CHICAGO (September 8, 2022) — Time Out Market Chicago is thrilled to announce the opening of Valhalla, a unique dining concept by award-winning Chef Stephen Gillanders coming in September 2022. As the food and cultural market continues to bring the best of the city under one roof, Valhalla will be the first-ever standalone restaurant located within the Market, offering a chic yet approachable full-service dining experience surrounded by a unique, unorthodox location.
“We are beyond thrilled to welcome Chef Stephen Gillanders with his concept Valhalla to Time Out Market Chicago—we continue to push boundaries to offer our guests a unique culinary and cultural experience,” said Time Out Market Chicago’s General Manager Robert LaPata.“Valhalla is an excellent addition to the already amazing culinary mix in our Market. At the core of what we do is to make fine-dining accessible within a casual environment. Valhalla by Chef Stephen—who you get to interact with in the open kitchen—takes this to a whole new level and we are proud to launch this exciting hospitality innovation together with him.”
Chef Stephen Gillanders is hugely admired by Chicago foodies for his craveable, soulful Asian-inflected dishes. He has been fascinated with food since a young age, helping his Filipino grandmother prepare authentic dishes and realizing when he was just 15 that he was meant to become a chef. His culinary career spans cutting his teeth with Jean-Georges Vongerichten; traveling the world to learn about international cuisine; and opening his first solo restaurant, S.K.Y. in Chicago which continues to receive critical acclaim.
At Time Out Market Chicago, this latest endeavor by Gillanders is his most ambitious yet and marks his most significant work to date. Located on the Market's second floor, Valhalla captures and culminates the best of Gillanders’ career and distills it into an experience unlike any other. Inspired by Norse mythology, the name Valhalla describes a heavenly, great hall where heroes partake in a grand feast. Given the restaurant’s location overlooking the main floor of the Market, the name’s symbolism takes a literal context, transcending the experience as a whole.
Chef Stephen Gillanders said: “The evolution of dining is trending towards a common ground, in the middle. More casual restaurants and eateries are stepping up their game and cooking more mindfully, focusing on more responsible ingredients, dietary preferences and eating habits. Conversely, fine dining restaurants are becoming more casual and sprouting up in unexpected places. The best restaurant in the world, Geranium, is located in a soccer stadium, Kato opened in a strip mall in Los Angeles, Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare is in a grocery market, and Dave Beran opened Dialogue in the food court of a mall. Rather than looking at Valhalla as an unorthodox approach, I feel like this opportunity is part of a natural restaurant progression that we are already experiencing. I’m very excited to wrap my arms around the location of Time Out Market Chicago and capture the best of the market’s high energy in tandem with an upscale experience. Rather than saying, “I can’t do that because I’m in a market.” my ethos is, “I should absolutely do that because I’m in a market.”
The completely open kitchen, large chef’s counter, and tablecloth-adorned dining space will showcase Gillanders’ exceptional culinary talent while creating an intimate, personalized experience to interact with guests, as the Chef himself will be based there. Valhalla’s cuisine will consist of a balanced à la carte menu and the option of a chef’s tasting menu, allowing Gillanders to lead guests on a focused and personal culinary journey.
With the menu inspired by the high-level of execution Gillanders experienced while working in Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s kitchens, Valhalla’s menu will feature inventive dishes such as: Seared Japanese Scallops with brown butter, bonito and enoki mushrooms; Dry Aged Lamb with berbere, fragrant tomato butter and artichoke; Chilled Kusshi Oysters, caviar tsuyu, finger lime, yuzu oil; Smoked Ricotta Cappelletti, sea urchin, quail egg, nori tuile, and more. But what makes it unique is the intimacy and uplifted execution across every facet of the dining experience. True to Gillanders’ style, the high energy and urban vibe of Time Out Market Chicago will be a part of the Valhalla experience, making it approachable and unpretentious.
Valhalla will accommodate 66 guests, including the 14-seat chef’s counter. Guests will have the option to order from the full menu in the dining space and the counter. Valhalla will be open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations are strongly recommended and taken via Tock; however, a limited number of walk-ins will be available.
—ENDS—
For more information about the entire lineup of concessions and ongoing entertainment at Time Out Market Chicago, visit timeoutmarket.com/chicago or follow the conversation on social @timeoutmarketchicago.
About Time Out Market Chicago
Time Out Market is a food and cultural market that brings the best of the city together under one roof — based on editorial curation. Time Out Market Chicago is located in the historic Fulton Market District. Spanning 50,000 square feet, it features 18 eateries, three bars, a demo kitchen, a rooftop terrace, and a video-installation wall all in one space. Guests can expect to dig their fork in the city’s most delicious dishes, cooked by some of the best home-grown Chicago chefs and paired alongside an innovative beverage menu of local brews, wines, cocktails, and non-alcoholic options as well as cultural experiences.
The first Time Out Market opened in 2014 in Lisbon as the world’s first editorially curated food and cultural market, bringing the city's best chefs, restaurateurs, and unique cultural experiences together all under one roof. In celebrating the best of the city, Time Out Market features an ongoing roster of shows and events from beverage tasting experiences, cooking classes with top chefs to installations from local artists, live entertainment, and more. Time Out Market Chicago opened its doors on November 21, 2019, the fifth North American location to open after Miami, New York, Boston, and Montreal; 2021 saw the opening of Time Out Market Dubai. A further pipeline of openings includes Porto, Abu Dhabi, Prague, London, Osaka and more.
Time Out Market is part of Time Out Group PLC (AIM: TMO), the global media and hospitality business that curates and creates the best of the world’s greatest cities. For more information, please visit our website at www.timeoutmarket.com/chicago, and for the latest company news, visit our Press Office. In addition, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at @timeoutmarketchicago.
Time Out Market’s Hours of operation are:
Monday - Saturday - 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Bittersweet only); 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. All vendors
Sunday 9 a.m. (Bittersweet only) 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. All vendors