Boka Restaurant Group has decided to relocate celebrity Chicago chef Stephanie Izard’s Little Goat Diner from West Loop to Lakeview, located at 3325 N. Southport Ave.
The group plans to move from the restaurant’s decade-old home to the former site of Southport Lanes in January 2023. By the time Litle Goat reaches its new home, two other Boka Group restaurants will already be in operation: GG’s Chicken Shop from Boka executive chef Lee Wolen and a third unnamed restaurant. Both of these businesses are scheduled to open in November 2022. The new Little Goat Diner will have the capacity for 50 people, which is about a third of its current West Loop location.
The main reason for this transition is partly due to the changing industry dynamic following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the diner continues to be successful, the Boka Group, led by co-founders Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm, found it challenging to serve three meals a day while hiring, training, and maintaining enough employees. As the ongoing pandemic continues, Little Goat decided to cut out dinner service for the time being. The new location will support the restaurant’s goal of serving three meals a day.
“[The diner] is wildly busy — I don’t know if we’ve ever been busier than we are today,” Katz tells Eater Chicago. “But the diner model of breakfast, lunch, and dinner has become exceedingly difficult in the pandemic and post-pandemic world of extreme labor shortages — it takes an army to put forth that effort.”
The new Boka Group complex was announced in November 2021 but withheld many details other than the reopening of GG’s Chicken Shop. Now that the original launch date of Summer 2022 is here, more details have surfaced. The new multi-restaurant development will likely share back-of-house operations, such as dishwashing and storage, to help maintain costs. Each restaurant will have its own entrance and distinct designs to set them apart. One thing has been made clear: this is not a Boka food hall but three individual restaurants sharing one building.
