Cantina de la Granja Still Hoping For Spring Opening Despite Construction

Last spring (photo courtesy of Eater Chicago)

On January 4, 2015

When the ownership group behind SoFo Tap and Crew announced their plans last spring for a  fine dining farm-to-table Mexican restaurant at the former T's location, they'd hoped for a late 2014 or early 2015 opening.  In keeping with their vision of locally sourced food for the future Cantina de la Granja, they got a permit to knock down the garage behind the restaurant to construct a new building which would provide, among other things, a rooftop garden for produce to be used in the food served.

That's still happening.  But so is partial demolition and reconstruction of the main building at Clark and Winnemac, which means that they're now looking at a spring opening.  As they said on their Facebook page this week:

"Things have been moving along and we are now working to construct the restaurant and hope to make our Spring opening goal, but you never know with the weather. We are going into the same location as always planned, 5025 N Clark Street.

The building is not being entirely torn down, just the old garage addition in back and the areas of the original building that had structural problems—we have gone to great lengths to keep most of the 120+ year old original building in place and we will reuse many of the elements that could not be left in place in other ways. When we are finished we will have a building that will feel and look more like us and support our concept."

Well, that's nothing new.  We've learned that new businesses rarely, if ever, open when they're projected to.  It's just a fact of Chicago life.  So we continue to eagerly anticipate Cantina de la Granja's arrival on the scene, whenever that may be.

You can follow their progress, as well as read the stories behind different aspects of Mexican cuisine (mmm, tequila!), on Cantina de la Granja's Facebook page.