Logan Square Is Getting a Midwestern-Meets-French Bistro from Chef Christian Hunter

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Hooligan, Chef Christian Hunter’s upcoming new restaurant, is perhaps best encapsulated in tiny, salty fish eggs. Opening this fall at 2528 N. California Ave. in Logan Square, Hooligan aims to bring the high and low together on the same plate, presenting the bounty of the Great Lakes region and its traditions with French techniques – an approach exemplified by its caviar service. At Hooligan, this luxury ritual is Midwesternized: The caviar is from American paddlefish raised not far from Hunter’s hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, more affordable than the traditional caviar sourced from the paddlefish’s relative the sturgeon, and it might be served with seasoned potato chips. 

“We want people to sit down and realize that this food is amazing and that it’s awesome and it’s executed well, but it’s without all the pretense,” says Hunter. “You can have fun. You can let loose a little bit.” 

Hunter made his name in Chicago as the opening chef at Atelier, garnering the tiny Lincoln Square spot a coveted Michelin star in its first year. But he wanted to offer something more accessible than a tasting menu and started exploring opportunities to do so after a year at Atelier, leaving the restaurant entirely last year. (It closed not long after moving to a new location this year.) Hooligan is the realization of that search.

“I loved opening Atelier and it was a lot of fun [offering] that two-and-a-half-hour experience, but the goal with this place is to bring that same level of execution with a little bit more lightness,” he says. 

At Hooligan, whose menu will change with the seasonal availability of products from farms throughout the Midwest, you might find perch from the Great Lakes with sauce gribiche – which is not too far from that Midwestern staple of egg salad. Hunter’s Kentucky upbringing shows up in cornbread with pimento cheese and chicken liver parfait. Eastern France is transposed to the middle of America with quenelles of regional freshwater pike served inside ravioli in a crayfish-based sauce. Hunter also promises to be “fearless” in his use of vegetables. 

Hooligan’s mash-up of the Midwest and France – which Hunter is calling “third coast contemporary” – is a winning prospect these days, with both Creepies and Petite Edith opening in Chicago in the last year with the same proposition; Creepies in particular has drawn continuous local and national acclaim. But celebrating regional American foods and produce with European techniques and a dash of global inspiration is an approach Hunter has been thoughtfully refining for years. 

Before Atelier brought him to Chicago, he was the chef at a secluded, seasonally obsessed restaurant in Connecticut, becoming a James Beard Award semifinalist for his work there. In the years after Atelier, he has experimented with elevated bar food like Cincinnati chili in pop-ups.  “Hooligan is a culmination of my time in the industry,” he says.

The restaurant’s name is a reference not just to the raucous good time he wants people to have but also to how he has sometimes felt as a Black chef who grew up with limited means in the South, to “feeling like a hooligan at times in an industry that didn’t seem like it was accepting of me or anyone that looks like me that wanted to do the things” he wanted to do.

The restaurant was supposed to open inside Time Out Market in the Fulton Market District, but the Market suddenly shuttered at the beginning of this year, before Hooligan could debut. In the end, Hunter is glad to have ended up in Logan Square amongst so many restaurants he admires.

“It just seems like a really cool neighborhood for a chef like myself who is on the progressive end of food and really wanting to push really cool food,” he says. His “neo-bistro” is meant to “be a place that fits in the neighborhood,” he says. “Stop in with us, grab a glass of wine, a couple of bites.” 

In addition to the a la carte offerings, there will also be a set dinner-for-two menu option. And meals at Hooligan will be enriched by an extra included treat: maybe a savory bite when you come in, or a sweet to see you out the door. Hospitality will be overseen by Hunter’s business partner and general manager Tyrone Redic, Jr., who brings plenty of fine-dining experience to a more casual space, with time at Charlie Trotter’s, Grace, and more. 

“This restaurant means a lot to me,” says Hunter. “Frankly, it could be the only one I ever open personally, and if that’s the case, I want to make sure that it really is an expression of what has been almost 20 years of experience and learning and food and stories and history.” 

“I’m not done yet,” he says. “Frankly, I’ve just started.”