Ja' Grill, the Jamaican restaurant that has anchored Harper Court in Hyde Park with jerk chicken, curry goat and a lively rum-punch-fueled bar scene, will close its doors on Monday, Nov. 2, after 19 years in business. Owner Tony Coates announced the closure this week, saying simply that it was time to say goodbye.
According to CBS News Chicago, Ja' Grill will remain open for regular business hours through the week until its final day of service. The restaurant, located at 1510 E. Harper Court, has served Jamaican and Caribbean fare alongside its signature Ja'rum punch, with Jamaican and Caribbean music playing in the bar area, per the same report.
Coates, who grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and came to Chicago in 1982 to play football for the Northwestern Wildcats, spent 14 years working as an investment banker before opening the first Ja' Grill in 2007, the station reports. That original location sat on West Armitage Avenue in Lincoln Park, where it operated for seven years before closing during the week of Aug. 8, 2014, as Coates prepared to relocate, according to DNAinfo.
A Harper Court Survivor
Coates moved Ja' Grill to Hyde Park that same year as an inaugural tenant of the newly redeveloped Harper Court shopping center, built after the University of Chicago redeveloped the complex in 2014, per CBS News Chicago. He later told the Chicago Tribune that customer traffic was “phenomenally better” once the restaurant settled into the 53rd Street area.
That staying power became something of a local legend. The Hyde Park Herald has reported that Ja' Grill outlasted most of the inaugural Harper Court restaurants, including Porkchop, Freshii and A10. Jolly Pumpkin opened in October 2017 and later closed. Eater Chicago similarly described Ja' Grill as the “notable exception” to restaurants struggling inside Harper Court, crediting its strong bar crowds.
Coates had said the restaurant was “weathering the storm” of rising labor and food costs even as it stayed busy and kept up with rent, the Herald reported. Still, Ja' Grill's closure arrives amid a broader wave of turnover along 53rd Street. Jade Court, a dim sum restaurant in Harper Court, closed in February after construction on the development's second phase and diminished support from the University of Chicago cut into its customer base, according to the Herald.
Hyde Park's Shifting Restaurant Row
The closures extend well beyond Harper Court. Mellow Yellow, a breakfast spot that had served 53rd Street since 1976, shut down after 46 years, while Leona's Pizza and The Budlong Hot Chicken also closed permanently, according to The Chicago Maroon. Piccolo Mondo, an Italian restaurant with a 39-year legacy, abruptly shut its doors last November, leaving former staff without jobs or severance pay, the Maroon reported.
The Maroon has tied the turnover to recent University of Chicago land acquisitions and construction of the Obama Presidential Center, which it says are driving a gradual demographic shift in the neighborhood. Separately, the university partnered with two real estate firms on Harper Court Phase II, a 13-story tower built for quantum and life sciences laboratories that replaced the restaurant Park 52, per the same report.
Ja' Grill had also expanded beyond Hyde Park, opening a second Chicago location at 1407 S. Washtenaw Avenue in North Lawndale in 2022, according to Chicago YIMBY. The menu that made the Hyde Park spot a neighborhood fixture, including jerk chicken, curried goat, oxtail and whole red snapper escoveitch, is described on the restaurant's own site, Ja' Grill. For now, Hyde Park diners have until Monday to grab one more plate of jerk chicken and a round of Ja'rum punch before the Harper Court doors close for good.
