served its last meal Saturday, and construction is already underway to convert the space into Il Porcellino, a casual Italian concept.
"For some time, we've wanted to do a very rustic, everyday neighborhood spot," said R. J. Melman, who owns the restaurant along with siblings Jerrod and Molly Melman and partner and uber-chef Doug Psaltis. "We've been working on the food for a long time, it was time to make a change (at Paris Club) and the stars aligned."
Il Porcellino will be an all-day trattoria with late-night hours and delivery service, and the menu will focus on antipasti, pasta dishes and Sicilian-style focaccia pizza. The restaurant takes its name from a famed bronze boar statue in Florence; tourists drop coins in the boar's mouth in the same way they fling coins in Trevi Fountain in Rome.
The Melmans and Psaltis also operate RPM Italian, which sits a block away from the Il Porcellino site, but Melman said the restaurants will have very different approaches.
"RPM is a much more modern take on Italian," he said.
Studio Paris, the rooftop nightclub atop the 59 W. Hubbard building, and Ramen-San, which also shares that address, will not be affected by or during the renovations.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @philvettel
