BBQ restaurants in Chicago

58 trading today — 1% of every restaurant open in the city. 282 have held a licence here since 2002, and 11 opened in the last 24 months.

How long BBQ restaurants last

45%

still open at 4 years (n=255)

-12pts

against the citywide rate of 58%

3.3

median years open, closed cohorts

Measured only on restaurants that opened long enough ago to have reached 4 years, so recent openings cannot flatter it. A rate is published only where at least 40 have.

Where BBQ clusters

By community area, most open today first. Counts only — a four-year survival rate needs 40 matured restaurants and only ≈16% of these cells have that many, so the rate lives below, where it can be quoted honestly.

Neighbourhood	Open now	Ever licensed
ChinatownTier 3 · Emerging	6	12
AustinTier 4 · Value	3	22
Lake ViewTier 1 · Prime	3	7
Morgan ParkTier 3 · Emerging	3	9
LoopTier 1 · Prime	2	8
UptownTier 2 · Strong	2	5
Avalon ParkTier 4 · Value	2	9
Humboldt ParkTier 3 · Emerging	2	5
Grand BoulevardTier 4 · Value	2	5
West RidgeTier 3 · Emerging	1	11
South ShoreTier 4 · Value	1	10
Logan SquareTier 1 · Prime	1	5

By zip code

The same cut for anyone working from an address rather than a neighbourhood name.

Zip	Open now	Ever licensed
60616	7	17
60643	3	10
60619	3	13
60614	2	5
60640	2	5
60624	2	13
60609	2	10
60644	2	10
60617	2	12
60657	2	5
60647	2	7
60628	2	22

Watch one neighbourhood.

This page is the whole city. Pick the area you actually care about and we will email you when a new restaurant licence appears there, and stay quiet when none does. It covers openings only: a closure takes about three years to surface fully in the public record, and we will not send an alert we cannot stand behind.

Thinking about opening one?

This page is the record: what has been tried, where, and how long it lasted. A read scores a specific concept for a specific operator against it — including whether BBQ is the strongest thing you could put in that space. Free right now, no card.

Read an address free