When Southport Grocery and Cafe opened in 2003, it served only lunch and dinner. Owner Lisa Santos had her servers keep a notebook of what customers asked for. After every shift, the most common request was breakfast. She told Block Club Chicago that she held out at first, until one customer ordered the bread-pudding pancakes twice and ate both plates.
Twenty-three years later, Santos is closing the restaurant at 3552 N. Southport Ave. at the end of 2026. The breakfast that customers argued their way into is what carries on at the address. The business taking over has worked out of Santos's kitchen for four years. The staff are moving with it, and Santos keeps a small stake. If you live near Southport Avenue, the things that actually end this year are the holiday items that only her kitchen makes, and each one has a firm date.
The new tenant already works in the building
Dollop Coffee Co. will open a concept called Dollop Finer Diner at 3552 N. Southport. The two businesses were already connected. Santos partnered with Dollop a little more than four years ago to expand its wholesale pastry operation, and according to Block Club the two teams have worked well together.
That history explains why the staff are going with the space. Santos described it to Block Club Chicago this way:
"I have people that have worked for me for 18 years. They all have jobs at the new concept. They all have a soft landing."
Santos will keep a small stake in Dollop Finer Diner and help with consulting and taste-testing. She also keeps the Southport Grocery name and recipes, though she told Block Club her next chapter won't include another brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Dollop is a Chicago company. It started in 2005 as a small cafe in Uptown and grew under entrepreneur Dan Weiss into a group of cafes with its own coffee roasting and baking, according to Southport Corridor News. Its existing diner is at 5060 N. Clark St. in Andersonville, where Dollop describes the menu as locally sourced, classic American fare. That makes it a full breakfast-and-lunch restaurant with table service, not a coffee counter. The same report noted that Southport will keep a breakfast-and-lunch destination at one of its best-known addresses.
The Andersonville diner is the closest preview of what's coming. Locally sourced American breakfast plates and pastries made in-house are close to what Southport Grocery has been serving for two decades.
What leaves with the Southport Grocery name
Southport Grocery grew well beyond breakfast. Two years after it opened, WTTW's "Check, Please!" featured it, and staff used to track when the episode would re-air so they could prepare for the next wave of customers. That attention helped pay for an expansion onto the building's second floor, where the bakery ran.
From there came a supper club series and a canning and preserves operation that now makes more than 40 items and has its own full-time preservationist. Santos told Block Club the canning started during the financial crisis, when she wanted to keep the shelves stocked with good products without shipping them in from elsewhere.
The name and recipes stay with Santos, so these are the parts of the business that close with the cafe. Block Club reported that until closing, customers can expect business as usual. That includes Thanksgiving catering, Christmas cookies, gift baskets, two more Secret Suppers, and the return of older menu favorites: apple-stuffed French toast and the cafe's own version of a Hostess Ding Dong.
The last weeks run on a calendar
These are the remaining dates for the cafe's final holiday season:
- Friday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m.: Secret Supper. Tickets are $120 per person including tax and gratuity, with cocktails from 6:30 p.m. The cafe's listing shows the event as sold out.
- Sunday, Nov. 22: Thanksgiving orders due. All catering orders go through the cafe's Thanksgiving page, which covers dinner for two and à la carte dishes for groups of any size.
- Wednesday, Nov. 25, before 3 p.m.: Thanksgiving pickup.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.: Southport Holiday Cocktail Crawl along the corridor, with the cafe still open.
- End of 2026: Southport Grocery closes, and Dollop Finer Diner is set to follow at the same address.
The Thanksgiving menu is made from scratch and comes ready to heat and serve, with heating instructions included. The turkey comes from Slagel Farm. The à la carte prices posted on the order page:
| Dish | Smaller size | Larger size |
|---|---|---|
| Slagel Farm turkey | $120 | $240 |
| Herb challah bread stuffing | $30 | $58 |
| Red potato mash | $38 | $75 |
| Green bean casserole | $38 | $75 |
| Pies | $28 to $38 |
The dinner for two adds cranberry apple slaw, honey garlic braised carrots and a mini pumpkin pie with spiced mascarpone whip. For questions, the cafe lists 773-665-0100 and [email protected].
Cookies and baskets are the gifts you can still order
The Christmas cookies are the easiest piece of the cafe to take home this year. They're handmade and sold in a 16-ounce box or a 7-ounce cylinder, priced from $13.95 to $26.95, and you pick them up at the store. They don't ship.
Gift baskets reach further. The cafe's gift basket page takes online orders and custom requests, with shipping, local delivery or pickup. Sample boxes run $85 to $140 and $52 to $100. A basket is also the most likely way to get the house preserves, the product line closest to Santos's own story. For anyone sending gifts to people who used to live in the neighborhood, this year's basket comes with an obvious note to write.
Dec. 4 puts the corridor on display while the cafe is still open
The Lakeview Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce brings the Southport Holiday Cocktail Crawl back on Friday, Dec. 4. Participating shops, restaurants and bars along Southport will hand out cocktail samples from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with holiday carolers and photos with Santa. The chamber's event page is the place to check for participating stops before you go.
This year's crawl falls during Southport Grocery's last month, and the block it's on has a new neighbor. Ernesta, a custom rug showroom, opened in September 2026 at 3530 N. Southport Ave., a few addresses south of the cafe. It makes rugs sized to the inch in wool, natural fiber and performance materials, and it also makes stair runners, according to Southport Corridor News.
Breakfast options are shifting elsewhere in Lake View too. Call Your Mother, the East Coast bagel chain, opened its second Chicago shop on Oct. 26 at 2956 N. Sheffield Ave., Block Club Chicago reported.
If you're driving to the corridor for the crawl, plan around Wrigley Field. Security bollard work began Oct. 12, and as of Oct. 26 Sheffield was closed to cars between Addison and Waveland. Southport Corridor News reported that the work will continue in phases into early 2027.
The calendar for 3552 N. Southport is short. Thanksgiving orders are due Nov. 22, cookies are pickup only, and the cafe serves through the end of December. After that, Dollop Finer Diner is set to open with the same staff in the room.
The storefronts on Southport are part of why we love working in Lake View, and we follow every change on the corridor. If you'd like to know how a block like this one is changing, or what that means for a home nearby, Juliana & Ben Yeager are glad to walk it with you.
