Chicago

• Fashionable food. Designer Ralph Lauren has opened his first restaurant, RL, around the corner from his Michigan Avenue store. The restaurant features beef from Lauren's Colorado ranch and serves the designer's favorite dish, a breaded veal chop. New York chef Nino Esposito (Vico, Sette Mezzo) opened the eatery, with Kristin Totlebensmith as executive chef

• Tony Priolo has been promoted to executive chef at Coco Pazzo after directing Coco Pazzo Cafe for the past year

• Chef/ owner Michael Altenberg has added a second-story wine bar and dining room to his Evanston eatery, Campagnola

• Brian Moulton has moved from Boston (Maison Robert, Les Zygomates, Eat) to cook for Cafe Bernard on North Halsted, which now serves weekday lunch

• The newly opened Plaza Tavern downtown features the Fountain Dining Room supper club with a 1913 Steinway grand piano; a raw bar and casual dining at the Oyster Bar and Grill; and cocktails and light menu at The Lounge, all under the direction of executive chef Lawrence London (ex-Rivers)

• Marshall Field's 13th-floor Candy Kitchen, makers of the famous Frango Mint candies, has closed, a victim of its own success. The 85-year-old Candy Kitchen couldn't meet growing demand for the candies so production was shifted to Gertrude Hawk Chocolates Inc. in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, leaving 157 workers without jobs. The chocolate mints used to be called Franco Mints, but the name was changed in the 1930s after dictator Francisco Franco came to power in Spain. .