The Busiest Block on Damen This Fall Runs From the Park to North Avenue
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
USPS signage has hung since spring on a storefront in the shopping plaza at 1520 N. Damen Ave., directly across the street from the park the neighborhood is named for. For months there was no date to go with it. Then on Oct. 30, Block Club Chicago reported that the Postal Service is aiming to open the new Wicker Park Post Office "the first week of December."
That storefront is the south end of a short run on Damen that changed more this fall than any other part of Wicker Park and Bucktown. In fewer than a hundred address numbers, from 1520 to 1613 N. Damen, the corridor gained a Nashville hot chicken counter beside the Blue Line, a Chinese restaurant just past North Avenue, and now a date for its mail service. North of that, the new arrivals are smaller and more spread out, and the biggest one on the calendar doesn't open until 2027.
Wicker Park's last post office, at 1240 N. Ashland Ave., handled retail service and P.O. boxes until it closed in early 2025 because its lease expired. That storefront is now a Chick-fil-A, which opened in March.
At the time, the Postal Service said it would look for a replacement within 60622 and that retail service would continue on Ashland until the new site was ready. Block Club reported that this did not happen, so neighbors have spent close to two years taking packages and mail errands to Logan Square, Lincoln Park or elsewhere.
The December target came from USPS spokesperson Mark Inglett. In the same email to Block Club, he gave no other details about the location or what services it will offer. Until the doors open, the first week of December is a goal and not a confirmed day.
A few doors north, the corner space at 1542 N. Damen near the Damen Blue Line station has a new tenant for the first time in about a decade. Urbanbelly, the Asian street food restaurant, opened there in 2016 and moved to Fulton Market earlier this year. Hattie B's Hot Chicken took the space and opened on Oct. 28, the date the company had announced.
This is the Nashville chain's second Chicago location. The first opened in Wrigleyville in February, and a River North location is planned for next year. Father and son Nick Bishop Sr. and Nick Bishop Jr. founded Hattie B's in Nashville in 2012.
The company has history on this stretch. Its first appearance in Chicago was a 2019 pop-up at Dove's Luncheonette, and executive chef Brian Morris brought that up in the opening announcement covered by Block Club Chicago, saying "Wicker Park is a special spot for us."
What you'll find on the menu:
There's indoor seating and a patio.
For its opening, the restaurant teamed up with Paulie Gee's Wicker Park, just north near Milwaukee Avenue, on a hot chicken pizza made with Hattie B's barbecue sauce and the same succotash. It sold Oct. 16 through 31 for $5 a slice or $37 a pie, and part of the proceeds went to No Kid Hungry.
Cross North Avenue to the Bucktown side and the next new dining room is at 1613 N. Damen. Eater Chicago lists Atelier Shang as opening on Friday, Oct. 23, five days before Hattie B's. The menu is built on Chinese staples. Eater pointed to the braised beef noodle soup, crab roe xiaolongbao and fermented soy popcorn chicken. Cocktails use lychee, guava, yuzu and plum.
The Infatuation calls it the third restaurant from the Shang Noodle family.
So the stretch now runs in this order, south to north:
You can do lunch, a package drop-off and dinner in one short walk once December arrives. Starting this winter, that's a lot of what the neighborhood used to cross Ashland for or leave the area to get.
The next new storefront is about three blocks north, at 1912 N. Damen in Bucktown. Megan Lambert opened Folklore Fabrics at noon on Friday, Oct. 30. She calls it a "neighborhood haberdashery," and it carries fabrics she sourced herself on a recent trip to Italy, along with sewing accessories and space for workshops and classes. Block Club Chicago reported that classes would start in November.
The name comes partly from her favorite Taylor Swift album. Lambert told Block Club she wants the store to be a place where the local sewing community can meet, find materials and practice the craft together. She explained the appeal of making things by hand like this:
"When you're creating something, whether you're sewing or knitting or embroidering, you are physically creating it with your own hands, and you see it from start to finish. That provides a certain type of dopamine that you just can't get from making a PowerPoint deck."
The two restaurants farther south bring in foot traffic from the Blue Line. Folklore Fabrics depends on regulars, people who sign up for a workshop and come back for the next one. It's a different kind of business for this part of Damen, where the walk toward Armitage gets quieter.
The largest project on the calendar is a block west of Damen. Trattoria Lo So is under construction in the former Jack and Ginger's bar at 2044 W. Armitage Ave. The owners are chef Sarah Grueneberg and partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher, the team behind Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio in the West Loop. They're turning the building into a 120-seat restaurant with a 17-seat bar.
According to the Block Club Chicago announcement, Monteverde executive chef Bailey Sullivan will lead the menu. Plans so far include meats, fish and vegetables cooked over a robata-style grill, dried pasta from Italy's Mancini Pastificio Agricolo, and wines, spirits and amari from small Italian and American producers. Like Monteverde, the restaurant will have a "batteria" of barrels for aging balsamic vinegar. The name roughly means "the trattoria I know." The target is "early 2027."
The rest of the fall's openings and announced newcomers are close by but not on Damen itself.
Most of these openings go back to a space someone just left. Hattie B's is in Urbanbelly's old corner, Chez Poulet is in Taqueria Chingón's first home, Blundstone's shop takes over from Burton, and Trattoria Lo So is replacing Jack and Ginger's. The post office is the exception. The neighborhood had none for almost two years, and the first week of December is the date on the calendar.
If you'd like to live within a short walk of the new Damen stretch, whether that's near the Blue Line, across from the park or up toward Armitage, The Michael Scavo Group can put together a tailored list of Wicker Park and Bucktown apartments and get you on a same-day tour. Find Your Apartment with us, and we'll show you the current move-in specials.
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