Bucktown's New Restaurants This Fall Are Built for Weeknights. The Big Italian Opening Comes in 2027.
On Western Avenue, just south of Fullerton, Bucktown's newest kitchen keeps hours a resident can plan dinner around. At 2234 N. Western, Chez Poulet opens at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and closes at 9, or earlier if the chickens sell out. On weekends it runs from noon to 6. Most of what has opened in or right next to Bucktown since late summer is a café, a counter, a carryout window or a shop with a few seats. The large dining room, 120 seats under a skylight, is the one still to come on Armitage, and it is set to open in early 2027.
This fall's openings serve the regular part of the week: a Wednesday dinner, a Sunday morning, a quick lunch on Damen. The places below are arranged around that idea, starting with the one that shows it most clearly.
Chez Poulet comes from brothers Oliver and Nicolas Poilevey, with chef Keagan Beresford in the kitchen, and it opened on Tuesday, August 25, Eater Chicago reported. The restaurant calls itself a neighborhood French rotisserie and wine shop, and the menu is short. Rotisserie chicken comes with a choice of four sauces. Sides include chicken-fat potatoes, Moroccan curried corn, macaroni gratin and collard greens, and there are also salads, charcuterie and Mindy Segal's chicken bread. The French wine list has four wines by the glass and eight by the bottle.
The setup is built around carryout and walk-up orders. A side patio seats 40 when the weather allows, which counts for less once November arrives. The hours have also changed since opening. Eater's August report listed a Tuesday start and a 9 p.m. close on weekends. The restaurant's current schedule closes Monday and Tuesday and ends weekends at 6. In practice, Chez Poulet makes Saturday lunch and a Thursday dinner easy, while a late Saturday plan won't work there.
About a mile east, Cafe Gimme opened in late July at 2115 N. Damen Ave., Block Club Chicago reported. The owners are a married couple, Courtney and Joe Gryzik. Block Club called it an all-day, European-style café, and the menu covers both ends of the day. Mornings have coffee, cold brew, smoothies, açaí bowls and Spanish-style toast. Evenings have wine and spritzes.
Cafe Gimme's hours matter for the same reason Chez Poulet's do. It opens at 8 a.m. every day it operates. It stays open until 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, closes at 4 p.m. on Sunday and Monday, and is closed on Tuesday. Between Chez Poulet and Cafe Gimme, the two new additions inside Bucktown proper, Tuesday is the one day neither is open.
| Day | Chez Poulet, 2234 N. Western | Cafe Gimme, 2115 N. Damen |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Closed | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Tuesday | Closed | Closed |
| Wednesday to Friday | 4 to 9 p.m. or sellout | 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Saturday | Noon to 6 p.m. or sellout | 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Sunday | Noon to 6 p.m. or sellout | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
The rest of the fall's openings sit at the south end of Damen, close to North Avenue, where Bucktown runs into Wicker Park. These are the closest new options for anyone living in the blocks just north of the six-way intersection.
La Nieta, at 2140 W. North Ave., is a plant-based Mexican café and market. WTTW listed it among recent openings in September. According to The Infatuation, the menu includes coffee and baked goods, breakfast burritos with scrambled tofu, "asada" quesadillas and coconut-meat "fish" tacos. Its morning-first menu puts it in the same group as Cafe Gimme.
Just south of North Avenue, Hattie B's Hot Chicken announced October 28 as its opening date at 1542 N. Damen Ave., Block Club Chicago reported. This is the Nashville chain's second Chicago location. The first opened in Wrigleyville in February. The planned menu includes hot chicken at a range of spice levels, tenders, sandwiches, half-bird platters, Southern sides, banana pudding and peach cobbler. Together with Chez Poulet on Western, that puts two chicken-focused newcomers on opposite edges of the neighborhood.
Atelier Shang, at 1613 N. Damen Ave., stands out from the rest because it takes reservations through Resy. The Infatuation describes it as the third restaurant from the Shang Noodle family, with shrimp toast, crispy pork noodle soup and two kinds of xiao long bao, one classic pork and one with crab roe. The family's other locations are at 215 E. Grand Ave. in Streeterville and 608 Davis St. in Evanston. For a neighborhood whose new places mostly don't take bookings, Atelier Shang is the newest spot near Damen and North where you can reserve a table for a sit-down dinner.
The opening that will change Saturday nights in Bucktown is coming to Armitage. Trattoria Lo So, the second restaurant from the team behind Monteverde in the West Loop, is set to open at 2044 W. Armitage Ave. in early 2027, NBC Chicago reported. It will take over the former Jack & Ginger's space.
The team is James Beard Award winner Sarah Grueneberg, with partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher. Bailey Sullivan, a 2026 James Beard Emerging Chef finalist, will lead the kitchen as executive chef. The name means "the trattoria I know." According to the restaurant's press release, dried pasta from the Italian producer Mancini Pastificio Agricolo will be "the true star of the menu," finished in the sauce itself. Fresh pastas will be cooked al forno in a wood-fired oven. The room will seat 120 under a custom skylight. That's three times the number of Chez Poulet's patio seats, and all of them are indoors. Lo So is the large dining room among Bucktown's new arrivals, and on the current schedule, the neighborhood goes through the winter without it.
For a broader look at how Armitage and the 606 corridor have filled in this year, see our summer guide to what's new along the trail and our look at Damen Avenue's changing storefronts.
Until Lo So opens, the biggest weekend date on Bucktown's calendar is outdoors and free. The WPB Winter Wonderland & Tree Lighting runs Saturday, December 5, from noon to 6 p.m. Activities spread across the neighborhood, and the event is free for everyone.
The schedule centers on two places a few blocks apart:
The Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce produces the event with SSA #33, the Wicker Park Advisory Board and the Chicago Park District. It falls on a Saturday, so the hours line up with Chez Poulet's weekend window of noon to 6, and the tree lighting on Damen is a short walk from Cafe Gimme, La Nieta and Atelier Shang.
Finding the right block in Bucktown often comes down to which corners you'd use every day, and that's how we approach our Bucktown neighborhood guide. If you're weighing a move closer to Damen, Armitage or Western before Trattoria Lo So opens, Lissa Weinstein can share what's coming to market quietly on those blocks. Request a confidential consultation.
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