After more than 80 years, there will be no Ann Sather restaurant location in the 900 block of West Belmont Avenue in Chicago’s Lakeview community, effective in June.
A sign in the window at the Ann Sather flagship, at 909 W. Belmont Ave., will be closing June 28. The building is to be torn down for a new apartment development.
A new location will open in July at 1819 W. Division St. in the West Town community — an area where Ann Sather has had a presence in the past.
The Division Street site formerly housed a location of the breakfast restaurant chain Yolk.
“We’re delighted to return to the West Town area, where we previously operated a Milwaukee Avenue location from 2001 to 2007,” Ann Sather owner and former Chicago Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said in a news release. “We closed the Wicker Park location only because adjacent construction caused structural issues in our building. Our new Division Street restaurant is an ideal location for Ann Sather as many of our customers live in the area.”
Next door to Ann Sather, a new mixed-use building is now under construction. The building, which will feature 46 luxury apartments, replaced a two-story brown brick building nearly architecturally identical to the one that houses Ann Sather.
The building that was torn down housed the American Vapor vape shop, Strings Ramen, BopNgrill Korean fast-food restaurant, The Gallery Bookstore, and Belmont Army Vintage, along with apartments above.
The original plans for the 919 W. Belmont Ave. building now under construction also called for the demolition of the building that houses Ann Sather. But the plan was scaled back, and the Belmont Avenue Ann Sather has remained in business with the new building being built next door.
However, the building that now houses Ann Sather is still being torn down after all. A Crain’s Chicago Business report in April noted that Mavrek Development is planning another 46-unit building on the site as a second phase of the new apartment project, called the Belmora.
The phase of the Belmora now under construction is expected to open for residents in the fall of this year, Crain’s reported. Developers hope to complete the second building in the fall of next year, with demolition of the Ann Sather building to begin in the summer.
Ann Sather has been located on the south side of Belmont Avenue between the Chicago Transit Authority ‘L’ tracks and Clark Street since Ann Sather herself first took over an eatery on the block in 1945, but has moved several times.
The restaurant moved to its current location at 909 W. Belmont Ave. in 2007. Most recently before that, it had been located at 929 W. Belmont Ave., the current home of Reckless Records and the Clarity Clinic.
While an Ann Sather on Belmont Avenue in Lakeview will soon be but a memory, the restaurant will still maintain one location in the community, about five blocks away at 3415 N. Broadway. This location has been in business for decades.
An Ann Sather location also remains in business at 1147 W. Granville Ave. in Edgewater.
Other locations have also come and gone over the years — including the one at 1448 N. Milwaukee Ave. in the Wicker Park neighborhood that Tunney mentioned in the news release, which operated for a few years during the 2000s. The building that housed the Wicker Park restaurant was severely damaged in a construction mishap and had to be torn down.
Another Ann Sather location opened in 1987 at 5207 N. Clark St in Andersonville, and was originally owned and operated by Tunney’s sister, Debbie. The Andersonville Ann Sather closed in 2013, and the space is now occupied by a Raygun apparel and design store.
Tunney’s brother, Ed, opened a third Ann Sather location at 1329 E. 57th St. in the Hyde Park neighborhood in 1989, but that location closed five years later.
Ann Sather locations have also come and gone at 3416 N. Southport Ave. in Lakeview, 2665 N. Clark St. in Lincoln Park.
The restaurant chain is known for its cinnamon rolls, potato sausage and Swedish pancakes, among other specialties.
The New Town Alano Club, a recovery organization, was located upstairs in the Belmont Avenue Ann Sather building for many years, but has moved to 3326 N. Ashland Ave.
