(Above) Commercial space at Marina City where Kitchen + Kocktails will soon be located. Photographed in 2017 when it was a Katana restaurant. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

By Steven Dahlman

Jun. 5, 2025 – On the bench for five years, a two-level commercial space at Marina City will host its third restaurant since 2014.

Kitchen + Kocktails, serving, according to its menu, “enticing choices of southern comfort food delights,” is moving about four blocks from 444 North Wabash Avenue to 339 North Dearborn Street. They are planning to be open this summer.

The 12,730-square-foot space, on the west side of Hotel Chicago, was a Japanese restaurant, Katana, from August 2017 to May 2020. Before that, it was BIN 36, serving American cuisine with wine pairings from 1999 to 2014.

“We hope to show all of Chicago what we are and what we do,” Kevin Kelley, owner of Kitchen + Kocktails, told Eater Chicago. (Left) Rendering of a new bar planned for the Marina City location.

Eater Chicago describes the restaurant’s menu as “an elevated approach to soul food, with dishes like Caribbean jerk lamb chops and Southern fried catfish.”

The new restaurant will seat 260 people. It will have a private dining room and an upstairs lounge, “Assets Lounge,” that will cater to sports fans. (Right) Rendering of upstairs lounge.

Kitchen + Kocktails started in Dallas in 2020. The restaurant opened on Wabash Avenue in Chicago in September 2021 and is now one of at least five Kitchen + Kocktails locations.

Kelley (left) is a lawyer from Texas. His hospitality group, Kevin Kelley Concepts, owns a 19,000-square-foot nightclub in Dallas, in addition to the Kitchen + Kocktails locations. Business Wire