A college student, councilmember and drag queen walk into a bar.
Waiting tables like theirs was Loyola University Chicago senior Daniel Jaén, who juggled a full course load and job at Chili’s Evanston on the corner of Maple Avenue and Clark Street, just blocks away from Northwestern’s campus.
The restaurant stored each table’s utensils in paper sleeves, printed with Chili’s-themed drawings. During shifts, some workers joked about getting one of these images — a lime — tattooed. Days after Chili’s Evanston shuttered its doors in December, Jaén and three coworkers did.
For Jaén, inside jokes reflected the meaningful relationships he developed with coworkers.
“It really felt like a home for a lot of us,” Jaén said. “And obviously there was people that have been there longer than I have, but it still felt like we were so much of a team and really a family there.”
Jaén said the company’s “ironic” branding, driven by viral social media posts, drew the location’s employees together and attracted business from NU students.
But in September, Continuum Development bought Church Street Plaza, the commercial center housing Chili’s. Continuum intends to oversee construction of a 27-story tower at 900 Clark St. with over 350 residential units and over 2,900 square feet of retail space.
The developer spent nearly a year in talks with Chili’s parent company, Brinker International, about the restaurant’s future, according to Continuum co-founder and managing member Evan Meador. But Meador wrote in an email to The Daily that maintaining a Chili’s location in the building “wasn’t feasible” because of square footage requirements. Brinker opted not to relocate the restaurant.
Since Dec. 16, the corner of Maple and Clark has lain dormant. Proponents of the development argue the proposed residential and retail spaces will attract businesses and residents while maintaining affordability. Still, some community members remain unconvinced while simultaneously upset about the loss of a neighborhood staple.
Dinner dates and margaritas
For more than half a decade, Chicago drag queen Neutral Gena rode the Purple Line into downtown Evanston with one destination in mind. Every two months, she and other queens would gather at Chili’s on their nights off for “that basic sort of chain restaurant vibe.”
Neutral Gena said the friendly staff, “relaxed” energy and “Midwestern come-as-you-are” atmosphere were what brought her back time and time again.
The classic Chili’s menu also helped.
“The Presidente Margarita — she got me together, she got me together,” Neutral Gena said. “That was sort of the go-to: Go grab a couple Presidente Margaritas and a Triple Dipper to share and your night is off to a good start, honey.”
Chili’s has long been a staple of downtown Evanston. The restaurant began welcoming customers to its Church Street Plaza location in early 2003, according to Daily archives. A Daily staffer wrote in a review that March that the casual dining spot was “better than (she) had expected,” though “few will go to Chili’s expecting the best meal of their lives.”
But Soni Obinger (Medill ’06), another former Daily staffer, got something arguably better at the restaurant: a husband. For their first date as sophomores in November 2003, the two watched “Elf” at the movie theater down the block after dinner at Chili’s.
Obinger said the restaurant’s sit-down dining felt “fancy” compared to other spots nearby. That’s why her date ordered the since-discontinued chicken-fried steak despite being more of a burger or salad person: He wanted to put his “best foot forward,” according to Obinger.
“I’m not sure why that included chicken-fried steak dinner, but that’s okay,” she said. “I still married him.”
The drinks at Chili’s were too expensive for Obinger and her friends to frequent the spot, and Obinger rarely visited other locations after graduating. But she said the restaurant remained a “special place” during her time at NU, and she was saddened to hear about the closure of what she deemed “an institution of Evanston.”
Neutral Gena and her fellow queens are not ready to let go of that institution altogether.
“We literally drove to the Skokie Chili’s four days out,” she said. “I had never been, and you know what? It’s still giving.”
High-rise tower plans in progress
As residents headed to the polls in last April’s consolidated municipal election, Ald. Clare Kelly’s (1st) reelection campaign mounted signs outside Allison Dining Commons with one simple message: “Save Chili’s.”
Kelly recalled the restaurant “bustling” with NU students every time she visited, and she said she recognized the need for a restaurant downtown that attracted students and families alike.
“I know it won’t be Chili’s, but I hope that we do see something of that sort of vibrancy and price point there,” Kelly said.
The Land Use Commission approved a special use permit Wednesday for Dogtopia of Downtown Evanston to relocate across the street to 1710 Maple Ave. Dogtopia owner Sarah Lewis wrote in a December email to The Daily that the move will not interrupt service.
Meanwhile, AMC Evanston 12 is set to eliminate five movie screens and renovate its remaining ones.
Meador wrote in an email to The Daily that the developers would prioritize “a comparable, activating hospitality experience” at the new site. The developers received “substantial interest from both local and national hospitality operators” seeking a presence in downtown Evanston, he added.
Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) said the new development will help revitalize downtown Evanston. After the COVID-19 pandemic, he said many of the area’s office spaces were left vacant as people began working from home.
The goal, Nieuwsma explained, is for the building’s units to increase Evanston’s “short supply” of housing and permanently draw residents back to the area.
“I’m really excited about the economic vitality and the vibrancy that having more people downtown is going to bring,” he said.
Moving in … and moving out
According to a fiscal impact study conducted in January 2025, Continuum will price about 20% of the residential units more affordably for 30 years to qualify for a tax incentive under statewide affordable housing programs.
Meador cited the programs’ extensions through 2034 as evidence of their “success statewide,” writing that the plaza “can simultaneously advance housing affordability objectives and deliver long-term fiscal benefits to the City.”
Kelly said she wants to learn more about how those potential tax breaks would impact affordability in Evanston. She hopes to see guarantees for permanent affordable housing in developments like 900 Clark St.
Evanston’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance requires compliance from rental units for 30 years and compliance from for-sale units “in perpetuity or as long as allowable by law.” Meador wrote that Continuum remains “open to further study, particularly as we plan to remain in Evanston for the long term.”
Plans for 900 Clark St. were first filed in July 2024, but Chili’s employees only learned on Dec. 3 when the restaurant would close. They had less than two weeks before their final day.
Jaén said he works another job with “very slim hours,” but he quickly had to scramble for something to fill the financial gap left by Chili’s closure. He paid his January rent, but without a new job, Jaén said he has “no idea” how he’ll make due in February.
Brinker offered to transfer him and others to the Skokie restaurant. Some employees took the offer, but without a car, Jaén couldn’t fit the trip into his schedule. With the relocation offer, Jaén said Brinker “loopholed” itself out of providing severance or unemployment support.
Brinker did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.
“I’m still really angry at the position that they put me in, and not just me — all the people in the kitchen and all the single mothers that work for Chili’s and all the immigrants that work for Chili’s,” Jaén said. “They kind of just screwed us over, and they did it to build condos for rich people that want to live in Evanston but don’t work in Evanston.”
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @edwardsimoncruz.bsky.social
Email: [email protected]
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