Katie Renshaw to open Bar Bambi in Chicago
Bar Bambi will open on Chicago Avenue in West Town in late 2025 or early 2026, as the debut concept from bartender Katie Renshaw.
Renshaw has spent more than a decade in the business, including at Chicago bars like Moneygun, Billy Sunday, Etta, GreenRiver and The Aviary.
Most recently, she co-created the drinks programme at Beef & Liberty Bar, a cocktail venue on the second floor of Hawksmoor.
Her accolades include 2017 Speed Rack Midwest winner, 2018 Italicus Bar Artist of the Year, and 2019 US World Class Bartender of the Year.
She said: “I’ve been ridiculously lucky to learn from some of Chicago’s best, including some of the people who helped build our cocktail scene in the earlier days.
“Every one of them has influenced how I bartend and how I think about hospitality. Bar Bambi’s my first chance to take all of those lessons and make something that actually feels like me. It’s a total dream, and I just hope I can pass that knowledge to the next generation of bartenders.”
Bar Bambi will lean on Renshaw’s ‘signature creativity’, with a list of drinks that play with flavour, texture and form.
For instance, there will be hybrid classics, such as a lengthened Martini reimagined as a sparkling Highball, or an Old Fashioned transformed into a clarified Whisky Sour.
Each drink is rooted in classic cocktail structure but elevated through molecular techniques, fermentation, clarification, and forced carbonation – which are said to be hallmarks of Renshaw’s style.
Alongside a rotation selection of cocktails, the menu will offer spirit-free options, Champagne and natural wines, and forced-carbonation drinks.
‘Craveable, high-end’ bar snacks will also be available.
Global architecture, design and planning firm Gensler will create the interiors as ‘an ethereal, otherworldly escape’. Playful elements like dreamy lighting and eclectic textures will balance industrial details that ground the space in its Chicago roots.
The bar’s centrepiece will be an electric statement light installation with fully adjustable tones and colours. Bambi will also feature a mirrored back bar with a neon glow and expansive floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Bar Bambi’s space is meant to feel somewhat magical, like you’re in that special place between day and night, hard and soft, reflection and play,” added Renshaw. “I want it to feel comfortable but a bit surreal, like you’ve stepped into a dream that still somehow feels at home in the big city of Chicago.”
As well as Beef & Liberty Bar, Chicago has also welcomed The Radicle this year.
Meanwhile, the city’s Violet Hour closed after 18 years following failed negotiations with the landlord.
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