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Now Open is a yearlong collection celebrating a few of 2026’s most enjoyable new eating places. All year long, we’ll test in with groups in Chicago, New York Metropolis, and Washington, D.C. to listen to what it’s actually like behind the scenes of a buzzy opening. Then, we’ll host unique meals at these eating places as a part of Dinner Occasion, introduced by Capital One. Learn alongside for challenges, candid reflections, and recommendation from the proprietors behind a few of the nation’s hottest new openings.
All Properly comes from the staff behind Oriole, a effective eating restaurant that’s been acknowledged by each the Michelin Information and the James Beard Awards. On the restaurant, “you’re feeling comforted whenever you stroll in and know that we’ve dialed within the meals and the cocktails,” says Larry Feldmeier, the restaurant’s government chef and co-owner. Even the identify comes from having that form of rapport. “Once I was working at Oriole with Noah [Sandoval, All Well’s chef-partner], when one in every of us was out of city, we’d test in with one another, and we’d textual content ‘all effectively.’” he says. “It was a approach to see how issues had been going on the restaurant and see how everybody was doing. We had been like, We should always simply name the restaurant that.”
Mary Anne Porto: You opened in April—how has it been up to now? Any challenges?
Larry Feldmeier: The opening—after truly opening the doorways—has been fairly easy. Main as much as it, the week earlier than, issues we had ordered months forward of time—glassware, plates, issues like that—unexpectedly, we had been informed we couldn’t get these [in time]. So there have been hiccups. However we actually lucked out with getting a very good staff in right here.
How do you construct a very good opening staff?
A whole lot of it has been extra phrase of mouth, like pals telling different pals to come back work right here. I had not met Mary Christie, the GM, however Noah had labored along with her years in the past and stated she’d be the right match, and she or he was on board. I had additionally labored with our bar director Maxx [Kleiner] at Oriole, and we had at all times had an awesome relationship, so he was one of many first individuals I reached out to to see if he’d be occupied with this system. Our sous chef can be somebody I’d labored with. From there, it was a little bit of a spiderweb, the place they reached out to individuals who had been on board. [The hiring process] concerned [us] protecting [some positions] till we had everybody that we would have liked. A few of our staff didn’t begin till the day we opened as a result of they had been coming from totally different locations, in order that was a little bit of a problem.
For the workers who begin on opening day, how does that work? Do individuals get tremendous fast coaching?
We now have fairly minimal coaching. We received the area in January and didn’t begin a variety of work on it till February. In February and March, we received development accomplished and gear in. As soon as that was accomplished, [at the] finish of March, we had been like, “We principally must do family and friends in two to 3 weeks.” So it was a little bit of a time crunch. We employed [most of the team] the primary week of April and did family and friends the next week.
[Training] was form of trial by fireplace. With the administration we now have, we knew we’d be working stations, getting issues arrange and arranged the way in which we wished. Then when individuals began, let’s imagine, “Right here’s the way it goes.” It labored out effectively. There are different locations the place they’re doing six weeks of coaching at new eating places and typically I feel it’s virtually simpler to get thrown proper into it, particularly you probably have a bunch of gifted those that know what they’re doing.
That most likely additionally helps form the processes, to see what works finest for everybody.
100%. Even establishing the lineup. For the primary couple weeks, we had been transferring and establishing new stations in our again kitchen. It’s a variety of studying as we go, constructing collectively.
While you had been pondering of opening All Properly, had been you deliberately attempting to make one thing totally different from Oriole?
That was one of many greatest issues we talked about, ensuring it wasn’t simply Oriole 2.0. It’s one thing me and Noah wished to do. We now have very comparable kinds of meals, however we wished one thing utterly totally different.
To start with, a variety of the clientele—most likely like 60 p.c—had been Oriole common friends. Now it’s beginning to steadiness out. However I additionally are likely to suppose that there are individuals who at all times lean towards tasting menu sorts of eating places. [Making sure guests know All Well is its own thing] continues to be one thing we wrestle with a little bit bit. However I feel as time goes on, All Properly will set its personal id.
Are you able to inform me a little bit bit about the way you got here up with the menu, and whether or not you approached that in another way than you’ll at Oriole?
That is one other tacky factor, however the greatest issues we had had been ensuring the whole lot tasted good and was accomplished correctly. It’s a comforting area, nevertheless it’s not one thing the place we’re attempting to inform a narrative of like, Right here’s your childhood recollections, reimagined on a plate. It’s simply well-done meals, issues we actually need to eat after we exit.
I feel one of many greatest differentiating elements right here, versus at Oriole, is that there are some dishes which might be rather less refined. For instance, we do greater family-style pasta dishes, or serve fried fish on the bar. We wish individuals to appreciate that this isn’t uptight. It’s enjoyable, and you’ll be loud and messy.
Is there a dish that stands out?
That family-style pasta course encompasses what we need to do right here. It’s a stuffed pasta with a Délice de Bourgogne and potato filling. It’s glazed in beurre monté with a bunch of English peas and a little bit little bit of Banyuls vinegar and pea tendrils. We serve it in a copper pot with sourdough toast from Milli bakery right here in Chicago. That will get lathered in buckwheat honey butter with puffed greens on there for texture. We additionally deliver a little bit little bit of broth on the facet comprised of smoked hen. You get bowls at your desk, so the thought is which you can scoop the pasta in your bowl, add broth in order for you, and dip your bread in there. It’s fairly tasty. It’s one thing that possibly you don’t discover whenever you’re consuming it, however there’s a variety of approach behind it.
You even have a bar with meals accessible till midnight a la carte. Did you at all times know you wished to try this, and who do you serve on that facet?
We had a fairly free thought of what we wished to do, however after we checked out this area, which is about up as a fairly lengthy room with pillars down the center, it virtually naturally broke into two rooms. We wished to be an area the place, yeah, you possibly can are available and have a five-course meal, but additionally, we wished individuals within the neighborhood to have the ability to seize a sandwich or have a drink earlier than heading dwelling.
We’re in most likely the preferred meals space downtown, so we additionally wished cooks to have the ability to come and have meals after work [at the bar.] 5, 10 years in the past, all of those eating places had been open till 1 to 2 within the morning, and these days it’s virtually unattainable to search out something accessible after 10 o’clock—or not less than something respectable. We wished to perform a little one thing for everyone.
What’s one thing they don’t let you know about opening a restaurant that extra individuals ought to know?
Have plenty of cash. [Laughs] I feel the most important factor, for me, is the meals is the simplest half; the enterprise is the arduous half. The extra you possibly can truly perceive the financials and what it takes and prices, the extra profitable you’re going to be. How good your meals is received’t matter should you’re not getting cash.
How did you work that out?
I’ve been doing this for 20 to 25 years now. I really like effective eating; it’s most likely my favourite factor to do. Once I was youthful, I actually wished to open a spot. However I additionally labored at some inns for a pair years. Working in these extra structured, form of company locations will not be as enjoyable, however these are the locations which might be probably the most organized, which have P&Ls, and that actually educate you the fundamentals so you possibly can comprehend the whole lot that goes right into a restaurant. For me, doing a little issues exterior of what I anticipated doing taught me loads.
