Lettuce Entertain You's first wine bar — a hundred-bottle Iberian-leaning list and Spanish tapas across a long marble counter on Clark Street.
Bar Ramone sits on Clark Street at the southern edge of River North, a few blocks from the river, in a long narrow room with a marble bar that runs almost the full length of the space. It opened in 2018 as Lettuce Entertain You's first dedicated wine bar — the group's eighty-restaurant empire had never built one before — with a list curated by Associate Partner Richard Hanauer (formerly of RPM Italian) and a Spanish tapas menu by Chef Partner Hisanobu Osaka. Chicago Magazine's October 2018 review called it "proof that wine bars can be hip", and the room has held that line through ownership churn elsewhere on the block.
The right visitor wants a bottle of orange wine or Cava from a hundred-deep list, a plate of jamon and the house tomato bread, and a counter seat where the bartender will pour comparison flights. The wrong visitor came for a cocktail programme — the list is short and competent, but the wine is the point. A wine-curious date night or pre-dinner crawl works; an after-work group looking for craft cocktails is better off two blocks east at The Aviary.
The space is narrow and long — a single rectangular room with the bar running down one side and a row of leather banquettes along the other, ending in a small back dining area. The lighting is low, the bar back is stacked with bottles three rows high, and a slatted wood ceiling absorbs noise. Time Out Chicago's review described the look as "what a Madrid wine bar would design if you handed it a River North budget" — a fair tag, even if Madrid would never use the marble.
The bottle list runs just over a hundred, weighted heavily toward Iberian producers — Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Priorat, Bairrada, Douro — with a strong orange and pet-nat section that Wine Spectator's "Turning Tables" coverage flagged as the programme's most interesting bet. By the glass the rotating selection runs around $14–$24; the Cava and sherry pours are the smart order if you want value. Hanauer keeps a couple of large-format bottles open at the bar most nights.
Order the house-made tomato bread ($9), the Patatas Bravas XL fries ($14) and a glass of Manzanilla; that's the established move and what regulars on r/chicagofood describe as "the Bar Ramone audition". The Mushroom Pintxos and Galician Octopus get repeated mentions in Time Out and OpenTable reviews; the cheeseboard is fine but oversized. Skip the cocktail list unless you want a Sherry Cobbler — the wine is what the room is built around.
The crowd skews 30s and 40s, mostly Loop and River North professionals on weeknights with a heavier date and small-group mix on Friday/Saturday. The Infatuation's Chicago wine bar guide called the room "the rare River North wine bar that doesn't look like a hotel lobby" — an accurate read; the tone is conversational rather than scenic. Sunday afternoons run quiet enough to read at the bar, which is the underrated hour.