2006 R&I Ivy Awards: mk the Restaurant, Chicago
By Kate Leahy, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/1/2006
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Ignore the crystal stemware and the china plates. Dismiss the much-heralded wine list. And forget about the attentive service. After all, husband and wife team Michael and Lisa Kornick are trying to run a casual, family restaurant.
“I always think of this as a restaurant where you can come as you are but you’ll be treated at a heightened level,” says Michael Kornick.
No matter the couple’s intentions, it’s hard to fathom wearing jeans and sneakers when dining at mk the Restaurant, where a polished staff coddles diners with a something-for-everyone seasonal menu.
Regardless of dress code—or lack of one—mk is an elegant, simple affair.
Other than the cramped kitchen that somehow gracefully handles 300 covers on a Saturday night, the building’s interior has come a long way since Kornick took over the space from a short-lived Italian restaurant (the first thing to go was the giant fountain in the middle of the dining room). Save for a few grand arrangements, flowers are kept to a minimum in the three-tiered dining room, keeping tables clear of distractions from the food. Tables are purposely small, allowing intimacy among companions regardless of how bustling the large dining room becomes. The color scheme evokes untreated canvas.
“I wanted the guests and how they are dressed to be the feeling of the restaurant,” Kornick explains.
With its high ceiling, black metal rails, and black-and-white paintings, the space draws on the neighboring loft buildings. Still, mk is not a place that someone accidentally would happen upon. “You have to know that we are here. It’s definitely more of a destination,” General Manager Kara Sherman says.
That doesn’t keep the large dining room from filling with repeat guests and out-of-towners—some of whom dine there nearly every night they’re in town. The secret may be the restaurant’s dedication to making guests feel welcome: At mk, the celebrities are the diners, not the chefs.
Opened in 1998 on a tight budget of $750,000, mk was the culmination of a dream for Kornick, a 1982 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America who had gained kitchen skills and business acumen working alongside such well-known operators such as Barry Wine of New York City’s Quilted Giraffe, Gordon Sinclair of Gordon in Chicago and Rich Melman of Chicago’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. After opening restaurants for the now-dissolved KDK Restaurant Group, Kornick realized it was time to break out on his own. He found a location and assembled a staff, including mk’s current Executive Chef Todd Stein and Sherman. Almost instantly, his namesake restaurant was a hit, grossing $5.6 million in its first year.
The Answer Is Yes
Diners can be fickle trend-seekers, so cultivating repeat business relies on attentive service. At mk, this means asking guests which table they prefer before seating them and paying attention to special needs when taking reservations. But most important to Kornick is knowing more about his guests as individuals. At mk, service is not invisible, it’s engaged.
“Michael talks about this a lot,” says Sherman, “about this idea that people don’t dislike a restaurant because they had a bad experience but because they’ve sensed indifference from one individual in the restaurant.”
For this reason, servers carry business cards to build relationships with diners. Stein and Pastry Chef Kate Neumann are active in the dining room and welcome special requests. Such touches seek to prevent the last thing Kornick wants to hear: that a diner left the restaurant feeling overlooked.
Instead, diners leave well fed. Stein’s seasonal, consistent and uncluttered dishes featuring American food with an Italian and French bent satisfy different tastes. Guests seeking adventure find it with veal sweetbreads and liver while those craving a classic Chicago experience can be satisfied with a signature, grilled 16-ounce prime sirloin steak. Neumann’s desserts suit a spectrum of palates, from crème brûlée that aims to please to cinnamon risotto pudding with dried fruit compote and saffron phyllo that adds an element of adventure.
“I talk to the guests a lot,” Stein explains. “I know what they want.” There have been some welcome surprises, though. When Stein menued grilled octopus for the first time last year, he fretted that diners wouldn’t order it. The dish became so popular it stayed on the menu for the better part of a year.
The wine list complements Kornick’s devotion to the guest experience. At least 80 bottles are priced below $50. In addition, Kornick’s love for enology comes through with mk’s private label, a collaboration between the restaurant and two California vintners. With each bottle, the tale behind the glass is important. “There are very few wines on the list where we don’t know the story,” Kornick says.
Like Family
A restaurant is only as consistent as its employees, and many have been at mk since it opened. Those who leave often stay in touch with its well-connected chef-owner. After helping open mk as sous-chef, Stein left for Cleveland to pursue other opportunities. He came back to mk to reconnect with a great restaurant. “The five years I was gone I was searching for a restaurant like this,” he says.
A generous four weeks of paid vacation for those who have worked there for five years helps keep employees happy. And when the chips are down, the team sticks together. Last year when a storm flooded mk, Stein, his sous-chefs and Sherman vacuumed water out of the basement until 6 a.m. to prevent the restaurant, open seven days a week, from closing.
Things continue to move forward for mk like a well-oiled machine, though a few changes, including kitchen remodeling, are in the works. Kornick still is involved running other people’s restaurants—he is a partner in the N9NE Group in Chicago and Las Vegas—but mk is his culinary home.
“Michael and I love entertaining,” says Lisa Kornick. “We entertain in our home all the time. And we really enjoy doing it. I think that’s why owning a restaurant works well for us.”
A Taste of mk the Restaurant, Chicago
Appetizers
Grilled baby octopus with grilled frisée and saffron aioli
Seared Maine sea scallop and foie gras with hedgehog mushrooms, celery root purée and black-truffle vinaigrette
Entrées
Slow-cooked leg and strudel of lamb with English peas, pearl onions and curry-scented carrot purée
American Wagyu skirt steak grilled over hardwood charcoal with grilled chicories and Italian salsa verde
Desserts
Cinnamon risotto pudding with dried fruit compote, candied pistachios and saffron phyllo
Baked Alaska with mocha fudge ice cream, chocolate-cookie crumble, toasted meringue cashew candy and cappuccino syrup
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