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

Logan Square, where gutsy cooking and the next generation of cocktail bars are luring them in, is the new culinary (and nightlife) center of Chicago

By David TamarkinPhotographer Lucy Hewett

September 23, 2013

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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).

INTELLIGENTSIA COFFEE
One of the newest of the stellar Chicago coffee company’s hangouts is also its sharpest: An angular, U-shaped bar occupies most of the room, and baristas work it like doting diner servers, taking your order and walking you through the “menu.” Pair an Americano with a thick slice of coffee cake, which comes from Floriole, a bakery far, far away (okay, about three miles) in Lincoln Park.

BANG BANG PIE SHOP
This homey storefront traffics in three major food groups: pie (four types daily) (Slide 7), coffee (roasted on the premises), and biscuits (with a few flavored butters to go on top). A weekend-only brunch special, such as biscuits and gravy, will appear on the menu, but most Logan locals go the double-slice route: savory pie (goat-cheese and squash tart, say) followed by sweet (chocolate chess pie with rosemary caramel).

LOCAL BAR SMARTS

Restaurants have infiltrated the Square, but Logan is first and foremost a drinking neighborhood. Here’s where to go if you’re looking for more than a dive.

BILLY SUNDAY
Matthias Merges’s second spot in the area (see Yusho, above) is pre-Prohibition in appearance but modern in practice. Pay mind to the Tonics portion of the menu, from which bartender Alex Bachman pours inventive carbonated cocktails from a tap.

LONGMAN & EAGLE
People eat, sleep, and sip coffee at this all-day inn—but mostly, they drink. That’s what happens when you offer 148 whiskeys, a few of them in high-proof cocktails like Where the Ends Meet, a barely legal mix of bourbons and Fernet Branca.

SCOFFLAW
The best thing about this gin-focused cocktail bar (Slide 8) is not the solid libations or the hearty food coming out of the kitchen (if the patty melt is on the menu, jump)—it’s the complete lack of pretense.

WHERE TO STAY

There’s no cooler inn in the city—perhaps in the country—than the six-room setup upstairs at Longman & Eagle, which is why it was one of BA’s top Food Lover’s Hotels. For something more glamorous (and a little less raucous), Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel in the Gold Coast offers a lot of posh for the price.