Chicago Restaurant Openings: 10 Summer 2026 Tables to Track

Chicago restaurant openings for summer 2026 are unusually useful to track because the strongest names are not clustered in one dining corridor. The short list runs from Arla, an 8,500-square-foot restaurant above Cartier on Oak Street, to Chez Poulet’s French-style rotisserie on Western Avenue, Tarra and Sura’s two-level Thai food and cocktail setup on Hubbard Street, and Sanders BBQ Prime beneath the former Promontory space in Hyde Park. If you are planning one high-spend night, start with Oak Street; if you want the opening that could become a weekly habit, watch Western Avenue, Ravenswood, and Damen Avenue more closely.

Arla (Oak Street)

Arla is the luxury anchor of the summer slate: Hospitality Included’s third restaurant, planned for 15 E. Oak Street above Cartier, with 8,500 square feet, skyline views, and outdoor terraces. This is the reservation to track if your Chicago summer plans involve a client dinner, birthday table, or a post-shopping meal where room, view, and crowd matter as much as the menu.

Chef Soo Ahn’s planned menu combines Mediterranean flavors with Japanese techniques and ingredients, with seafood, vegetarian plates, hearth-fired proteins, sushi, and raw bar items all in play. The useful read here is range. Arla should be easier to use for a mixed group than a narrow omakase counter or steakhouse, because the menu promises raw bar, sushi, vegetables, and fire-cooked proteins in one room.

Hospitality Included already has Adalina Prime and Adalina in Chicago, so Arla is not a first swing from an unknown group. The named team includes Soo Ahn, Phil Siudak, Matt Deichl, Miles Muslin, and Jonathan Gillespie. Book this, or at least monitor reservations early, if you want the Oak Street version of summer dining: dressed-up, view-driven, and built for groups that expect a full night rather than a quick meal.

Details:

• Price: $$$

Chez Poulet (Western Avenue)

Planned for 2234 N. Western Avenue, Chez Poulet is the practical counterweight to Oak Street: a counter-service French-style rotisserie chicken restaurant. Put it on your list if you trust the Poilevey orbit and want a casual dinner that still has chef pedigree behind it.

Oliver and Nicolas Poilevey already connect to several Chicago restaurants with defined points of view: Le Bouchon and Obélix for French cooking, Taqueria Chingón for tacos, and Mariscos San Pedro for Mexican seafood. Chez Poulet moves that track record into slow-roasted whole and half chickens, celery root remoulade, Oliver Poilevey’s signature collard greens, and potatoes cooked underneath the birds. Bread will come from Mindy’s Bakery, and Nicolas Poilevey will lead a small wine shop with bottles suited to chicken.

This is not the place to overthink. The order should start with the bird, then go hard on the sides, especially the potatoes cooked under the chickens. The small seasonal patio gives it a summer use case, but the bigger appeal is repeatability: counter-service, wine-shop utility, and food that works for takeout, a casual date, or dinner with someone who does not want another tasting menu.

Details:

• Address: 2234 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL

Del Sur (Ravenswood)

Technically an expansion rather than a clean debut, Del Sur is the pastry opening to watch. The Eater award-winning Filipino American patisserie at 4639 N. Damen Avenue is planning a larger bakery-cafe footprint, which matters because demand has already outgrown the original setup.

Owner Justin Tiu Lerias has wanted the space next door since Del Sur opened in 2025. The expansion plan adds a living-room-style seating area, an expanded coffee menu with pour-overs using locally roasted beans, handmade ceramic mugs by Tiu Lerias, and a separate lamination room. That last detail is the reason to care: more production capacity should mean more pastries, not just more seats.

Look for the expanded coffee program and the pastry case first. New menu items could include granola-fruit parfaits and seasonal salads, but the smart move is still to treat Del Sur as a bakery-cafe built around Filipino American pastry rather than a generic all-day cafe. This is for mornings, low-key meetings, and the kind of weekend stop where you arrive with a backup plan in case the case has already been hit hard.

Details:

• Address: 4639 N. Damen Avenue, Chicago, IL

Otto’s (Damen Avenue)

Otto’s is the all-day hangout bet, planned for 820 N. Damen Avenue as the first project under Taverner, a new hospitality group involving DJ Dodd, Greg Fleming, and Matt Eisler. If those names matter to you, it is because the group connects Sportsman’s Club, Lone Wolf, and Heisler Hospitality energy into one new project.

The planned setup is more useful than a standard bar opening: an expansive patio, retractable roof, large island bar, and separate coffee counter. Drinks will include cocktails, wine, and coffee, while the concise food menu is intended to work from morning through night. That makes Otto’s one of the more flexible openings on your list, especially if you want a place that can handle coffee, a casual drink, or a longer patio session without changing venues.

Track Otto’s if your ideal summer restaurant behaves like a social base camp. It should suit small groups better than a formal dinner, and the island bar suggests solo or two-person visits may be just as natural as a patio table. The opening question is execution across dayparts: coffee and cocktails in the same room can be useful, but only if both get real attention.

Details:

• Address: 820 N. Damen Avenue, Chicago, IL

Tarra and Sura (Hubbard Street)

Tarra and Sura bring the late-night angle to the summer list: a two-level Thai food and cocktail concept planned for 121 W. Hubbard Street. The ground floor, Tarra, is the dinner play; the lower level, Sura, is the cocktail move after that.

Chef Namo Chowcharoen’s menu at Tarra will draw from his upbringing in a small town in eastern Thailand, with street food, regional dishes, and local market food shaping the cooking. That gives the restaurant a more specific frame than broad Thai comfort food. Downstairs, Sura is planned as a late-night cocktail lounge with drinks using Thai herbs, fruit, and spices that also appear in the food upstairs.

This is the opening to track for a two-part night: dinner first, then a basement cocktail rather than a cab to another bar. The best use case is a group that wants Thai food but also wants the night to continue without a second reservation. Keep an eye on how clearly Tarra and Sura separate their identities. If the kitchen and bar actually speak to each other through shared ingredients, this could become one of the more efficient night-out bookings of the summer.

Details:

• Address: 121 W. Hubbard Street, Chicago, IL

The Carlyle Club (Chicago River)

The Carlyle Club is the riverfront all-day play, planned for 316 N. Clark Street in the Reid Murdoch Building. Book it if you want the setting to do part of the work: Chicago River views, a 1914 building, existing Chicago brick, concrete columns, and an expansive patio close to the water.

The team behind Dēliz Italian Steakhouse is behind the project, with Steve Gogolab, Jakob Peterson, Jordan Mendez, and Omar Douglas named as key players. The food direction is classic American cuisine with global influences, including steaks, sushi, and a cocktail program. The most important practical detail is the all-day positioning. This should not be judged only as a dinner reservation; it may also become useful for business meals, late lunches, and drinks when the patio is the point.

The Carlyle Club is for guests who want a Chicago setting without committing to a tasting menu or a loud nightlife room. It will have to prove the food is more than backdrop, but the address and building give it an immediate reason to exist. For visitors staying near the river, this is the low-friction one to track.

Details:

• Address: 316 N. Clark Street, Chicago, IL

Esquire (Oak Street)

The maximal Oak Street opening is Esquire: a multi-level Japanese-influenced steakhouse planned for 58 E. Oak Street in the historic theater space. If Arla is the broader Mediterranean-Japanese terrace play, Esquire is the bigger-ticket spectacle on paper, with wagyu, sushi, caviar, seafood, whiskey, sake, and a private club layer.

M Street Collective is listed as the key player. Plans include a wagyu program, sushi, caviar, seafood, and a fish-aging program. The multi-storied 5,000-bottle wine tower from the previous tenant, Esquire by Cooper’s Hawk, remains part of the space, and the drinks program is set to include rare and reserve whiskies plus an extensive sake list. The restaurant is planned for 265 seats, with a retractable glass window overlooking Oak Street.

The private-club detail is ŌakSho, planned with a 12-seat omakase. That is the scarcity hook. If you care about access, watch the club and omakase mechanics before you worry about the main dining room. Esquire is for a high-spend night, steakhouse loyalists who also want sushi, and groups that want a room with scale. It is not the subtle choice, and that is the point.

Details:

• Address: 58 E. Oak Street, Chicago, IL

Sanders BBQ Prime (Hyde Park)

Sanders BBQ Prime is the Hyde Park opening with the strongest outside credential attached: it builds on Sanders BBQ Supply Co., named one of the New York Times’ 50 best restaurants in the U.S. in 2025. The new restaurant is planned for 5311 S. Lake Park Avenue W beneath the former Promontory space.

Owner and chef James Sanders, also the founder of Fuze Catering, describes the new spot as his signature restaurant. The format shifts from the original Beverly barbecue identity into a barbecue joint-meets-steakhouse with sit-down service. Planned dishes include beef tallow smoked popcorn, steaks, and other bites, which tells you the restaurant is aiming beyond a tray-and-counter barbecue model.

This is the opening to track if you want smoke, steakhouse structure, and a South Side address with a national accolade already in the background. The risk is expectation: a New York Times 50 best nod creates pressure before the doors open. The payoff could be a Hyde Park dinner reservation that gives barbecue the longer-form treatment, especially for diners who prefer a seated meal to a line-and-tray format.

Details:

• Address: 5311 S. Lake Park Avenue W, Chicago, IL

Black Briar (Fulton Market)

Because it marks a return for chef Jimmy Papadopoulos, who first drew attention at Bohemian House and later at Boka Restaurant Group’s Bellemore, Black Briar is the Fulton Market tavern to track. He is opening the American tavern with Tim Anderson, Bellemore’s former general manager, at 201 N. Morgan Street.

The former Bar Takito space will become Black Briar, and the early menu cues are direct: truffled cavatelli and fat-washed martinis. That tells you the room is not chasing a minimalist pub format. It is a tavern through a chef-and-GM lens, which should matter in Fulton Market, where casual restaurants can still land at special-occasion prices once the room fills.

Put Black Briar on your list for a first round of drinks and a food order that goes beyond snacks. It should suit two-person dinners, industry nights, and small groups that want Fulton Market without defaulting to a steakhouse or tasting menu. The main reason to track it is the pairing of Papadopoulos and Anderson on their first solo project together. If the room feels personal rather than committee-built, it could become one of the more useful Fulton Market openings of the season.

Details:

• Address: 201 N. Morgan Street, Chicago, IL

Unnamed Basque Taberna (West Town)

The West Town Basque-inspired taberna is the one to track with caution because the available details are appealing, but the name, address, and key players are not fully shown. The concept centers on the food of Spain’s Basque region, with a taberna and bar format focused on pintxos.

The strongest clue is the naming reference: the restaurant’s name points to the Basque snack of pickled guindilla pepper, anchovy, and Manzanilla olive threaded on a long toothpick. The menu direction includes grilled tuna belly with pimenton yuzu vinaigrette, smelt fries, and a Japanese egg salad bikini, the Spanish pressed sandwich format. That is enough to justify tracking, but not enough to plan a night around yet.

This is the sleeper in the summer list if you like bar dining more than formal reservations. Pintxos work best when a room has pace, drinks, and the ability to order in waves. For now, treat it as a watch-list item rather than a booking target. Once the name, address, hours, and chef team are public, it becomes easier to judge whether this is a quick West Town bar stop or a full dinner plan.

What’s Next for Chicago restaurant openings

The summer 2026 map says more than any single opening. Oak Street is leaning into high-spend dining with Arla and Esquire, Damen Avenue has both Del Sur’s bakery-cafe expansion and Otto’s all-day bar-cafe utility, Hubbard Street gets a two-level Thai dinner-and-cocktail format, Hyde Park gets a seated barbecue-steakhouse from James Sanders, and Fulton Market gets a tavern from Jimmy Papadopoulos and Tim Anderson.

If you are prioritizing now, track Arla and Esquire for reservation scarcity, Sanders BBQ Prime for the New York Times 50 best halo around Sanders BBQ Supply Co., Del Sur for pastry demand, and Chez Poulet for the opening most likely to become part of regular rotation. The next thing to watch is not just who opens first, but which of these restaurants publishes reservation rules, full menus, and private-room or club access before summer calendars fill.