On April 22, a walk-up cannoli window quietly turned on at 852 W Fulton Market. That address sat empty after Kuma's Corner left in 2024, and the operator moving in is not a first-time restaurateur testing the neighborhood. Doughboy Restaurant Group, led by Rich Labriola, whose journey began in his father's south suburban Chicago pizza shop before he built concepts including Labriola Café in Oak Brook, Labriola Chicago on Michigan Avenue, and LaBarra Ristorante in Oak Brook, opened Labriola Italian Specialties there. That single opening is the tell. For anyone who already lives at The Embry on May Street, the more useful question this year is not what is new in Fulton Market, but who is arriving, and what that says about the block.
The Pattern Behind This Year's Class
The 2026 openings clustered within a few blocks of 21 N. May share a signature: they are second, third, or flagship-return moves from operators who already know Chicago. The local restaurant Labriola has a cult following in Oak Brook and held ground on Michigan Avenue for the past decade, and is now bringing an Italian restaurant to Fulton, replacing Kuma's, which left in 2024. Bill Kim brings his flagship restaurant back to the area after leaving Randolph Street for Wicker Park in 2018, operating right on the corner of Morgan and Fulton, taking over the former Taverna 1821 space, and his ramen shop was an anchor in Time Out Market.
Read the arrivals together and a pattern surfaces. These are not concepts introducing themselves to Chicago. They are Chicago operators concluding that Fulton Market is where their most ambitious room belongs. That shifts the daily calculus for a resident, because proven operators tend to open on time, staff to a standard, and stay open. The evening options within a ten-minute walk of the building are getting deeper, not just louder.
Spring: What Landed First
Labriola Italian Specialties is the most concrete example. Doughboy Restaurant Group announced the upcoming opening of Labriola Italian Specialties at 852 W Fulton Market on April 22, 2026. The space has an additional bar and outdoor seating, and there is an open kitchen centered around pizza ovens. Hours skew evening: the new restaurant is open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight on weekends. For a resident who wants a serious pizza-and-pasta table five blocks from home without booking two weeks out, that alone changes the weekly rotation.
The larger spring signal is Osaka Nikkei. The Nikkei restaurant from Latin America has spots in Lima, Miami, and Bogota, and is taking its Japanese-Peruvian dishes to Fulton Market in a large space with 150 to 170 seats, with dishes like octopus tiraditos with black olives, or wagyu nigiri with kabayaki sauce. Since founders Diego de la Puente and Diego Herrera opened Osaka Nikkei in 2001, the restaurant has earned global acclaim for its fusion of culinary traditions, and this summer the Peruvian-Japanese concept debuts its second U.S. outpost in Fulton Market, bringing specialties such as wasabi ceviche, braised short rib asado gyüdon, nigiri and crispy tumbo shrimp to Chicago. A 150-plus-seat international debut is a scale bet, and it is being placed one neighborhood over.
Summer: The Chefs Coming Back
June brings a return that will matter to the block long past this year. Chef Jimmy Papadopoulos is making his re-entry into the restaurant scene with Black Briar, a bold American tavern set to debut in Fulton Market in June, joining forces with operator Tim Anderson to bring the new concept to life at 201 N. Morgan Street. That places Black Briar three short blocks northeast of The Embry, on the same Morgan Street corridor as the returning Bill Kim flagship.
Kim's arrival is worth reading carefully. The Morgan and Fulton space was once home to La Sirena Clandestina, chef John Manion's famed restaurant that was one of the original establishments in the neighborhood, which closed in 2019. A room that anchored the early Fulton Market dining identity is being taken over by a chef whose Time Out Market ramen shop helped define its middle chapter. The corner reopens with a decade of continuity built into it.
The Time Out Market Vacancy, Filled Specifically
Time Out Market's departure left a large, visible hole. It is being addressed, but not with another food hall.
The replacement is smaller in scale and sharper in point of view: a seafood and wine bar that reads as neighborhood, not attraction.
Time Out Market recently closed in Fulton Market, and Hooligan is stepping in as a new seafood and wine bar. The restaurant describes its concept as a nod to its rebellious spirit and a belief that you can be unapologetically dedicated to regional ingredients without being pretentious, focused on giving the farmers, fishers, and producers of the Midwest a louder voice, bringing a laidback approach to seafood dishes. For residents, the difference is that the corner shifts from a destination for out-of-town guests toward a room built for repeat visits.
Aberdeen And The Fall Book
The activity is not limited to Fulton and Morgan. A LaGrange favorite is coming to Aberdeen Street, sharing space with Tilly's Bagels: Prasino calls itself a neighborhood gem after 15 years in the western suburbs, specializing in locally-sourced ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner. An all-day operator with a fifteen-year track record filling a daytime hole matters more to a resident than to a visitor. It is the kind of place a Tuesday morning gets built around.
The biggest fall entry is still under construction. The concept has been described as a tavern-style or supper club-inspired venue, blending Gibsons' signature service and classic American fare with a more relaxed, social atmosphere, and the opening is expected in fall 2026, once construction on the building is complete. The Fulton Market project has been years in the making for Gibsons Restaurant Group, which has long sought the right opportunity to enter the neighborhood, and is known for landmark Chicago restaurants such as Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse, Gibsons Italia, Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House, LUXBAR, and Quartino Ristorante & Wine Bar. Gibsons choosing this specific block, after years of holding out, is the second-order confirmation of the pattern.
A Walkable Map From 21 N. May
Read as directions rather than as news, the year lays out like this:
- North on May, then east on Fulton. Labriola Italian Specialties at 852 W Fulton, evenings only, walk-up cannoli window for the return trip.
- Northeast to Morgan and Fulton. Bill Kim's flagship in the former Taverna 1821 corner, with Black Briar arriving at 201 N. Morgan for a tavern option two doors from the corner.
- Deeper into Fulton Market. Osaka Nikkei's Chicago debut, a 150-to-170-seat room for the nights that call for reservations and a booth.
- The former Time Out Market footprint. Hooligan for a lighter seafood-and-wine evening that used to require a trip to a different neighborhood.
- West to Aberdeen. Prasino for daytime, sharing a footprint with Tilly's Bagels.
- Fall watch. The Gibsons tavern concept, opening once its building is complete, adding a full-service anchor to the west end of the corridor.
Six operators, all within a walk that never crosses an expressway, all opening or arriving inside a single calendar year.
Reading The Season
The useful frame for residents is not the count of openings but the caliber of the operators making the move. A neighborhood in its first act attracts first-time restaurateurs. A neighborhood in its second act attracts people who have already succeeded elsewhere and are choosing where to put their most ambitious room. That is what the 2026 class is showing.
One caution worth naming. Google's new Thompson Center headquarters is slated to open in the Loop next year, which would leave a major hole in Fulton Market's office core just as the neighborhood doubles down on restaurants and retail. The near-term consequence for residents is likely counterintuitive: fewer weekday lunch crowds, more evening capacity, and reservation windows that widen at exactly the rooms this year's openings are producing. The dinner map gets easier to use, not harder.
For anyone already at Mike Larson has been quietly watching this pattern from the buyer side. If you own at The Embry and want a candid read on how this year's operator moves are affecting resale narratives and building-level demand on May Street, or if you are weighing a move onto the block, schedule a confidential consultation.
