Luxurious Private River North Wellness Club With Boka Ties Opens Applications

Private “holistic wellness” and social club Bian, a new project from Boka Restaurant Group co-founder Kevin Boehm in the historic former Montgomery Ward building in River North, opens its applications to the public Monday. Designed by Karen Herold’s Studio K, the creative firm behind celebrated Boka Group restaurant Girl & the Goat (among others), the airy monochromatic space will include a restaurant and bar, studio and fitness spaces, a “listening room” with vinyl records, and more. The space will also house a medical facility with practitioners of both Eastern and Western medicine, according to the website, that will feature services such as “concierge medicine,” a “holistic apothecary,” Botox, and “cleanse and detox” treatments. Membership fees are $3,600 annually, plus a $1,000 “initiation.”

Boka chef and partner Lee Wolen is Bian’s consulting chef. Menu details are not yet available, but the website promises organic food and beverages such as smoothies, juices, and “elixirs,” as well as wine, spirits, coffee, and tea. The aforementioned apothecary will carry herbs and tinctures.

The application process is to better ensure diversity in membership. Ownership says they want to give folks from different mindsets a chance to connect.

Though it’s not an official Boka project, the application launch comes just after an announcement that Boka is stepping away from Somerset, its luxe Gold Coast restaurant inside the Viceroy Chicago hotel. The Viceroy Hotel Group and Chicago real estate company Convexity Properties has taken over management of the restaurant and rooftop pool and bar Devereaux.

In other news...

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— 94-year-old South Side institution Rainbow Cone has hit the road with an eye-catching Original Rainbow Cone Ice Cream Truck, according to Time Out Chicago. For now, it’s just making suburban stops on the weekend as workers get their bearings, but the truck will eventually start popping up in the city too, Block Club reported. Fans can keep tabs on the truck’s location via Instagram.