The West Loop can expect a new high fare restaurant in its corridor soon at 177 North Ada Street. It will be run by chef power couple John B. Shields and Karen Urie Shields, both of whom were raised in Chicago. John previously worked at Charlie Trotter’s and Alinea and Karen worked at Charlie Trotter’s (where she met her now husband, John) as well as Tru.
The restaurant will be called Smyth + The Loyalist with a 40-seat dining room and will have a downstairs lounge. They will offer “an original, eight-course tasting menu for $135 and a 16-course tasting menu for $220. The chef couple will rely on an “exclusive custom collaboration” with a 20-acre Illinois farm for much of the restaurant’s produce, herbs and flowers,” explains Stephanie Lulay in this DNAinfo article.
The couple is returning to Chicago after five years spent in Southwestern Virginia where they ran Town House and Riverstead Inn. Accompanying them will be their two daughters.