Hawksmoor to open second US restaurant in Chicago

Steakhouse restaurant group Hawksmoor is heading to Chicago to open its second US site in early 2024.

Co-founders Huw Gott and Will Beckett founded Hawksmoor in London in 2006 and its first international site opened in New York in 2021.

Now the team is to open a restaurant in the LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse building in Chicago. The 16,500 sq ft, three-storey space was first opened in 1887 in the heyday of the city’s cable car system.

It operated cable cars until 1906 and traded as a restaurant and sports bar inspired by basketball player Michael Jordan between 1993-1999. The site was designated as a Chicago Landmark in 2001.

Beckett said: “Chicago is the historical powerhouse of American beef, and when we found out about an actual powerhouse building, it felt like fate.”

Gott said: “Hopefully, the way we think about food and farming – which at its heart holds that the same things that guarantee high animal welfare and regenerative farming practices also guarantee great tasting beef, as well as the way we try to look after our teams and guests, seems to have resonated in the States.

“We can’t wait to continue trying to build something special on that side of the Atlantic.”

Hawksmoor operates seven restaurants in London and one each in Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and Dublin.