Devon Ave Gets Cuban, Sheridan Gets Persian, and Rivers & Roads Is About to Become a Block: Edgewater's Fall Restaurant Wave Just Got Bigger
By Socialhood News · Edgewater ·
If you've been watching Edgewater's food scene fill in storefront by storefront over the past year, this week handed you two more pins to put on the map — and a third expansion that's already in progress a few blocks away. La Cubanita has opened at 1511 W. Devon Ave., a new Persian kitchen called Topoli has arrived at 5335 N. Sheridan Rd., and the team behind Rivers & Roads Cafe is in the middle of turning its Devon Avenue address into a small cluster of complementary businesses. Three separate openings, three different stretches of the neighborhood, and collectively a strong signal that Edgewater's appetite for independent food and retail is nowhere close to satisfied.
La Cubanita is the most expansive of the new arrivals in terms of menu scope. The casual Devon Avenue spot is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a broad lineup spanning both Cuban and Mexican cooking. Diners can expect chilaquiles and eggs in the morning, Cuban sandwiches through the afternoon, and dinner plates of ropa vieja, rabo de res, and enchiladas come evening. The address — 1511 W. Devon Ave. — puts it on the western, residential side of the neighborhood, away from the Broadway Red Line corridor and closer to the residents who live in the quiet blocks between Broadway and Ridge. A full-day Cuban and Mexican kitchen on Devon fills a gap that neighborhood regulars have felt for a while.
A few blocks east and closer to the lake, Topoli has opened at 5335 N. Sheridan Rd., just steps from Foster Beach. The new Persian restaurant is drawing notice for its approachable menu of kabobs, wraps, and traditional starters. Topoli's menu includes bread served with kashk-e bademjan, chenjeh wraps, and kabobs served with dill rice, alongside an eggplant khoresh. For Edgewater residents who walk or bike to Foster Beach on the weekends, the proximity is a genuine draw — a Persian kitchen that close to the lakefront makes it easy to fold into an afternoon along the water. The Sheridan Road corridor between Bryn Mawr and Foster has long been shaped by the neighborhood's high-rise residential towers, and a food destination this close to the beach adds a layer of walkable utility to a stretch that has historically been more residential than dining-oriented.
Meanwhile, the expansion already in progress at 1255–1257 W. Devon Ave. may be the most ambitious of the three developments. Rivers & Roads Cafe, the National Park-themed coffee shop that co-owners Mike Waszkowski and Janine Ramirez-Waszkowski opened in 2022, has become a staple of the neighborhood's Devon corridor — known for house-made pastries and a whimsical seasonal drink menu. Now the duo is taking over the storefront next door to open Little Wild, an eclectic market that will combine a bookstore, an artist market, and 20 to 30 additional cafe seats. Waszkowski told What Now Chicago they are hoping to open Little Wild in early-to-mid November. Beyond the bookstore and market, the team is also developing Firefly Softserve, a walk-up-only soft-serve ice cream shop planned to open in spring. Firefly is already known to Edgewater regulars — it previously popped up at the Edgewater Sidewalk Sale, where it served flavors including sweet corn, blood orange, caramelized pineapple, and campfire vanilla, both vegan and dairy. The plan is for Firefly to operate eight months out of the year as a walk-up window, giving the Devon block a seasonal destination that runs from spring through fall.
The Little Wild storefront, per Hoodline, sits near the intersection of Devon and North Lakewood Avenue, close to Nori Sushi at Edgewater and across the street from Ezankaya Thai, with the Loyola and Granville CTA Red Line stations roughly equidistant. That positioning matters: Rivers & Roads has always drawn foot traffic from Loyola University Chicago's Lake Shore Campus community, and a bookstore with additional seating directly next door deepens the cafe's identity as a neighborhood gathering place that extends beyond coffee. The cafe has already been running an evening Fiber Crafts Night for local hand-crafters, according to the Edgewater Observer — Little Wild fits that spirit of programming that invites neighbors to linger.
Taken together, La Cubanita, Topoli, and the Little Wild expansion represent something Edgewater has been building toward all year: a food and retail scene that is spreading geographically, not just concentrating on Broadway. Devon Avenue is emerging as a genuine corridor for neighborhood dining, Sheridan Road near the lakefront is picking up a destination kitchen, and a homegrown cafe is quietly becoming a small block of complementary businesses. For residents looking to explore what's new, La Cubanita at 1511 W. Devon Ave. is open daily across all three meals; Topoli at 5335 N. Sheridan Rd. is steps from Foster Beach; and Little Wild next to Rivers & Roads at 1257 W. Devon Ave. is targeting an early-to-mid November opening, with Firefly Softserve to follow in the spring. Follow Rivers & Roads on social media for the Little Wild grand opening announcement — it shouldn't be long now.
Sources:
1. https://www.theinfatuation.com/chicago/guides/new-chicago-restaurant-openings
2. https://hoodline.com/2026/10/edgewater-s-rivers-roads-cafe-expands-into-bookstore-market-and-ice-cream-shop/
3. https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/10/08/rivers-roads-cafe-expanding-with-market-and-ice-cream-shop-on-same-edgewater-block/
4. https://whatnow.com/chicago/restaurants/rivers-and-roads-cafe-introducing-market-and-ice-cream-shop/