What to Expect from the Borough Refresh

One of the North Loop's defining restaurants reopens with a bit of a zshoosh, a trolley, and a secret.

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After seven years in the North Loop, Borough recently shut down for a bit of an update.

With the neighborhood growing up around them, Jester Concepts founder Brent Frederick thought it might be time for a little love for the highly trafficked space, "You have to stay fresh. When we opened, there weren't half the places that have popped up in this neighborhood, with more coming. It was time to look at what we have in the space that we love, and how to improve it so that we stay on our game." And, that includes a menu shift too. 

While it wasn't a major overhaul, having been closed for just one week, there are some significant changes a-foot. 

SOFT PLAID BANQUETS

The decor refresh is really about softening. "We opened with a really industrial look," Frederick told me as we walked around the space. So we're bringing in some softer things, plaid banquets now line the windows, some of the harder iron light fixtures will be replaced by softer globes." It's a modest change that doesn't take away from the original vibe, just quiets it a bit while providing a fresh outlook.

PRIVATE DINING

The farthest east part of the dining room has been given a new service station and will have the ability to be closed off for semi-private dining. It won't be a fully separate room, but it does have its own entrance if needed. 

ROOM AT THE BAR

If you spent time at the bar, you remember that the middle section was lorded over by a very industrial tap line system, making it harder to pass drinks and have meaningful eye-contact with your bartenders. That big system has been removed to the back bar, opening it up for guests. The garage door feature on the back bar is also gone, which has created a fuller storage space for the bartenders. More pretty bottles to look at. The plan is to also utilize the kitchen bar better, instead of just being overflow seating, Chef Mike DeCamp said they'd like to have it be a more interactive chef-to-guest kind of experience. 

TROLLEY TIME?

Speaking of a more interactive experience between guests and chefs, along with the remodel, the Borough kitchen will launch a new trolley service. Don't call it a cart. Trolley service will happen on weekends, and will feature two or three small plates created by the kitchen's cooks. The cook behind the plates will roll them through the dining room, offering them to tables, and explaining what they made and why. "Some of them are really excited, some are really terrified," DeCamp laughed. "It's something they can own, a piece of the menu that's theirs, and then they get to sell it directly to the tables. Each plate will be under $10 so it could be just the bite you're looking for." Trolley time will only be on Friday and Saturdays to start, but who knows? 

THE NEW MENUS

DeCamp and his crew have been working this week to refine the new food menu, as well as training and feeding the staff. They're paring down the offerings, and streamlining a bit, but are adding more whole animal butchery to the mix. Some of your favorites are still there, octopus can't leave, but expect the rotation to feature simpler dishes that let the ingredients shine. On the cocktail side of things, bar maven Jeff Rogers has redone the list to feature more of the classic cocktails they all started with, "Downstairs at Parlour you'll still have all the innovate drinks and a totally separate menu, so up here we decided to differentiate by going back to some of the classics ... of course they'll all have our unique thumbprint."

THE APARTMENT

Here's the secret bit. As part of their lease, the team has kept an apartment upstairs in the building and used it as storage/chef's office/restaurant-person-hoarding-space. But they have plans. The Apartment is getting its own overhaul and soon will become a fully functional private event space, with long tables, its own kitchen and counter, and, you know, a shower (because it's an apartment). They're starting to clean it up and finalize designs and seat counts, but it will be a clean and spare space that should be bookable by the holiday season. Exciting!

Here's to keeping up with the neighborhood you helped define!