Within a single block of the six-way intersection of North, Damen and Milwaukee, three well-known storefronts have new tenants this fall. A Nashville hot chicken brand, a Brooklyn coffee chain and a Tasmanian bootmaker have each taken over a space left behind by a familiar tenant. Meanwhile the Chicago restaurant families who opened something new nearby went a mile or more out, to Western Avenue and Armitage. Each of them picked a building that suited a specific plan.
The same thing happens at each address on the list, and the businesses that moved out are a big part of the reason.
The corner spaces, one by one
The center of Wicker Park changed in a few months. Here is the turnover in one table.
| Address | Longtime tenant | New tenant | Where it comes from | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1542 N. Damen Ave. | Urbanbelly, since 2016 | Hattie B's Hot Chicken | Nashville | Opening set for Oct. 28 |
| 1588 N. Milwaukee Ave. | Starbucks Reserve | Blank Street Coffee | Brooklyn | Preparing to open, no date announced |
| 1563 N. Milwaukee Ave. | Burton, and American Apparel before that | Blundstone | Tasmania, Australia | Company store page lists daily hours |
| 1615 N. Damen Ave. | Dimo's | Call Your Mother | Washington, D.C. | Opened May 19 |
The Hattie B's corner sits near the Damen Blue Line stop. Block Club Chicago reported that the restaurant set Oct. 28 as its opening date, with indoor and patio seating. It is the brand's second Chicago location, after the Wrigleyville restaurant that opened in February, and a River North location is planned for next year. Wicker Park is not new to the brand. Its first Chicago appearance was a 2019 pop-up at Dove's Luncheonette, a fact the company's executive chef, Brian Morris, mentioned in the opening announcement. To mark the opening, Hattie B's teamed up with Paulie Gee's Wicker Park, just to the north near Milwaukee, on a limited-run pizza. It comes with hot chicken tender bites, Hattie B's barbecue sauce, bacon and black-eyed pea succotash, at $37 a pie or $5 a slice.
The building under that corner has changed hands too. Crain's Chicago Business reported in October 2025 that the apartment-and-retail property at 1542 N. Damen sold for nearly $16 million.
On Milwaukee, Blank Street is taking what Block Club called one of the more prominent storefronts in the neighborhood. The space overlooks the intersection and had been empty for about a year since Starbucks included it among roughly 20 Chicago closures in September 2025. Blank Street was founded in Brooklyn in 2020 and has grown to dozens of locations on the East Coast and in the United Kingdom. As of Block Club's Oct. 1 report, it had not given an opening timeline.
Across the street, Block Club Chicago reported that Blundstone would sit next door to Dr. Martens, on a block that already has John Fluevog and Thursday Boot Company nearby. According to the same report, the Tasmanian company opened its first standalone U.S. store in Los Angeles last year. It is putting its Chicago store on what has become one of the city's most concentrated boot blocks.
Where the previous tenants went
The table reads differently once you follow the businesses that left. Urbanbelly did not close. It moved to Fulton Market earlier this year. Taqueria Chingón left its Western Avenue building in November 2024. Less than a year later, Oliver Poilevey and co-owner Marcos Ascencio reopened it in a larger Fulton Market space.
Two Wicker Park and Bucktown favorites have now taken their next chapter to the same West Loop district. Fu Group covered that district's growth this summer in The West Loop This Summer: Randolph Is Being Reclaimed, Fulton Is Being Built. The spaces they left behind have been taken by brands that are expanding across several cities at once.
The Western Avenue building that stayed local
The old Taqueria Chingón building at 2234 N. Western shows what can keep a space independent. The Poilevey brothers, Oliver and Nicolas, own Le Bouchon, Obélix and Mariscos San Pedro. They also owned this building, and they put it up for sale. Block Club Chicago reported in May that the buyers who showed interest were not the kind they had hoped for, and Nicolas Poilevey explained it this way in that story:
"We wanted to sell the building to somebody like us who wanted to do a small restaurant concept and make a little bit of money with the rental properties in the back. It pretty much seemed it was only big corporate developers who wanted to do something and then flip it."
So the family kept the building and designed a concept to fit it. The site only has patio seating, so they wanted food that would, in Nicolas Poilevey's words to Block Club, "eat just as good in 10 or 15 minutes at home as it would here." Le Bouchon, the Bucktown restaurant their parents opened in 1993, had also outgrown its kitchen. A to-go rotisserie chicken spot that could also handle charcuterie and other Le Bouchon prep solved both problems. Chez Poulet was reported open in late August.
Chez Poulet stayed local because the owners already controlled the building and had a use for it. The corner spaces at North and Damen had no owner-operator in that position.
Armitage and Damen: Chicago openings with a longer runway
The second independent opening is a restaurant still in the works. Trattoria Lo So is planned for 2044 W. Armitage, the former Jack and Ginger's. It comes from Sarah Grueneberg and partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher, the team behind Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio, and Block Club put its target at early 2027. Monteverde executive chef Bailey Sullivan will lead the menu. She has also cooked at Yusho and Parachute. WBEZ reported that the one-story site lets the team install a wood-fired oven and a charcoal grill. That kind of equipment is hard to fit under apartments on a busy corner, and it is the reason this building works for Lo So.
Farther up Damen, Vienna Beef says its restaurant and factory store at its 2501 N. Damen headquarters are still coming. The current target is spring 2027, after earlier dates slipped. As with Chez Poulet, a Chicago company is building on property it already holds.
The one Chicago brand that did land in the heart of the neighborhood this fall arrived in a small format. Buona Beef's The Beef Stand opened in early September as a walk-up window at Rainbow Cone, 1750 W. Division St. It started as a pop-up, and Block Club reported that whether it stays depends on how the neighborhood responds.
The argument the neighborhood was already having
None of this came up for the first time this fall. When Call Your Mother opened in May, Block Club Chicago framed it as the latest round of Wicker Park's long-running debate over independent and corporate businesses. The story noted that the D.C. brand had about two dozen stores and had sold a majority stake to Invus the year before. In the same article, Antique Taco co-owner Ashley Ortiz said that Wicker Park's character is what draws chains in, and she noted that rents had risen. Mindy's Bakery owner Mindy Segal encouraged shopping local and also pointed out that spending at a private-equity-backed business still supports the people who work there. Call Your Mother co-founder Andrew Dana told Block Club that he and Daniela Moreira still run daily operations and described the Invus partnership as long-term growth financing.
The same June story listed the former Yeti and Guzman y Gomez storefronts as vacant. Those are the next spaces to watch near the intersection.
On the calendar through December
The Chamber and SSA #33 events are where this fall's changes show up in the neighborhood's own programming.
- WPB Trick-or-Treat, Saturday, Oct. 31, 3 to 6 p.m. Participating businesses are listed on a digital map from the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber. This is the first Halloween on the corridor for Hattie B's, Blundstone and Call Your Mother.
- SSA #33 Neighborhood Forum, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 9:30 to 11 a.m. It meets at The Goddess and Grocer Bucktown, and the agenda covers SSA services, programs and budget.
- WPB Winter Wonderland & Tree Lighting, Saturday, Dec. 5, noon to 6 p.m. The Chamber listing includes free Santa photos, seasonal activities and newly added free ice skating.
Milwaukee Avenue's final car-free Meet Me On Milwaukee of the season was scheduled for Oct. 25, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., between North/Damen and Ashland. By December, Blank Street may have opened on the corner where the Starbucks Reserve used to be. Trattoria Lo So's oven and grill will still be going in on Armitage. For more on how the neighborhood's corridors shifted earlier in the year, see The Summer That Rearranged Wicker Park and Bucktown by Corridor.
Changes at the corners around North, Damen and Milwaukee affect what a nearby home is worth to the next buyer. If you own near the intersection or along Western and Armitage and want to understand how this fall's turnover fits into your plans, Fu Group can walk you through it block by block. Schedule a private consultation.
