Openings

Del Frisco’s To Open Mega-Steakhouse in Esquire Theater

Chicago Business reports Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group LLC, whose only local restaurants are three Sullivan’s Steakhouses downtown and in Naperville and Lincolnshire, plans to open a much larger steakhouse in the former Esquire Theater at 58 E. Oak Street. The theater is a one-time Art Deco landmark which was gutted for multiplex theaters in the 1980s and has been vacant for several years, despite its location on the toniest shopping strip in the city. Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse will have a street-level entrance and the full second and third floors, including a private dining area; the first floor remains available as a retail space. At 23,000 square feet the steakhouse will be equal in size to two of its primary competitors, III Forks and Smith & Wollensky— put together; but the company operates similarly gargantuan steakhouses in New York and Dallas, and some nearby neighborhood places with names like Gibson’s and Morton’s have done all right, so establishing a place of this size near Mag Mile shopping and Gold Coast residences is a reasonable bet. [Chicago Business]

Del Frisco’s To Open Mega-Steakhouse in Esquire Theater