Chica Loca Owner Takes Cheap Shot at Roosevelt Collection; Kitty O'Shea's Still Open

Quick update on a post we did last week about two restaurants.

1)  Chica Loca at Roosevelt Collection
 Chicago Eater has confirmed that Chica Loca will not be opening at Roosevelt Collection.  The restaurant group, Restaurants America (most famously known for the Bar Louie concept), had announced four new restaurant throughout Chicago.

Sounds like 3 of the 4 have been scrapped and the fourth seems suspect.

Why are they not opening at Roosevelt Collection?  Here is what he had to say (via Eater Chicago):

Of Chica Loca, he (Roger Greenfield) says the "project was underperforming and we passed"; signage was recently taken down there as well and Roosevelt Collection's leasing agent declined comment.

Sounds like he's trying to save face at the expense of the Roosevelt Collection project.  Maybe the project's struggling?  Or maybe his grand plans are struggling?  We will let you draw your own conclusions.

One of the other locations that won't become a reality is the Grant Taproom just north of the Sloop at 320 S. Michigan, which we wrote about back in March.

While we know opening a restaurant isn't easy, it sound like the owner of Restaurant America has had a record of flops (judging from the Eater Chicago post and a linked article from Crain's back in 2007).

2)  Kitty O'Shea's is not closed!
Kitty O'Shea's at the Hilton Towers (720 S. Michigan) apparently went through a small renovation - it is not closed!  We had a bunch of readers send us info on the topic:

Kitty O'Shea's is not closed. The hotel sometimes closes it when occupancy is very low. Does look like they did some remodeling though.

Good to hear that they didn't close - and for those that are interested, we've updated the business counter to properly reflect that they haven't closed.

(Hat tip:  MJ!)