The nearly five-decade home of Les Nomades in Chicago is for sale in a deal expected to end a nearly half-century run of the acclaimed French restaurant.
Newmark brokers are listing the three-story building that houses the restaurant at 222 E. Ontario St. for sale, with the space listed as available for the buyer’s use. The asking price is $3.4 million, according to one of the Newmark brokers, James Schutter.
The marketing efforts signal that the restaurant, which Chicago restaurateur Jovan Trboyevic initially opened as a private club in 1978, is nearing the end of nearly five decades in business in Streeterville.
Newmark is marketing the property as a rare opportunity to own a historic, single-tenant building in the area.
The building, completed in 1881, is between Magnificent Mile shopping and the Ohio Street Beach.
“It was a beautiful mansion that was converted to a restaurant, so I could see someone converting it back to a residence,” Schutter said. “Or it would have to be a high-end restaurant like a Charlie Trotter’s, where someone falls in love with what they could do with such a unique space.”
If Les Nomades does make way for a new concept, it will mark the end of a luxury dining experience from another era.
“There’s nothing this restaurant does that isn’t stylish,” Chicago Tribune critic Phil Vettel wrote in a four-star review in 2019. “I’d phone this restaurant just to listen to the hold music (which is classical and beautiful because of course it is).”
Les Nomades chef Roland Liccioni last year was recognized for his career accomplishments by the Chicago-based Jean Blanchet Awards for Culinary Excellence not long after he announced his retirement.
His former wife, Mary Beth Liccioni, has owned the business since buying it from Trboyevic in 1993.
Trboyevic, a Serb whose other Chicago restaurants included Le Perroquet and Jovan, died in 2010.
His widow, Margaret Abbott Trboyevic, still owns the building, according to Cook County property records and CoStar data. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News on Monday.
Mary Beth Liccioni said she continues to run the restaurant while preparing for the likelihood of closing. Roland Liccioni continues to help in the kitchen, she said, but efforts to hire a long-term new chef have been put on hold.
“I don’t think we’ll be in the picture after the building sells,” she said.
Mary Beth Liccioni said she has taken pride in maintaining the restaurant’s old-world feel without trying to keep up with edgier competitors.
“We’re a French restaurant,” she said. “We’re not trying to be Alinea or Ever. I love those restaurants, but that’s not our mission here. It’s a French restaurant, and the decor is from the turn of the 20th century.”
For the record
The seller is represented by Newmark brokers James Schutter, Holly Estler and Corey Chase.