While the Western suburbs may be teeming with fancy pants dining choices, quick and accessible is much harder to come by. Ryan Burnet to the rescue. Burnet, who already reigns over a burgeoning empire of popular eateries with Bar La Grassa, Burch, Eastside and Barrio, is planning on opening a healthy, faster food option in the former People’s Organic space in the fall. The restaurant, which is still nameless at the moment, will feature made-to-order salads with homemade dressings, naturally raised meats and fish and seasonal sides. Ok, so it sounds a little like People’s Organic, but they didn’t have a proprietary online ordering system and application, now did they? But Burnet does and it sounds slick. Customers can place orders and pay on their smartphones and pick up without a moment in line.
Chef Bill Fairbanks will create a menu showing that healthy food can be fast and delicious, all while featuring local and seasonal ingredients. Chef Fairbanks, who trained in France, has worked in the kitchens of Barbette, Solera and La Belle Vie, as well as crafting menus for, and operating, the Barrio restaurants and working with Burnet on Eastside.
The team will begin work on a few renovations soon, creating a more modern space and expanding the patio. If the idea is solid, this is the kind of idea that could easily translate elsewhere.