Hot Gossip from the Team
You’re in this with us, might as well know the inside scoop.
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.