Remodeling: Chicago's Everest

By JENNY B. DAVIS (special to Super Chef) For 22 years, Chicago's elegant Everest restaurant has had it all – acclaimed French chef Jean Joho at the helm, a collection of prestigious “best of” accolades, a killer wine cellar and a four-star status seemingly set on auto-renew. What it’s also had for more than two decades: the same carpet. Leopard-print carpet, to be exact. “Everest was never the most trendy restaurant,” Joho admits. Indeed its deftly prepared Alsatian cuisine maintained its culinary relevancy, and the breathtaking downtown views have always been considered among the best in the city. Its ultra-private location also kept it popular among local notables and celebrities. Nestled at the very top of the city stock exchange, diners must pass through the building’s tight garage security, travel up several elevator banks and walk down a long corridor, just to get to the door. (It’s not uncommon for newcomers to end up wandering the halls for a while, Joho says with a smile.) But the interior – and that carpet – remained firmly entrenched in the Reagan administration. Until now. Last week, Joho opened his Everest to a small group of journalists to show off a new and improved dining room – the first major facelift since its 1986 debut. Joho hired Mary Lescht or Lescht & Associates to remodel the restaurant. The food evolves on a daily basis -- I mean, 22 years, the food has always changed, even the glassware and the flatware -- but it’s always the same with this room. I wanted to do this for a while. It costs so much to change, then there comes a point, you have to change. As journalists enjoyed flutes of Champagne and a generous amount of signature small bites: spoons cradling oysters with osetra caviar, golden spheres of fried strudel stuffed with Alsace cabbage and duck confit, suckling pig head cheese, scoops of cream of cabbage soup - Joho spoke enthusiastically about the room’s recent renovation. He describes the new look as fresh, contemporary, subtle and classic. And he’s right. What, exactly, did he do? “A lot,” he says simply. For starters, Joho brightened the intimate, 20-table space by replacing heavy chandeliers with spare, silver-tone fixtures. He also removed the drop ceiling from the reception area to expose rows of industrial skylights, which he loosely covered with draped cream-colored cloth. Joho also acquired new pieces of contemporary art, and more works are on the way. There’s also new seating -- the same armchair style, but in a simple black silhouette. And yes, the carpet is gone. “Many of our customers said, ‘No, don’t take it away!,’ [but] it got to a point where it was enough,” he says. Now underfoot in the reception area is a design anchored in creamy white and accented with sinuous, calligraphy-like swirls of black. Complementary patterns in the bar area and dining room incorporate a small double-J logoin black and white. I am very pleased with the way it’s come out. I think you want always to be on top of your game. If you stop the climb, you fail. Previous articles: [Chef Profiles - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef