Berenjak Chicago Opening at Soho House: What to Know About the Persian Kebab House Heading to Fulton Market

Berenjak Chicago is scheduled to open in late September 2026 inside Soho House at 113–125 N Green Street in Fulton Market. It is a public restaurant. You do not need a Soho House membership to eat there. Reservations are not live yet.

That is the whole news item in four sentences. The rest of this piece is what those sentences actually mean for Chicago diners: who is behind the room, what the food is, why the public-access detail matters, and what is still unknown.

What is Berenjak Chicago?

Berenjak is a London-born Iranian restaurant built around charcoal-grilled kebabs, large-format stews, and mezze meant to be shared. Chef Kian Samyani opened the first one in 2018 as a nod to the kebab houses he grew up with in Tehran, according to Eater Chicago. The cooking is not tasting-menu Persian. It is grill-and-table Persian: skewers off coals, khoresht in the middle of the table, bread you use as a utensil.

The Chicago opening is a partnership with Soho House and JKS Restaurants, the London group behind two-Michelin-starred Gymkhana. That Gymkhana star belongs to Gymkhana. It does not transfer to Berenjak, and it does not transfer to Chicago.

London Berenjak picked up a Michelin Bib Gourmand in its first year. A Bib Gourmand is not a star. It is Michelin’s value nod: good cooking at a friendlier price. Chicago has not been inspected. There is no Chicago Michelin designation for this room yet, and anyone selling the opening as a “Michelin restaurant coming to Fulton Market” is mixing up cities.

When is Berenjak Chicago opening?

Late September 2026. That is the window Eater Chicago reported on August 28, 2026, citing the restaurant’s own announcement. No calendar day has been published. Soho House has already been hiring a Berenjak host and F&B managers for the Chicago house, which is the kind of backstage signal that usually means the date is real even if it is still a window rather than a Tuesday.

Treat “late September” as a watch, not a booking. Until a platform, a time, and a party size exist, there is nothing to snatch.

Where is Berenjak Chicago, and do you need a Soho House membership?

Address: 113–125 N Green Street, Chicago, IL 60607, inside Soho House Chicago in Fulton Market.

Membership: Not required. Eater Chicago is explicit that Berenjak Chicago will be open to the public the same way The Allis and Fox Bar already are on the ground floor of that building. Soho House itself is still a private club. The fifth-floor House dining room is still members. Berenjak is not that room.

This is the part of the story most likely to get garbled in group chats. Two earlier U.S. Soho House partnerships set opposite expectations:

• Dumbo House, New York (2024): a members-only residency.
• Soho Warehouse, Los Angeles (opened September 24, 2025): a public, garden-level restaurant. Eater LA’s opening report called it the first publicly accessible Berenjak in the United States.

Chicago is following the Los Angeles model, not the Dumbo one. You can walk in as a non-member. You still may not be able to walk in without a reservation once it is busy. Those are different problems.

Soho House Chicago already publishes The Allis as public (European-ish menu, afternoon tea on Fridays and Saturdays) and the Fox Bar as public cocktails, per the house’s own food-and-drink page. Berenjak slots into that public stack. The Green Street address stays the same. The product changes.

What will Berenjak Chicago serve?

Expect the London staples, not a Chicago-only invention. Eater Chicago lists charcoal-grilled meat skewers, lamb khoresht, spiced mezze, and baskets of crispy bread. That is the grammar of the restaurant: grill, stew, dip, bread.

The Los Angeles menu, published ahead of the Arts District opening, is the closest public preview of how the brand plates that grammar. Eater LA described koobideh (minced lamb shoulder), jujeh chicken in saffron-yogurt-lemon-tomato, tikkeh masti beef, chenjeh lamb, and prawn meygoo, all with sangak. Chicago’s exact skewer list has not been posted. Do not assume every LA plate prints here. Do assume charcoal, sharing, and bread.

The one Chicago-specific hook in the announcement is the bar. Eater Chicago says the Fulton Market room will carry an extended wine list and cocktails that had been UK-only, including a savory olive-leaf martini and a sparkling watermelon cocktail. If you already have a favorite Persian restaurant in the city, this is the part that is actually new: a London wine-and-cocktail program sitting on top of a kebab house, inside a building people already use as a nightlife waypoint.

Chicago does not lack Iranian cooking. It lacks Iranian cooking in this exact slot: Fulton Market, design-forward, late-night adjacent, built for a four-top that might have started at The Allis. Noon-O-Kabab, Kabobi, and the north-side and suburban rooms that actually feed Iranian families are a different job. Berenjak is not trying to replace them. It is trying to put charcoal Persian on the same map as the neighborhood’s steak and Italian reservations.

Who is behind Berenjak Chicago?

Chef-founder: Kian Samyani. He opened Berenjak in London in 2018 after time in the JKS orbit, including work that helped shape the group’s Indian barbecue concept Brigadiers, according to later profiles of the LA opening. The Chicago story does not need his full CV. It needs one fact: this is his restaurant, not a Soho House house menu with a Persian label on it.

Group: JKS Restaurants. Known in the UK for Gymkhana (two Michelin stars), plus a cluster of Indian and Asian rooms. The useful Chicago translation is “serious London operator with a Soho House real-estate deal,” not “Gymkhana is opening in Fulton Market.”

Building partner: Soho House. The club supplies the address, the door, and the existing public-vs-members split. It does not make Berenjak a members’ canteen. If that split gets fuzzy in practice (members walking past a host stand that is quietly prioritizing them), that will be a reporting question after opening, not something to invent now.

How do Berenjak Chicago reservations work?

They do not, yet.

berenjak.com is the official site. No Chicago OpenTable, Resy, or Tock link has been published. No SevenRooms widget. No drop date. Until a bookable calendar exists, “I heard it opens in September” is not a reservation strategy.

Practical watch list once a platform appears:

• Dining room, not bar rail. If the room inherits Soho House’s bar culture, the first inventory that looks “available” may be high-tops. Ask what you are booking.
• Party of two at a normal dinner hour will be the scarce SKU, same as every other Fulton Market opening that lands with national press.
• Walk-in is possible in theory because the restaurant is public. It is not a plan for the first two weeks.

ChiVibe will update this page when a real booking link exists. We are not taking names, and we are not emailing the restaurant for you.

Does Berenjak Chicago have a Michelin star?

No. As of this writing:

• London Berenjak: Bib Gourmand (a value designation, not a star).
• Gymkhana (same restaurant group, different restaurant): two Michelin stars in London.
• Berenjak Chicago: not open, not inspected, no Chicago Michelin status.

Stars and Bibs are attached to a specific restaurant in a specific city in a specific guide year. They do not ride a brand onto Green Street.

Why this opening actually matters in Fulton Market

Fulton Market does not need another pretty room. It needs a reason to make a reservation that is not steak, pasta, or a members’ club you already belong to.

Berenjak is interesting because it is three things at once:

1. A proven London brand with a charcoal identity, not a chef’s first restaurant. 2. A public door on a private building, which is how Soho House Chicago already makes money at The Allis and Fox Bar. That is a distribution trick as much as a food trick. People already know the address. 3. A cuisine the neighborhood has not hosted at this volume. West Loop and Fulton Market have flirted with the eastern Mediterranean. They have not had a charcoal Iranian kebab house with a UK cocktail list as the headline act.

The risk is the same risk as every international rollout into a club: the room can feel like a hotel amenity. Los Angeles reviews split on that. Eater LA’s later dining report called the Arts District room dark, romantic, and built for date night, then dinged the music volume. The Los Angeles Times asked a sharper question that Chicago should steal: what does a splashy London Iranian restaurant add in a city that already has a serious Persian culture? Chicago’s Iranian community is smaller than LA’s, so the question lands differently here. The bar for “adding something” is lower geographically and higher on authenticity.

If the kebabs are the real thing and the bread is right, the Soho House wrapper is a distribution channel. If the kebabs are a mood board, it is a pop-up with a lease.

What we do not know yet

Do not fill these in with guesses:

• Exact opening day
• Hours
• Booking platform and release window
• Chicago menu and prices
• Whether lunch exists
• Whether the patio/interior split looks like LA’s garden floor
• Noise, lighting, and whether the room is actually good for a conversation

Until those exist, the honest recommendation is: put it on the list, do not camp a phantom drop, and ignore anyone quoting a star that belongs to a different restaurant on a different continent.

Berenjak Chicago FAQ

When does Berenjak open in Chicago? Late September 2026, per Eater Chicago’s report of the restaurant’s announcement. No specific date has been published.

Is Berenjak Chicago open to the public? Yes. A Soho House membership is not required. It is being positioned like The Allis and Fox Bar, the building’s existing public rooms.

Where is Berenjak Chicago located? Soho House Chicago, 113–125 N Green Street, in Fulton Market.

Who is the chef? Kian Samyani, who founded Berenjak in London in 2018. The Chicago restaurant is a partnership with Soho House and JKS Restaurants.

What kind of food is Berenjak? Iranian / Persian, centered on charcoal-grilled kebabs, khoresht (stews), mezze, and bread. Chicago’s full menu has not been posted.

How do I make a reservation at Berenjak Chicago? You cannot yet. No OpenTable, Resy, or Tock listing has been published. Watch berenjak.com and this page.

Does Berenjak have a Michelin star? The London restaurants have a Bib Gourmand, which is not a star. Chicago has no Michelin designation. JKS’s Gymkhana has two stars in London; that is a different restaurant.

Is this the first Berenjak in the U.S.? No. There is a members-only residency at Dumbo House in New York and a public restaurant at Soho Warehouse in Los Angeles. Chicago is the next public U.S. room.

Last verified against the linked official and reported sources: August 29, 2026.

Sources

• Isaiah Reynolds, “A Charcoal-Grilled Bastion of Persian Cuisine Heads to Fulton Market,” Eater Chicago, August 28, 2026.
• Eater LA opening report and Eater LA dining report on the Los Angeles Soho Warehouse location.
• Bill Addison, “What does a splashy Iranian restaurant from London bring to L.A.?” Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2026.
• Berenjak (official site).
• Soho House Chicago, Food and Drink.

Until Berenjak Chicago posts a bookable calendar, the useful move is boring: watch berenjak.com and this page, not a rumor screenshot. Fulton Market already has a public door at that address, so a weeknight walk-in after The Allis is more plausible than a phantom drop. When inventory appears, treat it like any other Heat opening: dining room, two people, a real time. Bar rail is not the reservation.

Berenjak Chicago is a watch, not a trophy hunt. Put the Fulton Market address on the list, wait for a real calendar, and do not let a London Bib Gourmand get sold as a Chicago star.

Related on ChiVibe: Hooligan Chicago in Logan Square, and more in our Dining section.