"I've eaten so much since I started working here," groans one employee over a plate of roast pork, tenderly spiced collard greens and sweet corn grits. As the new upscale market prepares for its August 30 opening, the tastings give executive chef Peter Repak (a veteran of the Four Seasons Hotel and Charlie Trotter's) a chance to try out recipes for the store's prepared foods section, where shoppers will be able to walk out with a made-on-site meal. "It won't all be esoteric or exotic," says market co-founder Ari Fox. "It will be favorite foods executed at the highest possible level, because every single day you're not looking for something exotic. So it might be mashed potatoes, but maybe it will also be truffled mashed potatoes."

Like New York's Dean & DeLuca and Balducci's, Fox & Obel wants to be the gourmet specialty market for Chicago, offering "quality" foods at a level you might not be able to find anywhere else in the city. The brainchild and two-year project of Yale-trained attorneys—Fox and Ken Obel—the 22,000-square-foot market is aiming to be a unique presence in River North. "The goal is to have an open market feeling to the place," Obel says during a tour, which reveals the exposed brick and glass interiors that will make shopping into a type of show. Kitchens and preparation stations are all windowed and visible to the public. "We want you to see everything," Obel says, "we prepare all the stuff here and we're happy to show what's going on."

There's free (yes, that's free) parking in the lot directly across the street from the market's corner (in the old North Pier building at Illinois and McClurg), valet parking and delivery available to the immediate area. Last, but not least, there's a café—forty seats inside, thirty outside. "The café is sort of separate from the store, in case we want to keep it open later at night," Fox says, noting the approach of the new twenty-one-screen movie theater across the street in the new River East development. The café will feature sandwiches made on the spot, salads tossed while you wait, as well as coffees and six different types of hot chocolates, "made from chocolates from the different chocolate growing regions," Fox says. "We've tasted all of the chocolates and there really is a difference—some are fruity, some are richer."

The duo of Fox and Obel plan to fill the entire market with these types of signature touches, from hand-sprayed produce—"We want to show customers that we're taking that kind of care," Obel says—to "rustic French style breads and pastries" made on site by Pamela Fitzpatrick (who made a splash at California's La Brea Bakery). "I'm confident we'll have the best bread in Chicago," Obel says. "It's such a weakness in the city."

Then there's selection: seventy-five varieties of loose tea, five different types of smoked salmon, five different types of prosciutto, twenty-plus varieties of olives, oils, vinegars and a wall of water from multiple countries, just to name a few. And, at any given time, Fox & Obel will carry 300-400 varieties of cheese, says cheese guru Dannie Ray Sullins, who gained his rep running Whole Foods Cheese department. "You might have to do a little work, considering all the questions I'm going to ask of you," Sullins says of his small, but densely packed cheese department. "But you're going to be well satisfied when you leave."

Nibblers should also be pleased, as Sullins says you won't be able to pass by without tasting something. "If you had told me six months ago I would leave the job I was doing, I wouldn't have believed it," he says. "We're going to have the best products and the best access to the best products. I think people are going to be blown away. I don't know anywhere else in the Midwest with this kind of selection."

The bottom line, Fox and Obel say, is they're not stocking anything they haven't tried personally. "Every product on the shelf is there because we tasted it and thought it was the best," Obel says. "We want this to be one-stop shopping for food people. If you're cooking or entertaining, we want you to be able to get everything here."

Which means they stock beers, wines and liquors and have a separate housewares department, in case you need to pick up last-minute dishes, linens, etc. It also means you'll be able to get some regular old grocery store items as well. "I don't eat $300-an-ounce butter every day," Fox says. "So you'll be able to get Land O' Lakes and we have that for a reason-because we tasted it. Even at that level we pick what we think is the best."

Fox & Obel Food Market, 401 East Illinois, (312)401-7301, www.fox-obel.com

Also by Elaine Richardson

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