WICKER PARK — One of Chicago’s best-known breakfast restaurants is adding a location on the Wicker Park-West Town border. 

Ann Sather is taking over the former home of a Yolk restaurant at 1819 W. Division St. A sign in the window said the Swedish breakfast and lunch staple famous for its cinnamon rolls is “coming in July,” a timeline confirmed Tuesday by owner Tom Tunney.

Tunney — who represented the Lakeview area as alderman for 20 years until 2023 — announced earlier this year the company’s longtime location on 909 W. Belmont Ave. would close this summer as a developer prepares to build an apartment building on the site. 

The Division Street location will replace the Belmont restaurant as the third Ann Sather location currently in operation, although Tunney still may find another restaurant space in the Lakeview area, he said Tuesday.

Ann Sather also has restaurants at 3415 N. Broadway and 1147 W. Granville Ave. Tunney has operated several other locations since he took over the business in the early ’80s, including an Ann Sather on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park in the early and mid-2000s.

Tunney said that restaurant closed in 2007 only after adjacent construction caused structural issues in the building.

“Every time the Blue Line went by, we had some problems. So the city gave me 48 hours to evacuate, and we did, but we left a really good business and a really good rent structure,” Tunney said. “So we’re very familiar with the neighborhood, and I think the neighborhood is familiar with us.”

Ann Sather is opening a restaurant this summer at 1819 W. Division St. Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago

Yolk closed its Division Street restaurant last year, not long after ownership shuttered its Yolk Test Kitchen on Milwaukee Avenue in Bucktown. The company still operates several locations in Chicago, according to its website. 

Tunney said the menu at the new Ann Sather will be the same as at its other restaurants. Staff members from the Belmont location will stay on with the company, and Tunney is bringing a lot of decor and furnishings from Lakeview to recreate the Ann Sather vibe.

“Our lease is basically to the end of June, but we’re going to take out a lot, because this building is going to be demolished. So we have every opportunity to take whatever we want, including the chandeliers, the artwork and stuff like that,” he said. “We’re going to try to recreate the room at Division. I want people to feel like, ‘Oh my God, this feels like Belmont.’”

The Belmont Ann Sather’s last day in operation will likely be June 28, Tunney said. Depending on the city licensing process, he hopes to reopen on Division Street a few weeks later, in mid-July.

The new Ann Sather will also have a to-go bakery section for its cinnamon rolls and other pastries, plus a sidewalk cafe that will add 40-50 seats to the restaurant’s indoor capacity of about 150 diners.

“Our goal is to emulate what we did here on Belmont,” Tunney said. “We’ve been pretty successful at it.”

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