The Old Storefronts Around Milwaukee and Lawrence Are Filling Back In. Here's Who Moved In.

"We're really excited to meet everyone in the community. So many people have already reached out and given us such a warm reception on social media and in emails," Paulo Villabona said at a ribbon-cutting on Dec. 3, 2025, the day before the Gale Street Inn reopened at 4914 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Reservations were already booked through that first weekend. Nearly ten months later, the reopening looks like the first of several. Within a few blocks of Milwaukee and Lawrence, new owners keep taking over old buildings and doing roughly what those buildings did before. A bakery building is selling bread again. A grocery storefront on Lawrence is still selling groceries. The one corner that broke the pattern twenty years ago, the former CVS, is the last piece still waiting.

The Gale Street Inn kept its menu and its staff

The 62-year-old restaurant closed suddenly at the end of June 2025. At the time, longtime owner George Karzas said hiring and keeping staff had become a problem. Villabona, a Jefferson Park resident, bought it in November. He has spent 36 years in restaurants, including as general manager of Folklore Chicago in Wicker Park and Bar Siena North Shore in Skokie. He and his family moved to the Northwest Side about six years ago and became regulars at Gale Street soon after.

The new owner held on to what the old place was known for. Many former staff members came back, and most of the classic menu returned, including the slow-cooked ribs. A few new dishes joined them, such as a sweet potato pierogi and a spicy fried chicken sandwich. A kids' menu offers burgers, mac and cheese, and chicken tenders. A staffing problem closed the restaurant, and the reopening started by rehiring the staff.

A bakery building that went back to being a bakery

Farther south on Milwaukee, at 4765 N. Milwaukee Ave., the former Ideal Bakery building had a rougher few years. Ideal had several owners after the 1980s. It closed its retail store in August 2024 and moved its wholesale business to Elk Grove Village. The Ideal Pastry neon sign, which had hung on the building for about 75 years, came down in 2024 when the property was being sold. A business called La Ideal Bakery got a license for the site in July 2025, but Nadig Newspapers reported it was unclear whether it ever kept regular retail hours.

Dulce Canela Bakery opened there on Feb. 13, 2026, with free samples and a ribbon-cutting. Owners Irma Flores and Jose Luis Ortiz bake Mexican and Guatemalan breads, pastries, and donuts. Flores has a baking background, but this is the couple's first bakery of their own. The bakery's website lists daily hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., the seven-day schedule the owners planned at opening.

The building's history goes back further than Ideal. According to Frank Suerth of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society, it was Jefferson Park's first Jewel grocery store. The Milwaukee-Lawrence shopping district once had three bakeries, Neuman's among them. By the mid-1990s, much of the district's retail was gone, including the Annes Department Store. Against that baseline, one bakery on this stretch of Milwaukee is more than the district had for part of 2024 and 2025.

On Lawrence, a grocery storefront stayed a grocery

The pattern holds on Lawrence too. Deluxe Global Market opened at 5960 W. Lawrence Ave. at the start of August 2026, in the former Carniceria y Fruteria El Milagrito storefront. A meat-and-produce market moved out and an import grocery moved in. The new store has fresh bread and pastries, produce, a cafe, and a deli. Its specialty is Algerian and Polish imports, along with European and Mediterranean goods.

This is the second Deluxe Global Market in Jefferson Park. The other is at 6332 W. Higgins Ave. The Lawrence store is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Block Club Chicago places it in the stretch of Lawrence it calls the "Jeff West" business district, which the outlet has been covering as a district on the rebound. An operator opening a second store a short drive from its first says something about how it sees demand on this side of the neighborhood.

The corner that never held

The former CVS Pharmacy at the southeast corner of Milwaukee and Lawrence works differently. It was a contested project from the start. When it was proposed in the early 2000s, some residents objected to putting a parking lot at the intersection instead of a building that "held the corner." Several nearby property owners sued to stop it and lost. The special use permit for the drive-through required a permanent decorative feature in front of the parking lot. Suggestions included a gazebo or a small replica of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. The feature was never built.

The pharmacy closed in January 2020, though CVS reportedly kept paying rent for several years afterward. The site has a building of about 10,000 square feet and 38 parking spaces. In mid-August, Nadig Newspapers reported pending permits for interior demolition and for wall signs reading "Willowbrae," the name of a chain of childcare academies in the U.S. and Canada. The company could not be reached for comment.

The city records have moved since then. On Sept. 10, 2026, Chicago issued a permit for a 183-square-foot illuminated "WILLOWBRAE" sign on the north wall at 4777 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Sept. 22 zoning committee agenda lists the sign permit holder as "Pathway Milwaukee LLC (Willowbrae Academy)." Neither record gives an opening date, and no public timeline has been announced.

If the center opens, the intersection would look like this:

1. Northwest and northeast: Hoyne Bank at 4786 N. Milwaukee and Sunnyside Plants and Gifts at 4800 N. Milwaukee.
2. Southwest: Mr. B's Caribbean Grill at 4801 N. Milwaukee.
3. Southeast: Willowbrae Academy in the former CVS at 4777 N. Milwaukee.

Nadig noted that this would be the first time in years that all four corners of Milwaukee and Lawrence are occupied. The parking lot that started the fight stays. The building behind it would be in use again for the first time since 2020.

Two buildings still between uses

On the same 4700 block, which Nadig describes as having storefronts vacant for years and in some cases decades, a developer bought a group of buildings at 4745–57 N. Milwaukee Ave. earlier this year. The buyer is Alfa Chicago Construction and Development, and developer Wes Khan is leading the project. As of March 19, 2026, it was still in design. Crews were clearing at least one building's interior to prepare for demolition. Under the existing B3-2 zoning, the plan could include up to 28 apartments on the upper floors with commercial space on the ground floor. No later construction update has been published.

Jefferson Park's other former CVS, at 6200 W. Higgins Ave., is following the same reuse pattern. Sprouts Farmers Market plans to turn the old pharmacy building into a grocery store, adding a new front vestibule and a tower feature. The Sprouts plan replaced an earlier Trader Joe's proposal for the site. A March 2026 update projected an April 2027 opening, pending approvals and construction. As of Aug. 16, the developer was expected to close on the property in mid-August, and the construction permit was still pending, according to Ald. James Gardiner (45th).

October on the same few blocks

The October calendar stays close to the same blocks, mostly at Jefferson Memorial Park, 4822 N. Long Ave., and the Copernicus Center on Lawrence.

Oct. 11 is the busiest day on the list. According to Block Club's Halloween guide, Fall Fest has a pumpkin patch, pumpkin decorating, a petting zoo, and a costume exchange, and the Sunday Market runs the same morning. The Chicago Park District lists arts and crafts too.

The outdoor market runs on the second and fourth Sundays from June through October, so Oct. 25 is the last outdoor date this year. Vendors named this season include Bennetts Farm, Parra Family Farms, Tamales Express, Epic Craft Ice Cream, Sabor a Mexico Salsas, Vargo Brother Ferments, and Distinct Bath and Body. The market doesn't stop in winter. It moves indoors to the Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave., and posts updates on the Jefferson Park Sunday Market website.

The Copernicus Center posted these show listings in fall 2025, well ahead of the shows. Check the Copernicus Center site for current details before buying tickets.

If you own a home or a small mixed-use building near Milwaukee and Lawrence, these reopenings will start showing up in how buyers see your block. Antonio Sarmiento tracks those changes block by block and can walk you through what they mean for your property in plain terms, in English or Spanish. Let's Connect.