Hot Gossip from the Team
You’re in this with us, might as well know the inside scoop.
October 26th, 2026
Hot Gossip from the Team
I missed last week’s update because apparently October at Gunny’s is just one long birthday party. Marty and I celebrated ours with dinner at Creepie’s, which was fairly fabulous, and we are now moving on to Ken’s birthday on the 27th and Gabe’s on Halloween. At this point, October birthdays should probably be their own budget category.
Friday night, I came into Gunny’s at approximately 1 AM to build a balloon arch for the Lincoln Ave Spooktacular, because this is apparently what restaurant ownership looks like. Chef Mike came to help and, in a shocking development, it turns out he is exceedingly good at tying balloons. So if this whole chef thing ever stops being his calling, we have identified a very promising second career path.
By Saturday afternoon the place was full of extremely cute costumes, a few of which spooked Marty badly enough that he briefly went into hiding. I dressed as Snow White and had grand plans of twisting balloon animals, but had very little intrest from the little ones that were on a time crunch to get from treat stop to treat stop. Honestly, there will always be another night after too many martinis when I can spontaneously make balloon dogs for whoever happens to be sitting at the bar.
The good news is that brunch is starting to find its footing, and Friday was officially our busiest lunch yet, which felt huge. Weekdays are still the part of the puzzle we’re trying to crack, so if you’ve been meaning to stop in for lunch or a quieter dinner, please continue doing that. We are slowly but surely figuring out our rhythm.
We also have a new fall dish making its way onto the menu: roasted pumpkin with brown sugar, spices, chili tahini, mint and sage. There has been an ongoing campaign to rename it Peter’s Pumpkins, because our AM bartender is Peter and apparently “Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater” was all the inspiration anyone needed. Peter has agreed to lend his name to the dish under one condition: he wants sides available during lunch. Negotiations are ongoing.
Halloween is also somehow this week, which means we are currently trying to pull together a few spooky cocktails and specialty menu items. One day we will become the kind of restaurant that plans these things three months in advance. That day is not today.
Ken, our sous chef, finds a lot of his artistic inspiration from Francis Bacon, so there is a very real possibility that some of the Halloween food will be Francis Bacon-inspired. I am personally unclear on exactly what that means, but given the source material, I assume it will be unsettling in a very beautiful way.
The bar team is tinkering too, so if all goes according to plan, there should be a few appropriately spooky things to eat and drink this weekend. No promises until they actually exist, because we have learned our lesson.
In a major technological advancement, Gunny’s is officially on OpenTable. Up until now, we’ve been managing the waitlist manually, which was doing a great job of challenging our hosts’ patience and making everyone want to pull their hair out. So, good news: you can now actually find us on the internet and make a reservation like a civilized person.
Also, next week may involve sumo wrestlers at Gunny’s. The Sumo Championship League is coming to Chicago, and we’re working on a little collaboration while some of the wrestlers are in town. The exact plan is still taking shape, and that is quite literally all I am prepared to say at this time. More soon.
Another thing worth celebrating: not that much else broke this week. This is apparently the standard by which we now measure operational success.
Unfortunately, Lincoln Avenue may have heard us say that. The street is technically open again, but we’ve noticed an increasing number of ComEd trucks working their way up and down the block and, more concerningly, removing sections of sidewalk. There are now some ominous no-parking signs creeping toward us, and we have a bad feeling our brand-new sidewalk may be next. We would very much like to keep the sidewalk this time. We already named it and now we are attached.
We’re still working on the events menu and should have more to share on that soon. There are a few other things being noodled on behind the scenes too, because naturally we have decided that finally getting our feet underneath us means it is time to create additional projects.
And finally, in a deeply unnecessary plot twist, I managed to dislocate my shoulder for the first time in my life and sprain it in two spots on Sunday So if you see me around Gunny’s looking slightly more useless than usual, I will be operating one-armed for a bit while an orthosurgeon figures out how to put this humpty dumpty back together again.
That’s the gossip: birthdays, brunch, balloon arches, Chef Mike’s unexpected balloon career, our busiest lunch yet, Peter’s ongoing pumpkin negotiations, sumo wrestlers, possible Francis Bacon nightmares, suspicious ComEd activity, very little property damage, and one temporarily defective owner. We’re getting there.
October 15th, 2026
Hot Gossip from the Team
Gunny’s has officially been open for one whole month, which feels both impossible and somehow like we’ve been doing this for six years.
This has been more fun, more interesting and more challenging than any of us could have imagined, and thankfully, we’re finally starting to feel like we have our feet underneath us. Even better, we’re starting to see actual regulars form, which is maybe the coolest part of the whole thing. There are now people whose drinks we recognize, whose usual seats we know, and whose faces make the place feel less like a new restaurant and more like something real.
Marty and Mary also took their first weekend off since opening, (realistically the first day since September 1st one or the other hasn’t been in the building) to go meet their newborn nephew in Los Angeles, and somehow Gunny’s continued operating perfectly fine without us (we actually set a record for sales on Saturday wooohooooo!). Rude, but reassuring.
Our first brunch went really well, and apparently a lack of televisions will not stop people from brunching their hearts out. We had a surprisingly good turnout for Bears-Packers/Marathon Weekend despite having exactly one TV, which remains approximately one more television than we originally wanted.
Next up, we’re officially getting our coffee program rolling. You may have already spotted some of it on the dessert menu, but the bigger goal is to make Gunny’s a genuinely good place to have a daytime meeting, grab lunch, or sit under the skylight with a laptop and answer emails for a while. That back room is frankly too pretty to sit empty during the day.
Also, because apparently we needed another project, we’re launching our first Sunday steak dinner this weekend. It’s a three-course prix fixe situation involving 32 ounces of prime rib, which is objectively a ridiculous amount of prime rib and therefore something we are very excited about. We haven’t really announced it yet, so congratulations: you found the gossip page and now you know things.
We’re also noodling with a reservation system. Fridays and Saturdays have gotten a little bananas, while parts of the week are still quiet enough that you could probably hear us thinking. We love that people are willing to wait for us, but we would also like everyone involved to suffer slightly less.
And speaking of quiet weekdays, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what daytime Gunny’s should look like. One idea we’re kicking around is running most of the brunch menu during the week, which would give lunch a little more personality. The only casualty would be the cinnamon rolls, because apparently those have boundaries.
In less charming news, we regret to announce the retirement of the extremely cute duck faucets in the bathrooms. This is now the fourth time in one month that someone has managed to rip one out of the vanity, and at a certain point even the ducks have to know when to call it. We loved them. Apparently you loved them too, like a lot. Normal faucets are incoming.
Also, apparently half the building was born in October. Mary’s birthday is the 20th, Marty’s is the 21st, Billy’s (our AGM) is the 23rd, Ken’s (Our Sous Chef) is the 27th, and Gabe’s (Our Dishwasher) is the 31st. Peter’s (our AM Bartender) was earlier this month, but he would prefer that we all mind our business about it. That means 6 of our 31-person team have October birthdays, which feels statistically suspicious and is going to require an irresponsible amount of cake.
Finally, we’ll be participating in the Lincoln Park Halloween Spooktacular, and in a development that nobody asked for but everyone will now have to deal with, Mary knows how to make balloon animals. So yes, we’ll be testing that skill set in public.
One month in: taxes filed, brunch survived, coffee incoming, prime rib imminent, regulars forming, reservations under consideration, and apparently balloon animals are now part of the business plan.
October 6th, 2026
Hot Gossip from the Team
It has been a week. Weeknights are still pretty sleepy over here, so if you’ve been meaning to come in and want to skip the weekend rush, Tuesday through Thursday is absolutely your move. Lunch is getting more fun too: Wednesday through Friday from 11–3, we’ve got the $20 burger + fries + Stroh’s + whiskey situation AND we won’t tell your boss, and we also bought some truly ridiculous salad bowls (they looked smaller on the internet), which means four people can now split our house Caesar, fries and a bottle of wine for $100. Take the office out to lunch. Call it team building. We support you.
We also survived the Great Toast Outage of 2026, where suddenly the entire restaurant industry was forced to get back to basics and manually fire tickets with the kitchen by asking chef realllly nicely where their duck poutine was. Then the inside handle on the walk-in cooler broke, giving us our own very unnecessary episode of The Bear. THEN one of our smart locks stopped cooperating, and we learned that apparently in 2026 sometimes you have to charge a doorknob. Sometimes you charge it and it still decides it has rights. Technology is incredible.
We are also becoming increasingly convinced the building might be haunted. Ken, our sous chef, says something snapped the back of his apron while he was working, and there have been enough other little weird things happening that the staff has officially assigned blame to a ghost. I personally do not not think we’re haunted. Marty remains unconvinced. In the interest of getting an impartial ruling, I emailed the Spectral Society of Illinois to see if they’d come investigate. They have not returned my email yet, which frankly feels irresponsible given that spooky season is upon us.
Billy, our AGM has also been on vacation through all of this. He comes back this week bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and hopefully with very few follow-up questions.
In happier news, brunch officially starts this weekend, and the full menu is finally up on the website. Halloween is still under negotiation. Mary says Ren Faire, Chef Mike says murder mystery, Marty says we should probably focus on New Year’s. We might still sneak a few strange things onto the menu that day, although it turns out goblets are surprisingly hard to source on short notice.
There’s also been some tension behind the bar because Mary is a Cleveland Guardians fan and Peter, our AM bartender, is a White Sox fan. We have handled this with an enormous amount of maturity as they play each other in the playoffs this week.
And finally, dinner has gotten busy enough that we’re looking to add to the kitchen team. If you’re a chef or cook looking for a new home, or know somebody great, send them our way. Full-time team members working 34+ hours receive employer-sponsored healthcare (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Platinum, baby!)
So that’s where we’re at: brunch is here, lunch has gotten some very fun updates, Toast is alive, the walk-in has stopped trying to trap people, our doorknobs need charging, and there is a non-zero chance we have a ghost.
September 29th, 2026
Hot Gossip from the Team
A few updates from Gunny’s, where apparently being open means we now have actual news to report.
The street is open?!
Lincoln Avenue reopened with approximately the same amount of ceremony as someone turning the lights back on. No warning. No ribbon cutting. One day: barricades. Next day: cars.
We’re not asking too many questions. We’re just very happy that getting to Gunny’s no longer requires the navigational instincts of a homing pigeon.
Dessert is almost here
Our dessert menu is in the final stages of tinkering, tasting and arguing over tiny details, and we’re hoping to have it ready by the weekend of October 3. One thing we can already tell you: there’s a hot fudge sundae featuring Marty’s Nana’s family fudge sauce, a recipe that’s been passed down through the family for 4 generations. I would like it noted for the record that I literally had to marry into this family to get access to it.
So. No pressure. We hope you like it.
Brunch is coming, but you can be our guinea pigs first
Our first full brunch menu is aiming to debut the weekend of October 10. But because patience has never really been our thing, we’ll start sneaking a few brunch dishes onto the daytime menu this weekend.
If you stop in and try one, tell us what you think. Consider yourselves part of the highly scientific Gunny’s brunch research department.
Events are coming
Our private events menu is just about finalized, which means we’ll soon be ready for parties, celebrations, cocktail gatherings and other excellent reasons to get a bunch of people into the same room.
More on that very soon.
Weekends: wow. Weeknights: come on in.
We had an absolutely incredible weekend. Truly. Thank you to everyone who came out, ate, drank, waited patiently and made the place feel exactly like we hoped it would. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday dinners, though? Still pretty civilized.
So if you’ve been meaning to try Gunny’s but would prefer to skip the weekend rush, weeknights are your move right now. Come grab dinner, claim your favorite bar stool and enjoy this brief moment in history when we can still tell you exactly when it’s quiet.
Families before five, date night after
We love seeing families at Gunny’s, and kids are absolutely welcome to join us during the day. After 5 PM, we shift into grown-up dinner-and-cocktails mode and ask that the evening be reserved for adults. We like kids. We also really like date night. So bring the family for lunch, an afternoon burger or an early visit, then call the babysitter and come back for dinner so mommy can have her martinis.
After 9 PM, Gunny’s is 21+.
Still figuring it out
We’re only two weeks into this thing, so we’re still learning, tweaking and figuring out what the neighborhood wants from us. Thank you for showing up, giving us feedback, telling your friends and helping turn Gunny’s from a year-long construction project into an actual neighborhood pub. As always, gossip, requests, brilliant ideas and unsolicited opinions can find us at bark@gunnyspub.com
September 18th, 2026
We’ve officially been open for a few days, which means we’ve already learned approximately 700 things. Some exciting. Some humbling. Some involving gravy that takes 18 hours to make. Gunny’s is still very new, and part of opening a restaurant is figuring out what works best for our guests, our team, and the food and drinks we want to put in front of you. So, in the spirit of keeping everyone in the loop, here’s what we’re tinkering with.
Tuesdays + Wednesdays are getting a later start
Beginning now, Gunny’s will open at 3 PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
That wasn’t our original plan. We love the idea of being an all-day neighborhood spot, but with Lincoln Avenue still closed and our kitchen finding its rhythm, those extra prep hours are incredibly valuable right now. Some of the things coming out of our kitchen take a truly unreasonable amount of love and time. Our gravy alone takes about 18 hours.
We’d rather give the team the time they need to make dinner great than rush through prep just so we can say the doors opened earlier. Lunch isn’t disappearing forever. We’re still figuring out where it makes the most sense, what specials might help build a real weekday lunch crowd, and how we can make Gunny’s useful to the people working and living around us.
The actual Grand Opening is coming
Consider September our very public dress rehearsal. The week of October 20, we’ll be celebrating Gunny’s official Grand Opening with specials, a few surprises, and hopefully a Lincoln Avenue that resembles an actual street again. More on that soon.
Brunch + coffee are coming too
We’re also working on a coffee program and weekend brunch. Coffee has always been part of the bigger Gunny’s idea, and brunch deserves more than us hastily putting eggs on something and calling it a day. So we’re giving both a little time to become things we’re actually proud of.
A few cocktails have left the chat
Opening week also taught us that some of our original cocktails were... ambitious. As in nine-touch cocktails. Nine different bottles, ingredients, or steps every time someone ordered one. Delicious? Yes.
A delightful thing to make when twelve other drink tickets are printing? Less so. We’ve trimmed a few drinks from the opening menu and made some creative adjustments so the bar can move faster without losing what made the drinks interesting in the first place. Those aren’t necessarily gone forever, but will have to get re-immagined. This is exactly the kind of thing these first few weeks are for.
And yes, Lincoln Avenue is still Lincoln Avenue
At the moment, there hasn’t been much visible movement on the street outside. We’re very much hoping that changes soon. Until then, we are open, accessible, and very happy to see you, even if getting here currently feels a little more adventurous than intended.
We’re also continuing to think about ways we can make lunch, specials, and other programming work better while construction continues.
Tell us what you want
Gunny’s is supposed to be a neighborhood pub, which means the neighborhood gets a vote. If there’s something you’d love to see from us, whether that’s lunch specials, brunch ideas, coffee, events, or something we haven’t thought of yet, send us a note:bark@gunnyspub.com
We’re listening.And thank you for giving a brand-new little independent restaurant the room to learn, adjust, and get better. We’re figuring this thing out in real time, and we’re very glad you’re here for it.