In late August, Marty O'Connor posted a video to his bar's Instagram. He took a sip of a drink and tossed the glass over his shoulder, and it broke on an empty Lincoln Avenue. Block Club Chicago described the clip in its report on the shutdown. O'Connor owns Gunny's Pub, which had been getting ready to open for more than a year. "The city of Chicago decided to give us a massive twist," he says in the video. "Lincoln Avenue is being shut down until October, but you know, I'm a martini half-full kind of guy."
October is here, and the cars are expected to be back. The curb is still a different story. Parking along this stretch is expected to stay mostly unavailable while restoration continues. For the rest of the fall, the businesses between Wrightwood and Diversey are easiest to reach on foot, and the first big neighborhood event of the season sends people right down the middle of the block.
Seven Weeks, One Buried Duct
None of this was on the original schedule. Here's the sequence, pieced together from reporting and neighborhood updates:
- Early summer: About two months before the water work, the city started replacing the sewer line on a three-block section of Lincoln beginning at Racine and Diversey, WBEZ reported. For Gunny's, that was the first setback.
- Aug. 10: The Chicago Department of Water Management closed Lincoln between Wrightwood and Diversey to replace nearly 3,000 feet of water main and lead service lines. The city said crews had found an underground electric duct right where the new main was supposed to go, so the pipe had to move toward the center of the street. The city called it an "emergency change." Ald. Timmy Knudsen's 43rd Ward office sent a ward-wide newsletter the same day the closure started.
- Late August: Business owners and the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce said they got no advance notice. The Chamber then set up weekly meetings with the project's resident engineer and managers, plus door-to-door updates for businesses.
- Sept. 4: Knudsen's newsletter still projected a reopening in early October.
- Sept. 25: The Chamber said the Water Management subcontractor, NPL, expected to lift the road closure that Friday.
The project went from a planned water job to a nearly two-month street closure because of one utility line nobody expected. The city's stated cause was that buried duct, which forced the pipe's route to change partway through the work.
Open to Traffic Is a Different Thing From Finished
The Chamber's Sept. 25 update paired the expected reopening with a warning about parking. Its words:
While Lincoln Avenue will reopen to traffic, parking will still be mostly unavailable as they continue restoration and other construction activities.
Block Club's earlier outline of the project matches. The plan was to reopen the street on a concrete base, weather permitting, and restore sidewalks and parkways afterward. At the south end, the picture was messier. A 32nd Ward update dated the same Sept. 25 said a road closure was still in effect near Lincoln, Diversey and Racine. It said local access was limited, with no-parking signs on both sides of the street wherever crews were working between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The two updates may describe different points on the same corridor. Still, none of the public notices we found confirm exactly how the full Wrightwood-to-Diversey stretch looks as of today. The safe assumption is that driving through works and parking in front of a storefront might not. If you're walking over from a side street, you'll hardly notice the difference.
The Stretch, Address by Address
Block Club counted more than 30 businesses on this stretch. Here are the ones with confirmed addresses, listed south to north, plus three regulars without a confirmed street number:
- Juno Sushi, 2638 N. Lincoln. Its online ordering page lists pickup at this address and takes scheduled orders.
- Gunny's Pub, 2642 N. Lincoln. The newest place on the block. More on it below.
- CityHome Vacuums & More, 2646 N. Lincoln. On the Chamber's list of affected member businesses.
- Guided Design Cabinetry & Interiors, 2742 N. Lincoln. Also on the Chamber's list.
- Batter & Berries, 2748 N. Lincoln. The breakfast spot Block Club called "popular" in its closure coverage.
- Delilah's, 2771 N. Lincoln. Its website lists weekly hours and recurring DJ and jukebox specials.
- Rotofugi, 2780 N. Lincoln. The shop lists hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
- Pat's Pizza & Ristorante, Rose's Lounge and a 7-Eleven are also on this stretch, according to Block Club's reporting.
Pat's has had a bigger fall than its block might suggest. Knudsen's Sept. 11 newsletter said its tavern-style pizza is joining the food lineup at Northwestern's new Ryan Field. The same newsletter reminded readers that Lincoln Avenue businesses stayed open the whole time. In other words, a pizzeria that was fenced off by construction at home was also landing a spot at a Big Ten stadium.
Gunny's Opened Into All of This
O'Connor and his co-owner, Mary Nedbalski, set Sept. 16 as their public opening date while the street outside was still closed. WBEZ's preview describes a Midwestern bistro with a hunter-gatherer theme. The menu includes bavette steak, Italian beef, a smashburger, duck-confit poutine and stuffed cheese bread.
Gunny's website now says "Now Open." It calls the place an all-day neighborhood pub serving lunch, dinner, coffee, beer, wine and cocktails. The site doesn't list hours yet, so check before you head over for a midday coffee.
All-day service matters on a block where the curb is still taken up by crews. A pub that pours coffee in the morning and martinis at night gives you more than one reason to walk over in a day. And it opened in the same weeks that driving in got harder.
Oct. 24 Brings the Whole Block Back on Foot
The Chamber's Spooktacular 2026 runs on Lincoln Avenue from Diversey to Webster on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 1 to 4 p.m. Kids trick-or-treat at more than 40 participating businesses. The route covers the full construction stretch, from Diversey north past Wrightwood, and keeps going toward Webster.
A second round follows on Sunday, Oct. 25, also from 1 to 4 p.m. That day it runs on Clark Street from Armitage to Diversey and on Diversey from Lakeview to Orchard.
For the businesses that spent August and September asking the city for notice and parking, the Saturday route makes this block the main stretch of the neighborhood's first big fall event, and the route is walked door to door.
A Little Farther Down Lincoln
If the walk keeps going south past Fullerton, Mercadito is open at 2423 N. Lincoln. It's been operating since at least June, according to The Infatuation, which mentioned pomegranate guacamole, brisket and mahi-mahi tacos, and a quesabirria pizza. Block Club's spring preview also noted a $35 bottomless brunch.
The next big date after Spooktacular is ZooLights at Lincoln Park Zoo. It runs Nov. 20 through Jan. 3, 2027, from 4:30 to 9 p.m., with a member preview on Nov. 19. Advance tickets cost $7 to $12, and same-day tickets are $20, Block Club reported. Sidewalk and parkway restoration on Lincoln was scheduled to come after the street reopened. None of the notices we found gave a completion date.
If you own a condo near the Lincoln Avenue corridor and want to know how your building compares while the block finishes its restoration, Larissa Brodsky can put real numbers behind it. Request your complimentary condo valuation, and you'll get a building-level read on your home with the market data behind it.
