Sportscasters bet on restaurant game

Ryan Baker

Ryan Baker

Three Chicago sports anchors are teaming up on a River North restaurant to open in the shadow of the Sun-Times headquarters.

ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com reports Ryan Baker of CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2, Lou Canellis of Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 and Kip Lewis of Comcast SportsNet Chicago are partners in a venture to launch “something between a sports bar and a fancier restaurant” in an 8,000-square-foot space at 414 North Orleans Street.

Located at the southeast corner of Hubbard and Orleans, it’s the former site of Klay Oven Indian Restaurant and the short-lived Brewstone Beer Company. Sun-Times offices are one block south in the former Apparel Center at 350 North Orleans Street.

“You know the risks involved,” Baker told Chicago Real Estate Daily. “You know the odds, but again, when you are part of a group, part of a team, that lessens the individual risk.” Baker declined to say how much he or the others invested.

Chicago-based Premium Themes Inc. and Mt. Prospect-based Intrestco LLC will run the still-unnamed restaurant, which is expected to open by “early spring at the latest,” according to the report.