Savoy

When it opened in December 1999, BIN 36 uncorked a dynamic new era in contemporary wining and dining with its multi-faceted, wine-driven concept. Situated in the heart of booming River North, this 12,000-square-foot complex sizzles with social, dining and retail activity from the crack of dawn to the wee hours, 365 days a year. Above all else, every aspect of BIN 36’s exciting, innovative menu of offerings is fueled by a contagious passion for drinking wine.

So much more than a traditional restaurant, BIN 36 is a thriving, one-stop destination for young professionals, area business people and Chicago visitors seeking everything from cappuccinos and small plates to a quick lunch, an after-work social scene or full-service, casual fine dining – even convenient shopping for wines, books and gifts. When you enter BIN 36, a variety of options are immediately apparent. You might head for the Cheese Bar, the retail Market, the meet-and-mingle Tavern café area, the Central Bar or the full-service Cellar dining room. Add a commitment to fun, unpretentious wine education, a vast selection of wine products, books and stemware in the Market and monthly tastings, classes and four annual large-scale events and you begin to get an idea of the versatility of this unique concept.

Partners Dan Sachs and Brian Duncan (Wine Director), the team behind the former, nationally-recognized Spruce, were driven by a vision of becoming Chicago’s nexus for wine information – sharing their love of wine, expanding the public’s wine comfort zone and pairing exciting wines with creative yet accessible American food. They decided that most people weren’t drinking enough wine and wanted to do their part to change that. The result? BIN 36 patrons are drinking wine like never before – resulting in an unprecedented 97% of beverage sales devoted to wine.

This stunning development can be attributed in part to the BIN 36 attitude toward wine, which is at once easy-going and interactive, educational and celebratory. “Our wine program is all about discovery, quality and practical application. Everything from our menus, our events, even the music, all feeds into that. And it all happens in a fun, loosened-up environment with a professional staff,” says Sachs. Wine Director Brian Duncan adds, “Our customers trust us, they believe in what we’re doing. You could say we’ve done their wine homework for them, making it easy to drink great wines in a setting that’s fashionable yet friendly and comfortable.”

Overseen by the award-winning Duncan, who has thrice been nominated for  “James Beard Awards for Outstanding Wine Service”, the user-friendly BIN 36 wine program is based on a foundation of fifty wines available by the taste, glass, flight or bottle in the Cellar, Tavern, Cheese Bar and Central Wine Bar. This carefully choreographed range of affordable wines ranges from $5.75-$20 per glass, $23-$80 per bottle. The same fifty wines are offered for sale by the bottle in the Market, complete with detailed tasting and food-pairing notes. Catering to the more knowledgeable wine connoisseur, the wine list in the Cellar dining room offers around 400 handpicked selections from a 5,000-bottle cellar. BIN 36’s user-friendly wine pairing system has been enthusiastically received, both locally and nationally. In the Fall 2006 issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine, BIN 36 was chosen as “the Best Wine-Pairing System” in the nation, and Duncan, its creator, was featured in the September 2006 issue of Food & Wine Magazine as one of America’s leading wine experts.

Though a wine-driven concept at heart, BIN 36 has received numerous accolades for its contemporary American cuisine, developed seasonally under the watchful eye of Executive Chef John Caputo. In an October 2006 re-review, food critic Pat Bruno of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the restaurant a glowing three stars, praising the menu’s  “straightforward simplicity” and calling the dinner menu  “a paradigm of contemporary American fare.”

Dining options abound at BIN 36, including a Cheese Bar offering 50 artisanal cheeses and the café-style Tavern, a popular meeting spot serving light fare from early lunch on weekdays or breakfast on weekends until late night. In the Cellar, BIN 36’s seasonal contemporary American fare offers a more in-depth dining experience for lunch or dinner. Every selection on the menu, from salad to dessert, is paired with two or three suggested wines, selected by Duncan.

The atmosphere of this lively restaurant is open, airy, energetic and upbeat. A clean-lined, loft-like feel prevails, with high ceilings, exposed ductwork and floor-to-ceiling windows inviting in natural light in the day, city lights at night. BIN 36 was designed by Adam Weintraub of KOKO Architecture + Design, with blond woods, neutral and earth tones and brushed metal furniture. Open shadow-box shelving partitions the Market from the Tavern; the elliptical bar joins the Tavern to the Cellar dining room. Above the Cellar, a lofty mezzanine area doubles as dining and event space, where regularly scheduled BIN School educational wine tastings and other wine-related happenings are held.

In the Market, guests can purchase bottles of the fifty wines available by the glass, as well as a variety of wine books, games and paraphernalia. In the evenings, interactive offerings might include a corkscrew or decanting demonstration, wine comparison or a tasting which breaks down a selected wine’s flavor components.

BIN 36 is adjacent to the Hotel Sax, a Gemstone Resorts property, in River North’s Marina City complex, just north of the Chicago Loop. BIN 36 is open 365 days a year, Monday – Thursday from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, visit www.bin36.com.