Lake View's Longtime Storefronts Are Changing Hands. Here's Who's Moving In

This year, four of Lake View's best-known storefronts have new tenants, either announced or already on the way. In three of the four cases, the next name on the door is one the neighborhood already knows. Ann Sather is moving within Lake View, not leaving it. Foxtrot is coming back to Lake View on a different street. Southport Grocery and Cafe is handing its space and its staff to a company it has worked with for years. Royal Home Entertainment is the only one whose successor still has no name.

Ann Sather moves twice in one year

Ann Sather first opened at 929 W. Belmont Ave. in 1945 and moved down the block to 909 W. Belmont in 2007. In March, Block Club Chicago reported that the 909 location would close, ending 81 years on Belmont Avenue, to make way for Mavrek Development's five-story apartment building. The Belmont restaurant moved to the former Yolk space at 1819 W. Division St. in West Town. At the time, owner Tom Tunney said he hoped to bring it back to Lake View eventually.

That return came sooner than expected. In August, Block Club reported that Tunney, who represented the 44th Ward as alderperson for two decades, had bought Stella's Diner on North Broadway. He plans to renovate it and reopen it as an Ann Sather. CBS Chicago gave the address as 3042 N. Broadway at Barry Avenue, with a fall opening target.

The move has a second step. The Ann Sather at 3415 N. Broadway, at Roscoe, has been there for 30 years. It is set to close shortly before the Barry location opens, about half a mile south. Talking to Block Club, Tunney said, "We have a lot of goodwill in Lakeview," and noted that the Barry space "is a little bigger, with bigger outdoor seating." Stella's former owner, Marvin Barsky, is staying on the block. He told Block Club he will focus on The Bagel, the Jewish deli he owns across the street at 3107 N. Broadway, and plans to open a second Bagel in downtown Glenview.

Over a single year, then, Ann Sather has left Belmont, gone to Division Street, and is now moving down Broadway. The cinnamon-roll address you grew up with has changed, but the restaurant is still in the neighborhood.

The old Belmont corner gets a familiar grocer

The empty space at 909 W. Belmont didn't stay empty long. CBS Chicago reported this summer that the building that housed Ann Sather's flagship was being demolished. Chicago-based Mavrek Development is building Belmora there, a five-story mixed-use project. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the first phase at 919 W. Belmont has 46 apartments and was expected to open this fall. The second phase at 917 W. Belmont adds 46 more.

The retail tenant at 917 W. Belmont is Foxtrot. The Sun-Times reported in late August that the specialty grocer plans to open its Lake View store and a second store at 2600 N. Clark St. in Lincoln Park next year. Foxtrot COO Jason DaPisa said in a statement that "Belmora's walkable, transit-oriented location makes it a natural fit for our next Chicago store."

Plenty of Lake View residents will remember the earlier Foxtrot on Southport Avenue. Southport Corridor recounts what happened to it. In April 2024, parent company Outfox Hospitality abruptly closed every Foxtrot and Dom's Kitchen & Market, then filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy the next month. Foxtrot's assets sold at auction for $2.2 million to New York firm Further Point Enterprises, which brought back several members of the original team and began reopening stores. So the coffee-and-wine stop is coming back to Lake View on a busier stretch of Belmont, and the earliest timeline anyone has given is 2027.

Southport Grocery hands off to a partner

Lisa Santos opened Southport Grocery and Cafe at 3552 N. Southport Ave. in 2003, and it originally served only lunch and dinner. Block Club's October profile tells how customers kept asking servers for breakfast until she added it. Two orders of bread-pudding pancakes eaten by one customer helped settle the question. Over the years the business expanded into the building's second floor for its bakery, started a supper club series, and built a canning and preserves operation that now makes more than 40 items and employs a full-time preservationist.

Santos is closing the restaurant at the end of the year, after 23 years. The handoff stays close to home. Dollop Coffee Co., the Chicago roaster that Santos partnered with a little over four years ago on wholesale pastry, will open Dollop Finer Diner in the space. Santos told Block Club that everyone on her staff, including people who have worked for her for 18 years, has a job at the new concept. She will keep a small stake and help with consulting and taste-testing. What Now Chicago reported that no opening date has been set. The diner will open after Southport Grocery closes, and its menu is expected to include staples from Dollop's Andersonville diner, including sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, soups and salads.

Santos owns the Southport Grocery name and recipes, but she said her next chapter won't include another brick-and-mortar restaurant. That makes the next two months your last chance at the original. Here is what the restaurant says is still on offer until it closes:

• Thanksgiving catering
• Christmas cookies and gift baskets
• Two more Secret Suppers
• Returning menu items customers have kept asking for, including apple-stuffed French toast and the kitchen's version of a Hostess Ding Dong

Royal Home Entertainment is the handoff without a known successor

The other handoffs keep a familiar name in the neighborhood. Royal Home Entertainment doesn't. In 1971, brothers Joe and John DeGuide opened the first version of the store on Wilson Avenue with $800 between them. They moved to Addison and Broadway in 1973 and to 2923 N. Broadway in 1980. Block Club traced how the business changed over those decades, from records and tapes in the '70s to movie rentals in the '80s, and then to electronics repair, home entertainment systems and custom installations. The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce listed October 17 as the storefront's closing date.

Some of the business continues without the storefront. DeGuide told Block Club he will keep offering custom installation through the Royal Home Entertainment website and the store's phone number, and will sell remaining inventory online. The storefront is expected to become a stationery, office supply and gift shop. No name or opening date has been announced.

The address map

Here is where each name stands as of late October.

The newcomers filling in around them

Not every new opening this year replaced a landmark. Several arrived on the same streets as the handoffs above.

On Belmont, 404 Burgers serves burgers and barbecue at 1020 W. Belmont Ave., a short walk west of the Belmora site. On Broadway, Noodleverse at 3139 N. Broadway serves Chinese noodles, dumplings and rice bowls. It sits on the same stretch as The Bagel and the future Ann Sather at Barry. Over on the Roscoe Village side, Eater Chicago reported that Dewey's Café opened on Wednesday, September 2, at 2036 W. Roscoe St., a daytime cafe with a plant-focused menu of coffee and food.

Put the Broadway addresses side by side and you can see where the activity is concentrated. Between Barry and Belmont, the blocks have a deli that is staying put, a noodle shop that recently arrived, and an Ann Sather on the way. A mile up Broadway at Roscoe, Ann Sather's longtime space is set to become part of a vet's office. Your usual brunch stop may be moving a few blocks, but in most of these cases it is staying in Lake View.

If you're keeping track of these changes on Broadway, Belmont and Southport because you're wondering what they mean for your own block, or for a building you're thinking about buying, I'm happy to talk through it with you. Teddy Burns follows Lake View address by address. Let's Connect.