Nic & Junior’s, from chef Junior Borges, is Now Open

Nic & Junior’s is a smooth restaurant in River North, hidden within the shadows of skyscrapers, simply east of Wabash, between the Chicago River and Hubbard Avenue. It’s a novel constructing with massive home windows and an outside patio. Ultimately, Nic & Junior’s, which debuts immediately — Friday, Might 16 — will begin with dinner service earlier than including lunch.

That is no downtown vacationer lure, at the very least that’s what Junior Borges and Nic Yanes hope. There are two eating rooms with distinct feels. The room close to the doorway has a bar and a single TV, ultimate for a cocktail and a fast chunk like a burger or salad. The expertise diverges whereas strolling into the rear eating room, the place there’s a chef’s counter and a modified tasting menu with dishes like A5 wagyu picanha and an orechetti with braised octopus. However this isn’t tweezer meals or a spot the place prospects must put on formal apparel. They’re trying to toe the road between neighborhood and tremendous eating restaurant with handmade pastas with Italian roots complemented by Brazilian flavors. Borges talks a few particular model of giardiniera made with biquinho peppers served with mortadella: “It’s the meals we wish to eat,” Yanes says. “It truly is approachable.”

There’s a robust connection between Italian and Brazilian delicacies because of migration patterns, and that hyperlink makes it pure for Borges. The chef made the record of James Beard Award semifinalists in 2023 at Meridian, Eater Dallas’s Restaurant of the Yr in 2021. Meridian, showcased trendy Brazilian delicacies by way of the chef’s Afro-Caribbean lens; he grew up in Rio. Borges has spent 24 years in America and dreamed of proudly owning a restaurant whereas serving to to teach Individuals that Brazilian delicacies isn’t nearly massive skewers of meat. He talks about how most Brazilian eating places in New York and New Jersey give attention to extra homestyle delicacies. Borges shares nostalgic tales about self-serve eating places in Rio and mentions the Japanese and Portuguese influences on the nation’s delicacies.

Whereas Borges commutes between Texas and Chicago, his longtime collaborator, Justin Mosley, has moved to the Midwest to steer Nic & Junior’s. Mosley has already familiarized himself with Chicago, even monitoring down hard-to-find imported substances, like fermented yucca juice or a particular tapioca flour used within the Brazilian cheese fritter. They discovered two cheeses — queijo coalho and catupiry — at Brazil Authorized Café, a restaurant in Bucktown. Borges finds Chicago welcoming and has carried out his greatest to attach with native cooks. He’s cooked at two-Michelin-starred Oriole for a particular dinner with 2025 James Beard Award finalist Noah Sandoval. Borges has bonded with John Manion, the chef at Brasero and El Che Steakhouse, and the 2 have shared tales about spending time in Brazil.

Yanes began as a chef earlier than launching Excelsior Hospitality and runs a handful of eating places, together with Austin, Texas restaurant Juniper, which debuted in 2015. He met Borges 12 years in the past. Yanes and his household have since moved to Wicker Park, the place they’ve gotten to know Chicago. That’s why they’ve a TV on the bar — they gained’t deny sports activities followers an opportunity to observe an necessary contest. For the document, Borges is a Dallas Cowboys fan, however his coronary heart is with Flamengo, a Brazilian soccer membership.

When the Chicago alternative arrived, Borges was involved with how town would obtain him as he traveled forwards and backwards between his household in Texas and the Chicago restaurant. However realizing Yanes and Mosley had been stationed on the town, and the truth that a number of profitable cooks handle eating places from afar (Thomas Keller famously put in TVs that join the French Laundry in Yountville, California and Eleven Madison Park In New York so he might hypothetically keep watch over a number of kitchens), the difficulty started to fade. Borges says he needs to grow to be a part of the neighborhood. He’s not in Chicago to chase awards or Michelin stars in a bigger market.

Borges enjoys sharing his meals reminiscences, hoping it resonates with diners. For instance, he tells a narrative a few household recipe for papaya jam handed alongside by way of generations. Borges is aware of a vocal tide of parents who could not care about these narratives, they usually simply wish to be fed. Nonetheless, he needs to enchantment to their mental curiosity by guaranteeing employees are educated and able to share info if requested. Yanes provides that they’re ”not right here to drone on about how we’re, who we’re.”

Borges agrees with that sentiment to an extent. He describes a dish he calls the Seaside Grilled Cheese. It’s a snack he grew up consuming, a bit of cheese on a stick drizzled with sizzling honey. Borges says servers don’t must share your complete story.

“All of the employees must say is that that is chef Junior’s favourite snack on the seashore in Brazil,” Borges says. “Then they will stroll away.”

Nic & Junior’s, 405 N. Wabash, open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday by way of Thursday; 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; reservations through Tock.