Easter

Food Delivery / Carryout

Today at 08:00 PM

Bianca Del Rio
Attending Interested

Today at 07:30 PM

Tiny Habits
Attending Interested

Mar 28 at 08:00 PM

Arden Jones
Attending Interested

Mar 28 at 07:00 PM

Jack & Jack
Attending Interested
Eater Chicago has new update
1 day ago Uncle Julio’s Closes on North Avenue After 32 Years
After 32 years, Uncle Julio’s is closed along North Avenue. | Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago Workers were offered jobs at suburban locations After 32 years in Lincoln Park, Uncle Julio’s closed its doors on Tuesday along North Avenue without warning. The Mexican chain’s arrival in Chicago more than three decades ago was part of a construction boom in the rapidly gentrifying area. A statement from Uncle Julio’s President RJ Thomas blames rising rent costs for the closure. “All of our other locations remain open; this location’s closing is due to rising rental rates on our lease,” a portion of Thomas’s statement reads. “Our employees have all been offered positions at our other restaurants so they can continue as valued members of the Uncle Julio’s family. As a company, we continue to grow, and we look forward to welcoming guests to our newest location in Frisco, Texas, in April.” Uncle Julio’s opening at 855 W. North Avenue came before the city brokered a deal with Apple to build a store at the northwest corner of Halsted and North in 2010. Uncle Julio’s opened six years before Crate & Barrel unveiled a flagship location on Clybourn and North in 1998 on a piece of land where a location of Byron’s Red Hots once stood. A Tribune story from 1992 describes a scene of “Old Town and Lincoln Park yuppies and buppies” that kept “the valet parkers hopping on the weekends.” The wave of development continued west into Wicker Park and Bucktown, eventually marching toward Logan Square and Avondale. Moving trucks were parked outside on Wednesday morning and paper signs were taped to the doors calling the decision to close difficult and offering workers jobs at other locations. The closest Uncle Julio’s is in suburban Skokie at Old Orchard. Other locations include Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Naperville, and Orland Park. But before Uncle Julio became a shopping mall staple, the restaurant had an ambitious menu with cooking up items like quail — at least before private equity firm L Catterton bought the chain in 2017. (the group also owns Bartaco, another chain that debuted last year in Chicago with a Bucktown location; Chicago-born Protein Bar is also part of the firm’s portfolio). Former server and bartender Monica Beukema left Uncle Julio’s years ago and no longer works in the restaurant industry. Her six years of work at the North Avenue restaurant were important. It’s where she met her husband; she says she’s one of five couples who met their significant other while employed at the North Avenue Uncle Julio’s). It was also a lucrative job for a server: “You could make as much money there as anywhere,” she says. But the restaurant now feels out of place. Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises in 1989 opened the first location of Bub City a block west on Weed Street. That’s closed, as is Crobar, the club where Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman used to hang out in the ‘90s. When former workers, some of whom had spent more than two decades at the restaurant, began texting Beukema about the closure, she says she wasn’t surprised. She remains disappointed that her former colleagues weren’t given warning. Restaurant workers are often treated as disposable, and Beukema wonders if it’s a trend and brings up how Etta River North employees were treated after that restaurant closed earlier in the year. Some of Beukema’s former colleagues will take jobs at other locations, but it doesn’t take away the shock of finding out your place of employment is no longer in operation, she says. The restaurant is already listed as permanently closed on Google. Uncle Julio’s brass didn’t provide a reason for the lack of notice to workers. “We want to express gratitude to our guests for sharing great times with us at our North Avenue location for the past 30 years,” Thomas’s statement also reads. “It’s important to know that we remain committed to our presence in Illinois, and to offering our signature Uncle Julio’s dining experience through our six other thriving restaurants in the greater Chicago metro area.” The area has seen shifts. Goose Island Beer closed its original Clybourn brewpub in December after 35 years. The New York Times is lamenting the high cost of real estate down the street at the Collection at North and Sheffield in a recent story about the impact of rising commercial real estate on Downtown areas. Note: Lincoln Park, or the so-called “Clybourn Corridor,” isn’t in the Loop. Labels aside, suburbanites won’t have any trouble finding a frozen margarita at Uncle Julio’s. City dwellers will just have to make the commute, or just enjoy other amenities and restaurants urban areas offer.
Windy City Gridiron: For Chicago Bears Fans has new update
1 day ago The Bears need some new history
Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Kevin Warren plans to give draft prospects a Bears history lesson, so maybe he should leave out the last few decades. During the last few days, the Chicago Bears’ top brass met with the media at the Annual League Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Chairman George McCaskey, Team President Kevin Warren, General Manager Ryan Poles, and Head Coach Matt Eberflus each had a lot to say about the team, their offseason transactions, and the NFL Draft. Likely first overall pick, USC quarterback Caleb Williams, was discussed plenty, and while none of the Bears tipped their hand, it’s widely expected Williams’ name will be the first called on draft night. Warren was part of the Bears brain trust that met with Williams at the Combine, and he plans to meet with him again during Williams’ top-30 visit next week. When asked on Tuesday what he hopes to impress on Williams and the other draft picks the Bears may meet with, he said: “They need to understand the history and tradition of the Chicago Bears and the history and tradition of these fans.” Well... with a franchise as old as the Bears, there’s certainly some tradition to spotlight. Perception is reality As an older fan of the Bears, I can appreciate the fantastic history of the franchise. I grew up watching the greatest player of all time, Walter Payton, and I lived through the last great era of Bears football. Sure, the 1985 team gets all the publicity, but that was a fun time to be a fan. They were always in the playoff mix, making the postseason seven times in the eight years from 1984 to 1991. But for some painful perspective, the Bears have only made the playoffs seven times since then. Seven in the last 32 years. Caleb Williams is 22 years old. It’s been nearly four decades since the Bears last won a Super Bowl, and the last time the Bears won the NFC Championship, Williams was five. I’m not sure what age Williams, or the other soon-to-be rookies, were when they first became fans of the NFL, but the Bears have three winning seasons in the last fifteen years. In the last ten years, the Bears are a bottom-five franchise with a .387 winning percentage, and they’ve had four head coaches and three general managers. What college prospects see when looking at the Bears is a dysfunctional tradition. So their recent history is better left alone, and I’m not sure how much talking Grange, Luckman, Nagurski, Ditka, or Sweetness will resonate with Gen Z anyway. And besides, Williams grew up a big fan of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, so he’s well aware of the Bears’ recent history. “The past is the past.” Yesterday Ryan Poles was a guest on the Pat McAfee show, and he was asked about some recent comments from ESPN’s Robert Griffin III, who suggested Williams pull an Eli Manning and refuse to play for the Bears. “It pisses me off a little bit, to be honest with you,” Poles said about Griffin. “Because we were hired to break a cycle. This same thing when I was in Kansas City. Coach Reid, all of us were brought there to break a cycle. And we did. No one talks about those days anymore, it’s all about what they are right now.” In his eleven years in Kansas City, head coach Andy Reid has never had a losing season, and they’ve won three Super Bowls. In the fifteen years before the Chiefs hired Reid, they made the playoffs just three times. Poles, who worked his way up from scouting assistant to Executive director of player personnel, played a role in their turnaround and ultimate success. McAfee said from the outside looking in, it seems these Bears are different from previous regimes and that Poles and Eberflus’ culture is starting to settle in. “I really believe we’re about to break this cycle and get this city in a really good situation and win a lot of games,” Poles said. “So the past is the past. I don’t worry about that at all. It’s about where we’re going.” And where they’re going, unless something drastic pops up, is towards Caleb Williams. Rewriting history The rookie bar for quarterback play in Chicago is a low one. Mitch Trubisky threw for the most passing yards (2,193), and Charlie O’Rourke had the most passing touchdowns (11). The Bears are also the only franchise in the NFL without a 4,000-yard passer in a single season or a quarterback who has thrown for 30 touchdowns in one year. The Bears haven’t had an All-Pro QB since Johnny Lujack in 1950, and they’ve only had two quarterbacks named to the Pro Bowl in the Super Bowl era. It’s fair to say the Bears have historically failed as an organization at developing quarterbacks, which brings us back to Poles’ comments about breaking the cycle: “The past is the past.” At last month’s NFL Combine, Caleb Williams was asked if Chicago’s poor track record at the quarterback position bothered him. “Not at all. I don’t compare myself to the other guys that are there or have been there. I think I am my own player,” he said. “I tend to like to create history and rewrite history.” Chicago’s franchise heads into year three of the Poles/Eberflus regime, and the roster is uniquely ready to support a rookie quarterback. “The Bears were a 7-10 team,” Williams said from the Combine. “That is a pretty good team that has the first pick. And they’ve got a good defense. They’ve got good players on offense, and it’s pretty exciting if you can go into a situation like that.” Those remarks were made before the Bears signed running back D’Andre Swift and tight end Gerald Everett in free agency and traded for Pro Bowl wide receiver Keenan Allen. In addition to the players they’ve added, they’ve also completely revamped the offensive coaching staff to ensure a seamless transition from the college game to the NFL for whichever rookie quarterback they draft. There isn’t a historical precedent for putting the best rookie quarterback prospect on an ascending team that is three offseasons into a massive rebuild. Ryan Poles may be able to draw parallels between what they did in K.C. and what he’s building in Chicago, but he, and eventually Caleb Williams, will be writing their own history in Chicago.
Choose Chicago has new update
1 day ago Things to do, see, and eat in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood
History lines the streets in Chicago’s landmark Bronzeville neighborhood. Dubbed the city’s “Black Metropolis,” this south side community served as the headquarters for African American…
Second City Hockey has new update
1 day ago Morning Bag Skate 3-27-24
This is your daily thread to talk about the latest hockey news.

Friday Specials in Chicago

Bar
420 w Belmont, Chicago IL, 60657
$5 Jaeger bombs and car bombs
$2 Off wine bottles
Bar
437 N. Rush, Chicago IL, 60611
$7 Effen cocktails
$10 wine tasting with meal purchase from 11am - 3pm
Bar
2916 N. Broadway, Chicago IL, 60657
$12 Long Island Iced Tea pitchers
$12 Margarita pitchers

Join My Community

312area.com would like to send you latest updates