The Blackhawks Expand Their Open-to-the-Public Training Facility and Include Two Eateries from a Respected Restaurant Group

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One Off Hospitality is opening new restaurants on the Near West Side, but it’s not the West Loop as you might think, nor are they the kind of restaurants you expect. Rocky’s Table & Tap and Raise the Cup Café are both located inside the newly minted Blackhawks Ice Center at 1801 W. Jackson Blvd., an expansion of the Chicago NHL team’s training facility that includes four ice rinks used by everyone from the Blackhawks, visiting NHL teams, and the junior hockey league team the Chicago Steel to high schools and the public. 

The two eateries are something of a departure for One Off, the respected group behind such seminal restaurants as avec, The Publican, and Big Star. Less concept-driven than those spots, Rocky’s – named after the late Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz – and Raise the Cup are targeted at the families and public who come to the ice rinks for games or open public skates, students and faculty from the neighboring Malcom X College, United Center patrons, and others in an area that currently lacks many options. (Skate rental is available; check online for a schedule of freestyle and public skates.)

The Blackhawks Ice Center is a first step in a large-scale plan by the owners of the Blackhawks and the Chicago Bulls to change that. They have outlined a development plan for the area surrounding the United Center, where both teams play, to replace parking lots and other land with an entertainment venue, hotel, green space, housing, retail, and more. The plan is called the 1901 Project in reference to the United Center’s address at 1901 W. Madison St., and is expected to take 10-15 years to complete. The project will eventually connect the Blackhawks Ice Center directly to United Center, which is visible from an outdoor patio at the newly expanded facility, formerly called Fifth Third Arena. 

“At the core is getting on the ice and skating, but we also wanted to have a building for people to come and have fun and connect,” said the Blackhawks’ Jamie Faulkner at a preview event for the two new restaurants.

Raise the Cup is located on the first floor near lounge seating that offers a view of two of the ice rinks. It offers pastries from One Off’s award-winning Publican Quality Bread alongside La Colombe coffee, sandwiches, and smoothies. Directly above, up sweeping stairs with stadium seating alongside them, is the sports bar Rocky’s.

Blackhawks owner Danny Wirtz “told me we want to do stadium food,” One Off chef and partner Paul Kahan said at the preview. “So we’re trying to do the best stadium food.”

There’s a jalapeño cheddar brat and hot dogs made specifically for One Off, with casings that actually snap when you bite them. You can douse that hot dog in chili cheese, or enjoy a smash burger, thin-crust tavern-style pizza, and a few salads. Other stadium classics include nachos and a large pretzel, while the chicken tenders, Kahan insisted, “are the best I’ve ever had.” They’re gluten-free, and feature actual thick cuts of breast meat; they’re also available on a sandwich. 

“Our head of culinary Perry [Hendrix] worked for many months to develop a gluten-free breading recipe, and it’s so good,” Kahan said. 

It’s the kind of food that men’s hockey leagues, who down pallets of Labatt’s beer after games, will devour. Rocky’s, unsurprisingly, features a very extensive bar.

Kahan, who was wearing a jersey for Blackhawks goaltender Spencer Knight, is a huge hockey fan. Nearly every year for his birthday, he and his wife travel to another city to go see the Blackhawks play.

This isn’t One Off’s first foray into feeding athletes. They have been the designated food suppliers for the Chicago Fire since last year, running a kitchen in the Fire’s training facility and providing meals for the team before and after games. (Like the Blackhawks and the Bulls, the Fire are also engaging in large-scale construction, breaking ground on a new stadium south of downtown early this month.) It’s all part of an expansion of their catering operations, a steady revenue stream in an ever-difficult restaurant industry.

The Blackhawks Ice Center opens at a time of exploding interest in hockey, following the gold medal victory of the U.S. national team at the Olympics and the surprise popularity of the fictional HBO series Heated Rivalry. And the debut of the restaurants could fill a gap recently opened by the closure of the decades-old Palace Grill, a nearby diner that was known for serving both Blackhawks fans and players. The Palace Grill’s collection of Blackhawks memorabilia even has an analogue at the Blackhawks Ice Center, which commemorates 100 years of the team with a display of archival objects, historic program book covers, and a row of hockey sticks marking every year of existence – including red sticks denoting six championship wins.