Lettuce Entertain You Stacks New Pizzeria Right Above Beatrix in Fulton Market

Lettuce Entertain You is stacking a brand-new pizzeria directly above one of its own restaurants in Fulton Market, with Pizzeria Gabbo set to open this fall at 834 W. Fulton Market Suite 200 — right above Beatrix on the ground floor. The concept will pour two distinct styles of pie, Chicago Thin & Crispy and New York Crispy, alongside antipasti, pastas, salads, and soft-serve gelato.

According to WhatNow, Pizzeria Gabbo will land next door to Labriola Italian Specialties near the intersection of N. Peoria Street, in a building that already houses Aba Mediterranean, Costera Cocina Tulum, and Punch Bowl Social. Lettuce Entertain You is describing the project as a neighborhood pizzeria and bar, and the company says it will release more details in the coming weeks. Per Chicago Food Magazine, the space will hold a 60-seat dining room plus an 8-seat bar, with ingredients drawn from local farms alongside imported staples like organic flour, imported tomatoes, and aged Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Wine and Cocktail Program Gets Serious Attention

The same outlet reports that Senior Sommelier John C. Slatter is curating an Italian wine list with more than 20 by-the-glass pours from artisanal, family-owned wineries. Senior Beverage Manager Nicholas Berggren is building out the bar menu around natural spritzes, Italian-inspired cocktails, and zero-proof drinks, the report notes. Beatrix and the pizzeria will share the Fulton Market address, but Pizzeria Gabbo occupies its own floor and its own bar upstairs.

WhatNow reports the pizzeria is now hiring for chef, kitchen, service, and management positions ahead of its fall debut, though a finalized menu has not yet been released. The restaurant sits close to the Morgan CTA Green and Pink Line station, putting it within easy reach of the corridor's daytime office crowd and evening dining traffic.

A Chef's Personal Dream Meets Corporate Muscle

Chef Andrew Ashmore, who previously worked at restaurants in the Phoenix area and now serves as Managing Partner and Corporate Chef for Beatrix, began his culinary career at 17 washing dishes and tossing pizza dough at a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant in Michigan. He has called Pizzeria Gabbo the realization of a personal dream to craft light, airy dough from five simple ingredients, according to Chicago Food Magazine's reporting on the project.

Co-creator Marc Jacobs, the Lettuce Entertain You Divisional President steering the concept alongside Ashmore, began his career with the company in 1991 as a busser and server at Bones before rising to Executive Partner, a role in which he now oversees brands including Beatrix, Aba, Ēma, and The Dalcy, per Lettuce Entertain You. The pairing puts one of the company's most senior brand executives behind a comparatively small, 68-seat specialty concept rather than a flagship-scale restaurant.

Fulton Market's Crowded, Costly Dining Scene

Lettuce Entertain You itself is no small operation. Founded in June 1971 by Rich Melman and Jerry A. Orzoff with the opening of R.J. Grunts, the Chicago-based company now operates more than 110 establishments and 50 concepts nationwide, backed by over 80 equity partners, according to Restaurant Business's account of the company's history.

Pizzeria Gabbo is arriving in a corridor that has changed dramatically in less than a decade. The City of Chicago designated the Fulton-Randolph Market District a landmark area in 2015 to preserve its 19th-century mercantile and meatpacking architecture even as buildings were adapted into modern commercial and dining space. Fulton Market's retail and dining footprint has since grown from 56 outlets before 2017 to more than 120 by 2026, a surge tied to corporate headquarters relocations including Google and McDonald's, per The Ardus.

That growth hasn't been without casualties. Hoodline reported in April that Selva Rooftop Lounge at The Emily Hotel had quietly closed, following the January shutdown of Time Out Market Chicago, as West Loop operators grapple with shifting weekday foot traffic and rising operating costs. Competition among major restaurant groups has only intensified in the meantime — Hoodline previously reported that Gibsons Restaurant Group signed a 15,000-square-foot lease at nearby 919 W. Fulton St., a move that has sharpened rivalries among Lettuce Entertain You, Boka Restaurant Group, and One Off Hospitality for turf along the strip.

Against that backdrop, Lettuce Entertain You's approach with Pizzeria Gabbo looks deliberately modest: rather than opening a new standalone building, the company is building vertically on real estate it already controls, layering a specialized, lower-capacity pizza concept above an existing restaurant it already operates. Whether that smaller-footprint bet pays off in a neighborhood that has recently shed venues even as it keeps adding them is something only the fall opening will begin to answer.