There was no mention of a possible space in the announcement of Brendan Sodikoff’s planned deli Dillman’s a couple of weeks ago. Time Out’s piece mentioned River North, but that was as much as we half-knew. But the sudden closing of Steve’s Deli, the Chicago outpost of a Bloomfield Hills, Michigan deli, on Hubbard near the East Bank Club, certainly raises the question of whether that’s the space which Sodikoff plans to take over. 312 Dining Diva makes the case:
The timing of the Steve’s Deli closing is just too coincidental! Time Out says Dillman’s will be a 120-seater and will offer a “Lower East Side, old-world-mafia feel,” with wood panels, floor tiles and a long bar with a diner-style kitchen. The concept will totally fit into that space.
But against the idea that this is where Dillman’s will go, we’d throw out two points. One, that the Hubbard location is much more off the beaten path than Sodikoff tends to be (you can’t get much closer to the center of what’s hot than where Au Cheval is, for instance). And two, while it’s surely convenient to move into an existing deli spot, Sodikoff isn’t a small operator looking for a place that already has glass cases in place; if he felt a location was right, he’d build it from scratch to his vision rather than grab a bargain in the wrong spot for him. So we think this is an intriguing possibility— but we won’t be surprised if it is just coincidence that Steve’s leaves as Dillman’s arrives. [312 Dining Diva]
