Thattu, the Kerala-inspired restaurant that brought spicy, playful South Indian cooking to Avondale, will close its doors at 2601 W. Fletcher St. on Dec. 27, ending a nearly four-year run that began with packed tables and a James Beard Award semifinalist honor. Co-owners Margaret Pak and Vinod Kalathil say rising costs and not enough diners made the decision unavoidable.
“Costs have increased — we have steadily been losing money and have not had enough diners,” the owners said, according to Block Club Chicago. Their lease on the space is also ending in the new year, another factor behind the timing of the closure. Thattu opened in April 2023 and was busy during its first two years before business slowed more recently, prompting the owners to cut operating hours to four days a week.
From Pop-Up Darling to Avondale Mainstay
Thattu didn't start as a brick-and-mortar restaurant. It grew out of pop-ups and a stall inside Politan Row, the West Loop food hall that closed in 2020, according to Eater Chicago. The restaurant began as a tribute to Kalathil's home state of Kerala, a state in southwestern India, with Pak learning recipes from Kalathil's mother before the pair built out a full menu of spicy, distinctive South Indian dishes.
The buzz was real early on. Thattu was named a semifinalist for the James Beard Award's Best New Restaurant category in 2020. The spot also hosted Mike Sula's Monday Foodballs, the Reader's weekly chef pop-up series, and picked up recognition on various restaurant lists during its run.
Next Steps for the Owners
Pak and Kalathil haven't settled on their next move, but they plan to return to pop-ups. Pak hopes to travel around the country to share her cooking, and the couple also plan to travel to see family and rest once the restaurant closes. If they open something new, they say it won't be on the same scale as Thattu. “If we do something, it will be much smaller, not at this scale,” Kalathil said.
The owners are also focused on their staff, saying they're looking for other restaurants that need workers so their team can land new jobs. Kalathil urged diners to support their favorite independent restaurants going forward.
A Tougher Landscape for Independent Restaurants
Thattu's owners described operating an independent restaurant as increasingly tough, a sentiment that lines up with broader pressures facing Chicago's dining scene. A Chicago Sun-Times report found that surging fuel prices have been driving up the cost of food and supplies while higher household costs push consumers to eat out less. The paper reported Chicago's average diesel price hit $6.86 per gallon on the Friday referenced, more than 68% higher than a year earlier, according to AAA.
A KPMG survey cited in that same report found 67% of consumers are eating at home more often than dining out, with most blaming budget concerns. The Illinois Restaurant Association's president said small, independent and family-owned restaurants are especially exposed to rising fuel surcharges because they lack the buying power of larger chains. Per the Illinois Restaurant Association, Chicago's full-service restaurants lost 2,100 jobs in the 12 months before January 2026 and remain nearly 10,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels, with 496 Chicago restaurants closing in just the first half of 2025.
It's unclear how much these citywide pressures weighed on Thattu specifically versus its own location and diner traffic, but the climate underscores just how difficult the past few years have been for independent operators across Chicago. For now, Avondale diners have until Dec. 27 to get one more taste of the restaurant that helped put Kerala cooking on the neighborhood's map.
