- Credibility:
LOGAN SQUARE — Fat Rice, as it was known, is “dead.”
Owners Abe Conlon and Adrienne Lo are officially closing the award-winning Macanese restaurant at 2957 W. Diversey Ave. and opening a new business in its place focused on to-go meal kits, called Super Fat Rice Mart.
The move is in direct response to the coronavirus shutdown, which has restaurant owners everywhere reimagining how to do business.
“The restaurant for the foreseeable future is dead,” Conlon told the New York Times.
“We need to face the reality that we can’t exist in the future as it looks now. People are not going to feel comfortable being in close quarters or being in a cramped dining room.”
“Fat Rice 2.0” will serve meal kits alongside organic and local produce, beer and wine and take-away restaurant favorites, according to a news release.
The owners’ signature kit, the Super Value Cook Kit, feeds two adults for breakfast, lunch and dinner over two days. The $99 kit includes all of the ingredients to make the meals, as well as step-by-step instructions “to cook the same dishes served at the restaurant, only now from the comfort of home.”
The owners are also considering selling takeout orders of piri piri grilled chicken, egg tarts and “secret midnight omakase tastings.” The mart will have a larger online presence, at eatfatrice.com. The owners are planning to post video cooking tutorials on the site.
The Bakery at Fat Rice will also close, though owners said they “may utilize the bakery space for things like takeout egg tarts” in the future.
“Super Fat Rice Mart is the next chapter in the ever-evolving narrative of the Fat Rice story,” the news release reads.
Fat Rice was a rising star, loved by locals and food critics alike. Conlon won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2018.
Those interested in meal kits or other items from Super Fat Rice Mart can place orders online now. Pickup will be available starting Saturday.
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