IT STARTED AS A DINNER PARTY
A roommate, some cash, and a line out the door.
In college, Chef Nicolai Mlodinow was cooking in his apartment when a roommate offered him cash to make dinner. He obliged. The next day there was a handful of students at the door asking for the same deal. Word of the "apartment restaurant" spread until he was cooking for hundreds at the campus Hillel, and when he moved to Chicago, the dinner parties came with him — multi-course, out of a studio apartment, for whoever could fit.
I · THE APARTMENT RESTAURANT
"He never forgot what drew him to the craft — bringing people together over food."
II · THE KITCHENS
A guest who noticed,
and a stage at Alinea
One of those early guests saw what was happening and set him up to stage at Alinea. He went on to train in Chicago's Michelin-starred kitchens and learned the technique, the discipline, and the precision that world-class dining demands. What he never learned was to want anything different from what drew him in the first place.
III · A TABLE FOR SIXTEEN
A restaurant built
around one table.
Shreena Amin was a guest at those dinners before she was a partner in them. A founder by trade and a host by temperament, she saw what the dinner parties had that restaurants didn't — strangers arriving as strangers and leaving as something else — and the two of them set out to build a restaurant around that feeling instead of around a dining room.
16
Seats at one table, because everyone should arrive together and leave as one party.
3
Rooms, The Welcome Foyer, The Dining Room, and The Speakeasy— because an evening should move.
The mark is sixteen lines in three layers. Now you know why.
IV · WHAT CAME NEXT
The building
An out of use construction storage building in the heart of Bucktown wasn’t a natural place for a fine dining restaurant, but they had a vision. They gutted it and rebuilt it, room by room, into the three you walk through tonight: a foyer to arrive in, a dining room built around one table and an open kitchen, and a speakeasy behind the black fence.
Then they recruited a team as committed as they were — chefs, bartenders, and hospitality professionals who embraced their vision.
Class Act Chicago is a sixteen-seat communal-table tasting menu restaurant and speakeasy at 1737 N Damen Ave in Bucktown, founded by Executive Chef Nicolai Mlodinow and CEO Shreena Amin. It opened in July 2025.
THE VISION
To create connection and belonging.
THE MISSION
To craft magical hospitality experiences that bring people together and cultivate joy.
WE’RE JUST
GETTING STARTED
One year in, and already a lot to celebrate: a full table every weekend, a James Beard nod, and a room full of people who come as strangers and leave as friends.
