The Las Vegas-based Tao Group has more than 30 restaurants and nightclubs, including other concepts such as Lavo, Vandal and Marquee. Madison Square Garden also owns the Chicago Theater. last year paid $181 million for a 62.5 percent ownership stake in Tao Group. One of its two New York locations, Tao Downtown, was No. in 2016, with $42.5 million in sales in 2016, according to Restaurant Business. Tao Las Vegas was the highest-grossing independent restaurant in the U.S. He describes the food menu as Pan-Asian, featuring Chinese, Japanese and Thai items - but no fusions of ingredients. Ultimately, Tao will succeed in Chicago because its food and service will be excellent, Wolf said. “It’s going to be a magnet for people coming to Chicago who otherwise might not be coming,” Tepperberg said said. ![]() Chicago’s robust business community and frequent convention attendees will help fuel sales, as will tourists, he said. Tepperberg likened celebrities to “window dressing” and said they aren’t as crucial to the business’s success as they might appear. “They’re going to have to be able to do huge amounts of volume,” Tristano said. “That’s less of a draw in Chicago, where the people are more down to earth,” said Darren Tristano, a longtime restaurant industry analyst who’s now CEO of CHD-Expert, a food marketing research firm. It’s yet to be seen how that formula will work in Chicago, a city with a highly lauded culinary scene but less of a celebrity culture. They opened the first Tao in New York in 2000. The formula has proved wildly successful for Tao Group’s founders: Wolf, Tepperberg, Mark Packer and Jason Strauss. Tao aims to be a unique destination and a one-stop-shop for an evening out: Go for dinner, have some drinks and maybe spot a celebrity. The mostly windowless interior decor in Chicago will be opulent, designed to encourage a night of indulgence. Four Corners is a division of Sterling Bay, which will continue to own the building and will collect rent from the Tao Group-Four Corners joint venture. More than $25 million has been invested in the construction of the Tao Chicago space, not including the $12.5 million developer Sterling Bay paid for the Dearborn Street building in 2014, Menna said. Tao Group and its local partner have already made a big bet that the concept will travel well from its current locations in Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles and Sydney. That would be higher than any current Chicago restaurant, topping Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse’s approximately $24.7 million in sales in 2016, according to a 2017 survey of highest-grossing independent restaurants by the publication Restaurant Business. The potential payoff is great for Chicago - which could gain a new attraction for tourists, conventioneers and business travelers - and for the venue’s owners.Ĭhicago-based Four Corners, Tao’s joint-venture partner on the project, expects annual revenues of $26 million to $30 million or more, Four Corners co-founder Matt Menna said. “What really sets this project apart is the building. “They’re all big and windowless and sexy, with high ceilings and a big Buddha - or, in this case, a Quan Yin. “Tao has a very specific look and feel, but they’re all different,” Wolf said. Highlights will include ceilings as high as 35 feet, a capacity of nearly 1,700 diners and revelers, and a 16-foot-tall statue of Quan Yin, a Buddhist deity of compassion. While the potential reward is high, the ambitious Chicago project also comes with risk: Can the lavish concept, known for attracting the likes of Beyonce, Jay-Z, Madonna, Tom Cruise and Robert De Niro, succeed in Chicago as it does in Las Vegas and New York? The Chicago opening is expected to reinforce Tao Group’s reputation for majestic spaces, after completing what is believed to be one of the lengthiest and costliest build-outs in Chicago restaurant and bar history. ![]() Dearborn St., is planning a September opening, Tao Group founding partners Rich Wolf and Noah Tepperberg said. Tao Chicago, which will be located in the 126-year-old former Chicago Historical Society Building at 632 N. Restaurant and nightclub concept Tao is close to unveiling a dramatic new destination for a night out in Chicago - one that also could knock Gibsons from the top of the city’s highest-grossing restaurants list.
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