The Bento Box Returns After a Fire — and the Pandemic — Closed The Bucktown Restaurant

A sea of restaurants has been lost since the pandemic’s start in March 2020 and it was presumed the Bento Box was one of the vanquished as Rick Spiros’ Asian restaurant ceased operations in Bucktown. But COVID’s complications were just one of the Bento Box’s concerns. A fire, just days before Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms to curb the spread of the disease, made it feel like fans would never again sample Spiros’ signature egg rolls or red curry Singapore noodles.

Spiros, who is Greek American, has a fondness for global cuisines and cooks an assortment of cuisines. With his restaurant closed, he again focused on catering and his personal chef business. The latter became popular as diners kept away from restaurants during COVID. He began working at Trogo Kitchen & Market in Logan Square, the restaurant and cafe space inside the Green Exchange, a building overlooking the northbound Kennedy Expressway’s Diversey exit. Trogo was one of the locations where crews filmed kitchen scenes for the pilot episode of The Bear. He befriended owners Lolita Sereleas and Cian O’Mahony and serves as the chef in residence. Legendary Chicago chef Jimmy Bannos of Heaven on Seven fame has also done gumbo drops at the restaurant as he preps to open a new restaurant in suburban Skokie.

While hosting pop-ups, Spiros says he was greeted by Bento Box regulars who weren’t subtle in their praise for the old restaurant. Their enthusiasm struck him “like a thunderbolt” and led him to mount a comeback.

“I had very little idea how much people loved the restaurant, how much it was missed,” Spiros says.

And so, starting on Wednesday, August 7, the Bento Box returned, open Wednesday through Friday at Trogo, giving Spiros room to continue his personal chef business, and Trogo the space to flex programming if a rare opportunity (say Jeremy Allen White and company want to film more scenes) presents itself. There will be one seating to start — around 6 p.m. Reservations will allow diners to book until around 6:30 p.m.; Spiros doesn’t care if everyone is served their meals at once. It’s a three-course prix fixe: egg rolls, green curry mussels, and red chili chicken Singapore noodles. Takeout and delivery are also available a la carte. Spiros wants to eventually add a lemongrass creme brulee for dessert.

The last four years away from the daily operations of a restaurant have been restorative for Spiros. As they sorted through the fire’s aftermath, it became clear that he could not return to the Bento Box’s original Bucktown location, 2246 W. Armitage Avenue. It didn’t feel right trying to reopen. He didn’t even have the right equipment, like his beloved flattop that he was accustomed to using: “It came to the point where I just didn’t know if I wanted to do this right now,” Spiros says.

The Bento Box

The world of restaurants has changed since Bento Box debuted in 2010. It’s not the first time he’s been asked, but what is a white guy doing cooking Korean, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese food? Spiros says many of his clientele are Indian and Korean, and he’s always happy to hear praise from those groups, especially from elders. One reason for his success is that he’s respectful of origins: “I’m not going to put sesame oil in something where it doesn’t belong,” Spiros says. “We’re not a fusion restaurant.”

“To be honest with you, I think that’s part of what makes this country awesome,” he adds. “We can have all these different cultures here and people can have an interpretation of it.”

Spiros likens his efforts to a cover band saying that even if a band plays another group’s song “note for note,” there will be differences: “There’s still something different in the way Led Zeppelin plays Stairway to Heaven or how someone else does it.”

He’s also here to offer something different. A dive serving a large menu might not have someone who can make handmade noodles. Making noodles is a labor-intensive act and it’s not cheap — an order of noodles at Bento Box costs more than $20. In the past, some have questioned Bento Box’s prices. Spiros recalls a customer complaining that he could buy similar food “for a fraction of the price” down the street. But then he returned with an apology, happy with Bento Box’s quality.

“The guy came back and said he was wrong,” Spiros says.

Bento Box at Trogo Kitchen & Market, inside the Green Exchange, 2545 W. Diversey Avenue, open 6 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday, reservations via OpenTable. Carryout and delivery also available.