Daley’s Restaurant

Daley’s Restaurant has served Woodlawn since 1892, which makes the diner at 63rd and Cottage Grove the oldest restaurant in Chicago by the restaurant’s own count and Block Club’s. John Daley, an Irish ironworker, opened a workers’ diner at 809 E. 63rd St. while the University of Chicago and the 1893 fair were under construction; Greek immigrants Tom Kyros and Paul Emmanuel bought the place in 1918 and their family still runs the restaurant, which moved across the street in 2019. Breakfast skillets, shrimp and grits, burgers and baked Cornish hen fill the menu, and Muhammad Ali ate here between training sessions in the 1960s.

What to know

• The restaurant is at 6257 S. Cottage Grove Ave., beside the Cottage Grove Green Line station.
• Daley’s opened in 1892 and has been in the same family since 1918.
• The restaurant moved from 809 E. 63rd St. to a new building across the street in 2019.
• Menu staples are omelets, shrimp and grits, half-pound burgers, melts and baked Cornish hen with cornbread dressing.
• Block Club Chicago listed the diner among places to eat near the Obama Presidential Center in June 2026.