Recipes
Browse by: Dish Type Ingredient Cuisine Cooking Method Diet Season Menus Recipe Collections Quick Dinners View All
How-Tos
Cooking Techniques Ingredient Guides Equipment Kitchen Tips Entertaining View All
Product Recs
Equipment Reviews Taste Tests Buying Guides Editors' Picks Books Shop View All
Culture
Cuisine Guides Food History Food Science Personal Essays Podcast Travel Diaries Profiles Food Industry SE HQ View All
Dining Out
Boston Chicago Los Angeles New Orleans New York Philadelphia Portland, OR San Francisco Washington, DC View All
Game Day
Chili Dips and Spreads Drinks Guacamole Mains Nachos Salsas Snacks Sweets Wings View All
Your account
Saved Recipes > Newsletters >
Follow us
Recipes
Browse by: Dish Type Ingredient Cuisine Cooking Method Diet Season Menus Recipe Collections Quick Dinners View All
How-Tos
Cooking Techniques Ingredient Guides Equipment Kitchen Tips Entertaining View All
Product Recs
Equipment Reviews Taste Tests Buying Guides Editors' Picks Books Shop View All
Culture
Cuisine Guides Food History Food Science Personal Essays Podcast Travel Diaries Profiles Food Industry SE HQ View All
Dining Out
Boston Chicago Los Angeles New Orleans New York Philadelphia Portland, OR San Francisco Washington, DC View All
Game Day
Chili Dips and Spreads Drinks Guacamole Mains Nachos Salsas Snacks Sweets Wings View All
Saved recipes > Newsletters >

Search for recipes and articles

Popular Searches

Staff Favorites

  • Burgers
  • Korean
  • Corn
  • Chicago
  • Cocktails & Spirits
More Breadcrumbs
  • Dining Out
  • Chicago
  • Drinks
  • Cocktails & Spirits

First Look: All the Cocktails at Ada Street in Chicago

Roger Kamholz
0 Printer-Friendly Version
Published: March 12, 2012 Last Updated: August 9, 2018

Gallery

Gallery
First Look: All the Cocktails at Ada Street in Chicago

[Photographs: Roger Kamholz]

When Chicago restaurateurs Michael Kornick and David Morton (DMK Burger Bar, Fish Bar) decided to use Morton's office, located in a raw brick building hidden along an industrial corridor on the city's North Side, as the venue for the next dining project, the initial concept was to convert the space into a wine bar. Soon their idea evolved in a new direction, and the unassuming building at 1664 North Ada Street was on its way to being an intimate modern tavern. The music would be vinyl, and the ambiance, mostly candle-lit. As for the drinks, they wisely hired away cocktail expert and affable "spiritual advisor" Tim Lacey from his previous post at Ripasso to run the Ada Street beverage program.

Prior to his short stay at Ripasso, Lacey spent three years alongside Charles Joly at one of Chicago's finest cocktail destinations, the Drawing Room. Before that, he was tending bar and imagining creative new cocktails for the Spring Group, which at that time included the Green Zebra, Custom House, and Spring, now closed. But it was his stint at the legendary Evanston restaurant Trio—owned by Henry Adaniya, onetime culinary home of chef Grant Achatz, now closed—that Lacey considers his most formative.

"It was there that I started to accept this as a career," Lacey says. "Henry had no [freaking] business hiring me. He really encouraged me and pushed me. The service bar was back in the kitchen, so 10 feet away from these amazing chefs. It dawned on me that not only could this be a career, but also, 'Hey, wait, they have all this [stuff] that I could steal, techniques I can steal, ideas I can steal.' It really opened my mind... The man handed me a career instead of just a job." Lacey has since approached cocktails with the palate, technique, and high standards of a fine-dining chef, which is evident in the debut menu at newly opened Ada Street.

The 14-drink list is ambitious, with a gradual progression from lighter, apertif- and gin-driven items to more robust cocktails, long on brown spirits. Lacey favors clean, unfussy presentations, preferring to let the spirits—which he selects with great care—to speak for themselves. The resulting cocktails—aptly named after pieces of music—tend to sing quite beautifully.

Ada Street

1664 N. Ada Street, Chicago, IL 60642 (map) 773-697-7069; adastreetchicago.com

All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.

Roger Kamholz Contributor
  • Profile
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Contact

Roger has been a Serious Eats contributor since 2011. In that time he's written columns about noodles and vegetarian fare, and covered the world of spirits and cocktails from a variety of angles. After a long, calorie-laden immersion in Chicago's dining scene, he's returned to his homeland of New York, somehow still hungry and thirsty.

0 Printer-Friendly Version
Tags
  • ada street
  • all the cocktails
  • chicago
  • first look

SERIOUS EATS

Cocktails

  • Chicago
  • Cocktails & Spirits
More Breadcrumbs
  • Dining Out
  • Chicago
  • Drinks
  • Cocktails & Spirits
HIDE COMMENTS
Sign In or Register
No comments
Comments are closed
HIDE COMMENTS

Popular Recipes

Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres

Jamaican Pepper Shrimp

That red color tells you what you need to know: They're HOT!

Jillian Atkinson
Cinco de Mayo

Classic Margarita Recipe

The perfect margarita is all about fresh, crisp flavors, barely tempered by sweet triple sec.

The Serious Eats Team
Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres

Bánh Tráng Nướng (Grilled Vietnamese Rice Paper With Egg, Pork, and Condiments)

Crispy, grilled rice paper sheets topped with savory pork.

Jenny Dorsey
Christmas

Ultra-Crispy Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder

Pull-apart tender meat and ultra-crisp skin: It's not the most gorgeous roast in the world, but you'd be hard pressed to find one more flavorful.

J. Kenji López-Alt
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest recipes and tips!

More Chicago

And Now, For a Butter Sculpture of President Obama

And Now, For a Butter Sculpture of President Obama

Sugar Rush: Pistachio-Meyer Lemon Doughnut from Do-Rite Donuts

Sugar Rush: Pistachio-Meyer Lemon Doughnut from Do-Rite Donuts

Is Shake Shack Coming Soon to Chicago?

Is Shake Shack Coming Soon to Chicago?

Serious Eats
  • Latest
  • Masthead
  • Contact
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Jobs
  • Sitemap
  • FAQ

Follow Us

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your California Privacy Rights
  • © 2021 Serious Eats Inc., by Dotdash

Welcome! Please sign in.

Forgot password?