Sumi Robata Bar Popping Up at Momotaro and More Intel

—Sumi Robata Bar fans, listen up. Chef Gene Kato will partner with the Izakaya at Momotaro for one night only, on Monday, December 11 starting at 6 p.m. The menu will include a variety of grilled chicken skewers, chicken gyoza, and a tonkatsu chicken breast. Plus, bartenders from Prairie School will be visiting for the night to make a lineup of Japanese-inspired cocktails. The pop-up isn’t ticketed, but reservations can be made on the restaurant’s website. Kato, who sadly closed Sumi in October, has also popped up at Entente.

—There’s about to be a new spot for fancy bubbly and caviar. Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse will debut Esquire Champagne Room at 58 E. Oak Street in Gold Coast this month, followed by a grand opening in January. Chicago first reported the news, saying there will be over 50 bottles of champagne in addition to oysters, uni, foie gras, caviar, and oddly enough, pierogis.

—Honey’s has a new chef. Johnny Anderes (the Kitchen, Telegraph, Reno) has taken the helm from departed chef Charles Welch at the West Loop spot, adding dishes including a pit-roasted culotte with parsnip puree, smoked cipollini onions, and a red wine reduction to the menu. The Chicago Tribune broke the news, with an interview from Anderes saying that 80 percent of the menu is his, and he’s trickling out new dishes as it’s fit.

—For those looking for a particularly fancy New Years Eve, the Alinea Group has launched their New Years Eve tickets. Next will be doing the ‘World’s 50 Best’ menu with a champagne toast, the Aviary has a variety of pre-parties and midnight toasts proper, and Roister will have a brunch seating and evening reservations all night long.

—Half Acre’s president, Gabriel Magliaro, made Crain’s Chicago Business’s 40 under 40 list. The glass-blower-turned-craft-beer-company-entrepreneur is lauded for getting into the craft beer industry at just the right time, leading Half Acre to be the third-largest independent brewer in Illinois. See the full list here.

—It seems that Northwestern students may have stolen memorabilia, dart boards, and pool items from Tommy Nevin’s Pub following the announcement that the longtime Evanston bar would close, the Evanston Review reported. Evanston and Northwestern University police are looking into footage from November 16, the night the bar announced it’d shutter on November 30. Some items have been returned anonymously, but Ed Carella, the CEO of Nevin’s parent company, says what has been returned is not everything that was stolen.