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player ready...A chef at a trendy West Loop restaurant has been found safe, a week after he disappeared and failed to show up at a fundraiser he had helped organize for his native Puerto Rico.
The Chicago Police Department issued a brief statement Thursday morning saying Luis Mercader, 25, “has been safely located.” It released no details.
Mercader is a chef at Roister, a restaurant less than two years old at 951 W. Fulton Market. It is owned by the Alinea Group, which is anchored by its flagship restaurant Alinea in Lincoln Park.
Family and friends said they last had contact with Mercader on Nov. 8. The next day, he did not show up at the Bucktown restaurant Animale, where he was to help cook an Italian-Puerto Rican dinner to raise money for relief efforts in Puerto Rico as it continues to recover from Hurricane Maria.
His father flew to Chicago from Puerto Rico over the weekend as police searched for his son.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Mercader’s father, who shares his son’s name, said he had nothing new to report. There was no immediate comment from the family Thursday morning.