"Every day that they're shut down, it just gets more and more and more expensive to get them open." That is Chris Bauman, the new owner of the Portage Theater, explaining to Block Club Chicago in late August why he is moving quickly on a building that has been empty since 2018.
He was talking about one theater at 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave. The same idea describes most of what has changed around Six Corners this year. The new places are almost all in older buildings. They include a former cafe on Central Avenue, a former Sears Auto Center on Cicero and a former grocery storefront on Lawrence. The theater is the biggest of these projects and will take the longest. This fall is when residents can see work on it from the sidewalk for the first time.
The marquee comes first
Bauman's company, Zenith Music Group, bought the Portage Theater last fall. In August he started the Portage Theater Foundation, a nonprofit set up to pay for the restoration. He wants to raise $3 million and reopen in about a year. After that, the foundation would keep raising money to renovate the building in phases.
The first work is outside. The marquee has structural damage, and a canopy has covered the sidewalk under it for more than a year. Bauman said repairs would start within 30 to 60 days and would replace the metal and the brickwork. The article ran on Aug. 27, so that window runs from roughly late September to late October. As of today, no published report says the work has started. If scaffolding goes up on Milwaukee Avenue this month, it is on schedule.
Bauman says the inside is in better shape than its long closure suggests. He calls the interior damage largely "cosmetic" and says the building has no structural problems. Before reopening, he plans to:
- Expand the restrooms from eight stalls to 24 and add an ADA-accessible family restroom
- Build a green room
- Add decorative lighting to show off the ornate ceiling
- Open a music-themed bar in the small storefront next door
Capacity after the restoration would be about 1,499. A later phase would turn the large room above the auditorium into an event rental space. Bauman says it was once an archery range.
The building has a long history of starts and stops. It ran as a cinema from 1920 to 2001. In the 2000s and 2010s it went through several owners and hosted concerts, day camps and silent film screenings. In May 2024 it was named one of the most endangered historic sites in Illinois. Bauman has done this kind of project before. He founded Avondale Music Hall, bought the Patio Theater in 2019 and still owns part of it.
The foundation has two ways for neighbors to take part now. A $500 gift gets a personalized tile in the entry, $200 gets a custom message on the marquee for one day, and $50 or more gets a collectible certificate. The foundation is also looking for volunteers for marketing, fundraising and cleanup. Bauman also said the foundation would hold outdoor events, including movie screenings, outside the theater this fall. No dates have been posted. The foundation's website currently has only an email sign-up for announcements.
Two new places opened in August
While the theater raises money, two older buildings nearby got new tenants within a few weeks of each other.
Fork and Coin, 3938 N. Central Ave. The pub and supper club held its grand opening in early August in the former Bluebird Cafe building. Bluebird closed after a fire in 2024. Its former chef, Nick Ruiz, now tends bar at Fork and Coin. Chef and co-owner Drake Mandrell, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, calls the place an "American Izakaya," modeled on Japanese taverns. The menu includes a pork chop with chargrilled Granny Smith apple and Japanese-style curry, cauliflower marinated in soy sauce for at least a day, and karaage with spicy sesame mayo. Brunch includes yeasted sourdough pancakes and an egg don over rice. The restaurant runs a monthly supper club with guest chefs, and the Chicago Bitcoin Collective uses the co-working space upstairs. Mandrell told Block Club the restaurant is already "developing a community of regulars who live nearby." It is open only four days a week. Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
The Original Steaks and Hoagies Tavern, 3930 N. Cicero Ave. This opened at Six Corners at the end of August. It is the chain's first Chicago location and its first tavern-style shop. Alongside cheesesteaks, the spicy Italian hoagie and deep-fried cheesecake, it serves beer and wine. It is open until 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and until 11:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The Portage Park Chamber of Commerce welcomed it on opening day and said an official ribbon cutting would follow.
On weeknights the two places cover different hours. Fork and Coin is closed Monday through Wednesday. The tavern on Cicero is open every night.
The old Sears Auto Center lot is due to open by winter
Across Cicero, the next set of openings is under construction. Novak Construction is building three standalone buildings on the former Sears Auto Center site at 4035 N. Cicero Ave.: a Burlington, a Wells Fargo branch with a drive-up ATM, and Chicago's first Pita Inn. Novak also turned the former Sears department store at 4712-4738 W. Irving Park Road into the 6 Corners Lofts apartments. So one developer has now reused both of the corner's Sears buildings. In April, Jake Paschen, Novak's executive vice president of development, said construction started last fall and would finish by the end of the year. The site will have more than 100 parking spaces.
Pita Inn is not open yet. Its website still lists only suburban locations. The company has said it will open this winter, and vice president Hazem Tabahi told Block Club it should open before the end of the year. The Six Corners restaurant will seat more than 130 people. It will have an outdoor terrace, a specialty coffee bar, shakes and desserts, plus items made for this location, including wagyu steak shawarma and shrimp kabob. Falah and Asma Tabahi opened the first Pita Inn in Skokie in 1982. Residents who have driven to the suburbs for it will soon have one at Six Corners.
The same pattern on Lawrence and Long
The same kind of reuse shows up a short ride north. Deluxe Global Market opened in early August at 5960 W. Lawrence Ave. in Jefferson Park's Jeff West business district. It took over the former Carniceria y Fruteria El Milagrito storefront. The market focuses on Algerian and Polish imports and has fresh bread, pastries, produce, a cafe and a deli. It is the owners' second location, after 6332 W. Higgins Ave. It is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
The streets between these places are also changing. The city's Portage Park bike network is scheduled for construction this fall. It adds new or extended greenways and bike lanes on Berteau, Hutchinson, Central and Long. CDOT expects to finish in late fall, weather permitting. Fork and Coin is on Central. Portage Park, at 4100 N. Long Ave., and Jefferson Memorial Park, at 4822 N. Long Ave., are both on Long.
Six Corners dates for the rest of the fall
- Sunday, Oct. 4: Portage Park Farmers Market, 4100 N. Long Ave., 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Oct. 11: Jefferson Park Fall Fest at Jefferson Memorial Park, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with crafts, a costume swap and pumpkins.
- Sunday, Oct. 18: The last Portage Park Farmers Market date of the 2026 season, same hours.
- Through about late October: The window Bauman gave for marquee repairs to start at the Portage Theater.
- Late fall: CDOT's expected completion date for the Portage Park bike network.
- By the end of the year: Novak's target for finishing the Pita Inn, Burlington and Wells Fargo buildings at 4035 N. Cicero Ave.
- About a year from late August: Bauman's goal, stated in August, for reopening the Portage Theater once the $3 million is raised.
Six of these seven dates come before the theater reopens. The theater's own next step is the marquee repair, due to start by late October on Milwaukee Avenue.
Chris Demos follows Six Corners storefronts from his office in nearby Park Ridge, through residential sales and through commercial and retail leasing. If you own a building near the corner, or want to know what new neighbors like Pita Inn and Burlington could mean for your block's commercial space, The Chris Demos Group can go over it with you directly. Call Chris.
