In late August, Marty O'Connor stood in front of his not-yet-open bar at 2642 N. Lincoln Ave., took a sip of a drink, and threw the glass over his shoulder. It shattered on a street with no cars on it. "The city of Chicago decided to give us a massive twist," he said in the Instagram video, as Block Club Chicago reported. "Lincoln Avenue is being shut down until October, but you know, I'm a martini half-full kind of guy."
That bar is Gunny's Pub, and it opened anyway. So did two Bonhomme Group places a short walk south, Beatnik and Lolo y Lola. These openings and the closure belong to the same story. In a single season, the stretch of Lincoln Avenue from Fullerton to Diversey got new tenants in long-familiar storefronts and new pipe under the pavement. Wrightwood Avenue decided which side of the barricades each opening ended up on.
A pipe from 1889, and an eight-week closure nobody saw coming
The project replaces a 137-year-old water main installed in 1889. It has broken several times. The city puts the typical service life of a water main at 80 to 100 years, so this one ran roughly four decades past that range. The scope covers about 2,776 feet of 8-inch main, then lead service line replacements and new service connections for properties along the route.
The work was part of the city's 2026 capital improvement program and started in mid-May. According to a Department of Water Management spokesperson quoted by Block Club, crews finished earlier phases ahead of schedule in July. Then they hit existing underground utilities, and the new main had to be realigned into a spot that required closing Lincoln Avenue completely. The city approved the closure on Aug. 8, and it took effect two days later.
A two-day gap left little room to warn anyone. Kim Schilf, president and CEO of the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, put the frustration in numbers when she spoke to Block Club:
"We understand that the work needed to be done, and we're not opposed to the construction. But I think the frustration is that more than 30 businesses were given no notice that Lincoln Avenue was going to close for nearly two months."
The Chamber asked the 43rd Ward office to push the start date back. The request went to the water department, and work began on schedule. After that, the Chamber set up weekly meetings with the project's resident engineer, asked city and construction staff to go door to door, and put signs around the work zone encouraging people to keep shopping. The ward's own closure notice sent drivers around the block. Northbound traffic went via Wrightwood, Sheffield and Diversey, and southbound traffic took the same streets in reverse.
Inside the barricades, a bar that refused to wait
Gunny's sits in the middle of the closed stretch. The building is 145 years old and was most recently home to Racine Plumbing Bar & Grill, which Eater Chicago reported would hold its final night on April 13, 2019. Owners Mary Nedbalski and Marty O'Connor began renovating "last August," as WBEZ put it in September. According to WBEZ, the big skylight at the back of the space is what sold them on it.
WBEZ also reported that the closure was the second setback. Storms over the Fourth of July weekend opened a large sinkhole during the earlier phase of work, and the pipes under Gunny's filled with gravel and debris. Then the street closed. Nedbalski used Pacer.ai to measure foot traffic on the block and told WBEZ, "We're down more than 5,000 to 6,000 visits a week, and it's only getting worse."
WBEZ reported a planned public debut of Sept. 16, and Gunny's website now says "Now Open." Chef Mike McKinnell started as a consultant and ended up as head chef. The menu is Midwestern bistro with a hunter-gatherer slant, which comes from the pub's namesake, O'Connor's late dog Gunny, a pheasant and duck hunting dog. The Infatuation lists smash burgers, poutine and three kinds of deviled eggs: classic, Chicago-style and lobster. It also notes that the posted 11 p.m. close comes with a website caveat of "sometimes a little bit later."
Just outside them, a two-door Bonhomme Group corner
South of Wrightwood, the street stayed open. Bonhomme Group, which operates restaurants in both Spain and Chicago, filed for a liquor license covering 2576–2580 N. Lincoln Ave. earlier this year. What Now Chicago put the site at the south end of the Sheffield and Lincoln intersection, near Prost! and across the street from Jonquil Park.
That address now holds two places that operate as a pair:
- Beatnik Lincoln Park, 2576 N. Lincoln Ave. This is the group's third Beatnik, after West Town and Beatnik on the River in the Loop. The room has plants, colorful tile and ornate chandeliers. The menu includes dates stuffed with merguez sausage, harissa shrimp, and orecchiette with fava beans and English peas. It takes OpenTable reservations.
- Lolo y Lola, 2580 N. Lincoln Ave. A 22-seat, walk-in-only pintxos and tapas bar next door, serving patatas bravas with garlic shrimp, bocadillo de pulpo and gildas.
The Infatuation added pages for both on Sept. 21, 2026. One handles reservation nights and the other handles walk-ins, so the corner works for a planned dinner or for stopping in on the way home. The Beatnik address has hosted restaurants before. Eater Chicago covered Broken English Taco Pub's arrival there in April 2017.
The blocks that held on through the closure
Gunny's was the new arrival, but the closed stretch between Wrightwood and Diversey already had a full roster. Block Club and the Chamber name these:
- Batter & Berries at 2748 N. Lincoln Ave.
- Pat's Pizza & Ristorante
- Juno Sushi
- Delilah's
- Rose's Lounge
- Rotofugi
- CityHome Vacuums & More
- Second Act Cancer Recovery Boutique at 2768 N. Lincoln Ave.
For appointment-based businesses, the barricades caused more than a parking problem. Several of them depend on clients reaching the front door, and Block Club reported canceled appointments on the stretch after construction began.
When the street comes back, and how
The finish date has moved more than once, and the record doesn't yet show a final answer:
- Aug. 10, 2026. The full closure between Wrightwood and Diversey takes effect, and the 43rd Ward gives a tentative completion date of Oct. 6, weather and materials permitting.
- Aug. 28, 2026. Block Club reports that the street should reopen on a concrete base around Oct. 10, weather permitting, with sidewalk and parkway restoration to follow.
- Sept. 25, 2026. The Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce posts that NPL, the water department's subcontractor, expects to lift the closure that day. Traffic would return, but parking would stay mostly unavailable while restoration continued.
As of Oct. 12, the latest public notice is still that Sept. 25 forecast. We have not found a confirmation that the street reopened that day. Either way, every timeline above has restoration continuing after cars return, so drivers should expect limited curb space through the rest of the month.
Next on the stretch's calendar
The next big date sits a few blocks south at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Porchlight Music Theatre's 2026/27 season puts Little Shop of Horrors there from Nov. 4 through Dec. 13, 2026. Six weeks of evening curtains will bring theater crowds to the same blocks of Lincoln Avenue, and they'll have a pintxos bar, a third-location Beatnik and a skylit bistro to choose from before or after the show. Gunny's prepared all summer for that kind of crowd while the street out front was closed.
Changes like these, from a new main under the pavement to new tenants in long-known storefronts, shape how a stretch of Lincoln Park lives day to day. If you're thinking about a move to these blocks or a sale on them, RM Luxury Group can walk you through them at street level. Request a private consultation.
