Rooftop Bar and Fifty/50 Group Restaurant Coming to Kimpton’s The Gray in Loop

Add drinking amongst more skyscrapers to your springtime agenda. The latest Chicago property from Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, officially dubbed The Gray, will not only bring a rooftop bar, but also a retractable roof, to The Loop this spring. Closer to the ground, guests will be able to imbibe at a lobby bar featuring high-end wine and spirits or dine at a new restaurant, Steadfast, by The Fifty/50 Group.

Steadfast should be the most ambitious project yet from Fifty/50 group, which also owns Roots Handmade Pizza, Homestead, West Town Bakery & Diner, The Berkshire Room, and The Sixth. The Chicago Tribune reports that the 70-seat restaurant will also feature a 20-seat bar and 14-seat wine-tasting room. The menu, overseen by chef Chris Davies and pastry chef Chris Teixeira, will feature dishes such as chorizo-stuffed chicken ballotine with black truffles, carrot pave with smoked carrot puree. All of which can be tasted at Homestead during restaurant week (January 22 though February 4).

Curbed reported back in August 2014 that the San Francisco-based group acquired the landmark New York Life Building at 122 W. Monroe St., with the intention of turning it into its fifth Chicago property. Kimpton is no stranger to transforming historic buildings into boutique hotels, with Hotel Burnham, Hotel Allegro, Hotel Monaco, and Hotel Palomar under its belt.

The hotel's name comes from the Georgia Gray marble and granite that were part of the building's original construction in 1894. Modern additions will include 293 guest rooms and 13 suites as well as nearly 13,000-square-feet of meeting and event space. Other culinary offerings include a Starbucks and Protein Bar.