This fall, the West Loop's newest restaurants opened within a short walk of one another. They line up along Carpenter, Green, Morgan and Fulton Market, and they share more than a zip code. Each one is set up for people who are around on an ordinary weekday. One is a gastropub with a kids' menu that's open every night. One is a pizzeria serving lunch seven days a week. One is a sports bar with a patio. One is a London kabab house inside a members' club that seats anyone who walks in. A long-promised tavern from one of Chicago's best-known steakhouse groups is due next.
The Fall Openings, Block by Block
| Restaurant | Address | Opened | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victory & Vice | 318 N. Carpenter St. | September 9 | Sports bar with a large viewing wall, patio and bar |
| Black Briar | 201 N. Morgan St. | September 26 | Gastropub with a 20-seat U-shaped bar, open daily |
| Berenjak | 113–125 N. Green St. | October 2 | Persian kabab house on the ground floor of Soho House Chicago |
| Pizzeria Gabbo | 834 W. Fulton Market St., Suite 200 | October 22 | Pizzeria and bar from Lettuce Entertain You, lunch and dinner daily |
| Gibsons Tavern | 925 W. Fulton St. | Slated for November | American tavern from Gibsons Restaurant Group |
Victory & Vice went first. It opened on Carpenter on September 9 with a sports-bar menu, a viewing wall big enough to anchor the room and a patio that had a few warm weeks left in the season. It's a game-day bar, and in that sense it sets up the rest of the list. Every opening after it was also designed to fill up on weeknights.
Black Briar Put the Bar at the Center of the Room
The space at 201 N. Morgan St. used to be Bar Takito, whose West Loop location closed in late 2024. Chef Jimmy Papadopoulos and co-owner Tim Anderson reopened it as Black Briar on Saturday, September 26. The room seats 110, and it was designed around a 20-seat U-shaped bar with tan leather stools. The raw bar and the hot line sit right beside it.
The details point toward repeat visits. The menu is split into six plain sections, from Raw & Chilled through Dessert, and it includes a short kids' menu. Papadopoulos explained that choice to Eater Chicago by pointing to his own four children. The restaurant opens at 4 p.m. and closes at 10 p.m. every day of the week, and reservations go through OpenTable.
The wine list follows the same thinking. It runs 80 bottles deep with 15 pours by the glass and rotating pours for early-bird guests. Anderson told Eater Chicago, "We don't want bottles to get dusty downstairs. We want to pop corks here." He described the bigger goal as "an iconic Chicago restaurant that's going to be here for generations."
If you go, the snail toast is the dish most likely to come up in conversation afterward. It's grilled sourdough made from a 30-year-old starter nicknamed Jane Dough, dipped in a bordelaise-style jus "like an Italian beef" and topped with braised Burgundy snails. The same starter goes into a sourdough cavatelli that Papadopoulos calls "cacio pepe at heart."
A Members' Club Opened Its Kitchen to the Block
Berenjak opened on October 2 on the ground floor of Soho House Chicago on Green Street. Eater Chicago reported that, like the house's Allis and Fox Bar, the restaurant is open to the public, so you don't need a Soho House membership to eat there.
The restaurant comes from London. Soho House's own account traces it to a 2018 opening in Soho, modeled on Tehran's neighborhood kabab houses. It earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand the following year and expanded to two more London locations. Chicago is its second U.S. location, after Soho Warehouse in Los Angeles.
The menu is built around charcoal-grilled kababs such as the Koobideh, made with minced lamb shoulder, and the Jujeh, made with chicken. They come with mazeh to share and two Persian flatbreads, the stone-baked Sangak and the softer Taftoon. The Chicago location also serves cocktails that were previously poured only in the UK, including the Olive Leaf Martini, which comes with torshi pickles, and the Phel Phel Margarita, finished with a pickled salt rim. If you live a few blocks away and have no interest in a membership, this is now a dinner option on Green Street.
Pizzeria Gabbo Is Pitching Lunch to the Office Towers
Lettuce Entertain You's Pizzeria Gabbo was scheduled to open October 22, and the group's own announcement the next day described it as open. Of all the fall openings, it has the longest hours.
- Lunch: daily, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Dinner: Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.
- Late dinner: Friday and Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m.
- Coming later: carryout and delivery
The announcement speaks directly to "Fulton Market office dwellers." It describes the 16-inch pies as sized for sharing at lunch and lists more than 20 Italian and domestic wines by the glass for after work. The menu offers two styles. Chicago Thin & Crispy is cut into squares and includes a Fennel Sausage & Giardiniera pie. New York Crispy is cut into triangles and includes a Spicy Vodka pie. There are more than 10 pies across both styles, a gluten-free crust option and a pistachio soft-serve sundae. When visitors ask for deep dish, square-cut thin crust a few blocks from home is the more local answer.
Gibsons Tavern Fits the Same Pattern
The last name on the list was announced first. Gibsons Tavern was announced in 2023, and in August Block Club Chicago reported that it was slated to open this November. It's going into an 11-story office building at 925 W. Fulton St., in a vintage-inspired space with vaulted ceilings.
Gibsons opened on Rush Street in 1989. The group behind it also runs Gibsons Italia, Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House, LUXBAR and Quartino Ristorante & Wine Bar. The Fulton Market concept is a tavern rather than a steakhouse. The announced menu covers "refined tavern fare, from classic comfort dishes and Gibsons' signature steaks to fresh seafood and unforgettable desserts," along with a Prohibition-era cocktail program. CEO Steve Lombardo described it as "a tribute to the great American tavern." It continues the season's pattern of a well-known name choosing a casual, everyday format for this neighborhood.
The Holiday Weekends Use the Same Blocks
The neighborhood's holiday calendar runs through the same streets as the new restaurants. Three dates are coming up:
- Saturday and Sunday, November 14–15. The Randolph Street Market holiday market moves indoors at 1340 W. Washington. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with 125 dealers, a DJ, food and a bar.
- Sunday, November 15. The Chicago Artisan Market runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Morgan MFG, 401 N. Morgan St., with makers selling food, fashion, home goods and art. It's the same street as Black Briar, a few blocks north.
- Saturday and Sunday, December 12–13. Randolph Street Market returns to 1340 W. Washington with the same hours, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
On November 15, both markets are open at once. You can shop Morgan MFG in the early afternoon, cross to Washington before Randolph Street Market closes at 5 p.m., and walk to Black Briar, which opens at 4 p.m. that day like every other day.
Fulton Market's newest restaurants are a big part of what makes the West Loop work as a place to live, and new openings say a lot about which blocks are pulling in long-term operators. If you're weighing a move between a Chicago condo and a home on the lake, or just want to compare notes on the neighborhood, Giorgios Karayannis is glad to talk it through over a slice at Gabbo or a seat at the bar on Morgan. Let's Connect.
