From the sixth floor of 15 E. Oak St., one terrace looks down on the corner of Oak and Rush and the other faces Mariano Park. Shoppers who knew this building as Barneys New York may remember lunch at Fred's on the same floor. Starting November 4, that floor's schedule added lunch again, Wednesday through Sunday. This time the restaurant is ARLA, and the menu pairs Japanese clay pot rice with charred scallion pita.
Half a block west, the steakhouse planned for 58 E. Oak St. inherits a 5,000-bottle wine tower from the restaurant that came before it.
Oak Street's food story this fall runs through rooms that already held restaurants. The block is getting new tenants in the same places, with the same terraces and the same wine tower.
Lunch on the sixth floor at Oak and Rush
ARLA comes from Hospitality Included, and its chef-partner is Soo Ahn, who is also behind Adalina Prime in the West Loop. Block Club Chicago reported a June 18 opening in the former Fred's at Barneys New York space. Its two terraces seat 60 guests combined.
The menu blends two coastal cuisines. Ahn told Block Club he first saw that combination at a Mediterranean-Asian restaurant in Miami. The hummus shows how it works. One version comes with Greek olive oil and sumac, the other with toasted sesame oil and housemade furikake. The raw bar includes Japanese yellowtail crudo with fennel and amba. There's a caviar sando on shokupan milk bread, and the tzatziki salmon maki is made with Ora King salmon.
The live-fire grill does the heavier work. It handles mushroom skewers from Four Star Mushrooms glazed with date molasses, citrus-marinated skirt steak with nori salsa, and a whole roasted cauliflower with a black lime crust. The dish Ahn talked about most was the rice, which ARLA sources from Japan and serves in clay pots with seasonal mushrooms and a marinated egg yolk.
"I bleed rice. I've had it my whole life with every dish, damn near every meal."
That's Ahn, speaking to Block Club Chicago before the opening.
ARLA opened as a dinner spot and added lunch in November. According to ARLA's own site, lunch starts Wednesday, November 4, and runs Wednesday through Sunday until 2:30 p.m. Dinner runs Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to midnight, Friday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The lunch and dinner menus are posted online, covering mezze, crudo, sushi rolls, skewers and mains such as Wagyu and fish.
The theater at 58 E. Oak St. gets its third restaurant
The rooftop's history goes back one tenant. The building at 58 E. Oak St. goes back further. Pieced together from Eater Chicago and Crain's reporting, the building's timeline looks like this.
- 1938. The Esquire Theater opens on Oak Street.
- 2006. The theater closes, and the building takes on a second life as a restaurant, first as Del Frisco's.
- November 2019. Cooper's Hawk opens its only Chicago location in the building, a 24,000-square-foot venue.
- July 17, 2023. Cooper's Hawk serves its final meal there.
- July 1, 2025. Crain's Chicago Business reports a new restaurant is coming to the former theater.
- May 29, 2026. Crain's reports a luxury steakhouse planned for the space, with an opening expected later in 2026.
- September 11, 2026. Eater Chicago's fall preview lists the new restaurant, Esquire from M Street Collective, with a late-fall ETA.
The restaurant has gone back to the theater's name. Eater describes Esquire as a Japanese-influenced steakhouse with a Wagyu program and sushi, caviar and seafood that use fish-aging techniques. Rare and reserve whiskies and a long sake list fill out the bar. The 265-seat room is designed around Hollywood's Golden Age, a fitting choice for a former movie house, with custom lighting and sculptural pieces. A retractable glass window will look out over Oak Street. Inside, a private club called ŌakSho will hold a 12-seat omakase counter.
The detail that connects all of this is the wine tower. The multi-story, 5,000-bottle tower from the Cooper's Hawk era stays in place, according to Eater, so Esquire is moving into a dining room that's already built around a wine program. The restaurant's website gives its address as 58 East Oak Street and has links for private inquiries and careers.
Ground-floor storefronts are signing first-in-Chicago leases
Upstairs and behind the old marquee, restaurants are reusing rooms that already had kitchens. At street level, Oak Street is doing what it has long done, which is drawing brands to Chicago for the first time. Two recent leases show the pattern.
Crain's Chicago Business reported on October 9, 2026 that Swedish fashion brand Toteme is opening its first Chicago store at 40 E. Oak St. Crain's called the street "the Gold Coast's ritziest shopping strip."
In June 2025, Parisian handbag brand Polène signed a 10-year lease on the 7,000-square-foot building at 116 E. Oak St. for its first Chicago store, according to The Real Deal. Crain's covered the same lease on June 12, 2025.
Here is the block at a glance, from east to west.
| Address | Name | What it is | Where things stand |
|---|---|---|---|
| 116 E. Oak St. | Polène | Parisian handbag brand, first Chicago store | 10-year lease reported June 2025 |
| 58 E. Oak St. | Esquire | Japanese-influenced steakhouse with ŌakSho omakase club | Eater listed a late-fall 2026 ETA |
| 40 E. Oak St. | Toteme | Swedish fashion brand, first Chicago store | Reported by Crain's on Oct. 9, 2026 |
| 15 E. Oak St., Floor 6 | ARLA | Mediterranean-Japanese restaurant with two terraces | Dinner nightly, with Wednesday through Sunday lunch starting Nov. 4 |
The street's own budget has holiday money set aside as well. Oak Street's special service area lists $65,000 for holiday decorations in its revised 2026 budget, according to the first-quarter financial report posted on the Oak Street site.
Saturday, Nov. 21, the parade steps off at the end of the block
Oak Street's eastern end, where it meets Michigan Avenue, is where Chicago's holiday season officially begins. The 35th annual Wintrust Magnificent Mile Lights Festival is Saturday, November 21. The parade lines up at Oak Street and Michigan Avenue and heads south.
The schedule posted by the Magnificent Mile Association:
- 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lights Festival Lane runs during the day.
- 5:30 p.m. The parade starts at Oak Street and Michigan Avenue and moves south down North Michigan Avenue.
- 7:30 p.m. The Wintrust Fireworks Spectacular goes off over the river.
The association bills the event as the largest nighttime parade in the United States. For the 35th edition, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are grand marshals along with characters from Walt Disney World Resort. The lineup also includes floats, marching bands from across the country, Santa Claus, and one million lights on the Magnificent Mile's 200-plus trees. Wintrust presents the festival, Enjoy Illinois is the presenting partner, and Chicagoland Kia Dealers provide support.
From Oak and Rush, the step-off point is a short walk east, and the parade heads south toward the river from there.
ARLA's sixth floor was a restaurant in the Barneys years. Esquire's wine tower is still in place from the Cooper's Hawk era. Lunch on the sixth floor at 15 E. Oak St. runs Wednesday through Sunday until 2:30 p.m., and the parade steps off at 5:30 p.m. on November 21.
When a block keeps landing first-in-Chicago leases and refilling its biggest dining rooms, nearby owners start asking what that means for their own address. If you live near Oak and Rush and want a clear look at what your home is worth this season, The Blume Group will put the numbers together for you. Request a free home valuation, and we'll walk you through it with no pressure and clear next steps.
