Illinois is preparing to lose a longtime independent food business as grocery closures continue changing where communities shop. Southport Grocery and Cafe, a neighborhood specialty market and daytime restaurant, will close at the end of 2026 after 23 years.
Owner and chef Lisa Santos announced the decision in October, describing the coming months as a long goodbye. The business is still open daily, and no exact final service date has been announced beyond the end-of-year timeline.
The Illinois shop combines groceries and a cafe
Southport Grocery opened in 2003 inside a former funeral home in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. The shop at 3552 North Southport Avenue built its identity around all-day breakfast and lunch, catering and specialty grocery shelves.
Its retail selection includes house-made preserves alongside pasta sauces, soup mixes, spices, bitters, beans and gift baskets. Several of its preserves have received Good Food Awards, and the shop has emphasized products from local farmers and artisan producers.
That makes the closing different from losing a full-size supermarket. Nearby residents will still have conventional grocery choices, including a Jewel-Osco just north at 3630 North Southport Avenue. What disappears is a smaller, locally owned destination that combined prepared food with a curated specialty market.
The farewell will continue through the holidays
Santos said Southport Grocery plans to keep its usual holiday traditions, including Thanksgiving catering and Christmas cookie baking. The cafe is also bringing back requested menu items and holding two final Secret Suppers, one in November and another in December.
The closing is an announcement, not a completed shutdown. Customers can still visit while the business works through its final months, and the store’s website continues to list daily hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A local diner will replace the grocery and cafe
The storefront already has a successor. Dollop Coffee plans to open a Dollop Finer Diner in the space after Southport Grocery closes. Dollop has supplied coffee to the business through a partnership that Santos said began about three years ago.
Dollop operates coffee shops around Chicago and already has a diner in Andersonville. An opening date for the Southport location has not been announced, so shoppers should not assume the changeover will happen immediately in January.
Neither the owner’s announcement nor available local coverage includes a total employee count. A comprehensive staffing or layoff plan has not been announced, leaving the exact impact on workers unclear as the transition approaches.
Santos has not publicly tied the closing to a lease dispute, falling sales or another specific financial problem. For now, the clearest change is that a 23-year-old specialty grocery and cafe will end its run, while a locally based diner prepares to take over the same Illinois storefront.
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