Chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark have announced the debut this summer of their new restaurant/bar Parachute Hi-Fi.
The new concept — a casual, high-fidelity music bar and restaurant — will be retrofitted into what previously was their Parachute restaurant location for 10 years at 3500 N. Elston Ave., in the Avondale neighborhood. No reservations will be required for the new eatery.
According to Monday’s announcement, the new restaurant’s vibe will bring “a new and exciting experience to the neighborhood that fuses together culinary cocktails, high-fidelity sound, creative Korean American cuisine and affections for future-nostalgia.”
“We want to grow Parachute. We want to allow ourselves to be as creative as we want to be. We believe that a restaurant can be expressive and agile, and it can be more than one thing in more than one space,” the married chefs said in a statement. “The new experience will be an expansion of the Parachute’s identity. Owning your evolution is important, and this is part of our story.”
The menu at Parachute Hi-Fi will boast an eclectic mix of Korean and American dishes from the James Beard Award-winning chefs, including the hugely popular and hard-to-find bing bread (in limited capacity), pepperoni kimchi pizza puffs, fish fillet sandwich with uni-tartar sauce, and raw fish and oysters.
On the cocktail side of things, expect the unexpected, according to Kim and Clark, with a spotlight on “sool” (Korean alcoholic beverages derived from rice). “We want to showcase the quality and creativity that Korea has to offer,” they said.
“The momentum and context of the past 10 years have been amazing and incredible,” Kim said during a chat with the Sun-Times last month after Parachute’s closing was announced. “But for the past 10 years it really has been a dream come true. ... We started small and grew that way. That gave Parachute its special quality, its personal touch. But sometimes when things are too small you can’t fit in some other ideas that you’re trying to reach for.”
“This will be a new album but with the same band,” the chefs said in Monday’s announcement about Parachute Hi-Fi.
