Eater Inside

Behold Downtown’s New Rooftop Restaurant, Serving Peruvian Lobster Tempura Rolls & More

Boleo opens Wednesday inside the Kimpton Gray Hotel

by Ashok Selvam@Shokdiesel Aug 23, 2016, 10:25am CDT

Photography by Sarah Joyce

Boleo will serve up South American food under a retractable roof.

Ashok Selvam is the editor of Eater Chicago and a native Chicagoan armed with more than two decades of award-winning journalism. Now covering the world of restaurants and food, his nut graphs are super nutty.

Boleo, a South American rooftop restaurant and lounge with a retractable roof, opens on Wednesday, tucked inside the top floor of the new The Kimpton Gray Hotel. The downtown space joins Steadfast on the ground floor, which opened last month, and Vol. 39 on the second floor to give the new downtown hotel a variety of dining options that are hopefully top notch and unique among hotel fare.

The food will feature the talents of chef de cuisine Alexis Hernandez. He cooked for diplomats and other dignitaries while working as the chef of the Peruvian ambassador to the U.S. That experience in the nation’s capital has made him feel like a cultural ambassador, sharing Peruvian food from his homeland. Expect a combo of Peruvian and Argentinian food as detailed in the story linked above.

The restaurant seats about 150 within a 4,000-square-foot space that soaks up sunlight from the glassed roof, providing a refreshing contrast from normally dark and dreary hotel hallways. The dining room sits in the center, with plants littered throughout providing an airy touch. Patrons will feel as they're dining al fresco, even in the middle of a dark Chicago winter. There's a DJ booth in back and more lounge-type furniture surrounding the perimeter of the space. The seating is conducive to the small bites that appear on the menu.

Check out the photos below.