Bongo Room to Clark Street confirmed; south of Foster a new hot spot?
5022 N Clark - future home of Bongo Room. Credit: Jeremy Bressman
It’s official, popular brunch spot The Bongo Room is opening a third location, this time right here in Andersonville. It was about a year ago that we first reported that Bongo Room was searching for space in Andersonville, and this week the Andersonville Development Corporation confirmed with the Edgeville Buzz that a lease had been signed at 5022 N Clark.
Now, we’ll have a place we can wait extremely long times for brunch on the south side of Andersonville’s Clark Street strip as well. Joking aside, Bongo Room also has successful locations in Wicker Park and the South Loop. There, wait times are often reported to be over an hour long, but for the brunch fanatic that is not uncommon in Chicago, especially for a spot that has mostly 4 and 5 star Yelp reviews. Bongo Room was somewhat of a pioneer by opening in a much different Wicker Park neighborhood in 1993, and we have no doubts they’ll be just as successful drawing more traffic to Andersonville’s Clark strip south of Foster.
And while one new business does not make a boon, we can’t help but wonder if the area south of Foster is seeing a resurgence as a dining hot spot. The area has recently seen hot spot Ceres Table at 4882 N Clark and sushi restaurant Ora open at 5143 N Clark, and already has solid citizens such as Konak, T’s, Tapas Las Ramblas, and Tokyo Marina in the area. One local landlord is already touting Bongo Room in their Loopnet listing (thanks, Uptown Update) and with Hopleaf’s expansion progressing well and the owner of the former Winston’s Cafe space giving it a hefty makeover (see photos below) there is quite a “Buzz” happening in what was typically the quieter side of Andersonville.
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- Former Clarks on Clark, Winston’s Cafe space. Credit: Jeremy Bressman
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- 5020 N Clark – future home of Bongo Room. Credit: Jeremy Bressman
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- Hopleaf expansion progressing. Credit: Jeremy Bressman
