A 24-Year-Old's Dream Mariscos Spot and a Long-Awaited Trader Joe's: Logan Square's Milwaukee Avenue Just Had a Very Big Week
By Socialhood News · Logan Square ·
Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square is rarely short on news, but this week delivered two stories that together say something real about where the neighborhood is headed: a first-generation American turned a finance career sideways to open a Michoacán-style seafood restaurant in a beloved former landmark space, and the long-anticipated Trader Joe's finally has a credible opening window. Neither story is small, and both are worth knowing in detail.
First, the newer arrival. Siete Azul, a Michoacán-style seafood restaurant led by 24-year-old Luis Zendejas, is opening this month at 2333 N. Milwaukee Ave. — the same storefront that housed the Chicago Diner's Logan Square location for 13 years before it closed in December 2025. Hoodline, which broke the story on October 14, reports that Zendejas is a first-generation American who lives in Logan Square and left a budding finance career in 2024 to pursue a restaurant of his own. He spent two years scouting locations before signing the lease on the Milwaukee Avenue space in May 2026. The menu is rooted in the coastal cooking of Michoacán: whole grilled red snapper, scallops in poblano sauce, and purple-corn tortillas are among the dishes Zendejas is bringing to the address. The restaurant is currently BYOB while its liquor license clears — corporate entity Zitacuaro, Inc. filed a Consumption On Premises application with the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection on September 23. Siete Azul has also posted job openings for line cooks, bartenders, hosts, and bussers ahead of opening, with line cook pay listed at $20 to $22 an hour on Indeed.
The Chicago Diner's departure last December was part of a painful stretch for Chicago's plant-based dining scene — four vegan restaurants announced closures in the same eight-day window, including Kitchen 17, Native Foods, and Chicago Raw, according to CBS News. For neighbors who mourned that loss, Siete Azul represents something different but equally rooted: a young Logan Square resident betting his professional future on a neighborhood block he already calls home, bringing a regional Mexican seafood tradition to an avenue that has been quietly assembling one of the most diverse dining corridors on the Northwest Side.
The second piece of news is one the neighborhood has been waiting on for a while. Block Club Chicago reported on October 14 that the Logan Square Trader Joe's — planned for 2053 N. Milwaukee Ave., the long-vacant former CVS building — is now eyeing an early 2027 opening, and renovation permits for the building are in the works. Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) confirmed the timeline this week. A Trader Joe's spokesperson told Block Club the opening is still on track, though the company's website hasn't yet listed the Logan Square store — the company typically adds locations to its site three to six months before they open, which puts the expected listing window sometime this winter. Hiring, the spokesperson said, won't begin before the store appears on that list. The building was sold in 2024 for $10.5 million to James "Jimmy" Dremonas, owner of the Pete's Fresh Market grocery chain, according to property records; after rumors of a Pete's location at the site never materialized, the Trader Joe's deal came together.
For a neighborhood that has watched Milwaukee Avenue transform dramatically over the past two years — new streetscaping, a redesigned public plaza around the Illinois Centennial Monument, a wave of new residential construction — the grocery question has always been part of the conversation. A Trader Joe's at 2053 N. Milwaukee would bring a full-service grocery option to the heart of the commercial corridor, steps from the Blue Line's Logan Square station, serving a dense residential area that has been absorbing thousands of new residents across a series of apartment developments.
Taken together, this week's two Milwaukee Avenue headlines underscore what has made Logan Square's moment so distinctive: the corridor is gaining both the independent, first-generation-driven restaurants that give the neighborhood its character and the amenity infrastructure — grocery, transit, public space — that makes a neighborhood genuinely livable for the long term. Siete Azul is expected to open later this month at 2333 N. Milwaukee; the Trader Joe's is targeting early 2027 at 2053 N. Milwaukee. Both are worth watching.
Logan Square neighbors — are you excited to try Siete Azul's whole grilled red snapper and purple-corn tortillas on Milwaukee Avenue? And how long have you been waiting on that Trader Joe's? Share your reactions and your Milwaukee Avenue wishlists with your neighbors on Socialhood!
Sources:
1. https://hoodline.com/2026/10/24-year-old-ditches-finance-job-to-open-logan-square-mariscos-spot/
2. https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/10/14/logan-square-trader-joes-store-could-open-next-year/