The Davis Street CTA station in Evanston. Photo: dnoell / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Two names that vanished from downtown Evanston’s restaurant map within a few months of each other are coming back under one roof. Owners Marty Cless, Dan Kelch and Laura VanDorf planned to break ground at 3 p.m. Friday, May 1, 2015, at 1026 Davis St. on a building that will hold new versions of Taco Diablo and Lulu’s. Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and several aldermen were invited to the ceremony.
Taco Diablo, a Mexican restaurant, was destroyed by an early-morning fire in December 2013 that also burned two other businesses. Lulu’s, the Asian restaurant Kelch had run for more than two decades, closed about three months later. According to the Daily Northwestern, Cless contacted Kelch in January 2014 about starting over, and the plan grew from there.
Three concepts in one building
The new building puts Taco Diablo and an updated Lulu’s side by side. Upstairs will be a third concept, Five & Dime, described as a bar with a small retro arcade room. In warm weather, garage-style doors are meant to open onto a large rooftop terrace and beer garden with an outdoor bar, lounge seating and ping pong tables. The owners also plan an organic rooftop garden to supply the kitchens with produce and herbs.
The ground floor will include about 4,000 square feet of retail space to be leased to outside tenants. The lot, across the street from the original Taco Diablo, was cleared in January 2015 when the old Tom Thumb Hobby & Crafts building came down.
Construction was expected to take about nine months, with completion targeted for January 2016. Myefski Architects of Evanston designed the project, LG Development Group of Chicago is a project partner, and A.DeLane Design, also of Evanston, is handling interiors.
The west side of Davis
The project lands on a stretch of Davis Street that has been filling in. Smylie Brothers Brewing Company and Bottle & Bottega are recent arrivals on the west side of the street, and longtime neighbors include Wheel & Sprocket, Lemoi Hardware and Bennison’s Bakery. Two restaurants with established followings, plus a destination bar upstairs, would add to the evening traffic on that block.
The owners had been heading in a different direction before the fire. Plans to close Lulu’s were already in place, and negotiations had just wrapped up to lease its space to the operators behind Boltwood restaurant. The fire reshuffled those plans rather than ending them, and the owners chose to rebuild both restaurants.
Sources: Daily Northwestern, May 3, 2015.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
