For six decades, Stella’s Diner served as a meeting ground for residents of the Lakeview neighborhood. Now, the diner’s owner is selling the recently shuttered location to be converted into an Ann Sather Restaurant.
Owner Marvin Barsky told the Sun-Times that the sale of Stella’s, at 3042 N. Broadway, was unrelated to the restaurant’s temporary closure earlier in July following a failed health inspection.
The reason for the sale, he said, was personal.
“I know people are thinking that we were closed and were forced out of business, but we weren’t,” Barsky said.
Barsky said the city later cleared the restaurant to reopen after the required corrections were made and some allegations were dropped.
The sale, he said, was in the works long before then.
“The restaurant was fine. We were open and operating, and everything was OK,” he said. “Sadly for me, it was just time to go.”
Barsky originally purchased the family-owned diner five years ago after returning from California to Chicago. He aimed to own a restaurant in the community he grew up in.
For Lakeview resident Annie Neyfakh, Stella’s was woven into her childhood memories.
“I was really shocked that it was closing,” Neyfakh, 25, said Monday. “That was my home restaurant. … It’s rough to hear the news.”
The buyer of the property was Ann Sather Restaurants, another longtime Chicago staple led by former 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney.
Tunney said he was first approached by Barsky several years ago but initially declined the purchase offer because Ann Sather already operated nearby. That changed after his landlord asked the restaurant to leave its longtime flagship location, at Broadway and Roscoe, to make way for a neighboring business’ expansion.
“We felt maybe now was the time to engage with Stella’s and move the Broadway-Roscoe location to Broadway and Barry,” Tunney said.
Tunney said the Stella’s will undergo renovations over the next couple months before reopening as Ann Sather. He hopes for an October opening.
“We’re going to invest a fair amount of money in it,” Tunney said. “Our plan is the same as always: Run a successful business that gives back to the community.”
Barsky hopes customers remember Stella’s for the decades it spent serving the neighborhood. He said many regulars have been stopping by to talk with him.
“They’re all very curious, and a lot of them are very sad,” Barsky said. “And I’m sad. But all of it was done, again, out of personal necessity — no other reason.”