🍽 ON THE PLATE
Farmer's Milk opened its second location at 2460-2462 N. Clark last weekend, the city follow-up to the Schaumburg flagship that built the Ukrainian café and bakery's 11K-strong Instagram following. The pull is the cake counter: honey cake, chocolate cheesecake, syrniki, pistachio-filled croissants, plus a deep run of coffee drinks and an all-day breakfast. Hours match the Schaumburg shop at 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
Call Your Mother, the cult D.C.–based "Jew-ish" deli, got its retail food establishment license for 1615 N. Damen on May 7 — the Wicker Park spot in the former Dimo's Pizza space, founders Andrew Dana and Dani Moreira's first Midwest location and #16 overall for the brand. Wood-fired bagels in flavors like za'atar and maple salt-and-pepper, schmears with names like "The Amar'e," meat-stacked sandwiches like the "Sun City." Between PopUp and Schneider in Lincoln Park and Call Your Mother on Damen, the North Side bagel scene is up big this year.
Rasa Indian Cuisine and Bar opened in March at 2763 N. Milwaukee Ave. on the Logan Square strip. Chef-owner Antony Jessil grew up in Kerala on India's Malabar Coast and worked Indian kitchens in Chicago and Boston for nearly 20 years before partners pooled funds to give him his own kitchen. North and South Indian dishes, tandoori chicken, biryani, chaat, banana fritter chaat.
📅 MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The 5th annual Lincoln Park Mayfest lands a week from today on Armitage between Racine and Sheffield. Friday 4–10 p.m., Saturday noon–10 p.m., Sunday noon–9 p.m. Two stages of live music, the Armitage Art Show + Spring Fine Art Mart, a pet parade, arts and crafts vendors, neighborhood restaurant activations. $10 suggested donation supports the all-volunteer RANCH Triangle Community Conservation Association, which has been running this stretch of the neighborhood since 1963.
🌿 GET OUTSIDE
Lincoln Dogs is back at Oz Park for Memorial Day weekend - The little red-and-yellow Vienna Beef cart at the corner of 645 W. Webster — that's Lincoln Dogs, run by Linc Burnell, who's been dreaming of this since 3rd grade and started selling lemonade for Lurie Children's Hospital at age 9 (he's raised nearly $9,000 to date). Linc is now 14, trained at Vienna Beef's Hot Dog University, and the cart rolls out at Oz Park for Memorial Day weekend with the parents working the rest of the labor until he turns 16. Tip jar on the cart still goes to Lurie's. Chicago-Style with a smile.
The seasonal rooftop pool bar Solana atop The Robey hotel (1616 N. Milwaukee, 6th floor) is back open for summer 2026 — frozen piña coladas, street tacos, Chicago skyline views. Wicker Park's only public rooftop pool bar.
🏗 PERMIT DESK
2800 N. Sheridan - A residential high-rise overlooking Diversey Harbor would replace the vacant Stone Medical Center building and adjacent parking lot at the NW corner of Sheridan and Diversey. Pitched by Antunovich Associates with Chicago Development Partners and Continuum Capital. The proposal — already revised up from 24 stories / 303 units to 28 stories / 355 units — adds 10,000 sq ft of second-floor medical office and 25,000 sq ft for a "commercial fitness tenant open to the public." Renderings show a curved glass tower, with a rooftop pool deck overlooking the lake. About 60 units would be affordable; 152 parking spots planned. Demolition has already started; bus shelters at southbound Sheridan and westbound Diversey have been temporarily removed and will go back up after demo finishes in July. Public meeting hasn't been scheduled yet. Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) is collecting feedback.
ComEd - A new neighborhood group, the Diversey Community Coalition, is organizing to stop or relocate ComEd's proposed electrical substation at 1111 W. Diversey — the former COVID-19 testing facility ComEd bought in 2021. A packed community meeting in March highlights the core of the legal fight: ComEd has classified the substation as a "minor utility," which lets it move forward by-right with limited public input. Neighbors and elected officials are pushing for "major utility" classification, which would require public hearings. The site sits one block from the Diversey Brown Line station, within Chicago's transit-oriented development corridor, and across the alley from a former substation that closed in 2006. Neighbors flag proximity to Kensington School day care at 2745 N. Lincoln. ComEd says no formal plans have been submitted yet.
See you next Friday — The 60614