🍽 ON THE PLATE
Regions Wine Cellar filed both a Package Goods license and a Retail Food Establishment license at 2505 N. Lincoln Ave. this week, under the legal entity Somm Somm Restaurant Group. No website, no Instagram, no press coverage anywhere. The address is a 1,200-square-foot storefront in the DePaul strip between Fullerton and the Lincoln-Halsted six-way, recently listed vacant and sitting just steps from Verzenay. The name points squarely at a curated bottle shop organized by region — the kind of neighborhood wine store Lincoln Park has been missing since Webster's moved out of that format. The dual license (retail food plus package goods) suggests a shop you can browse and drink in, not just buy from.
Tilly Bagel Shop is bringing its Chicago-style bagels to Broadway in Lakeview, and the license filed this week confirms the move is imminent. Founders Hannah Tillett and Mike Banaszak opened the original South Loop location in 2023, expanded to Fulton Market in late 2024, and 3162 N. Broadway — next to BottlesUp! on the Belmont/Broadway strip — marks their first foothold on the North Side. Signage is up, construction is nearly done, and the Instagram teaser is already live. Tilly's bagels are made Chicago-style (not New York), and the menu leans into flavor in a way that's gotten serious traction — a rotating Bagel of the Week, a cacio e pepe bagel, a crispy potato sandwich, a tomato grilled cheese bagelwich with sharp cheddar. 7am–2pm, seven days. Summer opening
Gunny's Pub is getting close. The most recent reporting has Martin O'Connor saying "sometime this summer," construction wrapping, and the website now live at gunnyspub.com with pre-opening details. The concept has sharpened: coffee and cocktails at the front bar from open, a calmer restaurant and lounge in back, smash burgers and steak frites on the menu, upscale casual at neighborhood price points, 11am–11pm six days a week. The former Racine Plumbing Bar & Grill space has been completely gutted and rebuilt. No official date yet but it's imminent.
📅 MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Chicago Taco & Tequila Fest takes over Wrightwood Park this weekend. Thirteen restaurants are setting up in the park at 2555 N. Ashland for two days of tacos, margarita flights, and live music — tonight through Saturday. The vendor lineup covers a lot of ground: Taqueria Teotihuacan, Café Tola, Carnitas Roldan, Prime Tacos, Tandoor Char House, and eight others. The drink situation is a skinny margarita, a blanco colada, a mango ranch water, and a smoked peach lemonade. For the more serious: a ticketed tequila tasting add-on runs eight curated pours in timed sessions ($20 advance, $25 at the gate — limited). Kids' area both days. Proceeds benefit the Wrightwood Neighbors Association and WAPAC, the volunteer group that has been working this corner of Lincoln Park — Halsted to Ashland, Fullerton to Diversey — since 1962. Tonight 5–10pm, Saturday 11am–10pm. Tickets at bucketlisters.com.
🌿 GET OUTSIDE
The beavers of Lincoln Park's South Pond are here. There is an active beaver colony living and working in the pond tucked behind the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum — the hidden waterway between Fullerton and the Nature Museum's south entrance. The gnawed stumps are theirs. Beavers had vanished from Chicago waterways for generations — our friends have returned. If you have kids or a dog that's been eyeing the waterline, now you know why. South Pond is open dawn to dusk, accessible from the path along Fullerton just east of Cannon Drive.
🏗 PERMIT DESK
A $100,000 commercial buildout permit was filed this week at 3134 N. Southport Ave. in Lakeview for "a new yogurt shop." No name, no license, no press. The address is right in the heart of the Southport corridor, between Grace and Belmont — the stretch that already has Pleasant House, Lush Wine and Spirits, and the Vic Theatre on it. No chain in the city currently matches to a known expansion.
QUICK HITS
A June 7 shooting in the 600 block of W. Belden that critically injured a woman has reignited a yearslong fight over the Lincoln Avenue bar corridor — and for the first time, Ald. Timmy Knudsen is putting specific policy options on the table. The shooting happened just before 4 a.m., and the alderman's office linked the altercation to patrons who had left The Dime, a bar with DJs, bottle service, and a 3 a.m. closing time. Knudsen told Block Club he is now pushing city departments for two things: a rollback of the late-night licenses that allow some Lincoln Ave. businesses to stay open until 5 a.m., and new parking restrictions on Belden that would prevent the after-bar street congregation pattern his office has documented for years. In a newsletter to constituents, he described the shooting as an isolated incident — but said the corridor has generated consistent noise, cleanliness, and safety complaints for the entirety of his tenure.
See you next Friday — The 60614