If you live between Foster and Bryn Mawr, you already know the shape of an Andersonville summer. Sidewalk Sale in late July, Taste of Andersonville in mid-August, a Wine Walk somewhere in there, and a corridor that feels a little different every time you walk it. The rhythm is familiar.
What isn't familiar this year is how much of Clark Street has turned over since last August. The 2026 Taste on Wednesday, August 12, from 5 to 8 pm lands on a block that has quietly swapped out five rooms in twelve months, and the ticket is the most efficient way a resident can catch up in a single evening.
The Wednesday that resets the block
Taste has always been a resident event dressed up for visitors. The three routes this year, Scarf & Snarf, Dine & Dash, and the All You Can Eat combo, run small plates from more than 20 dinner, dessert, and beverage stops up and down the Clark Street corridor. Tickets are $35 in advance for a single route and $65 for All You Can Eat, both rising to $40 and $70 on Monday, August 4, which means the price signal to buy early is real and dated.
The route list itself is where the news is. Look at who's on it: Bar Roma at 5101 N. Clark, Lady Gregory's at 5260, Pizza Lobo at 5457, Minyoli at 5420, FIYA at 5419, Uvae Kitchen and Wine Bar at 5553, FOLK at 5668, Big Jones at 5347, Kopi Cafe at 5317, Replay at 5358, Devil Dawgs at 5259, Ranalli's at 1512 W. Berwyn, and Vincent at 1475 W. Balmoral. Half of those are the old guard. The other half either didn't exist in the same form a year ago or occupy a storefront that has changed hands.
Five rooms that weren't here last August
Walk Clark north from Foster tonight and count the addresses where a different sign hung twelve months ago. Five of them are on the Taste map, adjacent to it, or open to walk-ins during the same week.
Devil Dawgs, 5259 N. Clark. The local hot dog chain opened its Andersonville location at 5259 N. Clark, taking half of the former home of Reza's, the longstanding Persian restaurant that closed in 2023. On the Taste route, it slots in as the fast counter between sit-down stops.
De Colores Mexican Grill, 5403 N. Clark. Edgewater Tacos owner Patricia Guerrero is opening De Colores Mexican Grill on Andersonville's Clark Street corridor at 5403 N. Clark, aiming to open by Cinco de Mayo. Where Edgewater Tacos is primarily pick-up with summer sidewalk seating, the new restaurant has plenty of seating and a rear patio, and the storefront was vacant after Cescas Margarita Bar & Grill closed late last year after ten years in business. This is the address most likely to feel new to anyone who last dropped by that block a year ago.
Noble Thai, 5721 N. Clark. Noble Thai is opening at 5721 N. Clark, the location that used to be Parson's Chicken & Fish, which closed in October. Parson's opened in the space in 2021, replaced Stone Fox, which closed in December 2019 after opening that year, and before that housed Pork Shoppe, which closed in February 2018 after a two-and-a-half-year run; the building includes a bar, dining room, and a spacious patio on the north end of the commercial corridor. That's four tenants in seven years for one building, which tells you something about the north-end anchor problem this corner has had.
Vintiques & Company, 5432 N. Clark. Not a food stop, but you'll pass it. Vintiques & Company at 5432 N. Clark is the latest addition to the Clark Street corridor and sells artwork, home decor, clothes, furniture, and more from 15 vendors. Owner Karen Castillo Mavros also owns The New Lincoln Antique Mall at 3115 W. Irving Park Road, and running multiple vintage vendors under one roof gives small business owners who couldn't afford their own space a traditional storefront. On a Wednesday between Taste plates, it's the browse.
Marty's Martini Bar, 1477 W. Winnemac. Marty's Martini Bar reopened under new ownership in November at 1477 W. Winnemac after more than a year closed. It sits one block off Clark and doesn't appear on the Taste route, which makes it the natural after-ticket stop for anyone still upright at 8:15.
How to actually walk it
The Taste map runs roughly a mile, and three hours is not enough time to do the whole thing on the All You Can Eat combo if you treat it like a normal dinner. Locals who've done this before know the trick: pick a direction, commit, and don't backtrack.
Start where the addresses are lowest and let the corridor pull you north. Bar Roma at 5101 is the earliest anchor; FOLK at 5668 is the last major stop before you'd have to walk to Bryn Mawr.
Two of the new arrivals sit at 5259 and 5403, and if you're walking north from Foster you'll hit both before your first hour is up. The 5700 block, with Noble Thai's forthcoming room in the old Parson's building, is the far end of the walk and worth checking on foot even if the restaurant hasn't opened by Taste night. That patio and dining room have absorbed a lot of neighborhood attention over the past decade, and knowing who's in it next matters for how the northern anchor of Clark reads.
The Sidewalk Sale is the dress rehearsal
If you'd rather scout the same corridor without a ticket first, the run-up is already on the calendar. The Andersonville Summer Sidewalk Sale runs July 24 through 26 across 4800 to 5800 N. Clark, and more than 40 businesses from 4800 to 5800 N. Clark and adjacent side streets expand their storefronts to line the sidewalks with summer sales, bargain antiques, one-of-a-kind merchandise, fashion apparel, and local treasures.
The overlap with the Taste map is deliberate. The same block that hosts Vintiques on August 12 will have racks on the concrete in late July, and the same restaurants that plate small bites for Taste ticketholders will have patio seating open the weekend before. If you want to know which new rooms are worth the Taste plate, walk the Sidewalk Sale first and take notes.
What the turnover says about Clark Street
Five room changes in twelve months on a mile of corridor is not a slow year. It also isn't a distressed one. What the addresses have in common is that each new tenant is either an existing Chicago operator opening a second or third location, a landlord filling a vacancy with a scaled concept, or a returning name under different ownership. De Colores comes from an Edgewater operator with a family history on Thorndale. Noble Thai is a West Town restaurant expanding north. Vintiques is a proven Irving Park model transplanted onto the highest-foot-traffic block in the neighborhood. Devil Dawgs is a Chicago chain absorbing half of a legacy Persian address. Marty's is a bar that already knew this crowd, back under a new name on the license.
The pattern is worth sitting with if you own on Ashland or one of the side streets between Foster and Bryn Mawr. Corridor churn like this tends to precede rent resets, and rent resets tend to precede the next round of storefront decisions. What Taste of Andersonville captures in one Wednesday is a snapshot of a corridor mid-adjustment, which is more informative than any of the individual openings on their own.
The short version
Buy the Taste ticket before August 4 if you want the pre-increase price. Walk north from Foster on the night. Route yourself past 5259, 5403, and 5432 before you get comfortable at one of the older anchors. If you have a stop left in you after 8, walk one block off Clark to Winnemac.
For residents thinking about how corridor turnover affects the value of their block, or what an active retail street signals for nearby residential pricing, John Charmelo is happy to walk it with you. Request a Local Market Review anytime.
