Ask anyone who's watched Fulton Market for the past few years and they'll tell you the neighborhood's whole identity is built on new. New towers, new patios, new concepts nobody's heard of yet. This fall tells a different story. Look closely at what's actually opening on Fulton Street and Morgan Street right now, and you'll notice most of it isn't new at all. It's familiar names circling back to a neighborhood that already knows them.
The chefs who left, and the ones coming back
Start with Bill Kim. Urbanbelly, his Asian fusion concept, is back on Fulton Street this year at 950 W. Fulton St, a corner spot with a 40-seat patio, a 36-seat dining room, and a 12-seat bar. Kim opened the original Urbanbelly in Avondale back in 2008, brought it to the West Loop in 2012 alongside sister restaurant BellyQ, then watched that location close in 2018. He kept a ramen counter running inside Time Out Market until the food hall itself closed earlier this year, and ran a second Urbanbelly location in Wicker Park that shut down right around the time this new spot opened. The new location is a licensing deal: Kim still owns the business, but Taratsa Hospitality Partners, the group behind The Wild Hare and Pitaki, runs day-to-day operations. Kim has said the point of the new Urbanbelly is that you don't need a plan to show up. No reservations, first-come-first-served, a lower price point than most of what's opened around it lately.
Then there's Jimmy Papadopoulos. He built his name at Bohemian House and later at Bellemore, then stepped away from Chicago's restaurant scene for roughly five years. He's returning as an owner this time, with Black Briar taking over the former Bar Takito space at 201 N. Morgan St, a space that sat empty after Bar Takito closed in October 2024. He's partnered with Tim Anderson, Bellemore's former general manager, on their first solo project together. After a summer of construction delays, Crain's Chicago Business reported in late August that Black Briar is now set to open in late September, which puts its debut just weeks out from today.
And then there's Gibsons, which is less a comeback than a slow-motion arrival. Gibsons Restaurant Group first announced a Fulton Market location back in October 2023, when the building's developer said the restaurant would likely open by the end of 2024. That slipped. By late 2024, the timeline had moved to roughly 21 months out, putting the opening somewhere around the middle of 2026. That slipped too. A December 2025 press release settled on "fall 2026." Now, according to a Fox 32 Chicago interview with Gibsons CEO Steve Lombardo posted yesterday, the actual date is November, inside the 15,000-square-foot ground floor space at 919 W. Fulton St. Three years, four different timelines, one still-unopened restaurant. If you've been walking past that construction site wondering when the doors finally open, you're not the only one who's lost count.
Even Labriola Italian Specialties, which already opened back in April at 852 W Fulton Market in the space that used to be Kuma's, fits the same pattern. The restaurant is new to Fulton Market, but Labriola itself isn't new to Chicago. Rich Labriola's Doughboy Restaurant Group has held a following in Oak Brook and on Michigan Avenue for a decade before deciding this stretch of Fulton Street was worth a pizza oven and a walk-up cannoli window.
A few blocks over, Osaka Nikkei is still finishing the build-out for its Peruvian-Japanese concept inside a converted, century-old cargo building on Lake Street. It's a project that's been teased since 2021 and repeatedly pushed from a 2025 debut to a 2026 one, and it still doesn't have a firm open date as of this writing. Given how the Gibsons timeline has gone, that's worth keeping in mind before you plan a dinner around it.
Quick reference if you're keeping track
- Urbanbelly — 950 W. Fulton St, open now, no reservations
- Black Briar — 201 N. Morgan St, opening late September
- Gibsons Tavern — 919 W. Fulton St, opening November
- Labriola Italian Specialties — 852 W Fulton Market, open since April
What's happening to the block itself
The restaurant churn isn't the only thing moving on Fulton Market's side streets. A long-vacant building at 167 N. Morgan St, originally built around 1910 for the Rubenstein Lumber Company, is now the subject of a redevelopment proposal from Hubbard Street Group that would add two stories and convert the space into 20 apartments with ground-floor retail. The building is a contributing structure to the Fulton-Randolph Market District, the landmark district the city established in 2015, so the developer is working with city landmark officials on preserving the facade's brickwork while rebuilding it. At a community meeting last week co-hosted with Ald. Walter Burnett's office, resident Chloe Groome raised a question a lot of neighbors have probably had walking past that curb cut and those dumpsters for years: whether the retail space could be split into two storefronts instead of one, to leave room for more small businesses. The developer's answer was that the building's lack of alley access makes a single larger retail space the more workable option for now. It's a small meeting about one address, but it's the kind of detail that tells you more about how this neighborhood actually changes than any press release about a new restaurant.
What's on the calendar this fall
If you're looking for something to actually do rather than just eat, two recurring fall traditions are back. Oktoberfest Nation Chicago returns to 171 N. Peoria St for a five-week run from September 17 through October 24, with imported Hofbräu München beer, live Oompah bands, and the kind of carnival games that turn a Tuesday night out into something you didn't plan for. It's a longer run than a typical one-weekend beer garden, so there's less pressure to catch it on a single specific date.
The Chicago Artisan Market also continues its recurring Sunday markets at Morgan MFG, 401 N. Morgan St, a former manufacturing building old enough to predate the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The next date on the 2026 calendar is October 18, running 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with more than 100 Chicago and Midwest artisans selling food, fashion, and home goods inside.
The pattern worth noticing
None of this is really a story about growth. Fulton Market has been growing for a decade and everyone already knows that. What's more interesting this fall is how much of what's opening is a return: a chef coming back to a corner he already worked, another chef coming back to the city after years away, a restaurant group finally following through on a promise it made three years ago, and a building the neighborhood has watched sit empty finally getting a real plan attached to it. If you live here, that's the version of the story that actually matches what you've been seeing on your own walk to the train.
If you're weighing a move within Fulton Market or one of the surrounding neighborhoods and want a read on how any of this touches the building or block you're considering, Meghan Provenzano Group can talk it through with you. Get in touch whenever you're ready.
