Michael Cullen’s Next Stage
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
When Cullen and his former theater partners Sheila Henaghan and Howard Platt shut down their theatrical production company in 1992, Carlucci suggested Cullen take some time off from show business and come to work for him to learn the restaurant trade. Cullen says he was ready to take a break from producing theater anyway because it had become nearly impossible to turn a profit. Weekly rental fees for large, off-Loop theaters such as the Ivanhoe and Briar Street had zoomed from about $7,000 in 1989 to around $12,000 in 1992, making it difficult for commercial theater producers to make money on any show that wasn’t a hit. “We weren’t in the theater business to support landlords,” Cullen says, “and we all decided we had better things to do.”
Once construction was under way, Cullen shifted his attention to food. He says he wanted a chef who could turn out fresh, high-quality dishes at reasonable prices. A year ago he ran into Alan Katz, an old friend who’d been the chef at Blue Mesa for eight years. Katz told Cullen he was thinking of making a change. “I had always worked in a place where the bar wasn’t the main focus, and it intrigued me to be able to do creative food in a bar environment,” Katz says. The pair came up with a menu that includes hearty, homey foods such as meat loaf, Irish stew, and chicken potpie, as well as more adventurous fare for a pub like artichoke dip, crab cakes, and unusual pasta dishes. Most of Cullen’s entrees are priced at around $10, and sandwiches, salads, appetizers, and desserts range from $3 to $7.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jim Alexander Newberry.
