Named after the 6-foot-10 owner and NoChance Productions (Goodbar, Cortland's Garage) partner, Brad Tice, this massively mod loft is still ruffling its feathers after a two-year licensing hiatus as to consider itself a restaurant or a nightclub. Inked and baseball-cap clad Tice will tell you over a shot of Markers Mark it's not the former. Yet sweet Roxanne Spruance of Blackbird-bred class is back in the kitchen blending creme fraiche and white truffle oil for spread on prosciutto flatbread.

The middle ground would naturally be a gastropub, especially with some of the American crafts by the bottle, from Mad Hatter IPA ($5) familiars to Big Red imperial ales ($14). But DJs do not spin in ladder-only accessible cages, over masses of dudes and gals in leather-bound, bottle-service booths in gastropubs.

If it were any other neighborhood, the typecasting wouldn't matter. But the Wicker Park circus is a place of fancy tricks these days (see places like Tocco and Taxim). And the best crowd pleasers Loft Six Ten is touting at the moment, Spruance's white tablecloth eats at under $20 price points, are in danger of being shadowed by Tice's "beer-and-shot" aspirations.

Average cost: $10-$20

Centerstage Reviewer: Gavin Paul