After Wishbone, West Loop Breakfast Is Moving to the Weekend

During Wishbone's last month, three coworkers from the Chicago Transit Authority office next door came in for their usual two-eggs breakfast special, which they ordered for carryout at least once a week. WBEZ's farewell story quoted one of them: "It's affordable; you get more than what you pay for."

Wishbone closed on August 28, 2026, after 36 years. It opened in 1990 at 1800 W. Grand Ave. It then spent 26 years at 1001 W. Washington Blvd., near Harpo Studios, and moved to 161 N. Jefferson St. in 2018, according to Block Club Chicago. The farewells were about shrimp and grits and cornflake-crusted French toast. Weekday mornings in the West Loop have thinned out. The newest morning options open only on Saturday and Sunday, so the neighborhood's breakfast week now gets busier toward the weekend.

What Wishbone's Fridays were saying

Joel Nickson, Wishbone's chef and co-owner, explained the change in one line to WBEZ:

"Fridays used to be our busiest day, now they're our slowest."

WBEZ reported that the restaurant had struggled with changes in downtown traffic, as fewer people commuted to offices and fewer went out for weekday meals. It also reported that breakfast and lunch never fully recovered after COVID, and that the Nicksons first talked about closing about a year earlier, when they stopped serving dinner. Several longtime staff members took jobs at Sweet Maple Cafe on Taylor Street. As of WBEZ's August 12 story, no new tenant had been announced for the Jefferson Street space.

Other businesses have seen the same thing. In February 2026, a food-hall vendor told the Chicago Sun-Times that weekday lunch was still below earlier levels, especially on Mondays and Fridays, and estimated Tuesday through Thursday at about 80% of what it had been. In July, Axios Chicago reported that return-to-office levels still lagged pre-pandemic numbers and that downtown retailers felt it between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. The same report found visits to the Fulton Market and Oak Street retail corridors up 4% from 2024 to 2025. So people are still coming to the area. The weekday breakfast-and-lunch hours are what have lost business.

The rest of this post goes through the week day by day.

Monday and Tuesday: the thinnest mornings

At the start of the week, a West Loop breakfast is a short list of places open early:

• Chicago Waffles, 1104 W. Madison St., opens at 7 a.m. and serves until 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Discourse Coffee, 952 W. Fulton Market, on the ground floor of Morgan's on Fulton, is open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day, with handmade pastries and rotating coffees. WTTW listed it among the area's new cafes this year.
• Au Cheval, 800 W. Randolph St., opens at 10 a.m. daily. Its site describes it as a diner-style bar and restaurant with a passion for eggs.

Lou Mitchell's is not on the list, because it is closed Monday and Tuesday. Its official site lists Wednesday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., with breakfast served all day. In the early week, the closest thing to Wishbone's walk-in counter is a waffle shop on Madison and a coffee bar on Fulton Market.

Wednesday through Friday: the diner opens again

From midweek on, Lou Mitchell's at 565 W. Jackson Blvd. opens at 6 a.m. It is the earliest start on this list. Block Club Chicago's June profile called it the 103-year-old first stop for travelers heading west on Route 66, which turns 100 this year. The diner moved to its current site, across the street from where it started, in 1949.

Wishbone was losing weekday business, but Lou Mitchell's is doing well. Owner Nick Thanas told Block Club, "Every year since COVID has been better." He credited Route 66 and a strong local following. On the weekday morning the reporter visited, the counter had Route 66 tourists, office workers, and a few regulars. The century-old diner did well by drawing customers who don't depend on a commute and by closing two days a week. The 36-year-old brunch room was open more days and depended more on the weekday office crowd.

Saturday and Sunday: where the new openings went

The new morning businesses in the West Loop this fall open only on weekends.

Café Kumiko, 630 W. Lake St. WTTW reported in September that Kumiko, the Japanese cocktail bar, had opened for weekend brunch as Café Kumiko, serving Japanese-style breakfast. According to Kumiko's site, the café began in 2020 as a sidewalk service window with a garden under the elevated tracks. It now serves inside the bar, with classic Japanese breakfasts, kissaten-style lunch, breakfast sandwiches, coffee, tea, and spirit-free drinks. Hours are Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Food orders close at 2:15 p.m. and drinks at 2:30 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, and reservations are available.

Susu's weekend bakery, 652 W. Randolph St. Susu is a steakhouse with Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Asian influences. It announced a bakery that opens only on weekends, starting Saturday, October 17, per Eater Chicago. The menu includes a wagyu sujuk breakfast sandwich on hand-rolled sourdough pita, a shakshuka danish, a cheesecake made with chai, and a tahini canelé. Under the plan Chicago Food Magazine described, pickup runs Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon at the back entrance. Preorders open Monday at 3 p.m. for the coming weekend and close Thursday evening. Under that schedule, orders for pickup on Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, close the evening of Thursday, October 29. Susu's Toast ordering page, listed as Susu's Breakfast Bakery, shows a Saturday opening time of 8:30 a.m. Check that page for the current pickup window before you head over.

Wishbone's customers walked in on a weekday and ordered the usual. Susu's bakery asks you to order days ahead, and Café Kumiko is open for about four hours across two days. Both are built for a weekend morning you plan ahead of time.

Lou Mitchell's opens at 7 a.m. on both weekend days, and Chicago Waffles stays open until 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, an hour later than on weekdays.

Saturdays after the market season ends

For six months, the West Loop's Saturday morning has also included Green City Market at 900 W. Monroe St., open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The city's schedule lists the season through November 21. That leaves four Saturdays counting this one: October 31, and November 7, 14, and 21. Green City Market's indoor winter market does not stay in the West Loop. Its site lists the winter market in Avondale at 3031 N. Rockwell St., running December 5 to March 20.

The neighborhood also has a few big weekend dates. Randolph Street Market's Holiday Market comes to 1340 W. Washington Blvd. on November 14 and 15, open Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It returns December 12 and 13 with the same hours. On November 14, the second-to-last farmers market and the first holiday-market day fall on the same Saturday. The Monroe Street stalls open at 8 a.m., and the holiday market opens on Washington at 10.

Here are the market weekends through mid-December:

Susu's pickup window and Café Kumiko's hours are listed for every Saturday and Sunday, and Lou Mitchell's and Chicago Waffles both post weekend hours. All of these come from each business's own schedule, so check holiday weekends with them directly.

Wishbone was open for a weekday breakfast for 36 years. The places that have opened since serve breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday the West Loop's breakfast options are back to Chicago Waffles, Discourse Coffee, and Au Cheval at 10.

When we walk a client through the West Loop, how the neighborhood runs from Monday to Sunday is part of the picture, alongside the floor plans. If you want to talk about how this neighborhood's daily routine is changing, or what that means for a home here, the Klopas-Stratton Team knows these blocks well. We're always glad to compare notes over coffee.