Reservations will go live for Le Select — the hotly anticipated collaboration between world-renowned chef Daniel Rose and Chicago’s beloved Boka Restaurant Group — “in the coming days.” as the restaurant preps to open next week.
Rose is considered a star when it comes to French food. He’s a 1995 graduate of New Trier High School in the suburbs and has run noteworthy restaurants in France and in the U.S. He’s best known for Le Coucou in New York, which earned a Michelin star in 2019. He seems determined to grow his brand. Beyond Le Select, which is slated to open on Saturday, January 28 at 504 N. Wells Street in River North, Rose and Boka also opened a restaurant together last month in LA.
At Le Select, Rose and Boka imagine a bustling brasserie with diners enjoying dishes like roasted poultry (not just chicken, there’s been a recent push for Americans to enjoy more quail and squab), steak au poivre, and paté en croute. The second floor will also hold a bar aimed at the after-dinner crowd called Bar 504, according to a news release.
Boka has deployed AvroKO to redesign the space that once called the infamous sports bar Bottled Blonde and Sushi SambaRio home. As Rose will split his time across the country and at his Paris restaurant, La Bourse et La Vie, Boka has made some marquee hires. Industry vet Jason Heiman, last seen at Santo in Nashville (Chicagoans may know him from Pork Shoppe, Bangers & Lace, or Tizi Melloul) is the chef de cuisine. Boka VP of Operations Troy Weissmann worked with Rose at Le Coucou. Cara Sandoval, who co-founded two-Michelin-starred Oriole in West Loop, is the service director. GM Kevin Roskoskey is a former managing partner with Scott Harris Hospitality.
Check back for more coverage of the restaurant next week.
Le Select, 504 N. Wells Street, planned to open Saturday, January 28. Reservations soon available via OpenTable.