Author Archives: akritzler
February 20, 2020 7:50 pm
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Kostali just opened in the fifth-floor lobby of The Gwen, A Luxury Collection Hotel. Helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef Carrie Nahabedian, Kostali threads a maritime mosaic through the menu via Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Tunisia, Lebanon, Israel and Morocco. Keto all week then order bread service on your cheat day: housemade tahini spiral rolls and loaves from Publican Quality Breads served with Greek extra virgin olive oil, taramasalata, whipped feta and other spreads are worthy. And how could you resist “Our Mother’s Feta Cheese Turnovers”? Prize dishes include whole roasted seabass; hummus with spiced lamb, radish and walnuts (a nod to Carrie and Michael Nahabedian’s Armenian and Greek heritage); housemade pasta with braised clams, prawns and feta cheese butter; and Tagine of Baby Chicken with carrots, chickpeas, candied citrus and couscous. Olive oil Basque cake with mascarpone, pomegranate and Turkish apricots may be a model of a Mediterranean dessert.
Recommended for New and Popular Restaurants because: James Beard Award-winning chef Carrie Nahabedian offers a sweeping menu inspired by the great coasts of the Mediterranean.
Jacky’s expert tip: Drink up! The wine roster features Mediterranean coastal regions and cocktails incorporate regional spirits like Greece’s ouzo, Italy’s limoncello and pastis from the South of France.
7:49 pm
Comments Off on The Hottest Restaurants in Chicago Right Now, January 2020 Legendary local restaurant family Carrie and Michael Nahabedian are back with a new restaurant after closing their flagship Naha in 2018. Kostali, a swanky spot inside the Gwen hotel off the Magnificent Mile, offers the family’s take on coastal Mediterranean food with an avant garde twist such as whole-roasted loup de mer and hummus with lamb, radishes, and walnuts that blends the Nahabedians’s Armenian and Greek roots. Expect standout service and wine.
7:46 pm
Comments Off on Inside Kostali by Naha, Downtown Chicago’s New Modern Coastal Escape Chef Carrie Nahabedian and sommelier Michael Nahabedian last week unveiled Kostali, the cousins’s latest restaurant, a coastal escape that serves a Mediterranean medley of European and African food. Seeking to avoid the traps set by drab hotel restaurants, the management behind the Gwen brought in the Nahabedians, who are known for Beard Award winners Brindille and Naha.
The restaurant resides on the fifth floor of the McGraw-Hill building and seats 68. Cousin Tom Nahabedian, whose firm’s work earned Brindille a Beard Award for design, aims to remind customers of the feeling of dining on the coasts by creating a restaurant with bronze-toned metal screens and nautical browns and blues. The marble terrazzo floor tile, which comes from the Carrarra mountains off the coast of the Italian Riviera, is meant to evoke the experience of Old Italian palazzos.
Take a tour through the restaurant in the photos below. Kostali, inside the Gwen, a Luxury Collection Hotel, opened last week at 521 N. Rush Street.
December 16, 2019 8:15 pm
Comments Off on Robb Report: After Shuttering Michelin-Starred Naha, Chef Carrie Nahabedian Returns
December 13, 2019 4:09 pm
Comments Off on Beard Award Winner Opens New Mediterranean Restaurant Kostali With Coastal Vibes
December 12, 2019 6:44 pm
Comments Off on Riviera-inspired restaurant Kostali from Carrie Nahabedian opening downtown in late November
