The Purple Pig, the James Beard Award-winning Mediterranean restaurant on Michigan Avenue since 2009, now has a second home at 15 Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook.

The restaurant opened in early March and has already drawn crowds. Mantuano told Naperville Magazine the Oak Brook location pulled nearly 500 customers on a single Saturday in June with minimal marketing.

"Chicago is a tough market right now, and it's hard to open new businesses and restaurants," chef and partner Tony Mantuano told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Oak Brook was so welcoming, and it feels like opening a restaurant in the '80s or '90s."

The partnership behind the expansion includes Mantuano and his wife Cathy, along with Marianna Bannos and her father Thomas Shubalis, both longtime Oak Brook-area residents. Bannos said the partners chose Oakbrook Center for its mix of shopping and dining traffic and because she and her father live near the mall.

The Oak Brook space occupies the former Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams furniture showroom and spans more than 11,000 square feet. The dining room seats roughly 200 indoors, with dark wood, bright-white walls, semicircular padded booths, and white globe lights hanging from an exposed ceiling at varying heights. A wraparound patio adding about 50 seats opens Monday, June 29, according to the restaurant's website.

The kitchen features a wood-burning oven and grill not found at the Michigan Avenue location. Culinary director Brian Motyka and executive chef Michael Elliott run the day-to-day kitchen, with Mantuano in a creative partner role. The menu changes daily and carries over signatures like crispy fried pig ears and whipped feta alongside new dishes like gnocchi with wild boar ragù.

Up front, a retail Marketplace sells Italian coffee drinks, grab-and-go pastries, artisan gelato, pizza by the slice, and private-label olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and pasta. A private dining room holds 90 guests.

Mantuano won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest in 2005 and previously led Spiaggia, the Michelin-starred Italian restaurant on Michigan Avenue, for 37 years before it closed in 2021.

The Purple Pig Oak Brook is open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Reservations are encouraged; walk-ins are welcome. More at thepurplepigrestaurantgroup.com or (630) 581-0158.