Hospitality Design - July 2015 - 153

Katz, who went on to open a few of Chicago's
most popular bars including Elbo Room
and Waterloo. Boehm, on the other hand,
told his mom at the age of 10 he wanted to
open his own restaurant when he grew up.
Not knowing anyone in the business, he
tried his hand at the University of Illinois,
dropped out after three years, and "packed
up my little Suzuki Samurai and drove to the
panhandle of Florida," he says. The plan: "I
was going to work double shifts every day
except for Sundays to save as much money
as I could." Three-and-a-half years later in
1992, he opened six-table Lazy Daze Café in

Seaside, Florida.
Now at Boka, each new restaurant is
slightly different from the one before, both
in terms of design and food. "It has to be
something we're passionate about and
we love," says Katz. For their newest, for
instance, the AvroKO-designed Momotaro,
the duo had been wanting to open a
Japanese restaurant "forever," says Katz.
"I've been eating Japanese food since I was 8
years old and it's Kevin's favorite way to eat.
Sometimes timing is everything."
The business for them is "deeply
personal," adds Katz, so the pair is very

2
1. The AvroKO-designed
Momotaro is fashioned
after the postwar
Japanese salaryman
archetype, with a
backbar drink menu
reminiscent of an oldfashioned brokerage
board.
2. Wood and natural
tones prevail in a
rendering of the soonto-open GT Prime,
designed by Karen
Herold of Studio K
Creative.

3

3+4. Plans for Boka's
upcoming Chinese
concept Duck Duck
Goat, also designed by
AvroKO.

hands-on in the process. "Every chair, every
color, every piece of fabric-we're involved
in all of it, and we're opinionated," says
Boehm. That's why they choose to work with
a handful of "absolutely brilliant designers"
who are like-minded and true collaborators
but also those they get along with. "You
have these relationships that become
comfortable," Katz says. The same holds true
for chefs, and they have six partners, from
Top Chef alum Stephanie Izard to James
Beard-nominated Giuseppe Tentori-those
with "a signature voice and not someone
who does something we already have within
our company," explains Boehm.
Coming up, steakhouse Armour &
Swift-their largest restaurant to date
in collaboration with B. Hospitality-
should open in September in the Google
development in Chicago's West Loop with
a design by AvroKO; the New York firm is
also crafting interiors for Chinese concept
Duck Duck Goat slated for November; and
in January, GT Prime will open in the River
North neighborhood with a look by longtime
collaborator Karen Herold of Studio K
Creative. The two of them "get turned on by
the real estate of the deals," says Katz, when
they can help change the landscape of the
neighborhoods they're in, something they
did for the West Loop with their Girl & the
Goat, Little Goat, and Momotaro eateries.
As for expansion outside of Chicago: "It's
something we think about all the time," says
Katz, adding they have been offered deals
in Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles. "The reality is this is the
market we know and we can't pretend we
can just go to any market and knock it out
of the park. And we finally figured out that
riddle of how to juggle everything-we are
both married with children-and have this
well-balanced life." But, says Boehm, "some
of these deals are getting a little too juicy to
pass up. And an 80-degree winter doesn't
sound bad." hd

4

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