Ema

Ēma is a Mediterranean restaurant on West Illinois Street at Clark Street in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. Its menu centers on mezze, the small plates and dips meant for sharing.

The restaurant opened in June 2016. Rich Melman, founder of Lettuce Entertain You, and executive partner Marc Jacobs created it with chef-partner CJ Jacobson, a Top Chef contestant who grew up in California. Jacobson's cooking draws on that California background and on the years he spent living and traveling in Israel and Europe and around the Mediterranean, with local produce, bright spices and a light hand. Ēma means mother in Hebrew, and its sister restaurant Aba, which means father, has locations in Chicago and Miami as well as Austin.

Spicy hummus, house-made stracciatella and lamb and beef kefta kebabs were among the signatures at the opening. Other signature plates include English peas with house yogurt and a blackberry-sumac granita, crispy broccoli in a black garlic dashi broth, and grilled octopus with fried kale and fingerling potatoes, finished with lemon. At the opening a separate counter on Clark Street, Rotisserie Ēma, sold rotisserie chicken and salads to take away, along with frozen Greek yogurt.

Reclaimed wood, white-painted brick and woven basket lamps give the room a light, informal look, and a patio opens in summer. Bottles from Mediterranean coasts and islands lead the wine selection, such as a Massaya rosé from Lebanon and a Pallagrello from Campania, and the cocktails use kitchen ingredients like apricot, Aleppo pepper and harissa. A second Ēma later opened in the suburb of Glenview, with its own dishes such as Moroccan onion dip and octopus carpaccio.