Where to Eat and Drink in Chicago's Logan Square Neighborhood

Logan Square has long been the domain of bike messengers, musicians, and the dive bars they hole up in. But there’s been a shift: Now people in Logan, as the area is known, are just as likely to order house-bottled artisanal cocktails as they are an Old Style beer—and the drinks are just the beginning. The Square (actually the park in the center of the ’hood is in an oval) has become home to many of the most exciting openings of the past year, seducing diners away from downtown and onto its historic, greystone-lined streets. The offerings range from the izakaya-inspired Yusho to the fire-blasted bagels at Reno; together, they make up Chicago’s new restaurant row.

YUSHO
Matthias Merges took a sharp turn in his career when he left his longtime post at Charlie Trotter’s to open this playful Japanese-influenced spot. The lively space juxtaposes industrial light fixtures with rich, col-orful upholstery, and the menu is composed of (very) small and (somewhat) inexpensive plates. Combined, these elements inspire a drinking-and-snacking approach: a sip of a kimchi-tequila cocktail, a bite of chawan mushi of duck and hon shimeji mushrooms with yakitori duck breast (Slide 3) But Merges couldn’t shake his culinary past entirely: A six-course tasting menu is also available.

MASA AZUL
Chef Jonathan Zaragoza first garnered attention for the food at his family’s South Side restaurant, Birrieria Zaragoza, where he focused almost entirely on one dish: braised and roasted goat rubbed with ancho chile paste and served with hand-made tortillas. When he left to take over the kitchen at this tequila and mezcal bar (Slide 4), the natural question was: Can he cook anything else? The answer, proven by his chilaquiles (Slide 2), is yes.

TELEGRAPH/RENO
In 2011, the team behind a few bars around town opened the elegant wine bar Telegraph. Almost immediately, people started treating the place like a restaurant, sitting down for three-course meals featuring dishes such as smoked pork chop with rhu-barb agrodolce. Soon afterward, the group followed it up with an all-day dough factory next door called Reno that opens in the morning with doughnuts (Slide 1) and wood-fired bagels (Slide 5) and ends the night with pastas and pizzas.

PARSON'S CHICKEN AND FISH
How does a 35-seat hipster-hillbilly food shack (Slides 10, 11) single-handedly turn into a neighborhood destination? By opening a massive patio with picnic tables, an outdoor bar, a Ping-Pong table, and—why not?—a permanently parked vintage El Camino. Half of this space is reserved for eating (the menu is true to its name: fried chicken, fried fish), the other half is for drinking. But the main draw indoors and out is the bittersweet Negroni slushie (Slide 6).

LULA CAFE
When this all-day restaurant opened in 1999, it was a simple spot for soup and sandwiches. Owners Amalea Tshilds and Jason Hammel weren’t even married yet—heck, they weren’t even dating—and Hammel certainly wasn’t the chef he is now. Since then, the restaurant has expanded twice, and Hammel has grown to be the guy whom all other chefs in town look up to. The soups and sandwiches are still on the menu (fixtures such as the Tineka, an Indonesian-spiced peanut butter sandwich, never disappear), but a separate dinner menu now features dishes that show Hammel’s modern side, like crispy veal sweetbreads with baby carrots (Slide 9).