Premise Shutters to Become Brasserie 54 by LM

After opening a little more than four months ago, Premise, the made over In Fine Spirits finer-dining restaurant in Andersonville's Clark Street corridor, has shuttered. Eater got a tip Tuesday afternoon, which was confirmed this morning by Mike Sula at the Reader that the restaurant had been sold to the LM Restaurant group.

Apparently the new restaurant will be called Brasserie 54 by LM, according to a tweet this morning by Penny Pollack. No word on what interior work will be done to the space or when it will reopen as the French brasserie. Calls to LM partner Nicole Outrequin Quaisser and Premise co-owner Johnnie Grozenski have not been returned to get more information on the sale and what happened to Premise.

And with the restaurant's closure, chef Brian Runge, who has a six-month-old son, is out of a job. Runge, who told Sula he felt blindsided, was only informed of the sale during a meeting Tuesday afternoon. "Not to give the one person who put his heart and soul into the restaurant a warning of even a week?" Runge told Eater this morning. "I want it to be known that this restaurant did not fail, but they sold it. I was getting nothing but great accolades. They sold the restaurant without informing me."

When asked if he had spoken with the LM team about staying on board, Runge said he respects their group, but that the "food is just not what I do." This may be stating the obvious, but Runge is "absolutely looking for a job right now."

This project is just the latest in a string of openings by Outrequin Quaisser and her husband, Stephan. They recently partnered with Anthony Fiore to relocate Lincoln Square's LM to the Elate space in River North as LM Bistro and a few months earlier opened Troquet in Ravenswood and Brasserie by LM in the Essex Inn.
· Look Inside Premise, Opening Tonight [~EChi~]
· Andersonville's Premise Sold and Shuttered [Reader]
· LM to Shutter in Lincoln Square; Owners Will Partner With Elate to Become LM Bistro in River North [~EChi~]

UPDATE: Eater just spoke with Nicole Outrequin Quaisser who said they hope to open the brasserie in mid September, but don't have an exact date yet. They'll do mostly cosmetic changes, like adding their signature orange and amber color scheme, add in different seating and add some French paintings. The upstairs will convert back to a private dining room with the smaller 10-seat room in the back for more intimate affairs.

Brasserie 54 by LM (named for the 54th block of Clark Street, where it's located), will offer a French dining experience in the neighborhood where that cuisine isn't currently represented. The menu will be similar to Brasserie by LM and Troquet, but will have a larger menu than the latter. They'll be open seven days a week, serving lunch and dinner daily and brunch on the weekends and they'll utilize that great back patio. Brad Phillips will serve as the exec chef while Tanya Baker, who has been with the group for three years, will be chef de cuisine and work on site in Andersonville.

Outrequin Quaisser said she told her husband they were done expanding for the year following the opening of LM Bistro, but when the chance to buy Premise came up in the last week or so, she said they couldn't pass it up. "We just love that space and live in walking distance to that location," she said. "We've always loved the neighborhood. I guess we like opening restaurants ... this should be it."