When did dinner on the Oak and Rush corner start to mean climbing a staircase or taking an elevator? In 2026, three of the biggest restaurant projects around Mariano Park made the same decision. Each one put its main room above the sidewalk and designed it around what diners can see from that height.
Carmine's moved its dining room to the second floor. ARLA opened six stories up in the former Barneys New York building. The incoming Esquire at 58 E. Oak St. is building a 265-seat room behind a retractable glass window over Oak Street. Taken together, these projects show where the corner's restaurant money is going in 2026. It is going into upstairs rooms built around the view of the small park at the corner of Oak, Rush and State.
Carmine's Went First, and Went Up
The first sign came in January. Carmine's at 1037 N. Rush St. has been on Rush Street since 1994. Rosebud Restaurant Group reopened it on Jan. 20, 2026, after two years of renovation that Block Club Chicago described as multimillion-dollar.
The restaurant kept its address but changed floors. The dining room is now on the second level, reached by a curved staircase from the ground floor. Jackson Harlan Architectural Group designed the interior, with large windows over Rush Street and Mariano Park, a 40-seat private dining room and a four-season enclosed terrace. The press release called the target a "timeless supper club."
The menu brings back long-running dishes like square noodles, eight-finger cavatelli and the meatball salad. It adds a steakhouse program with an $89 17-ounce USDA New York strip and a 48-ounce steak Florentine prepared tableside. Rosebud founder and president Alex Dana said the reopening was meant to "honor that history while creating something exciting and relevant for the next generation." For this team, part of that update was moving the room upstairs, closer to the windows.
Six Floors Above the Same Park
Five months later, a newer operator took the same idea much higher. ARLA, from Hospitality Included, sits on the sixth floor of 15 E. Oak St. in the space that used to be Fred's at Barneys New York. The space had been empty a long time. In 2019, after Barneys filed for Chapter 11, Eater Chicago reported that the company was closing its Chicago store and that Fred's would close with it.
Time Out Chicago put the space at 8,500 square feet. Both Time Out and Block Club gave June 18 as opening day. The restaurant's own site now takes reservations for 15 E. Oak St., Floor 6. Cartier and Balenciaga share the building.
The design follows the same logic as Carmine's, just from higher up. ARLA has two outdoor terraces with 60 seats between them. One sits on the Oak and Rush corner and the other overlooks Mariano Park. Chef-partner Soo Ahn told Block Club the team skipped curtains on purpose so diners could see the lake during the day and the skyline at night.
"I would love to come here during the summer and grab a spritz and just kind of people watch," Ahn said.
The food pairs Mediterranean and Japanese cooking. The menu includes a Japanese-inspired hummus finished with toasted nori and white miso, and a caviar sando on shokupan milk bread. There is also a whole cauliflower roasted on the live-fire grill, Four Star Mushrooms skewers glazed with date molasses, and Japanese clay pot rice made with grain sourced from Japan. At opening, ARLA posted hours starting at 4 p.m. every day, with service until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Ahn, who is also behind Adalina Prime in the West Loop, described the move in neighborly terms. He named Gibsons, Hugo's Frog Bar, Carmine's, Maple & Ash and Tavern on Rush as the corridor's established restaurants and said, "I'm not really trying to compete with anyone. Our goal was to see what this neighborhood needed." He also said he hoped "drawing a different crowd here will help everybody else out in our neighborhood."
The Theater That Keeps Getting Another Chance
The third project is still under construction, and its building has the longest history. The Esquire Theater at 58 E. Oak St. has been through more changes than any other address on the block.
- 1938. The Esquire Theater opens.
- 2006. The theater closes.
- November 2019. Cooper's Hawk Esquire Chicago is open in the converted building, according to Eater Chicago.
- March 21, 2022. The restaurant relaunches with a new concept as Esquire by Cooper's Hawk.
- July 17, 2023. Final service. Eater reported that the closure was due to underperformance.
- Late fall 2026. M Street Collective's Esquire is the latest projected opening.
As of this October, the building has been dark for more than three years. The new plan treats its height as the main asset. Eater Chicago describes a multi-level, 265-seat Japanese-influenced steakhouse with a wagyu program, sushi, caviar and seafood that uses fish-aging techniques. The 5,000-bottle wine tower from Esquire by Cooper's Hawk stays and runs several stories tall. A retractable glass window will look out over Oak Street. The design draws on Hollywood's Golden Age, a fitting choice for a former movie house. The complex will also include ŌakSho, a private club built around a 12-seat omakase counter.
The schedule has already moved once. Eater's June summer preview gave a late-summer ETA. Its September fall preview pushed that to late fall. No exact date has been announced.
Three Rooms, One Orientation
Side by side, the three projects describe a similar building strategy.
| Venue | Address | Main room | What it looks out on | Status as of Oct. 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carmine's | 1037 N. Rush St. | Second floor | Rush Street and Mariano Park | Reopened Jan. 20, 2026 |
| ARLA | 15 E. Oak St. | Sixth floor | Oak and Rush corner, Mariano Park, the lake | Operating; June 18 announced opening |
| Esquire | 58 E. Oak St. | Multi-level | Oak Street, through a retractable glass window | Projected late fall 2026 |
The three come from three different operators: an Italian institution from 1994, a new Mediterranean-Japanese concept and a steakhouse group taking over a theater. None of them is a sidewalk-café project. Each put its main investment into an elevated room facing the same few blocks. Two of them describe Mariano Park by name as part of the view.
What the Street Level Is Getting Instead
Some of the ground floors nearby are going to retail. Meta has confirmed plans for its first Midwest Meta Lab at 932 N. Rush St., in the former Glossier storefront. Axios reported in August that the company is aiming to open ahead of the holiday shopping season. ARLA follows the same split inside its own building, with Cartier and Balenciaga below the restaurant.
So on this corner, storefronts are going to brands and the upper floors are going to restaurants. The order of the 2026 openings follows that split. Carmine's opened upstairs in January, ARLA opened six floors up in June, a storefront retailer is due on Rush before the holidays, and the Esquire's multi-level room is projected for late fall.
That leaves one dining room still to open. The Esquire Theater has had its seats, its screen and two versions of a Cooper's Hawk restaurant, and its next tenant is aiming to open before the end of the year at 58 E. Oak St.
The changes around Oak and Rush are also changing how Gold Coast homes look from the street and from the window. Upper-floor terraces, lit dining rooms over Mariano Park and new storefronts are now part of that view. If you're thinking about what this means for a Gold Coast residence, Ivona Kutermankiewicz and the IKGroup team at Jameson Sotheby's International Realty would be glad to talk it through. Request a private consultation and home valuation.
