Southport Grocery's Last Holiday Season Comes With a Handoff Already Lined Up
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
"I have people that have worked for me for 18 years," Lisa Santos told Block Club Chicago this month. "They all have jobs at the new concept. They all have a soft landing."
Santos is closing Southport Grocery & Cafe at 3552 N. Southport Ave. at the end of 2026. Dollop Coffee Co. will open a new concept called Dollop Finer Diner in the same space. The next tenant, the kitchen staff and the founder's continued involvement are all in place before the doors close, and the cafe still has two months of holiday business left before the switch.
Block Club's interview includes a detail regulars may not know. When Santos opened in 2003, the restaurant served lunch and dinner only. She had her servers keep a notebook of customer requests, and breakfast came up after every shift. She held off at first. Then one customer ordered two plates of the bread-pudding pancakes and ate both, and she changed the menu.
The business kept growing from there. Two years in, it was featured on WTTW's "Check, Please!", and staff tracked the rebroadcast schedule so they could brace for each new wave of customers. Block Club reports that the exposure helped Santos expand to the building's second floor, where the bakery operated. Later came a supper club series and a canning and preserves operation that now makes more than 40 items and employs a full-time preservationist. The bread-pudding pancakes are still on the cafe's current menu.
Santos told Block Club the decision to close was not easy, "but the timing felt right."
Dollop is not a stranger arriving at the corner. Santos partnered with Dollop a little more than four years ago to expand its wholesale pastry operations, according to Block Club. Santos said the two teams have worked well together, and the new restaurant will give her longtime employees a place to land.
Santos also keeps a stake in what comes next. She will hold a small share of Dollop Finer Diner and help with consulting and taste-testing. She still owns the Southport Grocery name and its recipes, though she told Block Club her next chapter will not include another brick-and-mortar restaurant.
If you want a preview, the existing Dollop Finer Diner is at 5060 N. Clark St. in Andersonville. It describes itself as serving classic American food made with local ingredients, along with locally roasted coffee. It's open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily and has patio seating. Those are the same daily hours Southport Grocery keeps now. What Now Chicago reports that the Southport diner will carry many of the same dishes as the Andersonville location, including sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, soups and salads. The Southport opening date, menu and any changes to the space have not been announced, Southport Corridor News reported on October 19.
The handoff stands out more next to the other storefront changes on the avenue since Labor Day. Several are on hold or have no date yet:
| Address | Business | Status this fall |
|---|---|---|
| 3530 N. Southport | Ernesta | Custom-rug showroom open; the brand's first in the Midwest, reported September 8 |
| 3501 N. Southport | Bobbles & Lace | Announced for the former UPS Store; no opening date |
| 3448 N. Southport | Quiroga's Car Wash | Temporarily closed amid an alley-access dispute; seeking support to reopen |
| 3341 N. Southport | Couture Nails & Waxing space | Being marketed for lease; no closing date confirmed |
| 3552 N. Southport | Southport Grocery & Cafe | Open through year-end; Dollop Finer Diner to follow |
Bobbles & Lace has a name and an address but no date. Quiroga's is waiting on an access question. The 3341 space is waiting on a tenant. Southport Grocery is the only business on this list where the outgoing operator, the incoming operator and the employees are all accounted for before the last day. It also sits at one of the corridor's busiest spots. What Now describes the storefront as being at Addison Street, next to lululemon and across from D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub, about the same distance from the Addison Brown Line and Red Line stops, with Wrigley Field a short walk east.
Santos told Block Club it will be business as usual until the cafe closes. That includes a few things longtime customers have kept asking about.
The Thanksgiving order has a firm deadline. The cafe's catering post says all orders must be in by Sunday, November 22. A line further down the same page lists November 23, so ordering by the earlier date is the safe call. Pickup is Wednesday, November 25, before 3 p.m. The turkey is local Slagel Farm bird, served with red potato mash, herb challah stuffing, cranberry apple slaw and green bean casserole. You can order through the cafe's online catering menu, or call 773.665.0100 or email [email protected] with questions. No exact last day of service has been announced, so if you want any of these one more time, plan on November and December, not the final week of the year.
The cafe's last stretch lines up with the start of the neighborhood's holiday calendar, all within a short walk of Addison and Southport. Here's the order, starting this week:
The cafe closes at 3 p.m. and the market opens at 3 p.m. on weeknights, so on a weekday you can't do both back to back. On Fridays and Saturdays, the market opens at 11 a.m. while the cafe is still serving.
Storefront changes like the one at 3552 N. Southport shape the corridor's daily rhythm, and they also show up in how buyers and sellers value the blocks around it. If you own nearby and want to know what your home is worth as Southport changes, Alejandro Trujillo and the RE/MAX NEXT team can walk you through it, in English or Spanish. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to start.
With a focus on continuing to educate their agents and continued attention to an amazing culture they have built, Alejandro & Mike have a huge vision for RE/MAX NEXT and their clients and work every day to achieve it.
ALEJANDRO TRUJILLO
LAKEVIEW 3401 N Broadway St Chicago IL 60657 GOLD COAST 1207 N Dearborn St Chicago IL 60610