Bar Siena Heads for the Suburbs

When a restaurant group has a well-liked franchise, as is the case with Siena Tavern and Bar Siena, two common Italian American eating places in River North and the West Loop, growth appears the subsequent logical transfer. The house owners of DineAmic Hospitality had been pondering a second Bar Siena for a number of years, however the pandemic thwarted after which delayed their plans. However now it’s lastly opening, not within the metropolis, however in Westfield Outdated Orchard mall in Skokie.

“Lots of people that reside within the suburbs wish to have a metropolis eating expertise at a metropolis model they’ve been to earlier than, however they don’t wish to go all the way in which into town,” says DineAmic co-owner Lucas Stoioff.

A number of different eating places and restaurant teams, together with Le Colonial and Ballyhoo Hospitality (Sophia Steak, Pomeroy), have not too long ago introduced ventures into the suburbs to cater to clients who for no matter purpose — working from dwelling, highway building, sheer laziness — not really feel like commuting into town for dinner. DineAmic itself can be opening a second location of its new Mediterranean restaurant Lyra in Oakbrook within the fall, and Outdated Orchard is already dwelling to outposts of Hampton Social and Uncle Julio’s. However Bar Siena Outdated Orchard has a particular sentimental worth to Stoioff: this was the mall the place he frolicked as a young person. Extra particularly: it’s only a few doorways down from the movie show the place he spent a lot of his time.

Bar Siena Outdated Orchard could have the identical menu because the West Loop location to start out.

In most respects, Bar Siena Outdated Orchard isn’t a lot completely different from the unique Bar Siena. The menu of pasta, steak, pizza, and bomboloni for dessert will, for now, be precisely the identical, although Stoioff and chef Fabiano Viviani plan so as to add particular location-specific dishes in a number of months as soon as they get a greater sense of their clients’ tastes and preferences. “We don’t prefer to open prototype eating places,” Stoioff says. “We attempt to put in a private contact for a selected market.”

However the restaurant’s design takes benefit of the suburban advantage of area. It sprawls throughout 8,500 sq. toes with two entrances, one from the mall itself and one from the parking zone. The mall entrance will lead on to a wine bar with a patio and lounge seating that Stoioff envisions as a refuge for weary buyers who simply desire a glass of wine and a fast chunk. The parking zone facet, in the meantime, will characteristic a 3,000-square-foot pergola with seating for 100, a dwelling wall with flowers and ivy, and a retractable roof and heaters the place, Stoioff says, clients can dine outdoor all 12 months spherical.

The mall entrance results in a wine bar.

The doorway by the parking zone has a big patio coated by a pergola with a retracting roof and partitions and heaters for all-season eating.

The primary eating room is, like its downtown counterpart, adorned with uncovered brick and painted by hand murals and an unlimited sculptural iron tree adorned with LED lights that types a cover over the whole restaurant, giving it the texture of a festive garden. On the coronary heart of the area is an open kitchen with a home made brick pizza oven.

The open kitchen has a home made brick pizza oven.

Simply as on the unique Bar Siena within the West Loop, an iron tree types a cover over the eating room.

Already, Stoioff says, Bar Siena Outdated Orchard has acquired overwhelming assist from the North Shore neighborhood by social media. As a gesture of goodwill, the restaurant will donate one hundred pc of the proceeds from its opening weekend to a GoFundMe to assist victims of final Monday’s taking pictures in close by Highland Park and their households.

“We’ve been constructing our enterprise within the metropolis,” Stoioff says, “and now we’re opening up a spot for individuals who have been a few of our greatest followers. It means one thing to us.”

Scroll all the way down to see some highlights from the menu.

Bar Siena Outdated Orchard, 4999 Outdated Orchard Highway, Suite A2, Skokie, Open 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday by Thursday and three p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, reservations by way of OpenTable.