Oh natural! GoodFunk brings natural wine to the Loop
At its core, wine is simply fermented grape juice. But somewhere along the way, it’s often become a beverage of privilege and complicated language. GoodFunk, our new natural wine bar and café in the Loop along Wacker Drive, aims to flip that dialogue by focusing on wine made with minimal intervention and no pretense.
At GoodFunk, you’ll find grape varieties you haven't heard of from lesser-known regions of the world created by daring winemakers who aren’t afraid to step back and let nature work its magic. Paired with equally funky, rustic food, GoodFunk proves wine can be affordable, quirky and most importantly fun.
"GoodFunk celebrates a new generation of forward-thinking winemakers who are reinvigorating and reinventing the wine industry across six continents,” says Bonhomme Group Director of Wine & Education Colin Hofer. “We showcase iconoclastic winemakers who are challenging the very definition of what wine is: Does it have to be grapes, or can rhubarb and carrots make wine too? These risk-taking winemakers are producing wine from varietals and regions that aren’t seeped in the dogmas of the conventional wine world. Our aim at GoodFunk is to give their hard work and extraordinary boldness the light we think it deserves.”
The ever-evolving living wine list focuses on small-production, must-try bottlings that embrace the zeitgeist, made by producers whose work meditates on the techniques, grape varieties and traditions of the pre-industrial past, just as the founders of the biodynamic and organic movements did with agricultural practices. In keeping with natural wine’s inherent limited production, GoodFunk’s by-the-glass and bottle lists will change frequently — sometimes daily, always weekly — offering guests an incentive to visit often.
“At its core, the natural wine movement is minimal intervention winemaking that tells a story of the people who made it and the land it was made from,” says Bonhomme Group Founder & Creative Director Daniel Alonso. “Our enthusiastic team at GoodFunk loves the chance to nudge guests to explore the world of wine through an exciting new lens and to discover — as they have — the stories of these winemakers in a fun, thoughtful and unrestrained manner.”
“At its core, the natural wine movement is minimal intervention winemaking that tells a story of the people who made it and the land it was made from,” says Bonhomme Group Founder & Creative Director Daniel Alonso. “Our enthusiastic team at GoodFunk loves the chance to nudge guests to explore the world of wine through an exciting new lens and to discover — as they have — the stories of these winemakers in a fun, thoughtful and unrestrained manner.”
For the all-day menu, Chef Marcos Campos has created natural wine-friendly dishes that offer some funk of their own with ingredients that incorporate pickling, smoking and curing.
“Everything has a bit of fermentation in it to match the wine,” says Campos. That means, for example, that the butter accompanying the Anchovy Toast gets an extra umami kick from the addition of shio koji. The Little Gem Salad topped with an earthy tahini-lemon dressing is dusted with wasabi furikake, which adds a natural salinity to the greens. Housemade charcuterie, a rotating selection of domestic and imported cheeses and a selection of Spanish-style flatbreads are also part of the all-day menu.
Concepted and designed by Maison Bonhomme, GoodFunk brings together the contemporary sensibility and inviting nature of a neighborhood wine bar with the artful and sophisticated aura of 1930s café society in Europe and America.
Over the years, the Loop has embraced a more residential mindset with the addition of modern condominium high-rises alongside the stunning skyscrapers for which the area is widely known. We at Bonhomme Hospitality are firm believers that every neighborhood deserves a wine bar like GoodFunk. A place where guests can discover the next regions and winemakers of the world while enjoying a quick nibble that easily turns into a full meal as the conversation flows freely with those behind the bar and in front of it.
