Lettuce Entertain You president buys Gold Coast condo for $6M

Chicago restaurant kingpin R.J. Melman expanded his high-end Gold Coast condo portfolio.

Melman, the president of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, and his wife Katherine paid $6 million for the full 16th-floor condo at 30 West Oak Street in an off-market November transaction, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The sellers were Ilan and Rebekah Shalit, who combined two separate units into the single full-floor condo. The couple paid $3.87 million for the larger of the two units in 2010 and $1.4 million for the other in 2013, meaning they exited the property for about $700,000 more than their acquisition cost.

Luxury residential real estate on Chicago’s Gold Coast warmed up to start this year, signaling a potential comeback for an area of the city where high-end homes have been sitting on the market, and sometimes failing to find buyers. Instead of that continuing, three pricey properties asking $4 million or more went under contract in the posh neighborhood last month.

Designed by Nate Berkus’ firm, the Melmans’ four-bedroom condo has six bathrooms, wide plank French oak floors throughout, custom millwork in the study and a De Giulio kitchen with a massive 20-foot counter island and butler’s pantry. The unit has 100 linear feet of floor-to-ceiling windows equipped with motorized shades as well as large gallery walls.

The Shalits first listed the condo for $9.99 million in September 2021 and lowered the asking to $8.25 million last March. The condo was taken off the market in October, just before it finally sold for 40 percent less than its initial asking price. The Shalits own another North Side condo. The couple paid $12.1 million for another full-floor unit in a nearby building in 2018.

The Melmans also own other high-priced real estate in and around downtown Chicago. In 2020, they spent $4.8 million on a five-bedroom vintage mansion on the Gold Coast from Chicago White Sox’s executive vice president Ken Wiliams and his wife, former TV news anchor Zoraida Sambolin. In 2021, the Melmans splurged again on a $1.85 million purchase of another condo on the 29th floor of a Gold Coast building, the Tribune reported.

 — Victoria Pruitt