Christian Hunter’s Hooligan opens October 1 in Logan Square

Chef Christian Hunter’s Hooligan is set to open for dinner Thursday, October 1, 2026, at 2528 N. California Ave. in Logan Square, Block Club Chicago reported on September 28. The 50-seat restaurant pairs French technique with Great Lakes ingredients and is Hunter’s first solo restaurant, according to Chicago Food Magazine. He left the Michelin-starred Atelier in Lincoln Square in 2024.

The October 1 date comes from Block Club’s report. Hooligan’s website has a posted menu, a reservations link and a note that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are reserved for private events, but no opening date. The restaurant’s OpenTable page lists hours and a phone number but no start date.

Here are the basics, drawn from the restaurant’s website and OpenTable page and from recent coverage.

• Hooligan is at 2528 N. California Ave., just south of Logan Boulevard.
• The dining room has 50 seats in about 2,000 square feet, according to Chicago Food Magazine.
• Opening day is Thursday, October 1, according to Block Club Chicago.
• The menu is entirely à la carte, plus a $199 set dinner for two.
• Hunter is chef and owner, and Tyrone Redic Jr. is his partner, according to the restaurant’s website.

What’s on the opening menu

The restaurant’s website describes Hooligan as a neo-Midwestern bistro and uses Hunter’s own label for the style, Third Coast Contemporary, which pairs Great Lakes ingredients with classical French technique. “The technique is French, and the ingredients are Midwestern,” Hunter told Chicago Food Magazine in August. He told Block Club that Hooligan is not a fine-dining restaurant, though the à la carte dishes draw on his fine-dining background.

The menu posted on Hooligan’s website is split into snacks, small plates, large plates, sides and desserts, and lists a complimentary amuse-bouche. Snacks run $14 to $22. They include dressed oysters with rutabaga and barbecue spice, a Vidalia onion dish with tarragon mustard, and chicken liver parfait with hot water cornbread and pimento cheese. Small plates run $24 to $28: beef tartare with eggplant caviar and burnt chermoula, pressed raw fish with a small ratatouille, freshwater perch boudin with gumbo z’herbes and potato gribiche, and head-on shrimp with vadouvan butter.

Two large plates anchor the menu. A 400-gram butcher’s steak with bordelaise sauce is $56, and a half roast chicken is $42. Both come with a bistro salad and pommes grand-mère. Sides include a regional bean ragoût for $19 and a charred cabbage gratin for $21. The Kentucky caviar service, a 30-gram portion of paddlefish caviar with a soft scramble, crème fraîche and sourdough chips, is $89. The caviar comes from American paddlefish raised near Hunter’s hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, WTTW reported.

The $199 Hooligan for Two covers oysters, two small plates, one large plate, half pours of wine and a shared dessert. Desserts run $14 to $16, including profiteroles with warm chocolate sauce and a toasted rice butter pecan ice cream, and a local cheese plate is $24. Cocktails are $16 to $18, wines by the glass are $16 to $20, and the zero-proof list starts at $10. Every check carries an 18% service charge in place of tipping, and the menu says additional tips are not expected. Block Club reported the menu will rotate with the seasons and with local ingredients.

Hunter’s path from Kentucky to Logan Square

Hunter grew up in Lexington and cooked in the Adirondacks, the Hudson Valley, coastal Rhode Island, Charleston and rural Connecticut before coming to Chicago, according to Chicago Food Magazine. While running a kitchen in Washington, Connecticut, he was a 2023 finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Northeast award, NBC Connecticut reported.

He moved to Chicago to open Atelier in Lincoln Square in February 2023, The TRiiBE reported. Atelier earned a Michelin star that November, WBEZ reported, and the Michelin Guide gave Hunter the 2023 Young Chef Award for Chicago. In April 2024, The TRiiBE described him as the only Black chef in Chicago holding a Michelin star.

Atelier carried on after Hunter’s exit, moving to 4544 N. Western Ave. in October 2025 and closing in May 2026, with owner Tim Lacey saying too few reservations were coming in, WBEZ reported.

Hunter told Block Club he has often been the only Black chef in the kitchen and in leadership over his career. The menu draws on food cooked by Black people in colonial America, many of them enslaved and trained by French chefs, a history he said rarely comes up when people talk about American food. He also wants the restaurant to “feed our neighbors,” he told Block Club, and to win repeat visits.

A plan that started at Time Out Market

Hooligan was first announced in fall 2025 as a 50-seat seafood and wine bar inside Time Out Market Chicago in the Fulton Market District, Time Out Chicago reported. Hunter hosted preview events there that October, and Time Out wrote that the bar was aiming for a mid-November opening.

The food hall closed on January 23, 2026, after Time Out Market CEO Michael Marlay cited inconsistent foot traffic tied to hybrid work and rising operating costs, WTTW reported. WTTW listed Hooligan among the market’s current vendors in that closing announcement, while Chicago Food Magazine later wrote that the market shut before Hooligan could open. Either way, the search for a permanent home led Hunter and Redic to California Avenue, according to Block Club.

The team and the storefront

The restaurant’s website lists Hunter as chef and owner and Redic as a partner. Redic’s career includes Charlie Trotter’s and the opening team at Grace, according to the site. Block Club reported that the team also includes general manager Marcus Brewer and head bartender Aaron Michael Wells.

The storefront was last home to Good Fortune, a New American and Mediterranean restaurant from chef Charles Welch with a wood-fired oven. Good Fortune opened on August 15, 2019, according to the Michelin Guide, and closed at the start of the pandemic, Block Club reported.

The stretch of California Avenue has picked up other newcomers. A short walk south, Jinsei Motto, a sushi restaurant built around dry-aged fish, relocated from the West Loop to the former Testaccio space at 2456 N. California Ave. and made Fine Dining Lovers’ May 2026 list of the best new restaurants in Chicago.

Hours, prices and getting there

Hooligan is starting with dinner service, Chicago Food Magazine reported in August, and these are the details diners need for a first visit.

• Dinner is 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Monday, according to Block Club and the restaurant’s OpenTable page, and Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are reserved for private events.
• The phone number on the restaurant’s OpenTable page is (773) 360-1625, and reservations are booked through OpenTable.
• Most dishes cost $14 to $56, an 18% service charge replaces tipping, and OpenTable notes that cash is not accepted.
• The Blue Line’s California station at 2211 N. California Ave. is about four-tenths of a mile south of the restaurant.
• The No. 94 California bus runs along California Avenue past the restaurant.
• Parking is on the street, according to OpenTable.

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