Five new businesses opened in 2026 on the stretch of Chicago Avenue between the 1400 and 1800 blocks. Only one of them is a dinner restaurant. The rest are a French bakery, a streetwear store with a cafe in the back, a pool hall with golf simulators, and, waiting in the wings, a regional Mexican restaurant that hasn't opened yet. East Village already had its dinner scene. This year's openings are going into the hours on either side of it.
The pool hall makes the case most plainly, because it says so in its floor plan.
The Room Built Without a Kitchen
Surge Billiards opened its third Chicago location at 1734 W. Chicago Ave. on Monday, August 24, in a building that used to house a Catholic Charities grocery store. It has more than two dozen pool tables. A separate room holds seven golf simulators running Trackman software, operated as Sway Golf, a brand co-owners Wahib Merchant and Kareeshma Ali started with their friend Asif Nathani. The other two Surge locations, on Fullerton in Logan Square and on Montrose in Albany Park, don't have simulators.
There's no food beyond prepackaged snacks and the occasional pop-up from a local vendor. The bar serves cocktails, coffee and espresso. Merchant told Block Club Chicago that this was the plan from the beginning:
"We really want to be a spot that people can go to before and after dinner, and … give them other things that they can do in the area, rather than eat and then have to leave."
He also told the outlet that fitting in with Chicago Avenue's restaurant scene "is how we've envisioned being in this space, and that's why we designed it without a kitchen." The owners left the building's original facade in place, and a mural by local artist Mauricio Ramirez covers the eastern wall along Hermitage Avenue. They had hoped to open in 2025, but construction delays and the permitting process pushed the launch back.
So a business owner looked at this strip, decided it had enough places to eat, and built for the time before and after the meal. The rest of the year's openings fit the same pattern.
Morning Now Starts at 1711
Two doors west of Bar Bambi, Guillotine Bakery opened at 9 a.m. on June 17 in what used to be the Rhona Hoffman gallery, at 1711 W. Chicago Ave. Co-owner and baker Vincent Didry, co-owner Alizé Bikard and head baker Vince Le Bec bring in French flour and butter for baguettes, sourdough, croissants and kouign-amanns. They pour coffee from Chicago's Sparrow Coffee and serve a few sandwiches at lunch. The bakers work in an open kitchen in full view of the dining room. The owners planned the space as somewhere to sit and work as well as eat.
In a March interview with Block Club Chicago, Didry described the approach as "no rules, no limits." By August, the bakery regularly had a line out the door. Block Club reported that Guillotine opened to "immediate, overwhelming demand" and that it requires customers to order in person. In its August story on Chicago's line culture, Guillotine appeared alongside Kasama, the two-Michelin-star Filipino restaurant a few blocks west at 1001 N. Winchester Ave. A diner in line there told the outlet the wait is "a feature, not a bug."
A year ago, the busiest morning line in the area was at Winchester and Augusta. Now there's a second one on the Chicago Avenue strip.
The Afternoon Picked Up an Anchor in July
At 1843 W. Chicago Ave., near the Damen end of the strip, Joe Freshgoods opened Every Now and Then earlier in July. It's a streetwear store with a DJ booth, designer furniture, art from Freshgoods' friends and objects from the history of Black Chicago. In the back is a full-service cafe called Josephine's, named for his grandmother. Josephine's serves Metric Coffee, and Freshgoods says the menu, which is still growing, draws on childhood summers visiting his grandmother in Alabama. "It's really just a kid from Chicago that spent summers in Alabama," he told Block Club Chicago.
He also told the outlet he hopes the store becomes a gathering place for the city's creative community. "Obviously there are one zillion cafes and there are one zillion retail spaces, but there's only one me," he said.
Like Guillotine, Every Now and Then is meant for staying a while, at a time of day when this part of Chicago Avenue had few places that encouraged it.
Dinner Was Already Covered
The restaurant scene that Surge chose to complement was already well established. The Infatuation's West Town dining guide, updated in July 2026, opens by calling the area "That Neighborhood With All The Great Restaurants Along Chicago Avenue." The same guide lists Bar Bambi at 1703 W. Chicago Ave. as a cocktail bar on "the neighborhood's Chicago Ave. strip," suited to post-work happy hour or drinks before a night out.
This summer's one dinner opening came from chefs who already had a following. Gilda, a Basque-inspired tavern, opened Thursday, July 23, at 1421 W. Chicago Ave., the former home of Chi-Latin. Chef-partners Jeremy Leven, Rafael Esparza and Anthony Baier have cooked at mfk., Mama Delia, Momotaro and Kimski. Inés de Haro runs the bar program. The team had run Gilda as a pop-up first, and a crowdfunding campaign raised $20,000 toward renovation and opening costs. Its rotating pintxos are available at the bar and in the more formal dining room, including the namesake gilda of olives, piparra peppers and anchovies. Leven told Block Club Chicago that the Basque Country's openness to creativity "was really the spark point of why we wanted to open Gilda."
Just west of Damen, in Ukrainian Village, are two of the city's most decorated tables. Feld, at 2018 W. Chicago Ave., is chef Jake Potashnick's 20-seat restaurant serving a 25- to 30-course tasting menu for $225 per person. Potashnick won a James Beard Award in 2026. Next door at 2020 W. Chicago Ave., Lao Peng You serves handmade dumplings and noodles in a small room that Eater Chicago's best-restaurants map, updated October 9, says fills up fast. Kasama moved from one Michelin star to two in the 2025 Chicago guide.
The Strip by Address
| Address | Business | Hours it serves | Opened | Previous tenant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1421 W. Chicago Ave. | Gilda | Dinner, bar | July 23, 2026 | Chi-Latin |
| 1424 W. Chicago Ave. | Compa | Dinner | Not yet confirmed | Five Star Bar |
| 1703 W. Chicago Ave. | Bar Bambi | Pre-dinner drinks | Established | n/a |
| 1711 W. Chicago Ave. | Guillotine Bakery | Morning, lunch | June 17, 2026 | Rhona Hoffman gallery |
| 1734 W. Chicago Ave. | Surge Billiards and Sway Golf | Before and after dinner | August 24, 2026 | Catholic Charities grocery |
| 1843 W. Chicago Ave. | Every Now and Then and Josephine's | Daytime cafe, retail | July 2026 | n/a |
Three of the five 2026 openings moved into buildings that had been a gallery, a grocery store and a restaurant. Four of the five sit within roughly a block and a half between 1703 and 1843.
Still Pending at 1424
The only other dinner opening on the way is Compa, across the street from Gilda at 1424 W. Chicago Ave., in the space that used to be Five Star Bar. It comes from Six Point Hospitality, the group behind Cobblestone Cafe & Bistro, and restaurateur Markus Chwajol, who used to own Bohemian House. Chef Horacio Fonseca and beverage director Adrian Gaytan, who met at DMK Restaurant Group, are running the kitchen and bar. The name is Mexican slang for "close friend." In its fall 2026 preview, Eater Chicago listed lobster chile en nogada, whole grilled octopus with chorizo crisps, whole al pastor branzino and lamb mole with hand-pressed tortillas, plus agave-forward cocktails and wines from Mexico and Latin America.
Eater's September 11 list gave an "early-October" opening estimate. As of September 24, ChiVibe reported that reservations weren't live yet and the opening was still "a few weeks out." As of October 12, Six Point Hospitality's restaurant page still lists Compa as coming soon, and no confirmed opening date has been reported.
This Month, a Block Off the Strip
Commercial Club Park, at 1854 W. Rice, is a short walk north of Every Now and Then. The Commercial Park Advisory Council hosted a free Campfire Horror screening of The Goonies on October 10, with campfires and marshmallows for roasting. Next up is its annual Halloween event on Saturday, October 24, from 2 to 3:30 p.m., with games, crafts, a haunted house and a trick-or-treat parade. The council says the Halloween event has been running for more than 15 years. Earlier this month, the 16th annual West Town Art Walk ran October 2 through 4, with mural tours and pedicab rides across the neighborhood.
Kids leaving the parade at 3:30 will be about four blocks from a croissant line that may or may not have sold out, and from a pool hall that opened in August with no kitchen on purpose.
IKGroup keeps track of how blocks like this stretch of Chicago Avenue change, down to which storefronts turned over this year and what moved in. If you own near the strip and want to know how this year's openings show up in your home's value, request a private consultation and home valuation with our team.
