At the foot of Willis Tower, behind the Franklin Street doors, a 13-foot wood-fired hearth runs the length of the kitchen at Kindling, and once a month James Beard Award winner Jonathon Sawyer pulls up chairs around it. His Supper with Sawyer series turns the open fire into a communal chef’s table, and the November edition, Nothing But the Meats on Friday, Nov. 20, 2026, gives the whole night to beef: A5 Japanese Wagyu carpaccio, short rib galbi, beef cheeks bourguignon and a petite Wagyu filet.
Kindling’s site lists the November supper as sold out, but seats may still be available through OpenTable. The series carries on into the holidays with a Feast of the Seven Fishes edition on Friday, Dec. 18, a New Year’s Eve menu on Dec. 31 and a Winter Fireside Series in January 2027, and the dining room books on OpenTable most nights of the week.
A hearth in the base of Chicago’s tallest building
Sawyer opened Kindling with The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group in 2023 on the ground floor of Willis Tower, the 110-story landmark that still anchors the Loop skyline. The restaurant spreads across multiple levels, and its own entrance sits on the corner of Franklin and Adams streets, so dinner never involves the tower lobby or building security. Inside, the mood is glowing embers, rich wood, a long bar and big windows onto the Loop.
Everything turns on the hearth. Steaks, oysters, seafood and vegetables all pass through the fire, and the kitchen leans into it: oysters Rockefeller with candied bacon and Calabrian chile breadcrumbs, bone marrow buttered oysters, a Spanish octopus with onion jang and papas bravas, and a 32-ounce prime porterhouse for the table. Chef de cuisine Jairo Chavez runs the line alongside Sawyer, who is at the hearth at least five days a week when he is not filming.
Jonathon Sawyer, from the Greenhouse Tavern to the Loop
Sawyer trained in New York under Charlie Palmer and cooked alongside Michael Symon before building a run of Cleveland restaurants that included The Greenhouse Tavern, Trentina and Noodlecat. Food & Wine named him a Best New Chef in 2010, and in 2015 he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes for The Greenhouse Tavern. He moved his cooking to Chicago in 2020 and led the kitchen at Adorn before building Kindling.
He is also a familiar face on Food Network, from Tournament of Champions to Chopped, and he wrote the cookbooks House of Vinegar and Noodlekids. On Oct. 27, 2026, Sawyer, Chavez and the Kindling team took on Bobby Flay’s crew in a steakhouse showdown on Food Network’s The Line.
Nothing But the Meats: six plates of beef by the fire
The November supper opens with a welcome cocktail at 6 p.m. and sits down at 6:30 p.m. around the hearth, with optional sommelier wine pairings for the holiday season. Sawyer builds the whole menu from beef, with no fish and no vegetable course taking the spotlight.
- Welcome course: A5+ Japanese beef eye round carpaccio, buba arari, Parmesan, lemon, olive oil, matsutake, shoyu
- First course: Mama’s Meatballs, tomato sugo and polenta
- Second course: Seven Up and gochujang short rib galbi, kimchi, scallions, mung bean sprouts and rice
- Third course: braised beef cheeks bourguignon, Thumbelina carrots, pearl onions, button mushrooms, Burgundy, new potatoes and bacon lardons
- Fourth course: petite Wagyu filet, hollandaise and fries
- Dessert: Basque cheesecake with beef suet butterscotch
The galbi and the meatballs carry the playful side of the series, and the meatballs come from a family recipe belonging to Sawyer’s friend Britt. Supper with Sawyer tables seat parties of two to four, a mandatory gratuity is added to each ticket, and the menus change completely each month: August went back to school with a foie gras Uncrustable and Wagyu corn dogs, and July’s Stars and Bars night served dishes dated to their American birthplaces, from 1852 Saratoga chips to a 1951 bananas Foster.
Where to sit and what to order on a regular night
Without a ticket, the everyday menu still shows off the fire. The Sawyer-Style Steak Frites pairs a 50-day dry-aged ribeye with au poivre and suet fries at $50, the 8-ounce Mrs. O’Leary filet comes with red wine demi-glace and fried shallots, and a Filet Thermidor surf and turf adds a lobster tail. The 24-ounce bone-in prime ribeye, also dry-aged 50 days, and a purebred local Wagyu steak exclusive to Fifty/50 head the steak list.
Lunch brings the Wagyu Italian beef with Caruso’s giardiniera and a Wagyu suet-toasted roll, the sandwich Eater Chicago said might be the city’s most opulent Italian beef. For a group, the seafood tower stacks Skull Island prawns, oysters and cold-water lobster tail with salsa macha butter. Dessert runs to a sixth-pan tarte tatin with red wine poached pear and a miso caramel budino, and the bar’s Firestarter mixes rye, Cognac, Grand Marnier and chocolate liqueur into a dessert in a glass.
Live fire is having a moment across the city, from the hearth-centered chef series at Ox Bar & Hearth in Lincoln Park to John Manion’s live-fire steakhouse in the West Loop, and Kindling is the one built into the base of a skyscraper.
The holidays at the hearth
The December Supper with Sawyer, Holiday Hearth Edition on Friday, Dec. 18, 2026, takes on the Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes as a five-course tasting at the communal chef’s table: mussel toast, a crudo of fluke, tomato-braised calamari, a saffron risotto croquette, vongole pasta and swordfish caponata involtini, finished with Basque cheesecake. Tickets have not been released yet.
Thanksgiving week, Monday, Nov. 23, through Saturday, Nov. 28, brings a four-course prix fixe supper of three raw oysters, Caesar salad, a choice of Sawyer-style steak or cedar-planked salmon, sides and a tart duo for $90, with 50 percent off every bottle of wine. Kindling is closed on Thanksgiving Day.
New Year’s Eve goes for indulgence: oysters casino with pork belly butter, caviar cones of Golden Kaluga caviar in black sesame waffle cones, Maine lobster ravioli gigante with thermidor sauce, a Rosewood Wagyu filet Oscar with lump crab and béarnaise, and a raspberry mille-feuille with South African dark chocolate. For more one-night tables across the city this season, ChiVibe’s November and December dinner calendar runs in date order.
What comes next for Sawyer
Sawyer and Kindling operations director Simon Unthan are developing a new restaurant concept in the Loop for 2027, the next project from the Kindling team within The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group. The January 2027 Supper with Sawyer, the Winter Fireside Series, will focus on mid-winter heritage meats, wood-smoked seafood and Midwest cheeses with reserve cellar and bourbon pairings.
Kindling Chicago at a glance
- Where: 202 S. Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60606 (Willis Tower, the Loop), entrance at Franklin and Adams
- Hours: lunch Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; supper Monday to Thursday 4 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 to 10 p.m.; Sundays reserved for private events
- Supper with Sawyer: Nothing But the Meats, Friday, Nov. 20, 2026, 6 p.m. welcome cocktail, 6:30 p.m. supper (Kindling’s site lists it as sold out; seats may still be available through OpenTable); Holiday Hearth Edition, Friday, Dec. 18, 2026
- Thanksgiving week: Nov. 23 to 28, 2026, four-course prix fixe $90; closed Thanksgiving Day
- Reservations: OpenTable; walk-ins at the bar and high-tops
- Phone: (312) 789-5992
- Dress: smart casual
Kindling Chicago FAQ
What is Supper with Sawyer at Kindling Chicago?
Supper with Sawyer is a monthly ticketed tasting dinner at Kindling in Willis Tower, where chef Jonathon Sawyer cooks a themed multi-course menu at a communal chef’s table around the restaurant’s 13-foot wood-fired hearth. Each night opens with a welcome cocktail, and optional wine pairings are offered.
When is the next Supper with Sawyer in Chicago?
Nothing But the Meats, an all-beef menu with A5 Wagyu carpaccio and a petite Wagyu filet, runs Friday, Nov. 20, 2026, at 6 p.m. Kindling’s site lists the supper as sold out, but seats may still be on OpenTable. The Holiday Hearth Edition, a Feast of the Seven Fishes, follows Friday, Dec. 18, 2026, with tickets still to be released.
Where is Kindling Chicago and how do I get in?
Kindling is at 202 S. Franklin St. on the ground floor of Willis Tower in the Loop, with its own entrance at Franklin and Adams streets, so guests skip the tower lobby and security. Quincy station on the Brown, Orange, Pink and Purple lines is about a block away.
Does Kindling Chicago take reservations?
Yes. Kindling takes reservations on OpenTable and recommends them for weekday lunch and Tuesday through Thursday evenings, while the bar and high-tops keep space for walk-ins. Supper with Sawyer dinners require a ticket booked in advance for parties of two to four.
Who is the chef at Kindling Chicago?
Jonathon Sawyer, Food and Wine Best New Chef in 2010 and 2015 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Great Lakes, leads Kindling, which he opened with The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group in 2023. Chef de cuisine Jairo Chavez runs the kitchen alongside him at the wood-fired hearth.
Is Kindling Chicago open on Thanksgiving?
Kindling is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2026. From Monday, Nov. 23, through Saturday, Nov. 28, the Willis Tower restaurant serves a four-course prix fixe supper with oysters, Caesar salad, steak or cedar-planked salmon and dessert for $90, with half-price bottles of wine.
Further reading
- Kindling, official site
- Kindling culinary events and Supper with Sawyer menus
- Kindling on OpenTable
- Chicago Food Magazine: Nothing But the Meats, Nov. 6, 2026
- Eater Chicago: Kindling’s Wagyu Italian beef, June 27, 2023
- James Beard Foundation: 2015 award winners
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