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Dim Sum Coming to Little Italy as Former Owner of Phoenix Lands New Spot

By Stephanie Lulay | March 1, 2016 6:44am
 The old Salatino's restaurant at 626 S. Racine Ave. will soon become a Chinese restaurant.
The old Salatino's restaurant at 626 S. Racine Ave. will soon become a Chinese restaurant.
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dnainfo/Stephanie Lulay

LITTLE ITALY — A longtime Chinatown restaurateur plans to open a Cantonese restaurant in a vacant storefront on Racine that for decades housed Italian restaurants.

Eddie Cheung, former partner in well-known Phoenix Restaurant in Chinatown, will open Jade Court, a Hong Kong-style Chinese restaurant at 626 S. Racine Ave. in the former Salatino's and Rico's restaurant. Cheung's lease on the building begins March 1 and he hopes to open the restaurant before Mother's Day. 

Cheung, who opened Phoenix Restaurant 20 years ago and managed the floor alongside his daughter Carol Cheung, sold the business with his partners in July. He has also owned Chinese restaurants in Toronto, where he lived before moving to Chicago. 

The new sit-down restaurant will be similar to the Phoenix, but smaller, and will serve traditional Cantonese offerings and dim sum. Jade Court will also offer late-night Chinese take-out from a connected storefront that used to house Dough Boys pizza, Carol Cheung said. 

Carol Cheung and her father Eddie Cheung [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]

Right after selling the Chinatown restaurant, the family started looking for a space for a new restaurant right away, Carol Cheung said Monday. The Racine Avenue storefront, near the UIC pavilion and the Medical District, was a great fit for their plans, she said.

Like they did over decades at Phoenix Restaurant, the Cheungs hope to cultivate a strong clientele of regulars so Jade Court can "feel like home." 

"One thing we really enjoyed [at Phoenix] is getting to really know people over the years," said Carol, who lives on the Near West Side. "We were so familiar with their likes and dislikes, most of our customers didn't need menus." 

The new Racine Avenue restaurant will be named after the first restaurant Eddie Cheung opened in Toronto. 

Becca Lundstrom, an @properties agent, represented the property's owner in the deal. 

The 16,000-square-foot storefront had housed Rico's restaurant for decades before it closed and made way for two other eateries, which also later closed. The most recent restaurant, Salatino's, run by restaurateur Scott Harris, included a storefront that used to house Dough Boys. But it closed in summer 2012 and has remained empty since.

In November 2014, a group of former UIC basketball players aimed to open a restaurant and bar with live music in the vacant Racine storefront, but plans never panned out. 

Jade Court owners also plan to offer Chinese takeout from the former Dough Boys counter. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]

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