Lakeview

New 2D Restaurant Doubles Down on 2s With Next Week's Grand Opening Date, Giveaway

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

The new 2d Restaurant in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood will be showing some extra love to 2s with a major giveaway as part of next week's grand opening.

The café, which features walls and architecture of hand-drawn two-dimensional monochrome imagery, will be giving away 222 free rainbow Pon de ring donuts to the first 222 customers who come in on Feb. 22 starting at 2:22 p.m.

All proceeds from the grant opening will be donated to the Brave Space Alliance, a Black, trans-led LGBTQ+ center on Chicago's South Side, according to an Instagram post.

2d Restaurant, located at 3155 N. Halsted St., had a soft opening earlier this month, lighting up social media with its Pon de ring donuts, fried chicken and coffee for Chicagoans.

Hundreds of thousands of people have watched videos of the Parisian-inspired restaurant on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, with several noting it feels like stepping inside a drawing.

"I just happened to watch 'Emily in Paris,'" café designer Vanessa Thanh Vu said. "That's the show that inspired this first theme."

She designed every piece of architecture inside the restaurant, including a bathtub that customers can step inside to take photos and play with plastic balls meant to mimic bubbles.

2d Restaurant co-owner Kevin Yu said every cup of coffee is "hand-brewed, made to order." His iconic donuts, which are also called mochi donuts in some parts of the world, are lighter and fluffier than the typical treat.

"Our donut box, which is mimicked to look just like a comic book, was designed by my lovely wife Vanessa," Yu said. "We're so thankful to be in the city of Chicago in the neighborhood of Lakeview and we can't wait to share the joy of the 2d Restaurant with the city of Chicago."

The new spot is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for walk-ins only at this time. Click here for more information.

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