Urban Belly Is Moving To Randolph Street
By Anthony Todd in Food on Oct 11, 2013 7:00PM
The counter at the soon-to-be-defunct Urban Belly.
Kim told the Trib Thursday that the restaurant had outgrown its tiny kitchen and Cornerstone Group (which is the backer for BellyQ) is taking ownership in all of Kim's projects, thus the move from the beloved Avondale strip mall location to the take-out area of BellyQ.
Frankly, while we're happy for Kim's success, we're not thrilled about this move. One of the charming things about Urban Belly was that you had to actually go somewhere away from the city's entrenched restaurant areas to dine there. Urban Belly was also one of the first restaurants where a name chef scaled down from fine-dining fare to more accessible yet still outstanding food.
Once Urban Belly moves to Randolph Street it will just seem like an annex to BellyQ that is filled with the restaurant row customer. Plus, we just love the original space with its wood tones and bustling noisy atmosphere. On the other hand, the Urban Belly menu is expanding to include stir-frys, thanks to the larger kitchen space and there will be twice as much seating—maybe we're just being grumpy.
The last day of service at the current location is Oct. 20.