Interior details in Hawksmoor Chicago’s first-floor dining room
One of the world’s most highly lauded steakhouses has just taken up residence in Chicago. Opened in 2006 by childhood friends Will Beckett and Huw Gott, Hawksmoor has since established itself as a major player with 12 locations worldwide, in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Dublin and New York—and now it’s shaking up Chicago’s dining scene.
Named the #1 steakhouse in the world by the World’s Best Steak Restaurants in 2022, the B Corp Certified dining destination serves sustainably sourced, charcoal-grilled seafood and ethically reared cattle, with the Chicago location sourcing directly from family-run farms, including Lamers Dairy in Wisconsin, La Pryor Farms in Illinois and Fischer Farms in Indiana.
“Everything starts with great steak, but Hawksmoor is about the whole experience—from design to service to our acclaimed drinks program,” says Gott. “This isn’t a copy-and-paste chain restaurant; instead, we want to build a restaurant that stands the test of time and becomes part of the fabric of this great city.”
Menu offerings at Hawksmoor Chicago, including seafood and exclusive cuts of steak
Located within the three-story, 16,500-square-foot LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse, Hawksmoor Chicago (500 N. La Salle Drive) features a 125-seat first-floor dining room, a 76-seat second-floor dining room and two second-floor private dining rooms.
The restaurant’s design, completed by Hawksmoor’s Design Team, headed by Mai-Yee Ng, and U.K. Interior Architecture firm Macaulay Sinclair, restores the building’s original barrel-vaulted ceilings, exposed timber joists and brickwork and introduces new accents inspired by the ‘Golden Age of Travel.’
The location serves exclusive cuts like the Chateaubriand and grass-fed rib chop by the ounce, with rotating daily availability. The eatery’s “Beefsteak 1894” is inspired by a recipe in Chicago restauranteur H.M. Kinsley’s 1984 cookbook, served with optional add-ons like bone marrow oysters and bone marrow gravy.
Steak and gravy served at Hawksmoor Chicago
The restaurant features more than 12 new Hawksmoor entrees, including sharable starters like the shrimp cocktail with chili crunch cocktail sauce, the “Lobster Louis” seafood salad, the charcoal-roasted scallops with white port and garlic, the ash-baked beets with pickled fennel, horseradish and hazelnuts and the potted beef and bacon with Yorkshire puddings and pour-over onion gravy.
“I’m currently loving our brand-new Lobster Louis,” Gott says. “It is inspired by a seafood salad first served by Louis Stratta in Colorado Springs, with a dash of British-style ‘prawn cocktail’—a retro-tastic dish that was all the rage in the U.K. in the 1970s and ’80s.”
Entrees include charcoal-grilled wild halibut with Café de Paris butter, vegetarian Bent River Wellington with shiitake and oyster mushrooms and a cast-iron filet with bone marrow skirlie. For dessert, guests can sample the Atomic Sundae (inspired by Chicago’s iconic Atomic Cake), the chocolate and hazelnut “Grand Rocher” and the British sticky toffee pudding.
Beverage selections at Hawksmoor Chicago, including cocktails and craft beer
Hawksmoor’s beverage program—which has won the Best International Restaurant Bar at Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards twice—pays homage to the Windy City and the restaurant’s 2023 Dublin opening with Irish whiskeys, local craft brews and cocktails inspired by iconic Windy City steakhouses.
Offerings span the “Ultimate Martini”, an ultrasonically homogenized cocktail served at a temperature of 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the Michael Jordan-inspired “Jumpman” with Siete Misterios Mezcal, strawberry Soju, Aperol and lime juice and the Malört Martinez, “an icy cold Negroni-Martini mash-up which uses the bitterness of Chicago’s favorite ‘challenging’ spirit to its advantage,” Gott says.
Seating and spirits at Hawksmoor Chicago’s bar
With a purpose-driven hospitality model, the concept has donated more than $2.5 million to the community and international charities since its foundation. In honor of its Chicago opening, Hawksmoor partnered with local food education nonprofit Pilot Light and will donate an initial $10,000 during the launch, with continued work planned for fundraising and volunteering opportunities.
“We want everyone to feel comfortable and be true to themselves,” says Gott. “The key to that is ensuring that the people who work there enjoy what they do and are able to be themselves, a guiding principle for us that has seen us be named as a Best Employer in Hospitality for a record number of years.”
See also: The Most Anticipated Chicago Restaurant Openings Of 2024 - 2025
Photography by: Photography courtesy of Hawksmoor
