BIN 36, Graham Elliot top spots for New Year’s Eve says BlackBook

December 27, 2009 – A New York-based arts and culture magazine has put two Chicago restaurants with Marina City connections on its list of “Top Spots for New Year’s Eve.”

(Left) Cover of December issue of BlackBook.

BIN 36, a restaurant celebrating ten years at Marina City this month – and a newer restaurant started in River North by Marina City resident Graham Elliot Bowles – were put on the list last week by BlackBook Magazine.

“For a hundo a person,” says BlackBook, using to a slang term for $100, “party til 2 am with premium open bar, plenty of wine, bountiful buffet, and a set from DJ Franco DeLeon.”

The magazine describes BIN 36 as “nothing less than a temple to all things vino: equal parts winebar, cellar and school, minus the snot.”

Its hardwood floors, tables, and wine racks, says a review by the magazine, “give the effect of dining at a pre-grand-opening Crate & Barrel.”

After the champagne toasts, BlackBook recommends the homemade donuts and coffee at BIN 36 “for your first buzzed trip home of 2010.”

Graham Elliot, the restaurant of Bowles (left), the youngest four-star chef in the U.S., also made the list. Both the four-course and the eight-course meals, observes the magazine, “start with a festive sparkling cocktail, and both end in time to get to your boss’s party.”

BlackBook notes the restaurant’s casual culinary style. “Bowles offers his signature style of molecular gastronomy with dishes like roasted beet salad with puffs of whipped goat cheese and with spicy buffalo chicken wings with Budweiser bubbles.”

The 32-year-old started his restaurant in 2008. In June, Bowles competed with other world-renowned chefs on Bravo television network’s Top Chef Masters. In August, he cooked for headliner Jane’s Addiction at the Lollapalooza music festival.

Calling itself “the insider’s guide to where style and substance intersect in popular culture today,” BlackBook publishes reviews on restaurants, nightlife, travel, fashion, entertainment, and the arts. It has a circulation of about 150,000.

Greg Boose and Claire Bidwell, husband-and-wife editors for BlackBook who live in Chicago, compiled the list.

“We tend to pick restaurants, bars, and hotels for our top lists that we find to be hot right now,” says Boose, “or that we enjoy on a personal level.”

Also on the list is the rooftop bar at theWit, a hotel that opened in 2009 about two blocks north of Marina City. According to BlackBook, the popular bar appeals to “those looking to make NYE 2010 feel like NYE 1999.”

Web sites: