🍽 ON THE PLATE
Muhājir is coming to 2630 N. Clark this summer — and it's bringing a hidden Filipino speakeasy with it. Chef Zubair Mohajir — Top Chef contender, James Beard nominee, and the chef behind Mirra in Bucktown, Lilac Tiger and the original Coach House in Wicker Park, and Sarima Cafe — is putting his most ambitious Lincoln Park concept into the 4,350-square-foot former bar/restaurant space just north of Wrightwood. Muhājir (the Urdu/Arabic word for "migrant") is built around live-fire cooking and Spice Road cuisine, drawing flavors and techniques from Southern Spain through India to East Asia. Tucked behind it: Bobo, a Filipino-inspired speakeasy from Mohajir, beverage director David Mor (Lilac Tiger, Mirra, Mariela), and Coach House chef de cuisine Jacob Dela Cruz, named after Dela Cruz's father and designed to feel like "stepping through a wildly disorienting, Doctor Strange–like portal into the Manila night," per Mohajir. Expect kare kare-style prawns, kinilaw, and a separate cocktail program. Mohajir's downtown coastal restaurant Mariela opens May 6 inside the Reliance Building; Muhājir/Bobo follow this summer.
Caña Café and Coctelería is opening in West Town in May. Carolina Gonzalez (Trino, Laberinto) and Josean Irizarry (Smash Jibarito) are taking over the former Great Lakes Tea House at 1406 W. Grand Ave. Cafe by day, cocktail lounge by night. Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage in the menu — sofrito beef tortas, parcha mojitos, sugarcane-forward drinks.
Gunny's Pub is coming to 2642 N. Lincoln Avenue this summer. Martin O'Connor — Lucky Dorr, Mordecai — is opening his first solo concept on the west side of Lincoln Ave., next to Juno Sushi, near Rose's Lounge and Pour Decisions. Mom-and-pop neighborhood pub format. 11am–11pm, six days a week. No firm opening date. (@gunnyspub)
📅 MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Run for the Zoo — Sunday, May 31. The 48th annual race returns with an eastern black rhino theme — a tribute to Kapuki's pregnancy that became Hazina's birth. 5K and 10K courses are USATF-certified and wind through the zoo with skyline and lake views. There's also a Kids' Course on the South Lawn for ages 3–8 (two heats at 9 a.m. and 9:45 a.m.) and a Wildlife Warrior 5K + 10K combo. Every registrant gets a 2026 medal and rhino-illustrated race shirt, and proceeds keep the zoo free and open year-round. The race is expected to sell out — sign up at lpzoo.org.
🌿 GET OUTSIDE
Hazina is here. Lincoln Park Zoo's six-week-old eastern black rhino calf — name means "treasured" in Swahili — made her public debut Wednesday after spending her first month behind the scenes bonding with her mom Kapuki. She was born March 19 at 4:52 a.m., weighing about 60 pounds, and took her first steps within two hours. Wednesday morning, a crowd of press, zoo employees, and members showed up at 9 a.m. to see her; she made them wait until 1:45 p.m. before emerging. Eastern black rhinos are critically endangered — their wild population dropped 98% between 1960 and 1995 from poaching, and only about 1,000 remain today. Hazina is the result of the zoo's participation in the Eastern Black Rhinoceros Species Survival Plan and is Kapuki's third calf, her first with new dad Utenzi. She's already exploring her habitat, sparring with boomer balls, and starting to taste solid food (though she'll nurse until she's about three). The zoo is offering a limited-edition Adopt an Animal package with mom-and-baby rhino plushies; Hazina is also the official "animal ambassador" of this year's Run for the Zoo on May 31 (more on that above).
Practice Chicago has opened quietly inside an 1880s police station. The premium 1-on-1 personal training studio is now operating out of 2128 N. Halsted St., in a Lincoln Park building that started life as a police station in the 1880s. Mind-body integration focus, in-studio and virtual training. The Halsted retail strip between Webster and Armitage — Pyar&Co., Calvin tran, Underthings, May N March, the incoming Baggu, Schneider Deli a few blocks south — keeps quietly densifying. Practice is one more reason to walk it. practicechicago.com
🏗 PERMIT DESK
Halsted Pointe is finally rising on Goose Island. Caisson rigs, concrete trucks, and a small crawler crane are now actively working on the southeastern tip of Goose Island at 931 N. Halsted, where the demolished Greyhound bus facility once stood. Onni Group's first 46-story tower — 460 residential units, 18,900 square feet of ground-floor retail, 200 parking spaces in the podium — has a 24-month timeline. Designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, the 500-foot building is the first phase of a four-phase, 2,650-unit megadevelopment that will eventually include five high-rises, a mid-rise, a 300-key hotel, a riverwalk, and a pedestrian bridge. Goose Island sits directly across the river from the Bally's Casino site, and the broader corridor — Foundry Park to the north, Halsted Pointe at the south end — is shaping into the largest North Side construction zone in a generation.
Caché is finally open in Old Town — and it took a fight to get there. The basement speakeasy at 1446 N. Wells, beneath a nail salon and a couple stories of apartments in the former Suite Lounge space, opened in early 2026 after a more than two-year community battle for its tavern license. Owners Angela Calaras and her son Emil Nichitoi pitched it as a high-end cocktail lounge for an older crowd looking to escape Wells Street's beer-and-shot scene; neighbors and Ald. Hopkins (2nd) pushed back hard at a packed 2023 community meeting before the license eventually cleared. The room is 99 capacity, dim, dressed in rich textures, with a 2 a.m. (4 a.m. on weekends) closing time and an enforced "business casual" dress code — no hoodies, no athletic wear, no hats. Reservations on Resy. Wed–Thurs 6pm–1am, Fri–Sat 6pm–2am.
See you next Friday — The 60614