Late this summer, Marty O'Connor stood in front of the bar he had spent more than a year preparing to open, raised a drink and made a toast to the city. "The city of Chicago decided to give us a massive twist," he said in an Instagram video. "Lincoln Avenue is being shut down until October, but you know, I'm a martini half-full kind of guy." He took a sip and tossed the glass over his shoulder, and it shattered on an empty Lincoln Avenue.
His bar, Gunny's Pub at 2642 N. Lincoln Ave., opened in September anyway. So did two new rooms from Bonhomme Group a few doors south of Wrightwood. Three new places to eat and drink arrived on this short stretch while a 137-year-old pipe was coming out of the ground beneath it. The Lincoln Avenue that reopens this fall is a different street from the one that closed on August 10.
A pipe from 1889 and a duct no one planned around
The work under the street is a Chicago Department of Water Management project replacing a water main laid in 1889. According to the city, that main has broken several times, and a water main typically lasts 80 to 100 years. This one lasted about 137. The project was part of the city's 2026 capital improvement program and started in mid-May. Earlier phases wrapped up in July, ahead of schedule.
The full closure came out of a surprise underground. The new main was supposed to run in the parking lane. Crews then found an existing underground electric duct in that spot, so the main had to move toward the center of Lincoln Avenue, where traffic could no longer pass safely. The 43rd Ward office called it an "emergency change." Its alert gave the project's scope: contractor Pan-Oceanic Engineering would install about 2,776 feet of new 8-inch main, replace lead service lines along the route, and then resurface the street curb to curb and repair the parkways and sidewalks. The city approved the closure on August 8, and it took effect two days later.
Drivers were detoured east to Sheffield, using Wrightwood and Diversey to get back to Lincoln. For anyone on foot, the sidewalks were still the way to every door.
Opening a bistro inside the barricades
Gunny's had a harder opening than most new restaurants ever face. Mary Nedbalski and Marty O'Connor, who are married, started renovating the 145-year-old building, once home to Racine Plumbing Bar & Grill, "last August," as WBEZ put it in its September story. O'Connor told WBEZ the big skylight in the back sold him on the space, and that the back room "yearned" for a proper dinner service.
The menu has a backstory. Gunny was O'Connor's late dog, a pheasant and duck hunter, and that inspired an American bistro with what he calls "Midwest hunter-gatherer flair." Chef Mike McKinnell came on as a consultant and ended up as head chef. He has cooked at Oceana and Root & Bone in Manhattan, and at Dusek's Board & Beer and Mordecai in Chicago. The front room serves bar food and shareables, and the back is casual fine dining. The plan is to add more upland game to the seasonal menu: possibly quail or venison, and rabbit in spring.
The closure wasn't the only obstacle. O'Connor told WBEZ that business owners were first told the work would be done in July. Then the storms over Fourth of July weekend opened a large sinkhole and filled the pipes under Gunny's with gravel and debris. Nedbalski ran the block's foot traffic through Pacer.ai and found the street "down more than 5,000 to 6,000 visits a week." She told WBEZ, "the only thing we can do is support the businesses around us and open anyway." The 43rd Ward's September 11 newsletter promoted the September 16 opening. By September 21, WTTW had Gunny's on its list of recent openings.
Two rooms, one group, just past Wrightwood
The other two openings sit just south of the closed block. Their regulars will reach them from the same corners, though. Bonhomme Group, led by founder and creative director Daniel Alonso with chef Marcos Campos, announced both for Friday, September 18. They are next-door neighbors that could hardly be more different in size.
Beatnik Lincoln Park, 2576 N. Lincoln Ave. This is the third Beatnik, after Beatnik on the River and Beatnik West Town. The Mediterranean restaurant and cocktail bar fills the building that fronts Lincoln on one side and Sheffield on the other. It has about 150 seats across three dining rooms, two bars and a private dining room. The address has turned over several times. Broken English Taco Pub was here from 2020 through 2023, then a bodega, then Neon Gardens, a pizza place that lasted about a year.
Lolo y Lola, 2580 N. Lincoln Ave. Lolo y Lola has 22 seats in all: 12 in the dining room and 10 at the bar. In a report by Chi at a Glance, Alonso describes it as a love letter to the neighborhood tabernas of Spain. The menu runs through conservas and pintxos, including a Gilda Matrimonio modeled on San Sebastián's anchovy-and-olive skewer, house-pickled mussels with potato chips, and a Coca de Jamón Ibérico made with Cinco Jotas jamón and aged Manchego. Estrella Galicia is on tap, along with sherry and vermouth. WTTW had it on its list of recent openings by September 21.
That puts a 150-seat restaurant and a 22-seat bar next door to each other, with the same chef and owner. In one fall week, this end of Lincoln Avenue gained a room for a large group dinner and a room for a single glass of wine.
The block that was already here
Those openings came on top of more than 30 existing businesses on this stretch, which Block Club reported learned of the closure the Monday it started. The Ward office said it sent a ward-wide newsletter on August 10, the same day the closure took effect. The stretch mixes long-familiar places with daily errands: Batter & Berries, Juno Sushi, Delilah's, Pat's Pizza & Ristorante, Rotofugi, CityHome Vacuums & More, Rose's Lounge, Kensington School of Lincoln Park, and a group of clinics, dental offices and salons.
A closed street is harder on some businesses than others. Pattie Sheehan owns Second Act Cancer Recovery Boutique at 2768 N. Lincoln, which sees one patient at a time. Many of her patients arrive by medical transportation or Pace van, and she told Block Club that half a dozen canceled after construction started. The Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce set up weekly meetings with the project's resident engineer and managers, and posted signs around the work zone urging people to keep shopping on the block.
"We understand that the work needed to be done, and we're not opposed to the construction." Kim Schilf, president and CEO, Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce
Ald. Timmy Knudsen told Block Club his office was pushing the water department for better communication, and that the businesses "will remain open and accessible."
Where the street stands this week
The schedule has changed a few times, and each update refers to a different stage of the work.
- August 10: Lincoln closes to traffic between Diversey and Wrightwood. The Ward alert gives a tentative completion date of October 6, weather and materials permitting.
- August 28: The water department tells Block Club the Lincoln Avenue work is on schedule. It expects the street to reopen on a concrete base around October 10 and the job to finish by mid-October, with sidewalk and parkway restoration after that.
- September 25: The Chamber reports that subcontractor NPL expected to lift the road closure that day. Parking would stay mostly unavailable while restoration and other work continue.
As of October 4, we have not found a published update confirming that traffic returned on September 25, or giving a date for the full-width resurfacing. The safest assumption for the next few weeks is that cars may be back, curb parking will be limited, and crews will still be working on sidewalks and parkways.
The Chamber's list of affected members is a useful map of the block's addresses: Pour Decisions at 2624, Heron Agency at 2626, Gunny's at 2642, CityHome Vacuums & More at 2646, Batter & Berries at 2748, Delilah's at 2771, and others in between.
A late-October Saturday on the block
The next date for this corridor is October 24. From 1 to 4 p.m. that Saturday, the Chamber's Spooktacular brings trick-or-treating to Lincoln Avenue from Diversey to Webster, with more than 40 businesses handing out treats. That route takes in the whole construction stretch, from Gunny's through the Beatnik corner. On Sunday, October 25, from 1 to 4 p.m., it moves to Clark Street between Armitage and Diversey, and to Diversey between Lakeview and Orchard.
For more on the neighborhood around this stretch, see our Lincoln Park neighborhood guide. For another look at how a north side retail strip turns over, see our piece on Southport's storefronts.
If you own on or near Lincoln Avenue and want to know how a new main, a resurfaced street and three new dining rooms will figure into your home's next chapter, I'm glad to walk the block with you and talk it through. At Cadey O'Leary Collection, when you choose me, you work with me. Work with Cadey and start the conversation.
