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Copyright 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago Sun-Times
November 12, 2000, SUNDAY, Three Star Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8-9
RESTAURATEUR TURNS AN OLD TAVERN INTO A DREAM
BYLINE: BY DAVE HOEKSTRA
Sparks fly. Wheels screech. It has been a long ride for Rodney Alex, whose restaurant opened Thursday night underneath the L tracks at the corner of Lake and Carpenter streets.
He dreamed of opening his first restaurant by the time he turned 35. He is 34.
Alex opened the doors at Rushmore, 1023 W. Lake, at 5:30 p.m. He pulled a good first-night crowd. More than 40 customers walked in just on the word-of-mouth buzz. The well-dressed crowd included Ald. Ed Burke and folks from the gentrified Fulton Market neighborhood. Lobster pot pie with vegetables was the night's biggest hit.
Rushmore, a regional American restaurant, seems right for this market district of biceps and high steps. It's on the fringe of Randolph Street Restaurant Row -- near enough to be cool, far enough to retain a neighborhood touch.
Alex named the place after D's Rushmore Inn, a long-gone tavern serving Fulton Market meat-packers that was in the same old and brawny red-brick building. The original D's Rushmore Inn wood lettering was still above the door when Alex discovered the space in January. Members of the Polkaholics punk-polka band hang around in an upstairs apartment. Alex looked at 10 locations before settling on D's Rushmore Inn.
The restaurant's interior is done in eggshell tones, with hanging art deco lights. Angular fins hold down the noise, but also bring warmth and flow to the dining room. The feel is sparse.
"I wanted to keep it small," Alex says of his 65-seat eatery. "And I wanted to find a corner. One of the toughest things in Chicago is to find a small corner restaurant.
"There was talk of going to the South Loop, but this is my first restaurant. I didn't want to be that adventurous. And the rents on Randolph are starting to skyrocket. We looked at Madison. Monroe. I didn't get a vibe for it. But I got that vibe for Rushmore."
Late last summer, the Sun-Times began to chronicle the steps of opening Rushmore.
Week of Aug. 21 -- Alex is sitting at a table at Sushi Wabi, 842 W. Randolph. He is planning the Rushmore menu. "Everybody's doing the same thing," he says. "American with French influences or fusing everything. I want to create something where I can have food that's on a high level, but American, familiar and very fresh.
"For instance, I love to make chicken pot pie at home. At Rushmore we'll have a lobster pot pie with mushrooms and English peas. We'll bring in those luxury ingredients, but it's still a pot pie with the flaky pastry crust. And every Friday at Rushmore we'll do a fish fry, but it will be amazing pieces of fish -- grouper or red snapper." Prices at Rushmore range from a daily blue plate special that starts at $ 14 to Colorado rack of lamb for $ 26. Lunch service will begin in January.
During almost the entire year of 1998, Alex was a waiter at Green Dolphin Street, 2200 N. Ashland. Franco Gianni was general manager of the restaurant-jazz club. When Gianni left Green Dolphin Street to open Sushi Wabi, Alex was promoted to Gianni's position.
In January 1999, Gianni approached Alex about opening an American-influenced restaurant. Gianni became a consultant and partner for the half-million-dollar venture. "Rodney loves the restaurant business," says Gianni, 35. "So do I. To work together on something we have passion and pride in gives me confidence big time."
Alex drew up the business plan. He found the restaurant site. "I put the buzz on the street," he says in cocksure tones. "I worked with the chef (and partner Michael Hazen, formerly of Blackbird) to create the menu and the architect (Ed Twohey of Burns & Beyerl) to design the restaurant." Alex reported back to Gianni every week.
Choosing the right name was key.
Chicago has too many one-syllable restaurants: Toast, Dish, Grace, Thyme, Feast, Fuel, Mas . . . Stop. "It's funny, I wanted to call it Red, like red wine or red meat," Alex says. "We decided that wasn't good. Scarlet was another name. So was Gravy. You try to find a powerful name that sticks out. I don't have a degree in restaurant management, but I've heard of studies where people say the word should be two syllables and memorable. Rushmore fit that."
"My chef thought it was perfect, and he was right. It's distinguished, it says American. We're not going to have busts of presidents on our bar, but it conjures up that image. It also creates the image of that (1999 Bill Murray) movie that came out. A lot of people said that."
Alex was born in Philadelphia. He was reared in Cleveland and North Carolina. His father was a chemical salesman. His mother and father divorced in 1984. Alex has lived in Chicago nine years. He was studying at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and dating someone from Chicago. When he helped her move back home, he looked around and fell in love with the town. First sight.
Week of Aug. 28 -- It's hard to believe Alex still plans to open the restaurant in a month. He is standing amid dust, drywall and disjointed dreams. For most of August the 10-man Storefitters, Inc. contracting crew has been installing drywall and doing exterior and interior brick work. They are working on the electricity and plumbing. Some of them are Polish immigrants. Alex speaks to the foreman in English, who translates for his laborers.
What has been the biggest snag to date?
"The building permit," Alex answers. "Dealing with the city was an arduous process. It cost us a lot of money because it's impossible to gauge when you're going to get those permits. We were going to open in August. Now we're looking at October. So we've lost revenue."
Alex relaxes when he begins to talk about his vision for Rushmore's interior. This way he sees the finish line. Along with architect Twohey, Alex chooses textured earth-tone fabrics. The 12-seat bar is being constructed from cherry veneer, with a black wrought iron footrail to maintain something of the feel of the old D's Rushmore Inn. The Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired cherry chairs and bar stools are ordered from Agati, a furniture manufacturer about two blocks west of the restaurant.
Food critics will mention the L tracks right out Rushmore's front door. "I love the fact that when you're sitting in the dining room, you'll feel the rumble of the train roar by," Alex says. "I want the restaurant to embrace that urban environment. After being priced out of Randolph Street and a couple of River North locations, I decided I didn't want my overhead to be that high. Instead of paying x dollars in rent, I'd rather pay that money to a chef or a pastry chef (Andre Christopher, formerly of Green Dolphin Street) who is going to do a good job -- and also be able to pass that savings on to my diners.
"If you build it and the food is good, people will come."
Week of Sept. 4 -- Workers begin the week by ripping the old facade off the storefront. They discover two ornate cast iron support beams, which excites Alex. "We knew there would be beams, otherwise the front of the building would fall off," he says. "But we had no idea they would be this ornate. We found a connection for the turn-of-the-century gas lamp that was beautiful. It actually changed the complexion of the way we wanted the restaurant's front to look."
With the discovery, Alex moved away from a standard pre-fab glass storefront in favor of something more customized in ornate style, accented by an eight-foot-tall cherry door. He says: "It enhances the front of the building so much. These beams existed on a lot of Chicago buildings, but they've been ripped down because of years of abuse. But these are in really great shape. It really is quite remarkable."
Week of Sept. 18 -- This is the most intense week for Alex. He still hasn't pinpointed a date for the Rushmore opening, yet he is finishing up last-minute details. "For instance, the doorway into my kitchen was built too narrow," he says. "I can't get my pastry oven in. The doorway is going to have to come down. The closer you focus, the more things you see that have to be done."
Alex is married to Cynthia Gill-Alex, a former public relations manager at Planet Hollywood. She is helping Alex assemble his Rushmore press kit. They live in North Lake View. "I take it all home with me," he admits. "As we get closer to the opening, there's so many things going on during the day that I go home and turn myself off. We share a bottle of really great red wine. My wife has been so supportive and understanding through this whole deal."
Week of Oct. 16 -- Every restaurant has a soundtrack, and Alex is thinking about the Rushmore groove. "You pick music by feel and what the space is," he says. "This will be American. And Americans invented jazz. People will be listening to a lot of jazz at Rushmore. Not just John Coltrane or Miles Davis, but new artists like (tenor saxophonist) James Carter, who recently did 'Chasing the Gypsy' (a tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt)."
Alex also goes to the police department's Area 4 license unit, 3340 W. Fillmore St. to get fingerprinted by a representative of the organized crime division, which is a part of the liquor license application process.
Friday, Oct. 27 -- The good news is that the wall lighting has arrived. The bad news is that it is fluorescent lighting instead of incandescent. Fluorescent lighting cannot be dimmed to soften the ambience. Alex orders new fixtures. (They arrive the day of the opening).
Tuesday, Oct. 31 -- Halloween is "D-Day," according to Alex. Inspectors from the city departments of fire, health and buildings are slated to go over Rushmore with a fine-tooth comb.
Alex is told the inspectors could drop in anywhere between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. The fire inspector is the first to arrive at 8:30 a.m. and others show up throughout the day. They snoop around until 2 p.m.
"I was dying," Alex says. "I was really nervous. That is the day when all your questions are answered. When you're doing a rehab of a 100-year-old building, you never know what they're going to think."
But it was all treats and no tricks.
"The fire and health department were impressed that not only did we meet code, we exceeded code," he says. "For example, our kitchen is seamless. It's such an easy kitchen to clean. I was relieved. At 3:30 I turned off my cell phone and opened a bottle of wine."
Wednesday, Nov. 1 -- Rushmore's 20 employees go through orientation at the restaurant site. "It was great to see their impression of the space," Alex says, "because the only people who have had any impression were myself, Franco and the chef. They liked the way it looked.
Alex takes a look around his evolving dream, a week before it will open to the public. He smiles like a jazzman who has completed a cresting solo.
The room falls quiet, and Alex says, "Restaurants take on a life of their own."
GRAPHIC: Rushmore co-owner Rodney Alex wanted his restaurant to stand out. "Everybody's doing the same thing," he says. "American with French influences or fusing everything. I want to create something where I can have food that's on a high level, but American, familiar and very fresh." The owners of Rushmore knew that getting it started would require a lot of elbow grease. Rushmore partners Franco Gianni (from left), chef Michael Hazen and Rodney Alex all have a stake in the half-million-dollar venture. Alex looked at 10 spots before settling on the building at 1023 W. Lake. Rodney Alex serves customers at the restaurant's opening Thursday. He had a good showing for a first night: 40 customers. Chef Michael Hazen prepares entrees in the open kitchen. Rodney Alex and Hazen worked to develop Rushmore's menu. The hit of the eatery's opening night was lobster pot pie. Prices range from a daily blue plate special that starts at $ 14 to Colorado rack of lamb for $ 26.
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