Boca Brava Mexican restaurant headed to the former Reza’s space in downtown Evanston

Restaurateur Carlos Arechiga plans to open Boca Brava, a Mexican restaurant with tacos, burritos, steak and seafood, at 1557 Sherman Ave. in downtown Evanston, in the former Reza’s Restaurant space that has been closed for more than a year. Arechiga hopes to open in December 2026 or January 2027, and construction is underway, What Now Chicago reported on October 2, 2026.

The Evanston RoundTable first reported the plans on October 1. Arechiga’s family runs a group of Mexican restaurants in the Chicago suburbs and around Indianapolis. On Sherman Avenue, the team plans to turn the old Reza’s bar into a separate cocktail bar concept, What Now Chicago reported. That bar has no public name yet, and Boca Brava’s menu has not been released.

Here is what has been announced so far about the project.

• Boca Brava will take over 1557 Sherman Ave., near where Orrington Avenue meets Sherman Avenue at Grove Street.
• The menu will pair Mexican standbys such as tacos and burritos with steak, fish and other seafood.
• The former bar area will become a separate cocktail bar concept that has not been named.
• Arechiga is aiming for a December 2026 or January 2027 opening, and construction has started.
• A website and social media accounts for the restaurant are expected in the coming months.

Where Evanston’s approvals stand

Boca Brava is already in the city’s paperwork. Evanston’s health department logged a food establishment license application for the restaurant on September 18, 2026, according to the weekly update City Manager Luke Stowe sent to Mayor Daniel Biss and the City Council on October 2. The restaurant first appeared on that list in the September 25 update, which places the address in the city’s 4th Ward.

The city’s October 2 reports show the following for the address.

• The food establishment license application, received September 18, is still pending reviews and inspections.
• The weekly liquor license report lists no annual license applications, and Boca Brava does not appear there.
• The weekly zoning report has no building permit entries for Sherman Avenue.
• No Liquor Control Review Board or City Council date for a Boca Brava liquor license appears in those weekly updates.

The space has been through Evanston’s liquor process before. In September 2023, the Liquor Control Review Board voted 4-0 to approve a Class D restaurant license for Shah’s Palace, Inc., which did business as Reza’s Restaurant at 1557-59 Sherman Ave., according to the board’s minutes. Biss presided over that meeting as the city’s local liquor commissioner.

The family behind Boca Brava

What Now Chicago described Arechiga as an Indianapolis-based hospitality owner. In December 2024, the Daily Herald reported that he co-owns the family’s restaurants with his brothers and father, a lineup that then ran from Aurora, Geneva, St. Charles and Yorkville to the Indianapolis area. “What they have in common is that they all focus on Mexican food,” Arechiga told the Daily Herald.

What Now Chicago describes Hacienda Real as the family’s more contemporary brand, and the Hacienda Real website lists four locations: Geneva, Yorkville, Bolingbrook and Vernon Hills. The closest one to Evanston is Hacienda Real at 371 W. Townline Road in Vernon Hills, which took over a former chain restaurant building on Route 60, the Daily Herald reported, and opened in 2025, according to What Now Chicago. That menu already leans on the steak-and-seafood mix planned for Sherman Avenue. The Vernon Hills online ordering page lists a $36 molcajete, a $28 seafood paella, grilled octopus for $26 and a $48 ribeye.

Tia Carmen is headed to Algonquin

The group is growing on another front, too. What Now Chicago reported on October 7 that a second Tia Carmen is coming to 1505 S. Randall Road in Algonquin, in a former pizza restaurant near the County Line Road intersection. Arechiga told the outlet he hopes to open there in January 2027.

The original is Tia Carmen at 30 W. State St. in downtown Geneva, which the restaurant’s website credits to the Arechiga Restaurant Group. Arechiga wanted Tia Carmen to be a more classic Mexican restaurant, closer to the ones he remembers from childhood, What Now Chicago reported. “Let’s do the kind of places we want to go to,” he said. The Geneva menu, posted on the restaurant’s website, runs from $18 enchiladas verdes and $24 salmon chipotle to a $28 carne asada, plus a $22 margarita served in a ceramic flower pot.

From jazz steakhouse to Persian restaurant and lounge

The Sherman Avenue building has fed downtown Evanston for decades. Pete Miller’s Steak and Seafood opened at 1557 Sherman Ave. in 1994 and played live jazz seven nights a week with no cover charge, Patch reported when the steakhouse closed without warning on August 19, 2019, laying off 42 workers. Before Pete Miller’s, the space held a chain restaurant for nearly a decade and, before that, a grocery store. The Daily Northwestern reported in 2022 that the building also once housed Evanston’s first restaurant with a liquor license.

Reza’s, the Persian and Mediterranean restaurant group that started in Andersonville, took over next. The Evanston location had planned to open in March 2020, but the pandemic pushed the debut back by more than a year, according to Patch. Reza’s Tap Room, a lounge in the same building, opened in September 2021 and stayed open until 2 a.m., drawing Northwestern students, The Daily Northwestern reported. “There’s not a lot of bars in Evanston that cater to the Northwestern crowd,” owner Ryan Toulabi told the paper.

By May 2025, the Evanston restaurant was dark. The Reza’s website said the restaurant was closed until further notice, and the restaurant’s phone numbers were out of service, The Daily Northwestern reported. The original Reza’s at 5255 N. Clark St. in Andersonville had closed in August 2023 after 40 years, CBS Chicago reported. Because Reza’s had a bar in the space, Arechiga’s team plans to reuse that room for the new cocktail concept, according to What Now Chicago.

Other food licenses on Sherman Avenue

Boca Brava is not the only food business waiting on the city along Sherman Avenue. The same health department list shows a Giordano’s at 1563 Sherman Ave., on the same block, with an application received November 20, 2025, and still pending inspections. The list also shows two more applications farther north at 1710 Sherman Ave., received September 9 and October 1, 2026. The Boca Brava corner is a short walk from Raymond Park, What Now Chicago noted.

Getting to 1557 Sherman Ave.

The corner is a short walk from the Davis Street train stations and the city’s downtown garages.

• The CTA Purple Line’s Davis station at 1612 Benson Ave. is about a quarter mile away.
• Metra’s Union Pacific North Line stops at Davis Street, next to the CTA station.
• CTA buses 93, 201 and 205 and Pace buses 208, 213 and 250 stop at the Davis station.
• The city’s Sherman Plaza Self Park at 821 Davis St. is the nearest public garage, and the Church Street garage at 525 Church St. and the Maple garage at 1800 Maple Ave. are also downtown.
• City garages charge $1 for up to an hour and $3 for up to two hours, and parking there is free on Sundays, according to the city.

What happens next

The food license still needs city reviews and inspections, and a liquor license for the restaurant or the cocktail bar has not yet shown up on Evanston’s weekly reports. Arechiga told What Now Chicago that Boca Brava’s website and social media pages will launch in the coming months. Opening hours, prices and a phone number have not been announced, and the cocktail bar’s name has not been released.

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