Chicago’s Fat Rice closes; reopening as meal kits-only Super Fat Rice Mart

Logan Square staple Fat Rice is no more.

Co-owners Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo announced the restaurant’s closure Tuesday, and according to media reports, they will re-open a meals kit-only marketplace on Wednesday.

The new Super Fat Rice Mart will occupy the former restaurant’s location at 2957 W. Diversey.

The meal kits — available for pickup-only — will feature produce, spices, grains as well as prepared items, along with step-by-step instructions for at-home cooking, and will start at $100. Pick-up hours are 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The restaurant’s website posted a message to patrons late Tuesday, which read, in part:

“Super Fat Rice Mart allows customers and guests to experience the food of Fat Rice in many new and exciting ways! Super Fat Rice Mart is a specialty cooking store offering Fat Rice at-home cook kits along with organic and local produce, Portuguese imports, beers and wine offerings, a wide array of fun, Asian pantry items and take-away favorites all with that fun Fat Rice flair!”

The restaurant has been closed to dine-in patrons since March when Illinois non-essential businesses were ordered closed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with the New York Times, Conlon said, “The restaurant for the foreseeable future is dead. We need to face the reality that we can’t exist in the future as it looks now. People are not going to feel comfortable being in close quarters or being in a cramped dining room.”

Conlon and Lo are James Beard Award-winners for the Portuguese/Macanese restaurant, which had been operating since 2012.

In 2018 in Chicago, after receiving James Beard honors for best chef Great Lakes Region, Conlon was emotional when he spoke about his critically acclaimed eatery, backstage at the gala ceremony. “I’m amazed, I’m humbled … I’m happy for my team, for Adrienne, for everyone who stands behind me every day that really puts in the hard work of waking up, going in there, cooking the food, serving the food, serving the wine. It takes a whole village behind me to actually make it happen. I think I’m just a spirit animal,” he said.