Let’s play a little game of One of These Things is Not Like the Others: Restaurant Week edition. Ready? Bar Siena, Miss Ricky’s, Taco Bell and RPM Steak.
Give up? In an unfortunate turn of events, Taco Bell isn’t offering a prix-fixe menu for the ninth annual foodie event. But that’s not stopping a group of four colleagues at Motion PR, a public relations agency stationed in the Loop, from treating it as such. For the duration of Chicago Restaurant Week, which started Jan. 22 and ends Thursday, co-workers Derek Serafin, Kevin Lints, Cory Zielke and Julie Kudlacz challenged themselves to eat at every restaurant inside the Atrium at the Thompson Center.
“We were talking and made a joke like, ‘Hey, let’s make 2016 the year we eat everything that the Thompson Center has to offer,’ ” said Serafin, 31, an account supervisor for Motion PR. “While we were joking about it, Kimberly [Eberl], our owner, overheard it and asked if we were doing it over Restaurant Week. It was a simple miscommunication that turned into two long, grueling weeks.”
That’s how Operation: Eat the Atrium was born.
With a total of 15 restaurants, the Atrium at the Thompson Center, located at Clark and Lake streets, offers mostly fast-food options such as Subway, Taco Bell, Panda Express and KFC. And with just 10 workdays to cover the entire directory, the team had to double up their efforts, eating breakfast and lunch at the Atrium on occasion. They drew a map of the food court and strategically scheduled their daily picks. Serafin said they eased into the endeavor with breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts and plan to end the week at Ronny’s Steakhouse.
Aligning the mission with Chicago’s two-week dining extravaganza, which included a record 354 restaurants this year, gave the co-workers a definitive deadline for their goal and an alternative to the citywide hype behind the event.
“Restaurant Week is great. You can try a lot of great restaurants and great prices, but it’s hard to get reservations,” Serafin said before the challenge started. “It becomes more of a headache, where you’re just like, ‘You know, I’ll just wait two weeks and pay the full price so I don’t have to fight to get in.’ “
After a week and nine Atrium restaurants down, the group said they were still going strong, albeit feeling the financial and physical strains of eating fast food five days a week. Though the mission was intended to be a lighthearted anti-Restaurant Week activity, Kudlacz, a Motion assistant account executive, said she found a new appreciation for the event after taking advantage of Siena Tavern’s Restaurant Week deal, a $44 three-course dinner.
“It just so happened to be after Taco Bell. That was kind of a struggle. I definitely loved the restaurant and I’m happy I spent the money on the food,” said Kudlacz, 23. “Whereas, with Taco Bell, I’m like, ‘Why did I spend all that money on that food?’ It was more expensive with Restaurant Week, but you walk away feeling like it was worth the money.”
As the four-person team closes in on the remaining restaurants this week, they all agreed they’re ready to put the challenge to rest and reset their lunch routines. “I think we’ve already talked about going to Mixed Greens on Friday and eating giant salads,” Serafin laughed.
“The finish line is in sight,” he added.
@morgancolsen | mcolsen@redeyechicago.com
Want to learn how to brew beer or make a craft cocktail? Click here for cocktail classes in Chicago.
