28-May-13 – Open for six months and counting, River North’s new Tortoise Club may have Chicago’s culinary elite drooling. But while they enjoy Dover Sole in Champagne Truffle Sauce, we cannot get over how 5,562 square feet of utterly empty space has been transformed into one of the city’s nicest upscale eateries. We went back to photos taken before construction started and when compared with how the restaurant looks now, the difference is startling. It is as if a Chardonnay – like a 2007 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru – had been paired with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

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(Above) At left, only the purple canopy remained on November 28, 2011, of a Crunch fitness center that was at Marina City from 1999 to 2008. When former Flat Top Grill CEO Keene Addington signed a lease that month, the space on the east side of Hotel Sax had been vacant for more than three years. At right, the same area on May 21, 2013.

(Above) The main entrance in 2011 and 2013. The metal and glass entry is gone, replaced with a vestibule lined with vintage mahogany from the Pump Room restaurant in the nearby Gold Coast neighborhood. Not even the original windows remain. They were knocked out and the restaurant extended nine feet toward State Street. This created new space for the vestibule and a bar/lounge. The bar at the front of the restaurant is seen in the lower image from an area that that would be just in front of the double doors in the upper image.

(Above) Looking from the northwest corner to the southeast corner, across what is now the main dining area.

(Above) Looking west toward a hallway that leads to the kitchen and restrooms. The area in the upper image that is enclosed by glass is where Marina City’s swimming pool was once located. The artwork on the walls in the lower image is by Chicago artist Chuck Senties. They are large oil-painted caricatures of famous, colorful Chicagoans like “Cap” Streeter (top of page).

(Below) Looking east from the middle of the space. The restaurant is divided into a piano bar in front, a large main dining room, a private dining area, and kitchen in the northwest corner.

(Left) An early floor plan for the yet-unnamed “Addington Restaurant” drawn on August 5, 2011, by Northworks Architects & Planners of Chicago. Tortoise Club consumed little more than half of the available ground floor space, leaving the north end still on the market. Addington, founder and CEO of Flat Top Grill until it merged in 2009 with a larger restaurant chain, worked on his new restaurant for more than a year before announcing plans in November 2011, shortly after signing a lease at Marina City. According to the building permit, the estimated cost to construct a Tortoise Club was $500,000. The restaurant officially opened on November 19, 2012. (Below) From across State Street on April 10, 2011 (upper) and May 21, 2013 (lower).