South Shore's Two Grandest Buildings Just Reopened Their Kitchens, and They Don't Agree on Anything

Why would two of South Shore's most storied buildings start serving food again in the same year and land on completely opposite ideas of what that should look like? One added a walk-in breakfast counter. The other added a reservation-only tea service that runs two hours and costs as much as a nice dinner downtown. Both are less than a mile apart. Both reopened in 2026. Neither one is copying the other, and that's the point worth sitting with if you live here.

A Country Club Kitchen Goes Back to Basics

The South Shore Cultural Center has been feeding people, one way or another, since it was the South Shore Country Club a century ago. This fall it's doing it again through Nafsi, the soul food restaurant already operating inside the building, which brought in Five Loaves to run breakfast and brunch service starting September 22. Five Loaves closed its original Chatham location in 2021, so this is a return to the South Side rather than a first appearance.

The person who made the call is Donnell Digby, Nafsi's owner, and his connection to the building goes back further than the restaurant does. His parents lived in South Shore, and he caddied at the golf course that wraps around the Cultural Center all through high school. He still lives in the neighborhood today. Asked about the Obama Presidential Center opening nearby, Digby said he thinks it will be a big driver for the restaurant, and that Nafsi is ready for it. That's a practical read on foot traffic, not a marketing line, and it explains why a breakfast counter makes sense here in a way it might not somewhere with less built-in daytime traffic.

The format is deliberately unfussy. Walk in, order breakfast or brunch, no reservation required. For a building with a formal dining hall and a 1916 pedigree, that's a choice, not a default.

What $75 Buys You a Half Mile South

Head down Stony Island Avenue to the Arts Bank, the once-abandoned neoclassical building that artist Theaster Gates bought from the city for a dollar and spent years restoring, and the reopening looks nothing like Nafsi's. Han Cha and Yunomi opened there on June 5, a two-part hospitality project from Gates and entrepreneur Heiji Choy Black that treats food and drink as an extension of the gallery space rather than a break from it.

Han Cha is reservation-only. The tasting menu runs two-hour seatings and costs $75 per person for three courses, with tea sourced from the Chicago company Spirit Tea and pastries from Jessica Vasquez, formerly a pastry chef at Momotaro in the West Loop. Yunomi, the adjoining bar, takes walk-ins and pours cocktails and wine by the glass for around $18, using spirits from Judson & Moore and Half Acre Beer Company. Every cocktail on the menu carries the name of the Chicago artist who designed it. The ceramics on the tables and the walls come from Gates's own studio, Dorchester Industries.

Here's how the two Arts Bank concepts stack up against each other:

Gates has said he hopes people will come out and "kick it on the South Side" over tea and drinks. The invitation fits a building that treats food and drink as part of the gallery experience, with Gates's ceramics on the tables and his collection on the walls. General admission to walk through the gallery space runs a suggested $10, with half going to Gates's nonprofit, Rebuild Foundation.

Two Buildings, One Fall Calendar

What ties these two reopenings together isn't the food. It's the fact that both buildings are also running a packed slate of public programming this fall, and the Cultural Center in particular has become the hub for it. On September 16, author and actress Tisha Campbell held a book signing and talk there for her book "The A Word." On September 26, Gallery Guichard's traveling exhibition "Soul of the Stone" landed at the Cultural Center for a Saturday show. October brings two more: "A Walk Down the Fairway," a clothing drive, golf outing, and fashion show on October 10, and the GSDC Gala, titled "Greater Together," on October 28.

None of these events are new to South Shore in concept. The Cultural Center has hosted community programming for decades, run in part through partnerships with groups like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the South Shore Opera Company, and the South Shore Advisory Council. What's different this fall is the density. A resident who wants to eat breakfast at Nafsi, catch an art opening, and hear an author speak, all inside the same building, can do that within the same two-week window without leaving South Shore Drive.

The Smaller Openings Filling In Around Them

The two landmark buildings get the attention, but they're not the only new food on offer. A block off 71st Street, a beverage spot called Jeffery Java & Juice is under construction at 7104 S. Jeffery Boulevard, in a space that used to be Sunnytown Food Mart. The owner, Luster Lockhart, is a local chef whose concept has been in the works since a Community Development Grant was announced for it back in late 2023. The menu he's described includes vegan donuts, breakfast waffle sandwiches, and Ethiopian coffee. No opening date has been announced yet, so it's one to watch rather than one to plan around this weekend.

Down at Rainbow Beach, Norman's Bistro on the Lake continues to operate as one of the few sit-down options directly on the lakefront in this stretch of the South Side, a detail that matters more here than it would in a neighborhood with restaurants on every corner. South Shore's dining options have historically clustered along a handful of corridors, which is part of why two buildings adding food service in the same year changes the daily math for anyone who lives nearby.

What This Actually Changes for a Weekend

If you live in South Shore, the practical shift is this: you now have a walk-in breakfast option inside a building that didn't have one a year ago, and a reservation-only tea and cocktail experience half a mile away that didn't exist before June. They're not competing for the same visit. Nafsi and Five Loaves are built for a Sunday morning where you didn't plan ahead. Han Cha is built for a night you booked two weeks out. Yunomi splits the difference, since it takes walk-ins on the same nights Han Cha requires a reservation.

Check hours before you go. Han Cha's tasting menu runs on a schedule of two-hour seatings, so showing up without a reservation means you're likely heading next door to Yunomi instead. The Cultural Center's food service keeps its own hours tied to the building's broader programming calendar, so an event night can change what's available. Neither inconvenience is a flaw. It's just what happens when two of the neighborhood's oldest buildings decide, independently, that this was the year to start feeding people again.

If you're mapping out where to eat next in South Shore, or you just want to know what's opening before it shows up on everyone else's list, Taylor Dixon Group keeps a running account of what's changing in this neighborhood. Reach out and we'll keep you posted.