🍽 ON THE PLATE
Mercadito is coming to Lincoln & Halsted. The River North Mexican mainstay — 17 years on Kinzie, known for its tacos, tequila list, and $35 bottomless brunch — is opening its second location at 2421 N. Lincoln Ave., on the corner of Lincoln and Halsted next door to Galit and across from 3 Asian Sisters. Owners are aiming for late April or early May. Chef Alexander Quintero (Toro Chicago, Aikana) is running the kitchen, and the team says the menu will keep the River North hits — short rib quesabirrias, queso fundido, the handmade guacs and ceviches — while adapting to the LP crowd over time. They're already on the bill for Savor Lincoln Park, so they're plugging in fast.
Honey Butter Beach Club is the sleeper hit nobody's talking about. Hidden inside SPF Pickleball at 2121 N. Clybourn Ave., this is the seafood-and-fried-chicken spinoff from the Honey Butter Fried Chicken team in Avondale — lobster rolls, fried shrimp tacos, blackened fish sandwiches, and yes, the honey butter chicken strips. It's been open since late 2025 but has flown almost completely under the radar (only 9 Google reviews). No paddle reservation required; you walk in through the front door. One of the more interesting under-the-radar restaurants in the neighborhood right now.
📅 MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Soccer House opens Saturday, April 18. A soccer-only bar and restaurant takes over the legendary Twisted Spoke at 501 N. Ogden Ave. in West Town, just in time for the build-up to this summer's World Cup. Owner Garret Drexler (formerly with U.S. Soccer, the Fire) has gutted and reworked the space into a multi-room viewing setup: main bar, back room, and a rooftop beer garden coming online later this spring. Two viewing areas at launch, screens showing matches from around the world, no other sports. Opens at 6 a.m. on weekends for European kickoffs, 11 a.m. weekdays. The food is "globally influenced" stadium fare — choripán, ceviche, burgers, wings. It's a proper soccer clubhouse, and there's nothing else like it in Chicago.
🌿 GET OUTSIDE
Two new residents at Lincoln Park Zoo: meet Porter and Taiyang. A pair of Sichuan takin brothers — a goat-antelope species native to China, with curved horns the zoo describes as "handlebar mustaches" — arrived from the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend on April 8 and are now settling into their habitat in the South Loop of the zoo's campus. Porter is 3, Taiyang is 2. They're a vulnerable species in the wild and part of an Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan. The zoo is finishing a multi-level climbing structure for them that mimics the steep Himalayan slopes they're built for.
Baggu picked Halsted. The cult California bag brand — the one with the colorful nylon totes you've seen on every commute since 2023 — is opening its second Chicago store at 2118 N. Halsted St., in the old It's a Secret Medspa space. The Wicker Park flagship opened in 2024 and drew lines around the block. No firm opening date yet, but the brand confirmed Tuesday it's moving forward, and a Chicago store manager job posting went up on LinkedIn April 1.
🏗 PERMIT DESK
Francis Parker is moving forward with the Belden expansion — and the neighbors are not having it. More than 200 people packed Parker's auditorium at 330 W. Webster on Tuesday for a community meeting on the school's plan to demolish the residential building at 327–335 W. Belden Ave. and replace it with a three-story academic facility connected to the main campus. The proposal also calls for adding lights to the outdoor athletic field (with switch-on as early as 6:15 a.m.), expanding enrollment by about 125 students over seven years, and converting 2236 N. Clark into seven affordable units. Parker has been quietly buying condo units on the block for years — a strategy that drew a "hostile takeover" lawsuit back in 2020 — and neighbors say the meeting itself was rigged in the school's favor, with Parker parents and supporters filling the room early. Ald. Knudsen (43rd) is collecting comments. Field upgrades could be in place by next summer if the proposal clears city review; the new academic building wouldn't break ground until around 2028. This is the biggest live LP zoning fight right now.
QUICK HITS
Dial M for Modern is closing its West Town shop. The vintage furniture store at the heart of the Chicago Avenue design strip is shutting down its West Town location but keeping its Pilsen space.
The Roger Brown house is saved — and sold. The 1890s Lincoln Park home and studio of the late artist Roger Brown — which the School of the Art Institute had been renting out as the Roger Brown Study Collection from 1997 to 2023 — has sold for slightly above asking. Buyers plan to rehab it back into a single-family home. The building is also nearing landmark status, which had been pushed by SAIC alums and neighbors after demolition rumors. Good outcome for an irreplaceable building.
See you next Friday — The 60614