Broadway at Leland Avenue in Uptown, home to the 42 Grams storefront. Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
For about two years, Jake and Alexa Bickelhaupt served some of the most talked-about dinners in Chicago out of their own apartment. Tonight they serve their first official meal at 42 Grams, a storefront restaurant at 4662 N. Broadway, at the corner of Leland Avenue.
The couple met in Chicago in 2010. Jake had been working as a restaurant chef and was weighing a break from the late nights, but the kitchen pulled him back. In 2011 they cooked a small dinner for family and friends and realized they worked well together. That became Sous Rising, an underground supper club run from their small kitchen and dining room.
Corks on the wall
Sous Rising was meant to be more personal than a typical fine dining room, without giving up ambition on the plate. Guests brought their own wine, and the couple saved the corks. That collection now hangs as a growing piece of art in the new restaurant, a record of the people who came through their home.
Running a restaurant inside an apartment had obvious limits. The Bickelhaupts had to stay aware of noise at all times and be careful with their neighbors. The Broadway storefront gives them more room to host the small groups the supper club was known for.
Two ways to sit
42 Grams offers two seatings a night. A communal table takes up to 10 guests and suits a group celebration. The chef’s counter has eight seats facing the open kitchen, where diners watch Jake cook.
Alexa runs the dining room. Having eaten at many fine dining restaurants as a non-chef, she wanted a different kind of service, so she walks guests through each course, explaining tastes, colors and ingredients. She also talks through wine and timing with parties before they arrive.
The crowd, she says, ranges from restaurant industry workers to curious neighbors, and the aim is a room where serious food people and first-timers feel equally at ease.
Linh Tran-Whitaker covers Argyle Street, dining and community life.
