Flo Cafe & Bar, the Southwestern comfort-food institution that has anchored West Town's Chicago Avenue for more than 25 years, will close for good on December 20, 2026. The restaurant announced the closure in a social media post last Sunday, confirming that the building housing it at 1434 W. Chicago Ave. had been sold.
Per the restaurant's own announcement, Flo Cafe & Bar did not say whether it would reopen at a new location. As reported by Block Club Chicago, the restaurant thanked West Town for making it part of the community for more than 25 years, writing in its post, “Sometimes things come to an end not by choice, but by circumstance — we'll see you again soon!”
Real estate records paint a clear picture of why that circumstance arrived now. According to dwello, the 4,800-square-foot commercial building at 1434 W. Chicago Ave. sold for $1,300,000 on September 25, 2026. The three-story brick building, constructed in 1889, sits on a 3,000-square-foot lot and includes the ground-floor restaurant space plus two residential apartments, carrying an annual property tax bill of $19,482 for the 2024 tax year.
A Legacy Built on Hatch Chiles and Fruity Pebbles
Flo was first opened on Chicago Avenue in 1998 by Renee Carswell and Rodney Carswell, who met while attending the University of New Mexico — a connection that shaped the restaurant's identity from the start. The couple sold the business to current operators Leonard Sanchez and Amy Laria in 2011.
Sanchez and Laria briefly expanded the brand, opening a second Flo location at 2901 N. Ashland Ave. in Lakeview in 2015 before closing it a little over a year later to re-concept it for another restaurant group. Back on Chicago Avenue, Flo built its reputation on weekend brunch and Southwestern comfort food, including sopapillas and dishes built around hatch chiles sourced directly from New Mexico — a detail that drew attention on WTTW's long-running review show Check, Please!, which featured the restaurant. Eater has regarded Flo as one of Chicago's iconic brunch restaurants, and the eatery also built a following for brunch items like its Fruity Pebbles cereal-encrusted French toast, a dish included in Spoon University's list of the best places to get French toast in Chicago.
A Tough Market for Chicago's Independent Restaurants
Flo's closure lands amid broader strain on Chicago's full-service dining sector. According to the Illinois Restaurant Association, the city's full-service restaurant sector lost 2,100 jobs over the preceding 12 months and remained nearly 10,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels. Association president Sam Toia said Chicago operators face severe profit pressure from escalating food, rent, utility, insurance, and labor costs, compounded by the city's phased elimination of the tipped wage credit.
The pressure is not unique to Chicago. An estimate put the number of U.S. restaurant closures at 7,593 in the first six months of 2026.
Rising Values Along Chicago Avenue
West Town's commercial real estate market tells its own story. Commercial activity along the Chicago Avenue corridor has been brisk, including the September 2026 sale of a fully occupied four-unit mixed-use property at 1701 W. Chicago Ave. for $2,120,000, according to Yield PRO, which also discussed investor interest in West Town and the neighborhood's appeal. For a restaurant that has spent a quarter century building loyalty one brunch plate at a time, that kind of appreciation cuts both ways — rewarding property owners while squeezing out the tenants who built the block's appeal in the first place.
For now, Flo's final day of service is set for December 20, giving West Town regulars a little over two months to get in one more order of sopapillas or hatch chile specialties before the doors close for good.
