GOLD COAST — The Tip Top Inn has closed its doors on State Street, making way for a new restaurant dreamed up by the chef of beloved brunch spot Batter & Berries.
Chef Derek Rylon has big plans for Rylon On Easy Street, his new restaurant opening next month at 1204 N. State St. The eatery will serve guests from breakfast through the night, with fare ranging from French toast flights in the morning to "fine dining" dinner options such as steaks, lobster and Dover sole.
Rylon already has a list of seven to eight specials he'll rotate through the menu, too.
"This is going to blow everyone's socks away," he said. "The idea is to never get done with the menu."
The restaurant is the third for Rylon, a longtime line chef who opened a barbeque joint in the South Loop last fall. Batter & Berries, his first restaurant, debuted in in 2012 and is now the top-rated Lincoln Park brunch spot on Yelp.
But Rylon says Gold Coast diners shouldn't expect more of the same from his new venture.
"I don't want [anything] that I have in my other places," he said. "Everything will be different."
Rylon on Easy Street will also serve lunch centered on sandwiches, plus a late-night menu serving "little nice appetizers." Rylon will put a lobster tank in the front of the restaurant so guests can pick what they eat.
The restaurant opens a new chapter for the Tip Top Inn site, which closed Tuesday after replacing a P.J. Clarke's last year. Those involved said the plan was always for Rylon to open a restaurant in the storefront, but Rylon said a "complication" muddied those plans.
"To tell you the truth, we came in here to do Derek," said Bob Itzkow, who led the Tip Top Inn. "We just didn't get the deal down with him" right away.
The restaurant will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, Rylon said. He hopes to quietly open the restaurant by Feb. 1, but said dinner service on Valentine's Day will mark the venture's grand opening.
RELATED STORIES:
Rylon's Smokehouse Is Bringing All The Meats, Whiskey To South Loop
Rosebud Owner Taking Over Shuttered P.J. Clarke's In The Gold Coast
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.
