I saw this post on Eater today: 24 of Chicago’s Most Anticipated Fall Openings. As is usual with Eater, it was an amazingly well-researched post, with tons of detail and specifics about who’s doing what where.
The actual dates of restaurant openings are a notoriously inexact science. There are lots of movable parts to opening a new place— staff, construction, tablecloths, licences. In fact, licenses– liquor, food inspection, building inspection— are often the final bugaboos that prevent a place from opening on time.
The City of Chicago publishes all sorts of relevant data relating to the opening of new restaurants. So I went ahead and looked up the current status of every restaurant license in the Eater Chicago list of 24 anticipated Fall openings. Using the City’s data system, I also created a custom search for each location, so you can check the status yourself any time you feel like it. They even allow you to get an email any time the status changes, so you can be the first to know when your favorite new spot is cleared by the Chicago Department of Public Health.
In fact, my work on this was sparked yesterday by an email I got indicating that inspections had been updated. In reviewing Failed inspections, I saw one near me at a place called FatPour, 2005 W. Division. It is a alcohol-related venue that associates deeply with the University of Wisconsin Badgers semi-professional football team. They had hoped to be open for the season opener, but were unable to be (see below). Their recent failed inspections may have something to do with it. That doesn’t in any way indicate that this is a bad place— to the contrary, usually. It only indicates that city government is doing its job in protecting the public health and making sure all ducks are in a row (pun intended).
Back to the matter at hand, and the 24 restaurants opening this. As far as I can tell (and this is an inexact method, so I could be completely wrong), there are only three places that have passed a restaurant inspection as of this writing. One (Carriage House, 1700 W. Division) has failed. Many have no records at all. One day at a time, people.
Here’s a spreadsheet with all the info in one spot: