AMARA brings Balkan mezze to Chicago's Fulton Market

Chef Nemanja Milunovic opens his first restaurant with his own menu this fall in Chicago's Fulton Market, a Balkan and Mediterranean mezze spot called AMARA built around the ćevapi and somun bread he grew up eating in Belgrade.

AMARA takes over the former Gino & Marty's space at 844 W. Randolph St. Milunovic runs the kitchen as executive chef and partner, working with managing partner Vincent Martin, who also owns Carbon down the street. His brother, Marko Milunovic, runs the bar.

Milunovic spent years in other people's kitchens before this: Aba, Prime & Provisions, River Roast, and most recently as executive chef at Adalina Prime. AMARA is the first menu built entirely around his own upbringing rather than someone else's concept.

It's such a simple dish, five ingredients, but it's awesome.

Ćevapi as the anchor, mezze as the format

The menu runs mezze-style, built for sharing rather than single plated courses. The signature dish is ćevapi, a grilled 80/20 blend of beef and lamb served with ajvar and kajmak on somun bread. "It's such a simple dish, five ingredients, but it's awesome," Milunovic said of the dish. Burek, the flaky savoury pastry found across the Balkans, and pašticada, a slow-braised Croatian beef, sit alongside handmade pljukanci pasta, plus hummus and falafel that widen the menu into the broader Mediterranean.

The bar runs on rakija, the region's fruit brandy, alongside Mediterranean wines, amari and vermouths, poured by Marko Milunovic.

A personal menu in a market built on concepts

Fulton Market has filled up with restaurants built around a concept first and a chef second; AMARA runs the other way. "It's a very deeply personal project, a tribute to my heritage and to the people who taught me food is about more than what's on the plate," Milunovic said. He wants diners who later visit the Balkans to recognise what they ate first in Chicago: "I want them to say, 'Oh wow, we have the same in Chicago.'"

The neighbourhood has had a busy few weeks for openings: Black Briar opened nearby with chef Jimmy Papadopoulos, adding another chef-driven kitchen to a strip better known for volume than for personal cooking. Whether AMARA's version of home cooking survives the jump from Milunovic's own kitchen table to a full dining room, at Fulton Market prices, is the only real test still ahead.