LYFE Kitchen closes, to be replaced by new restaurant in November

The+interior+of+LYFE+Kitchen.+The+restaurant+has+closed%2C+to+be+replaced+by+a+new+restaurant+in+the+fall.

Daily file photo by Lauren Duquette

The interior of LYFE Kitchen. The restaurant has closed, to be replaced by a new restaurant in the fall.

Kristina Karisch, Reporter

Evanston residents looking for a restaurant to satisfy their vegan, vegetarian and meat-loving friends all in one place will have to look further than Orrington Avenue this fall.

LYFE Kitchen, formerly located at 1603 Orrington, closed its doors this week after a four-year stint in Evanston. The California-based chain was founded in 2011 and sought to bring “balanced flavors from real, high-quality ingredients for the freshest possible meals,” according to its website.

There are 13 LYFE Kitchen locations across the country, including four in Chicago. The Chicago restaurants, including the former Evanston location and a catering business, are all owned as a franchise by L3 Hospitality Group, a Chicago-based company.

The group will continue to own the restaurant space, said Emily Paulsen, L3’s director of marketing and sales. She said L3 has plans to develop a new restaurant that will open in LYFE Kitchen’s place in the fall.

“We love the Evanston neighborhood and think it’s such a diverse, vibrant, eclectic community,” Paulsen said. “But the more we studied the area and the market, and looked at what other restaurants are available in Evanston, we felt like we could come up with a concept that might be able to meet the needs of the community even better than LYFE Kitchen does.”

Paulsen said the new restaurant will be an original concept and feature nods to Northwestern on the menu. It is set to open in early November.

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Twitter: @kristinakarisch