RPM team ‘beef’ up for new eatery

With their popular RPM Italian already a huge success, it was no surprise when TV personalities Giuliana and Bill Rancic, RJ, Jerrod and Molly Melman — plus chef Doug Psaltis — decided to launch RPM Steak.

The new restaurant, located at 66 W. Kinzie, is slated to open officially later this month, but on Saturday, the sextet of partners hosted a special preview party in the new eatery — attracting a VIP crowd that included Giuliana’s fellow E! News host Jason Kennedy, ex-Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood, NBC-5’s Stefan Holt and Cheryl Scott, CBS-2’s Ryan Baker and Kris Gutierrez, Nina and Bob Mariano, plus Giuliana’s parents Eduardo and Anna DePandi.

In a chat with the partners, I had to ask the obvious question: “In Chicago — a town filled with great steakhouses — what will you bring to the scene that will be new and different?”

Bill Rancic said, “We hope to do for the steakhouse what we did with the Italian restaurant. It will be a bit of a different spin.

“Look, there are also lots of Italian restaurants — and RPM Italian kind of captured a new market. We want to do the same thing here. We’re going to have beef from all over the country and all over the world — from Japan to New York to Omaha, you name it.”

Plus he stressed they would also “place as much emphasis on the vegetables and the seafood,” which clearly brought a smile to his svelte wife, who obviously is very diet-conscious.

“I think the term ‘steakhouse’ is not as descriptive as it could be,’ Bill added, “Because we won’t just be serving steak here.”

Giuliana Rancic pointed out that “a lot of younger people — and women as well — when they hear ‘steakhouse’ they think ‘heavy.’

“This is not that. It’s going to be a bit of a different crowd than that normally goes to a steakhouse who will come here, because there will be something a little more modern and fresh and, quite frankly a little lighter about this restaurant.”

†Saturday turned out to be a multiple celebration as Bill Rancic surprised his wife with an early toast to her upcoming Aug. 17 birthday — complete with an amazing cake featuring a replica of the famous Hermes Birkin handbag on top.