Every New Restaurant on Bucktown's Stretch of Western Avenue Moved Into a Former Restaurant

Three restaurants opened on North Western Avenue between The 606 and Fullerton this summer. A pizzeria opened under the Blue Line in July. A sushi and izakaya room opened less than a block south the same month. A French rotisserie arrived on August 25. None of them needed a new building, and none of them turned a shop into a restaurant. Each one moved into a space where another restaurant had already cooked, served and closed.

That pattern matters more than any single opening. Western Avenue's Bucktown edge works as a set of durable restaurant addresses, and its lineup turns over by swapping one tenant for the next. If you live on the west side of the neighborhood, your dinner options changed a lot this summer. The number of places to eat on the strip did not.

The building that waited for the right restaurant

The clearest example is at the north end. Taqueria Chingón, the Michelin-recognized taco shop co-owned by Oliver Poilevey and Marcos Ascencio, closed its original Western Avenue location in November 2024. It later reopened in Fulton Market, and the Bucktown building went up for sale. Block Club Chicago reported that Oliver Poilevey and his brother Nicolas own the building, and they told the outlet in May that they hoped to keep it in the hands of a smaller, independent restaurant.

The brothers, who are partners in Le Bouchon and Obélix, decided to fill it themselves. They settled on rotisserie chicken. "When we're in France, rotisserie chicken is one of the things I look forward to eating," Oliver Poilevey told Block Club earlier this year.

Chez Poulet opened Tuesday, August 25 as a rotisserie and wine shop. Eater Chicago's opening coverage describes Ivory Amish chicken with four sauces. The sides include chicken-fat potatoes, Moroccan curried corn, macaroni gratin and collard greens, and the menu also lists salads, charcuterie, Mindy Segal breads, French wine, cider and beer.

The site went from a taqueria that drew diners from across the city to a carryout chicken counter. That shift happened in about 21 months, and the building stayed with the same owners the whole time.

The hours have already changed

Six weeks in, the schedule is shorter than the one announced at opening. Eater listed 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 9 p.m. on weekends. Chez Poulet's own site now posts these hours:

• Monday and Tuesday: closed
• Wednesday through Friday: 4 to 9 p.m. or until sold out
• Saturday and Sunday: noon to 6 p.m. or until sold out

On weekends that means three fewer hours each day, and every day now carries a "sell out" caveat. The best time for a Sunday dinner pickup is early afternoon. Block Club's May preview floated whole-bird prices, but the owners said then that pricing wasn't final, so check the counter for current numbers.

Two openings, one block, under the tracks

Walk south to the Western Blue Line station at 1900 N. Western and the same pattern shows up twice within one block.

Bucktown Pizza took over the former Oromo Cafe space right under the station. Block Club's July roundup says it is owner Joe Smith's first restaurant in the city proper, after years running pizzerias in the suburbs and on the East Coast. It is counter-service and thin-crust. The opening menu had five pies: cheese, Margherita, pepperoni, sausage and garlic white. Reported hours were noon to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

"Everything we do by hand, hand-roll the dough, hand-stretch the dough, homemade sauces, personalized service. You're going to see the product made in front of you." Joe Smith, to Block Club Chicago

The menu has grown since then. The Infatuation's review singled out a slice topped with vodka cream, pesto and pizza sauce, plus sausage and pepperoni slices finished with whipped ricotta, and said four more slice varieties were planned. In July, Smith said he was working on a liquor license. No follow-up has confirmed whether it was granted, so ask before you assume you can order a beer with your slice.

Less than a block south, Jomon Sushi & Izakaya opened at 1858 N. Western in July. It took the former home of Wave Sushi and Sake, which closed in 2025. WTTW's summer preview identified the operators as the team behind Mammoth Poke.

So a sushi room became another sushi room. Jomon kept the cuisine and broadened the format. Block Club listed ribeye and pork belly skewers, gyoza, tempura, rice and noodle dishes, and rolls like the Haru Rainbow and the Bushido Salmon, plus beer, sake and wine. The Infatuation pointed to the tuna and salmon maki, a scallop, snow crab and ikura kobore, a long sake list and a quieter dining room.

Jomon closes between lunch and dinner. Its ordering page lists noon to 3 p.m., then 4:30 to 8:45 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, with dinner running to 9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. If you show up at 3:30 on a Saturday, you'll find the door locked.

Why the station block keeps getting refilled

Both openings near the station sit beside a stop that a lot of people pass every day. CTA's station page describes the Western Blue Line stop as elevated and accessible, with sheltered bike parking and connections to the #49, #X49, #56 and #73 buses. A pizza counter directly under the platform and an izakaya a few doors down are reusing spaces that already had kitchens. They also share foot traffic from a transfer point where four bus routes meet the train.

Timing is part of it too. The station has been on a modified O'Hare-branch schedule for construction since August 10, and CTA's alert lists that schedule as running through Friday, October 9. The two restaurants opened in July, so they have spent their whole first season alongside the construction schedule.

A fall week on Western

The three spaces now cover a wider spread of a resident's week than their previous tenants did. This chart uses each restaurant's latest published hours:

Bucktown Pizza's hours come from July coverage, and the restaurant hasn't published an update since. On Mondays, Jomon is the only one of the three open. On Tuesdays, Chez Poulet is closed and the other two are open. For a late weekend dinner after 6 p.m., the chicken counter is out.

October's calendar is a few blocks east

The Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce's fall events are on Milwaukee and the corridors east of Western, but they fill the same weekends:

• Thrift Riot, Saturday, October 17, 1 to 5 p.m. This free vintage and resale shopping event runs across the neighborhood and offers an optional shuttle. Event details.
• Meet Me on Milwaukee, Sunday, October 25. Milwaukee Avenue is scheduled to close to traffic between North/Damen and Ashland for seasonal activities, shopping and dining. The chamber's page lists both 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. as the end time. Event details.
• WPB Trick-or-Treat, Saturday, October 31, 3 to 6 p.m. A digital map guides kids along the business corridors. Event details.
• SSA #33 Neighborhood Forum, Tuesday, November 10, 9:30 to 11 a.m., at The Goddess and Grocer Bucktown. The special service area will discuss neighborhood services and programs. Event details.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the trick-or-treat route ends at 6 p.m. That is the same hour Chez Poulet's weekend service closes or sells out.

The next openings follow a different playbook

Bucktown's announced 2027 restaurants are on other streets. Trattoria Lo So, an Italian grill-focused trattoria from chef Sarah Grueneberg and the Monteverde team, is planned for 2044 W. Armitage in early 2027, according to Block Club. Vienna Beef's restaurant and factory store at its 2501 N. Damen headquarters, just north of Fullerton, was still on track for spring 2027 as of an August update.

Western Avenue has nothing in that pipeline. Its three 2026 openings are already serving, and all three moved into kitchens on the strip that were already built.

Restaurant spaces that keep finding new tenants say a lot about a block. John has years of hands-on rehab and small-development experience, and he follows how storefronts on Western, Damen and Milwaukee change hands. If you own near one of these corridors and want to know how that activity shows up in your building's value, John Charmelo can walk you through it. Request a Local Market Review.