Fulton Market aka SoFu

Like Sinoway, other design denizens have followed the loft conversions here, popping up alongside meat-packing businesses that are more than a century old and hark back to when Chicago was “Hog Butcher to the World” and millions of cattle were processed at now-defunct Union Stockyards.

Like the other owners of design denizens here, Sinoway enjoys the split personality of Fulton Market and hopes it stays. All feel the juxtapositions of industrial warehouses with new luxe lofts, snob-factor restaurants and some of the hippest, sleekest contemporary design sources in the city add up to an electrically charged shopping scene.

Fulton Market “is basically a one-street extravaganza,” says Sinoway.

The development of the larger West Loop neighborhood that Fulton transects like an exclamation mark has been simmering for a decade or so. But a lot of it has been under the radar, according to Barbara Gazdik, owner of Mars Gallery, which has been on Fulton Street the longest, 17 years.

“There's always been a lot more in the West Loop than anyone ever thought,” says Gazdik. “The residential wasn't here. There were a lot of photographers in here before. Nobody else knew about it. It was more like a secret.” The fact it has been a one-way street has kept a lot of people from exploring it.

...“It's like antiquing,” adds Gazdik. “People kind of want to find it. They want a little bit of a treasure hunt. They don't want [to get] it at the mall. They want to go to a mysterious area and discover the new artist.”

Some of the galleries and an antique shop or two settled on Fulton Street early on, then moved to Peoria Street, closer to restaurant row on Randolph Street, or to Grand Avenue. That left Fulton as “a design corridor,” as Sinoway calls it.

That move might be seen now as regrettable, as Fulton Market -- from Halsted Street to Racine Avenue -- hovers on the edge of an explosion of exciting growth. Those who stayed can hardly wait for it to happen.

South Loop impresario/restaurant owner/designer Jerry Kleiner has three new projects on Fulton that will start popping after April 1. While his current projects are not directly home- or design-related, they likely will bring more shoppers into the area, who will patronize those that do exist and “seed” more of the same.

Kleiner is the visionary developer responsible for restaurants such as Opera, and for creating Revival, an architectural salvage/cultural center at 19 E. 21st St., out of a derelict industrial building.

“I'm trying to ignite the area,” he says. He likens the influx of design studios and home-furnishings stores in this slice of the West Loop to similar development in New York's SoHo district.

He says some of the 1920s buildings in the meatpacking district have been empty for a long time. “You've got to fill them with something,” adds Kleiner, who has been on the board of West Loop Gate, a community organization, for 12 years.

“We really try to do the right thing,” he adds, referring to the “cultural things” being brought to this burgeoning community.

Still about 170 companies in the district -- employers of about 3,000 people, have banded together as the Randolph-Fulton Market Association to fight displacement and to seek city support for the redevelopment of vacant parcels for industrial use only.

“It isn't that I don't like the residents by any means,” says George Dervenis, owner of Columbus Meats on Randolph Street and board member of the association. “It is just that it is hard to get your business done, with trucks coming in from 2 a.m. on, if residents want to sleep until 6 a.m.”

... “People are fascinated by the market itself. People are enamored of the forklifts. It has the flavor of a market and it has the edginess to it still. Here there is still the element of surprise,” Sinoway says. “Europeans find us, as well as designers and architects and people curious enough to find us.”

After noon, Sinoway says Fulton Market changes as the meatpackers end their day, which started at 2 or 3 a.m. “It is a different world then. And on Saturday and Sunday, it is a different world,” the forklifts at rest.

Time to get along

The controversy about who is going to move in and who will stay only adds to the mystery and mystique of Fulton Market.

“I feel everybody can co-exist with this stuff. I don't want to see anybody go,” says Kleiner. “There's a beautiful charm to them. I try to preserve these buildings and make the city a better place. Every time you lose a gem of a building, it is like putting a spike in the city.”

Expect the best to come. Meanwhile check out what is there and heed the advice of old-timers (see below) on how to best approach this street that so exemplifies the City of Big Shoulders.

Casati, 949 W. Fulton Market St., 312-421-9905. Ugo Alsano Casati has been on the street since September 2003. He concentrates on collectible pieces of midcentury Italian furniture, lighting, painting and art. He deals with “a lot of designers on the East Coast and the West Coast and a few architects from Chicago,” rather than walk-in traffic right now, but the public is welcome.

Douglas Dawson Gallery, 400 N. Morgan St., 312-226-7975. This stylish new complex lies one short block north of Fulton Market Street and is well worth the stroll over. Dawson moved here for the space it offered -- 7,500 square feet of exhibition area, plus a warehouse for the African, pre-Columbian and Asian ethnographic treasures and “eccentric things” he deals in. This includes his primary passion, ancient pottery from tribal cultures from every point on the earth. But what really makes this place special is an additional 18,000 square feet of outdoor space where he can exhibit massive stone sculpture. This is an oasis of extraordinary beauty in the middle of the West Loop.

Function + Art, 1046 W. Fulton Market St., 312-243-2780, specializes in studio furniture by nationally recognized artisans, including David Orth and Brent Skidmore. It also offers handmade functional objects, such as vessels and bowls.

Prism Contemporary Glass, 1048 W. Fulton Market St., 312-243-4885, represents nationally recognized glass artists such as Shayna Leib and Alex Bernstein and lighting by Craig Clingan. Both Function + Art and Prism were located in Pontiac, Mich., for a little more than 10 years. Function + Art moved here three years ago, and Prism opened in September. “It just seemed like the right place to be, a neighborhood that was electric, growing and creative,” says Amy Hajdas, who handles marketing communications for both galleries.

Morlen Sinoway Atelier, 1052 W. Fulton Market St., 312-432-0100, offers a mix of designer furniture, handmade utilitarian things such as ceramic plates, objets d'art and paintings. While Sinoway gets buyers from out of town as well as local architects and designers, he says his atelier caters especially to the residents of the lofts nearby in the greater West Loop area. His atelier is “forever changing, offering inspiration for stimulating environments” in a sleek, contemporary mode. He has been traveling lately to France and Belgium, focusing on limited production and custom goods. “I'm doing more furniture than art, but I still have the mixture of art, furniture and design, carpeting, flooring and accessories, glassware, pottery, Arts and Crafts-inspired chairs.”

Linda Warren Gallery, 1052 W. Fulton Market St., 312-432-9500. This gallery represents emerging and mid-career contemporary artists working in all media. Warren has been on Fulton for 1 1/2 years, having moved here from Silver Lake, Calif.

FLATfilegalleries, 217 N. Carpenter St., just off Fulton Market Street, 312-491-1190, offers contemporary art and photography by Chicago artists. The gallery moved to this location Sept. 10, attracted by the space and the community feeling of the district.

Mars Gallery + Custom Framing, 1139 W. Fulton Market St., 312-226-7808, offers “fine and funky artwork,” says Barbara Gazdik. The gallery sells original contemporary work by Chicago artists and will do custom framing. “I'm the original person on Fulton -- 17 years,” Gazdik says.

How was it different then? “[It was] a lot easier to park,” she says. “The thing about Fulton is it's a one-way street and it's congested during the day. I tend to drive down another street and then cut over.” Like Sinoway, Gazdik says the street changes character depending on the time of day. “On weekends, there's no trucks,” she says. The best approach to dealing with the workmen is, “you are respectful of them and they are respectful of you.”

Wright, 1140 W. Fulton Market St., 312-563-0020, one of the city's leading auction houses, offering a fresh new approach to modern design that has attracted national recognition. Wright, one of the pioneers on the street, moved in eight years ago.

Jan's Antiques, 225 N. Racine Ave. (where Racine Avenue meets Fulton Market Street), 312-563-0275. Jan's has been on this corner for many years, says owner Jan Seymour. “It is a fun area, artistic like SoHo [in New York]. I love the street, the cars parked on an angle -- plus the market, which has been here 90 years.” Few places really deserve the adjective “unbelievable” but Jan's is clearly one of them. If someone made it, somewhere, sometime in the past, Seymour probably has it squirreled away somewhere within this 18,000-square-foot warehouse. There's no way to even list it all, but it includes salvaged furniture, accessories, collectibles, fireplace mantels, old ironwork, picture frames, paintings, architectural artifacts from old buildings, light fixtures, old doors, tchotchkes of every kind, lots of old dishes and pottery. And here's a big secret revealed: Some of the fancier architectural salvage places unearth some of their finds right here.

Need a pit stop? Apart from the future restaurants and places of refreshment planned for the near future, there already exist a couple of tried and true rest stops where visitors to this burgeoning district can take a break.

Follia Restaurant, 953 W. Fulton Market St.,312-243-2888, offers contemporary Italian cuisine. Open 5 p.m. daily.

Fulton Lounge, 955 W. Fulton Market St. 312-942-9500, a popular neighborhood lounge, voted No. 1 lounge in Chicago by Chicago magazine.