For this high-end Indonesian restaurant chain’s first U.S. location in Chicago, Imperial Lamian hired JackLee to transform its space in River North into a chic spot for upscale, modern Chinese cuisine and artisanal, tea-infused cocktails. The space itself was old and inhabited by other tenants, so noise was a factor that the JackLee team had to be mindful of. Another hurdle was working around downtown’s imposed work moratorium during the holiday season which halted construction. For the project, JackLee’s scope of work included replacing and upgrading all windows to operable windows, exterior work, high-end millwork throughout (think CNC cut patterns), highly decorative tile work, custom booths, a full visual kitchen, new restrooms, a new bar and a design build that would incorporate a lot of unique decor that was imported from South Asia—all the while upholding odd hours in order to be able to field requests from the Imperial Lamian design team based in Indonesia in an alternate time zone. Working with a first-time builder meant weekly meetings for optimal communication, and JackLee maneuvered on a tight schedule including vetting a second millworker to get the project done by the client’s required deadline.