Three of the most visible storefronts at North, Damen and Milwaukee are getting new tenants this fall. A Nashville hot chicken chain was set to open Wednesday, Oct. 28. A Brooklyn coffee company is preparing a corner that has been empty for a year. An Australian boot brand has signed a Milwaukee Avenue space that has already held two national retailers.

Each of these addresses has turned over before, and for at least two of them, a national brand is replacing another national brand. Six Corners has worked this way for years. The storefronts facing the intersection pass from one well-known name to the next, and many independents a short walk away have stayed put through each round.

Three Addresses and What They Held Before

The Damen corner is the only one that had a Chicago tenant. Urbanbelly opened there in 2016 and, according to Block Club Chicago, moved to Fulton Market earlier this year. It relocated rather than closing, and its old space went straight to an out-of-town brand.

At 1588 N. Milwaukee, Starbucks gave the storefront a Reserve remodel in 2017. The company put the store on its list of roughly 20 Chicago closures in September 2025, and the space has been vacant since. At 1563 N. Milwaukee, Block Club traces the tenants from American Apparel to Burton, and now to Blundstone.

Hattie B's Opens on Damen

Hattie B's was set to open at 1542 N. Damen on Oct. 28. It is the chain's second Chicago location, after it opened in Wrigleyville in February, and a River North location is planned for next year. The corner is close to the Damen Blue Line station, and the restaurant will have both indoor and patio seating.

The brand has been here before. Its first Chicago appearance was a 2019 pop-up at Dove's Luncheonette, which Brian Morris, the company's executive chef and vice president of culinary, mentioned in the opening announcement Block Club reported. The menu is built on adjustable heat levels, from no spice up to Nashville hot. It includes jumbo tenders, sandwiches, half-bird platters, pimento mac and cheese, collard greens, bacon-cheddar grits, banana pudding and peach cobbler.

The best opening detail is a short collaboration with a neighbor. Paulie Gee's Wicker Park, just north near Milwaukee Avenue, is selling a limited-run pizza with hot chicken tender bites, Hattie B's barbecue sauce, bacon, greens and a corn and black-eyed pea succotash. It costs $37 for a full pie or $5 a slice, and part of the proceeds goes to No Kid Hungry. It is available Oct. 16 through Oct. 31, so this Saturday is the last day.

Two Storefronts With No Opening Date Yet

As of early October, Blank Street Coffee had not announced when it will open at 1588 N. Milwaukee. Crain's Chicago Business first reported the plan. Six days later, Time Out Chicago reported that there was still no date. Founded in Brooklyn in 2020, the company now has dozens of locations on the East Coast and in the United Kingdom. It is known for matcha and lattes, including a shaken vanilla bean matcha and a cinnamon bun latte. Once it opens, the shop will overlook the intersection itself.

Blundstone is the clearest example of a new store joining an existing cluster. The company, founded in Tasmania more than 150 years ago, opened its first standalone U.S. store in Los Angeles last year. Its Wicker Park store will be next door to Dr. Martens, and John Fluevog and Thursday Boot Company are both nearby. With Blundstone, that block of Milwaukee will have four boot and footwear brands within a short walk. Its website says the Chicago store will carry the full range of boots for men, women and kids.

The Spring Debate Behind These Openings

These openings arrive a few months after a public discussion about chain stores on the corridor. In June, Block Club Chicago reported that two events had revived the neighborhood's long conversation about corporate and independent businesses. Call Your Mother, a Washington, D.C. deli and bagel shop, opened May 19 at 1615 N. Damen in the former Dimo's Pizza space. That same month, Guzman y Gomez, an Australian taco chain that had opened on Damen in mid-December, closed all of its U.S. stores.

The same Block Club story lists the earlier chapters. Barnes & Noble arrived in 2024. A Yeti store took over the former Double Door music venue, closed in summer 2025, and the space was still vacant when the article ran.

Local owners in that piece did not all agree:

• Bill Jacobs, whose Piece Pizzeria opened in 2001 and whose Brobagel is at 1931 W. North Ave., told Block Club that Piece, Brobagel and other locally owned businesses "are the fabric of Chicago, the fabric of Wicker Park and Bucktown."
• Ashley Ortiz, co-owner of Antique Taco, said chains will always be drawn to the neighborhood's feel, and that the independents that have operated there for years still define it.
• Amanda Kezios has run Mojo Spa on Milwaukee in its current form since 2003. She told Block Club that corporate stores "come and go" and that local businesses "are the ones that stick around."
• Mindy Segal of Mindy's Bakery at 1623 N. Milwaukee asked people to support small businesses. She also said "no one should tell you how to spend your money" and that every purchase helps pay someone's wages.
• Andrew Dana, who co-founded Call Your Mother with Daniela Moreira, said the couple still runs the business day to day and brought on an investment partner without selling: "It is still us."

Set against this fall's addresses, the pattern is concrete. Mojo Spa, Piece and Mindy's Bakery have stayed on the same streets for years. The intersection storefronts have changed hands much more often: Starbucks, then a vacancy, then Blank Street; American Apparel, then Burton, then Blundstone; Double Door, then Yeti, then a vacancy.

A Slower Pace on Division Street

Division Street's changes this fall come from operators with ties to Chicago or the North Shore. Buona's walk-up window at Rainbow Cone, The Beef Stand, opened Sept. 2 at 1750 W. Division with a limited Italian beef menu, Eater Chicago reported. Down the block, Wild Thing Restaurant Group, the owners of Winnetka's Spirit Elephant, is planning Bad Elephant at 1732 W. Division. What Now Chicago reported plant-based food and pizza among the expected offerings, with an opening "early next year," which means early 2027.

The two openings are a few doors apart and months apart, and neither replaces a well-known national tenant. The faster turnover is concentrated at the six-way intersection, where national brands tend to rent the most visible space.

Halloween Weekend and the First Friday of November

The next few days bring most of these changes together:

1. Saturday, Oct. 31, 3 to 6 p.m. The Wicker Park & Bucktown Chamber of Commerce runs WPB Trick-or-Treat through the neighborhood's business corridors, with a digital map showing which businesses are taking part.
2. Also Saturday, Oct. 31. Last day for the Hattie B's pizza at Paulie Gee's.
3. Friday, Nov. 6, 6 to 8 p.m.WPB First Fridays, a free, self-guided art walk across Wicker Park and Bucktown.

On Saturday, the Trick-or-Treat map lists which corridor businesses are taking part, whether they are long-running independents or newer arrivals. Brobagel on North Avenue, Mindy's Bakery and Mojo Spa on Milwaukee, Hattie B's on Damen, and the incoming storefronts at 1588 and 1563 N. Milwaukee are all within a few blocks of each other.

At Gillman Group, we track which storefronts change hands at Six Corners and which neighbors stay, because both shape daily life on these blocks. If you'd like to talk about what the changes along Damen and Milwaukee mean for your corner of Wicker Park, Let's Connect.