Steve Soble has a knack for transforming underappreciated real estate into restaurants. Not so long ago he saw the hidden beauty in a condemned North Avenue bathhouse. He purchased it, revamped it, and salvaged the spectacular space that became Shawn McClain’s elegant restaurant Spring. More recently an asphalt-shingled structure at the northeast corner of Roscoe and Damen caught his eye. “I saw this wonderful building hiding under a burqa” is how he describes the site that once housed Red wine bar and the Italian restaurant Sipario. Now it’s home to Soble’s latest endeavor, the Riverview Tavern, which opened April 25.
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Possibly Soble’s gift for spotting potential was developed by Hans Morsbach, the proprietor of Hyde Park’s Medici cafe. Soble was a 25-year-old marketing executive supervising the redesign of Aunt Jemima at Quaker Oats when he determined to strike out on his own. He figured Chicago could use a nongrungy pool hall–something like the bar on Cheers, which was popular at the time–and he’d found the perfect location at 2610 N. Halsted. He had the concept, the chutzpah, and some minimal experience as a waiter and a short-order cook; all he lacked was money. So he tracked down the property’s owner, Morsbach, and proposed a partnership.
Still grateful for Morsbach’s helping hand, Soble offers partnership shares to long-term staff and gives line workers incentives in the form of bonuses, a practice largely unheard of in the restaurant business. “When I started my business I didn’t want to be the man, the guy from whom people take. It’s amazing how well people do when you give them opportunities.” When he came across the shrouded structure at Roscoe and Damen, he offered its owners, David and Deborah Schenk, a chance to partner with him. They agreed. He extended a share in the new restaurant to his longtime director of operations, Greg Lamacki, and another to Riverview’s general manager, Phil Carneol, who ten years ago abandoned medicine to take a job at Southport Lanes. Soble attributes his people skills to being a middle child. “I like to play the peacemaker, the harmonizer.”
Riverview Tavern is at 1958 W. Roscoe, 773-248-9523.
