An Expansive New Waterfront Restaurant Settles in Along the Chicago River

Prime & Provisions owners Luke Stoioff and Dave Rekhson long looked across the Chicago River at a basement cafeteria serving workers in a nearby high-rise. The cafeteria closed during the pandemic and never reopened. In 2021, a liquor license consultant alerted them that the space could be developed, and they began a slow renovation process shaped by River North’s post-COVID changes, tenant shifts, and complex engineering. The new waterfront restaurant, Naia, opens June 1 as a Greek-Levantine concept in the former cafeteria. It offers about 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including 150 feet of direct water frontage, with river-centric design elements and extensive window-style walls and pergola features.

"For years, Prime & Provisions owners Luke Stoioff and Dave Rekhson would look out from their downtown steakhouse towards the north bank of the Chicago River and ask themselves, 'What if?' Across multi-lane Wabash Avenue and over the river sat a space with spectacular views - a basement cafeteria that catered to the workers in the high-rise office building above it. "We used to look out the window of Prime & Provisions at this space all the time from our dining room and be like, 'Wouldn't it be great to be across the street and actually be on the river?'" says Stoioff."

"But then the pandemic hit. The cafeteria closed and never reopened. Now, a new waterfront restaurant will once again bring that space to life. On Monday, June 1, Stoioff and Rekhson, cofounders of the DineAmic hospitality group, will open Naia, a hotly anticipated Greek-Levantine restaurant in that former cafeteria space. Featuring 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, the restaurant is just about as close to the water as it could be without actually being in it. "We willed it," says Stoioff."

"In reality, it was a liquor license consultant who alerted them that the space was available for development. Stoioff and Rekhson quickly got on board, although the process, which began in 2021, was slow-moving. The changing dynamic of River North and the building's tenants in the aftermath of COVID lockdowns, and the intricate engineering work required to renovate the space caused delays. "When you're doing anything by the river and having a design that's river-centric, it's a process," says Stoioff. "All the expensive stuff is the stuff you don't even see.""

"Spanning the entire length of the 60-story skyscraper at 300 N. LaSalle Street and jutting out beyond it, Naia fully leans into its riverfront location that includes 150 feet of direct water frontage. Located below Chicago Cut Steakhouse, a variety of window-style walls and louvered pergola"

Read at Eater Chicago