Amy Morton, who runs Found Kitchen on Chicago Avenue, is planning another restaurant in Evanston — this one in a former stable building on Church Street.
Evanston aldermen tonight are scheduled to approve an easement agreement that would provide access to the one-time stable at the rear of 1016 Church St. through the city parking lot in the 1600 block of Oak Avenue.
Morton plans to call the new restaurant The Barn. The front of the 1016 Church St. building houses another restaurant, Thai Sookdee.
As planned, a five-foot-wide easement would extend between two parking rows in the lot, from Oak to where a ComEd utility pole and electrical cabinet now stand.
Looking east from the city parking lot toward the stable building.
The easement would then take up the full width of the 10 foot alley that runs south and joins the east-west alley through the block.
And, because the stable building isn’t set back from the east-west alley quite enough to provide a sufficient handicapped walkway, it would also occupy the north one foot of the east-west alley to the east edge of the stable building.
Under the proposed agreement Morton, an Evanston resident, would pay $400 a year for the easement over its 20-year term. The easement would also provide a route for a new water service to the stable building from Oak Avenue.
Community Development Director Mark Muenzer says in a memo to aldermen that the city is planning to repave the parking lot later this year with that project to be paid for by the city’s Economic Development Fund.
Morton reportedly plans to open the new restaurant next winter.
Morton’s Found Kitchen and Social House, at 1631 Chicago Ave., offers what’s described as “seasonal farm-to-table fare dished up in quirky space with found objects like vintage maps & books.”
Update 10:30 a.m. 7/14/15: The City Council approved the easement on its consent agenda Monday night.
During the Administration and Public Works Committee meeting, Morton said the stable was built for the Borden Dairy sometime between 1883 and 1893 and has been mostly vacant since the 1920s. She said she hasn’t determined the restaurant’s menu yet.