Fat Rice

Last updated

Fat Rice
Restaurant information
Established2012
Closed2020
ChefAbraham Conlon
City Chicago
State Illinois
CountryUnited States

Fat Rice was an American restaurant inspired by the food and culture of Macau, China. [1] Located in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois and operating from 2012 to 2020, Fat Rice was known for their Arroz Gordo, a home-style Macanese dish which translates to "fat rice". [1] Then-head chef Abraham Conlon once claimed Fat Rice is the "only restaurant in the world" to serve the dish.

Contents

Background

Fat Rice Restaurant, which was founded in 2012, closed down normal operations in March 2020. [2]

Philanthropy

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Fat Rice owners launched the Fat Rice Community Relief Kitchen to help their staff, other restaurant workers, and Fat Rice customers. [3] Conlon and Lo provided meal kits which were offered at whatever price people could afford to pay. [4] Those meal kits were either delivered or taken out, considering people’s safety. Each meal kit intended to supply three meals to two people contained tofu and vegetable soup, pork meatloaf with mushrooms, and marinated chicken thighs with vegetables. [3]  

Their mission was to help flatten the curve of coronavirus outbreak and to help those people who were financially struggling due to restaurant closures. [5]

Ownership

Fat Rice was owned and managed by Abraham Conlon, a James Beard Foundation award winner, [6] and Adrienne Lo, a Chinese American and Chicago native. [7] Both have culinary roots. [8]

Fat Rice also operated an adjacent cocktail bar, called The Ladies' Room [9] and an Asian-inspired pastry shop called The Bakery at Fat Rice. [10]

Awards

Leadership controversy

The restaurant's owners, Abe Conlon and Adrienne Lo, made two Instagram posts in solidarity with those participating in the George Floyd protests in early June 2020. [16] Conlon issued an apology for his behavior on Instagram, [17] and shut Super Fat Rice Mart indefinitely after the criticism. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Andrés</span> Spanish-American chef

José Ramón Andrés Puerta is a Spanish and American chef and restaurateur. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States in the early 1990s and since then, he has opened restaurants in several American cities. He has won a number of awards, both for his cooking, and his humanitarian work. He is a professor as well as the founder of the Global Food Institute at George Washington University.

Alpana Singh is an American Master Sommelier, restaurateur and local television personality in Chicago, Illinois.

Stephanie Izard is an American chef and television personality best known as the first female chef to win Bravo's Top Chef, taking the title during its fourth season. She is the co-owner and executive chef of three award-winning Chicago restaurants, Girl and the Goat, Little Goat, and Duck Duck Goat, and opened her first restaurant, Scylla as chef-owner at the age of 27. Izard received a James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Chef: Great Lakes" in 2013 for her work at Girl and the Goat. She has made a number of appearances on Top Chef since her win, both as a guest judge on subsequent seasons and as a participant in Top Chef Duels. In 2017, Izard competed in the Food Network series Iron Chef Gauntlet, where she overall defeated chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Masaharu Morimoto to obtain the title of Iron Chef.

Paul Virant is the chef and owner of Vie in Western Springs, Illinois, Vistro Prime in Hinsdale, Illinois, and Gaijin in Chicago, Illinois. His contributions to cooking include introducing inventive canning and preservation recipes to the restaurant industry, which culminated into the release of his cookbook, The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Solomonov</span> Israeli chef and restaurateur (born 1978)

Michael Solomonov is an Israeli chef known for his restaurants in Center City, Philadelphia. His first restaurant Zahav, founded in 2008, has received national recognition including the James Beard Foundation "Outstanding Restaurant" in 2019. Solomonov was also awarded Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2011, Cookbook of the Year in 2016, and Outstanding Chef in 2017 from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, The New York Times named his restaurant Laser Wolf as one of "the 50 places in America we're most excited about right now."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acadia (restaurant)</span> Defunct restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Acadia was a restaurant in the South Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It was opened by Ryan McCaskey in 2011. The restaurant served New American cuisine inspired by Maine's culinary history. It received Michelin stars several years in a row until its closure in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sopa de lacassá</span>

Lacassá Soup is a Macanese soup.

Tacho, also known as Chau-Chau Pele, is considered to be a Macanese variant of Cozido à Portuguesa that is found in Portuguese cuisine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arroz gordo</span>

Arroz gordo is a rice dish that is often consumed by Eurasian communities in Goa, Macao, Malaysia, and Singapore. It has been likened to a variant of Paella.

Claudio Velez, often referred to as the Tamale Guy, Authentic Tamale Guy or the Tamale Man, is a cook and mobile caterer of tamales in Chicago. Originally from Acapulco, Mexico, Velez has a longstanding reputation in the city's North Side nightlife as a food provider outside and inside of clubs, bars, and other establishments open late at night. He has been called "Santa Claus for the drunk and hungry" and sells up to 250 pork, chicken or cheese tamales a night. A mobile app through a Twitter account was developed by a customer intended to help others track his location across the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lem's Bar-B-Q</span> Restaurant in Illinois, U.S.

Lem's Bar-B-Q is a barbecue restaurant in the Chatham community of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. The restaurant is known for its rib tips, which Eater has described as Chicago's "most famous rib tips."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coquine</span> Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Coquine is a restaurant located in the Mount Tabor neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. The restaurant serves French-inspired food made from ingredients purchased from local farms as well as Stumptown Coffee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manny's Deli</span> Delicatessen in Chicago, IL USA

Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen, commonly known as Manny's Deli and sometimes known as Manny's Coffee Shop & Deli, is a delicatessen in Chicago, Illinois, United States, located in the Near West Side community area. It has been described as "the biggest, best-known, and oldest deli in the city". The deli has long been a meeting place for Chicago politicians and became the subject of national interest because of its popularity with President Barack Obama. One writer called Manny's "the second-most-likely place to see local politicians, after City Hall", and former governor George Ryan referred to it in his memoir as "one of my favorite places to eat lunch in Chicago" and reminisced about once receiving a phone call from Nelson Mandela while eating a corned beef sandwich there.

Dacha Diner was an Eastern European, Jewish, and Russian restaurant in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, in the U.S. state of Washington.

Abraham Conlon is an American chef and a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, of Portuguese heritage. Conlon is the winner of the 2018 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella Elli</span> Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Ella Elli is a restaurant and bar in Chicago, Illinois. Matt Eversman, Dan Harris, and Nolan Narut have been chefs at the restaurant, which is one of others in the area owned by 4 Star Restaurant Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cafecito (restaurant)</span> Restaurant chain in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Cafecito is a restaurant chain based in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. There are three locations, as of 2023. Owned by Philip Ghantous, Cafecito serves Latin American cuisine and has garnered a positive reception, especially for its Cuban sandwich.

Indienne is an Indian restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2023.

References

  1. 1 2 Mai, Jeffy (March 2, 2017). "How Fat Rice's Arroz Gordo Is a Chicago-Only Melting Pot of Cuisines". Eater. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  2. ↑ Smith, Colby (April 29, 2020). "Fat Rice Restaurant Has Closed And Opened A Market In Its Place". Secret Chicago. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Bloom, Mina (March 19, 2020). "Fat Rice Offering Pay-What-You-Can Meal Kits To Laid-Off Industry Workers, Others In Need". Block Club Chicago. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  4. ↑ Walsh, Molly. "Acclaimed Chicago Restaurant Sells Pay-What-You-Can Food Kit During Coronavirus Crisis". NBC Chicago. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  5. ↑ Bendersky, Ari. "Chicago Restaurants Are Turning to Philanthropy to Help Staff, Community". InsideHook. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  6. ↑ Selvam, Ashok (May 7, 2018). "Fat Rice's Abe Conlon Wins Chicago's Only James Beard Award in 2018". Eater Chicago. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  7. ↑ "About Abe, Adrienne and Fat Rice". Plate. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  8. ↑ Dean, Jacob (April 23, 2018). "Chef Abraham Conlon, Fat Rice, and the Search for Flavor". The Cook's Cook. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  9. ↑ Selvam, Ashok (December 30, 2015). "Fat Rice Reveals The New Skinny About Their Upcoming Cocktail Lounge". Eater. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  10. ↑ Todd, Anthony (January 17, 2018). "The Bakery at Fat Rice Is Making the Best New Cookie in Chicago". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  11. ↑ Knowlton, Andrew. "Fat Rice - #4 Best New Restaurant in America 2013". Bon Appetit. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Best New Restaurant | Eat Out Awards 2013". Time Out Chicago. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  13. ↑ Addison, Bill (October 4, 2017). "The Midwest's 38 Essential Restaurants". Eater. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Fat Rice Named Restaurant of the Year, Expansion and Bar Coming Soon". DNAinfo Chicago. Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Nominees & Winners". Jean Banchet Awards. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  16. ↑ Anderson, Brett (June 16, 2020). "A Top Chicago Restaurant Messaged Its Virtue. Then Workers Spoke Up". The New York Times. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  17. ↑ Selvam, Ashok (June 17, 2020). "Acclaimed Fat Rice Topples After Outcry from Employees". Eater. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  18. ↑ Bloom, Mina (June 9, 2020). "Fat Rice Shut Down Indefinitely After Employees Accuse Co-Owner Of Racism, Verbal Abuse: 'I Am Deeply Sorry'". Block Club Chicago. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.