:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/51188551/HotelZachary_Rendering2.0.jpg)
The Hotel Zachary, the development near Wrigley Field, is filling out their restaurant roster quite nicely. Smoke Daddy is the latest reveal, as 4 Star Restaurant Group—which just opened Tuco & Blondie—is bringing their popular Wicker Park barbecue spot to Wrigleyville. They join Big Star, McDonald’s, West Town Bakery and an unnamed Matthias Merges’ Folkart Restaurant Mangement (Billy Sunday, Yusho, Old Irving Brewing) project.
Cubs fans are used to waiting, and they’ll have to wait until mid-2018 for The Hotel Zachary to open. Smoke Daddy will seat 300 on the hotel’s street level inside a 8,000 square foot, two-level restaurant that will also include a 75-seat terrace overlooking Clark Street, according to a news release.
Smoke Daddy will be an addition that goes beyond baseball season. A rep confirmed they’ll also offer takeout, delivery and catering services, just like their Wicker Park location. Another holdover from Division Street, live music, will also come to the Wrigleville spot. Smoke Daddy will join other barbecue spots Wrigley BBQ, Blackwood BBQ, Old Crow Smokehouse and Cooper’s in the area. Myron Mixon’s Smoke Show, announced back in the summer, is still delayed, and there haven’t been any new updates on when the restaurant would open.
Crain’s was first to report the news, and noted that two 500-pound Southern Pride smokers will be showcased behind glass on the second floor. Crain’s also tracked down more info about Big Star, as the second floor could have a different menu that would go beyond tacos during non-gamedays and the offseason.
As for Folkart’s project, they are still finalizing the concept, basing it off Billy Sunday, their popular cocktail bar in Logan Square. Sunday was a late-19th Century baseball player who played for the original iteration of the Chicago White Stockings (not to be confused with the present-day White Sox), the team that eventually became the Cubs. An Evangelical Christian, he was a staunch supporter of temperance, hence the bar’s ironic name. Sounds like a perfect fit for Wrigley.
