FSR September 2022

ONE OFF HOSPI TAL I T Y

without its challenges. In June 2020, One Off permanently shuttered Café Cancale and Blackbird. While the former, a French-influenced seafood restaurant, had only been in operation a year, Black bird was a fixture in the Chicago din ing scene, predating its umbrella group by nearly 15 years. Not only did it usher in a restaurant renaissance in the West Loop, it also clinched a four-star review from the Chicago Tribune , maintained a Michelin star eight years in a row, and won Madia and Kahan their respective James Beard honors. “People say to me all the time, when I go to a table like this, they go, ‘Oh man, I loved that place,’ and then I just turn around and say to them, ‘Just think about the DNA I have in that space. If anybody misses it, I miss it more than anyone,’” Madia says. “You never want to close your first and best restaurant.” He consulted friends, including some of the industry’s most prominent res taurateurs, like Danny Meyer, Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune in New York, and Car oline Styne of e Lucques Group in L.A. (Styne along with chef/partner Suzanne

Given these accolades and its repu tation as one of Chicago’s dining titans, One Off had, for all intents and purposes, a midas touch when it came to creating and executing concepts that resonated with locals and drew admiration from peers farther afield. But even a restau rant group with a gilded hand could not weather the coronavirus unscathed. “ e owners of One Off Hospitality have never experienced trauma like that. Everything they touched has been very successful. So it really was a milestone for us,” says Browne, who is the group’s first-ever chief executive. She joined the team in January 2019, meaning she had a littlemore than a year to learn the lay of the land before the bottom dropped out. THE DARKEST HOUR As with al l ful l-service restaurants, Covid hit the One Off portfolio par ticularly hard. In addition to the city’s restrictions, which were among the most stringent in the Midwest, the group’s leadership erred on the side of caution, following all compliance regulations to the letter. But this approach was not

Goin had just closed their first restaurant a fewmonths earlier, though for reasons unrelated to Covid.) Blackbird’s once beloved petite size became its Achil les heel during the pandemic. Operating at just 25 percent capacity meant only seating a dozen or so guests at a time. Not to mention, its snug kitchen made social distancing all but impossible. As these closures were unfolding, One Off was also embroiled in another cri sis behind the scenes—this one involv ing media darling Pacific Standard Time. Named Eater Chicago’s Restaurant of the Year in 2018, the California-inspired con cept was in a state of upheaval by summer 2020 when partnering company, Under score Hospitality, including the group’s cofounder and chef, Erling Wu-Bower, exited. e change wasn’t clearly commu nicated to the restaurant staff, prompt ing some to leave. Around the same time, a group of current and former One Off

THE RIVER NORTH LOCATION OF AVEC SPORTS BRIGHTER, MORE SPACIOUS ENVIRONS AND A SELECTION OF NEW DISHES.

FOOD: ONE-OFF HOSPITALITY / INTERIORS: BRIAN WILLETTE

52 SEPTEMBER 2022

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