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After previous Rockit Bar & Grill chef Amanda Downing left at the end of October, Billy Dec’s crew searched for a replacement to take over the food program at their River North mainstay. It appears they’ve found their man, as they’ve named one of Chicago’s best-known chefs, Mike Sheerin (Blackbird, Trenchermen, Cicchetti), as their new kitchen guru.
Rockit on Hubbard Street is the flagship venue for Rockit Ranch Productions, which includes Sunda, Bottlefork, Duck Inn and The Underground. It’s been open for around 12 years and in 2015 it reopened after an extensive renovation that kept the space closed for five months. The renovation also included a new menu from Downing. A year and a half later, it appears Sheerin will tinker with the menu once more.
Sheerin told Chicago that he’ll make some changes to the menu, but he’s not ready to share what exactly he has in mind. Sheerin said he’ll rework some Rockit classics and added that the menu "needed to evolve." Sheerin, who helmed three recent shutters (Packed, Embeya, Trinity Bar) starts at Rockit in late January. Check back to see what the creative oft-traveled chef has up his sleeve in River North.
