Two years ago, Fat Rice, the global comfort food spot from owners Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo, opened on the corner in Logan Square in Chicago.

Since then, the restaurant, whose cuisine blends the exotic ingredients and flavors of China, India, and Southeast Asia with the colonial roots of Portuguese travelers, has been recognized for its inventive cuisine. Fat Rice was featured as the No. 4 Best New Restaurant in America by Bon Appetit and by the James Beard Awards as a Semi-Finalist Nominee, among others.

Chef Abraham and Adrienne announced they will soon revamp the existing Fat Rice waiting room space into an all-new cocktail lounge experience, transforming a new area of the restaurant into a Chinese bakery by day and a petisco (small snacks) bar by night.

The new space will also offer room for larger parties and special events that the restaurant has not previously been able to accommodate.

“There are all kinds of things we’ve always wanted to share at Fat Rice but we didn't have the space. The new bakery/petisco bar is going to give us the chance to explore a new side of Fat Rice with a much more casual, grab-and-go feel,” says Conlon.

“Locals in the neighborhood stop in to just grab a cocktail and a quick snack. We're taking the casual nature of that idea and transforming it into a cocktail lounge with light food and a really sexy, unique vibe. These new projects are extensions of the existing Fat Rice brand, but are essentially two new experiences that we're so excited to share.” 

Chef Abraham and Adrienne head to Asia on Feb. 9th for a month to retrace the roots of Macanese and Eurasian Cuisine by way of Macau, Hong Kong, Malacca (Malaysia), and Singapore.

Construction of the two new spaces, designed by original Fat Rice designer Dionele Jakubow, has an estimated completion date in early summer 2015.