Barba Yianni Plans Spring Reopening in Lincoln Square

Barba Yianni Grecian Taverna has been a Lincoln Square fixture since 1989. Now, after a commercial eviction last year and months of uncertainty, owner Anas Ihmoud says he’s targeting a mid-May reopening at 4761 N. Lincoln Ave., ideally in time for Mother’s Day.

The closure hit the neighborhood hard. Last August, people walking past the longtime Greek restaurant found the windows and front door covered with metal panels, the interior sealed off. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to reporters that the business had been removed via a commercial eviction.

Not exactly the kind of surprise a neighborhood landmark deserves.

The story behind it involves the kind of financial squeeze that’s become familiar to small business owners across Chicago. Ihmoud bought the building by 2022 using an adjustable-rate mortgage. When rates climbed, his payments jumped 30 percent over six months. He fell behind. His mortgage debt was sold to a third party, and that third party put up the metal panels.

Ihmoud spent months working to undo the damage. Earlier this month, he managed to refinance his mortgage and regain access to the property. The metal doors came down last week.

The response was immediate.

“Everybody’s knocking on our doors. We’ve had maybe 100 or 150 people since last week just come running ever since the metal doors came down,” Ihmoud said.

Still, there’s real work to do before customers can sit down for a meal. While Ihmoud was locked out, a water leak from an upstairs residential apartment caused significant damage to the restaurant’s ceiling and floors. Construction crews were on site at Barba Yianni as recently as April 6 to begin repairs. The damage pushed the timeline back further than Ihmoud initially expected.

But he’s reframing the pause. Rather than just patching things up and racing to reopen, Ihmoud said he’s using the downtime to make cosmetic and equipment upgrades he’d long wanted but could never pull off while the restaurant was running full tilt.

“We’ve got to freshen up. And my chef needs a new broiler, OK?” he said.

To help cover repair costs, a GoFundMe was launched on Ihmoud’s behalf in January. As of last Friday, the campaign had raised $1,100 toward its $100,000 goal. The gap is wide, but Ihmoud said every bit helps move the timeline forward.

The restaurant’s comeback also comes with a menu refresh. Ihmoud plans to keep the traditional Greek dishes that built Barba Yianni’s reputation over nearly four decades, but he wants to add what he’s calling a fusion element.

“Greek cuisine is trending more than ever now, but we’ll be adding a fusion flair,” Ihmoud said. “We’ll still have traditional Greek menu items but we’ll also have options that are more modern.”

Ihmoud’s connection to Barba Yianni runs deep. He didn’t start as the owner. He came up through the ranks as a server, then a bartender, then a manager, before eventually purchasing the property. That history shapes how he thinks about what the restaurant can become.

“I’ve always wanted to do so many things with this restaurant, but it just wasn’t an option because I didn’t own the building then,” he said.

Lincoln Square, anchored along North Lincoln Avenue between the Brown Line stops at Western and Montrose, has long drawn diners from across the city for its mix of longtime neighborhood restaurants and newer spots. Barba Yianni sits squarely in that tradition. A restaurant that has outlasted recessions, pandemic shutdowns, and now a mortgage dispute doesn’t stick around for 37 years by accident.

The broader story of adjustable-rate mortgages pushing small business owners into crisis is one playing out in commercial corridors far beyond Lincoln Square. The U.S. Small Business Administration offers refinancing resources, but the process is rarely fast or simple, as Ihmoud’s months-long fight makes clear.

Block Club Chicago first reported on Ihmoud’s plans to reopen and his account of the mortgage and eviction ordeal.

The target is mid-May. The water damage still needs to be resolved, the broiler still needs to arrive, and a GoFundMe still needs a lot more donors. But for the regulars who’ve been showing up at the door since the metal panels came down, the direction is the right one. Barba Yianni isn’t done with Lincoln Square yet.