Andersonville is about to get its first permanent outdoor gathering space. Construction on Catalpa Avenue is expected to finish next spring. Until then, the busiest stretch of the neighborhood's year still has nowhere to go but Clark Street. Between Halloween and December 18, the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce has a Halloween takeover, a 15-day restaurant promotion and a holiday season scheduled, and every one of them happens in a storefront, on a sidewalk or at a single side-street corner.
Andersonville's outdoor season has a clear endpoint. The Chamber's 2026 events calendar scheduled the Wednesday farmers market from May 13 through October 21, so by Halloween the season is over. The next listing after Bingofesten is Aville-o-Ween on October 31, followed by Autumn Restaurant Week from November 1 to 15. The Chamber calls this fall restaurant week its 2nd Annual. The Chamber already holds a spring Andersonville Restaurant Week, which ran March 15 to 29 this year. A second edition in November stretches the program into the months with no outdoor programming.
Saturday at Clark and Farragut
Halloween is on a Saturday this year, and the Chamber's Aville-o-Ween page centers almost the whole day on one intersection. Here is how October 31 is scheduled:
- 10 a.m. The 48th Ward Halloween Parade gathers at Bromann Park, 5400 N. Broadway, and steps off at 10:30. The Chamber says the route ends at Clark and Farragut.
- 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Gethsemane Pumpkin Patch at 5739 N. Clark is open on its last day of the season. Showtime Tony does balloon art there on the 31st.
- 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Business district trick-or-treating. Every business on the Chamber's map hands out candy, toys or prizes, and the map gets updated as more businesses sign up.
- 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fright on Farragut takes over Clark and Farragut with costumes, games, candy and DJ Lexie.
- 2 p.m. At the same corner, the Original Gus Giordano Dance School's GUS company puts on "Spooktacular!", a free show of hip hop and jazz that closes with a large cast performing "Thriller."
So one corner hosts a parade finish, a DJ, a dance show and a street party on the same day.
Sunday Morning, the Menus Change
The next morning, Sunday, November 1, the Chamber's Autumn Restaurant Week starts and runs through Sunday, November 15. Participating restaurants offer multi-course prix-fixe menus at brunch, lunch and dinner, priced between $35 and $60 depending on the restaurant.
The Chamber's page says more restaurants and menus are coming and that the list updates daily. As of its October 19 update, 13 were confirmed. Grouped from south to north, they nearly all sit on a single walkable run of Clark:
- Foster up to Summerdale: Lady Gregory's at 5260 N. Clark, Anteprima at 5316 and Kopi Cafe at 5317, directly across from each other, then Big Jones at 5347 and Replay Andersonville at 5358.
- Around Berwyn and Balmoral: Fiya at 5419 N. Clark and Minyoli at 5420, also facing each other. Ranalli's Andersonville is just off Clark at 1512 W. Berwyn, and Vincent is at 1475 W. Balmoral.
- Farther north on Clark: Tanoshii Andersonville at 5547, Uvae Kitchen & Wine Bar at 5553, Oda Mediterranean at 5657 and Ora Sushi at 5701.
Only Ranalli's and Vincent are off Clark, and each is around the corner from it. The Chamber built a two-week dining program that comes down to a walk up one street. Two weeks after Fright on Farragut fills an intersection, the same sidewalks carry people between dinner reservations.
Two Storefronts That Changed Hands
The Clark Street that Restaurant Week covers has turned over in the past year. Two storefronts that closed in late 2025 are being filled by owners who already run restaurants elsewhere in the city.
The first is 5403 N. Clark. For ten years it was Cescas Margarita Bar & Grill, which closed in late 2025. Patricia Guerrero, owner of Edgewater Tacos at 5624 N. Broadway, is opening De Colores there, a sit-down Latin fusion restaurant. Block Club Chicago reported that she planned a mid-October opening after a preview event on September 23. Guerrero told Block Club the project "has been roughly 25 years in the making," and added, "I've lived on the same block for 53 years, so Edgewater and Andersonville is my home."
According to Block Club, the menu comes from her mother's side of the family, which is Ecuadorian with Cuban and Colombian heritage. Edgewater Tacos reflects her father's Mexican side. Dishes she highlighted include ropa vieja, a stuffed piña filled with shrimp, red pimento, crema and melted cheese, tostones rellenos with carnitas, and Ecuadorian and Colombian empanadas. The address is a few doors from Fiya and Minyoli on the Berwyn block. Check the restaurant's hours before you go, since the reported date was a target.
The second is 5721 N. Clark, the former Parson's Chicken & Fish, which closed in October 2025. Block Club reported in February that Noble Thai, whose existing restaurant is at 1371 W. Chicago Ave. in West Town, is expanding into the space. In its social media announcement, the restaurant said it "can't wait to expand to Chicago's North Side" in 2026. The site sits just north of Ora Sushi at the top of the Restaurant Week map.
In both cases, the storefront went from closed to a named replacement in less than a year, and in both cases the operator already had a restaurant elsewhere in Chicago.
The Block of Catalpa That Is Becoming a Plaza
Andersonville will have a dedicated place for public gatherings starting next spring. Block Club reported in April that the block of Catalpa Avenue between Clark Street and Ashland Avenue is being rebuilt as a car-free, tree-lined, paved plaza with benches, bicycle parking and overhead hanging lights. Work was first planned for 2025. The city awarded Sumit Construction a $2.7 million contract in April 2026, according to the city's contract record cited by Block Club.
The Chicago Sun-Times covered the ceremonial groundbreaking on June 18, where elected officials and members of Elise Malary's family turned the first dirt. The paper reported that completion is expected next spring. It also reported that the plaza will host farmers markets, art installations, community events and greenery. The space is named Elise Malary Plaza for a local trans activist. The Sun-Times described her work as expanding mental health care access and economic opportunity for the trans community.
Those uses are exactly what Clark and Farragut is improvising this Saturday. The plaza's spring target falls in the same season as the Chamber's 2026 outdoor calendar started, with Valborg on April 30 and the farmers market's first Wednesday on May 13. This winter's calendar is therefore the last one that has to fit entirely on sidewalks, at corners and inside storefronts.
December, Still on the Sidewalk
The Chamber's 2026 calendar carries the same street-level pattern through the holidays. It notes that events and dates are subject to change.
- November 22: Photos with Santa at The Guesthouse Hotel
- November 28: Small Business Saturday
- December 4: Holiday Tree Lighting, Menorah Lighting and Late Night Andersonville, all on the same date
- December 6: Holiday Trolley from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Santa aboard from 3 to 6 p.m., and Cookie Decorating with Santa at The Guesthouse Hotel
- December 12: A second Cookie Decorating with Santa session at The Guesthouse Hotel
- December 13: St. Lucia
- December 18: A second Late Night Andersonville
The Holiday Trolley is a seven-hour event with a vehicle as its venue. Late Night Andersonville appears on the schedule twice. Without a plaza, December programming moves through the storefront district, much as Halloween does on Saturday. The Chamber's separate holidays page still shows 2025 information, so use the main events calendar for this year's dates.
For a look at how a neighboring north side commercial strip has been growing within its existing storefronts, see our piece on why every Lincoln Square story this year ends with "next door". More on the city's neighborhoods is on our Chicago neighborhood page.
If you live near Clark Street and want to know how changes like these new restaurants and the Catalpa plaza affect the value of your home, The AVE Group is a senior-led team based on Lincoln Avenue that follows north side commercial corridors closely. Schedule a free consultation and we'll go through your block in detail.
