Sanders BBQ Prime aims for a year-end opening in Hyde Park’s former Promontory space

James Sanders and his business partner, Ogbonna Bowden, plan to open Sanders BBQ Prime, a 130-seat sit-down barbecue restaurant, at 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. W. in Hyde Park by the end of 2026. The restaurant is moving into the building that housed The Promontory, a music and event venue that closed after a final New Year’s Eve party in 2025, Block Club Chicago reported on September 29, 2026.

The pair already run Sanders BBQ Supply Co. at 1742 W. 99th St. in Beverly, a counter-service smokehouse that opened in 2024 and was drawing lines out the door within two years. The Hyde Park restaurant will work differently, with table service, a large bar and an open kitchen where diners can watch the grill. The building sits just off 53rd Street in Hyde Park, near the Metra station at 53rd Street and Lake Park Avenue.

Here is where the project stands, based on Block Club’s report, the restaurant’s own website and city records.

• Sanders BBQ Prime is planned for 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. W., the former home of The Promontory.
• The owners are aiming to open by the end of 2026, and they have not announced an exact date.
• The dining room will hold about 130 people, with table service, a large bar and an open kitchen.
• The menu will pair dishes from the Beverly restaurant with a 20-ounce pork steak, lamb chops, prawns and steak.
• The city issued a building permit for interior work at the address on February 26, 2026.
• The restaurant’s website shows only a coming-soon page with an email signup form.

What the Hyde Park menu will add

Sanders told Block Club that the new menu will carry over favorites from Beverly and add steak, lamb chops and prawns. The item he talked up most is a 20-ounce pork steak. He said the pork will sit in cold smoke for four hours before going on the grill in view of the dining room. Plenty of other meat will be cooked sous vide first and finished over the grill.

Earlier previews pointed the same way. When The Infatuation flagged the restaurant in January 2026, the description called for steaks, appetizers and plated dinners, plus popcorn smoked in beef tallow. The latest account adds the lamb chops, prawns and pork steak, and puts the grill in full view of diners.

Bowden is building the drinks list

Bowden came to barbecue from dentistry. Sanders told Block Club he met his future partner while sitting in the dentist’s chair, and that Bowden then asked him to cater family events. When Sanders later laid out his idea for a new kind of barbecue restaurant, Bowden signed on right away, even though he does not eat pork.

Bowden has brought in a mixologist to help write the Sanders BBQ Prime cocktail list. The plan pairs classic drinks with new spins, including a take on the Bloody Mary, and adds a set of mocktails. Bowden said the restaurant will also carry wine, whiskey and beer so diners can match a drink to their meat. He and his friends sometimes hold timed cocktail contests with required ingredients, modeled on the TV cooking competition Chopped, he told Block Club.

A full bar would be new for the team. The Beverly restaurant runs a BYOB policy for wine and beer only, with a $10 corkage fee per bottle of wine or six-pack of beer, according to the restaurant’s website, and city records show no liquor license at that address. The Hyde Park restaurant will need a separate liquor license. The liquor licensing guide from the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection says restaurants where alcohol is secondary to food fall under the Consumption on Premises – Incidental Activity license. A new application triggers a mailed notice to registered voters who live within 250 feet, followed by a 35-day public comment period. As of October 1, 2026, the city’s business license data showed no license under the Sanders name at the Lake Park Avenue address.

What city records show at the Lake Park Avenue address

Construction paperwork is further along. The city issued an express building permit on February 26, 2026, about a month after the application went in, to a tenant listed as Sanders at Promontory LLC, according to the city’s building permit records. The permit covers a nonstructural interior alteration of the existing restaurant to create a 492-square-foot to-go area, with a new non-load-bearing partition and two hand sinks, in the north part of the dining room. The reported cost is $50,000, and the permit was listed as active and in the inspection stage as of October 1, 2026.

The same records show that The Promontory’s city licenses at 5307-5319 S. Lake Park Ave., with liquor and public place of amusement licenses among them, ran through July 15, 2026, with no renewal on file.

The Promontory’s run on Lake Park Avenue

The Promontory opened in 2014 as a two-story restaurant, bar and concert hall, Time Out Chicago reported. City records show the venue’s first food and liquor licenses at the address were issued on June 25, 2014. Block Club reported that the restaurant side operated until the pandemic, and the Hyde Park Herald reported that the space later hosted pop-ups before sitting empty starting in 2022.

The Promontory announced in October 2025 that the venue would close at the end of the year, CBS News Chicago reported, and the New Year’s Eve party was the last event. The operators did not renew their lease with the University of Chicago, which owns the building, after lease talks fell through, according to Time Out and the Herald’s report on the closing. The Herald also reported that the venue’s talent buyer pointed to two bad quarters in a row and the hard economics of live music.

The Hyde Park opening is also arriving later than first planned. When Sanders announced the project in September 2025, the University of Chicago’s 53rd Street blog said the restaurant was expected in about six months, and the Herald’s story on The Promontory’s closing put the opening in early 2026. Block Club now puts the target at the end of 2026.

How Sanders BBQ Supply Co. built a following

Sanders opened the Beverly restaurant in 2024 across the street from the 99th Street Metra station. He told NBC Chicago that year that he spent several years eating his way through Texas barbecue and wanted to “do a craft barbecue and bring it to the South Side of Chicago.” The menu mixes Texas-style brisket and beef ribs with the rib tips and hot links South Side barbecue fans expect.

Recognition came fast. In September 2025, Sanders BBQ Supply Co. made the New York Times’ 2025 Restaurant List of 50 restaurants across the country, one of two Chicago picks, NBC Chicago reported. In January 2026, Sanders and pitmaster Nick Kleutsch were named James Beard Award semifinalists for Best Chef: Great Lakes. The Beverly restaurant is No. 2 in the Windy City Magazine guide to the best barbecue in Chicago.

Sanders took a long road to the pit. He told Block Club he started cooking for himself as a kid because his parents worked long hours. After a stint in the National Guard, he enrolled at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where classmates praised his cooking enough that he went on to culinary school. He later owned several fried chicken franchise locations and ran a catering company that worked events at institutions around the city.

At the Beverly restaurant, Sanders said, he picked a specific hardwood for each meat and chose prime-grade beef over standard cuts. The property also has a courtyard out back and a field where the restaurant hosts community events, including pumpkin carving.

Where to try Sanders barbecue now

Until the Hyde Park restaurant opens, the Beverly location is the place to eat Sanders barbecue. These details come from the restaurant’s website unless noted.

• The restaurant is at 1742 W. 99th St., Chicago, IL 60643, and the phone number is (773) 366-3241.
• Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and the restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday.
• A half pound of ribs is $18, a half pound of pulled pork is $15, and the Texas Trinity platter of brisket, ribs and a sausage link is $30.
• Diners order at the counter and tell the cutter at the start whether the food is for dine-in or carryout.
• The restaurant is BYOB for wine and beer only, with a $10 corkage fee per bottle of wine or six-pack of beer.
• The 99th Street/Beverly Hills stop on Metra’s Rock Island Line is across the street, as NBC Chicago noted.

Sanders told Block Club he wants the Hyde Park restaurant to become a gathering place for the neighborhood, the way the Beverly location became a family spot. “Hopefully, Hyde Park accepts us like Beverly did,” he said.

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