Maximo short rib, charred salsa verde and sweet potato pureé.
HUNGRY?
You won’t be after visiting the mouthwatering Time Out Market Chicago By Thomas Connors We all have our own way to ease into the day. For some, that might be grabbing the phone and scanning the news before rolling out of bed. For others, it’s straight to yoga. For perhaps most, mornings mean coffee and a little something to fuel the body. And for those living or working in the Fulton Market District, a lavender latte and cardamom bun from Lost Larson in the Time Out Market Chicago may be a new normal. Since its debut in November, this latest food hall from the team behind the globe-spanning Time Out magazines has found a place at the table in Chicago’s ever-growing culinary scene. Newly built on a spot where a meat warehouse went up in 1911 (the brick of the original building was salvaged and used in the façade of the new structure), the 50,000-square-foot space is the largest market in the Time Out Group’s current U.S. portfolio, which includes units in New York, Miami and Boston. Time Out, which began as a guide to London in 1968, entered the hospitality business in a big way when it opened its first food hall in Lisbon in 2014. An estimated 3.9 million people made their way to the spot last year, roughly 80 percent of them tourists, according to Time Out Market CEO Didier Souillat. “We’re not a food court. We’re more than that,” Souillat says. “We create a destination that people go out of their way to come to. You can stay here for 40 minutes, you can stay here for several hours.” Size and selection drive that destination vibe. Time Out Market Chicago is a cavernous, skylit space spun around a 28 slmag.net
central communal seating area that is ringed by kitchens and an enormous bar (broken into distinct zones for beer, wine and spirits). Seating 600, it offers diners access to the culinary prowess of 18 of the city’s leading chefs and restaurateurs, from Abe Conlon of Fat Rice and John Manion of El Che Steakhouse & Bar, to Dos Urban Cantina, Mini Mott and The Purple Pig. “Time Out Market provides a singular experience in that you have Michelin-starred chefs, James Beard Award winners and beloved mom-and-pops, all under one roof,” Time Out Chicago editor Morgan Olsen says. “Chicagoans are adventurous, curious eaters who crave something more than a one-off, grab-and-go experience. At Time Out Market, diners are encouraged to put down their phones and really engage with each other over a shared meal—and a damn good one at that.” That ambition seems to be working. On a Friday afternoon, the place is packed. And aside from a few diehards lost in their laptops, most people are chatting as they chow down. There’s a sharply dressed young man in a Canada Goose jacket and a middleaged guy in a sweatshirt and baseball cap. A quartet of creative types talk branding. A trio of young professionals discuss plans for the weekend. Eyeing the plate of a mature lady in a fur-trimmed cap, a young woman blessed with Pre-Raphaelite curls leans in and asks, “Excuse me, can you tell me what that is?” Upstairs (which is open to the floor below), diners make themselves comfortable on the amply upholstered stadium seating and glance at the digital mural
